College Football Results Against The Spread Week 2 2018
By Mike Marteny
College Football Results Against The Spread Week 2 2018
Week 2 had its share of upsets. Hell, even Kansas won a game, so that should tell you just how wacky it was. Wacky weeks have a habit of wreaking havoc on picks. Did the week of mayhem do that to mine? I have a feeling it may have.
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My college football pick em picks were in the middle of the pack to start the season. No one in the readers group had a really big score though, so I’m confident that I won’t fall too far back.
Here we will recap my picks against the spread. The winner against the spread will be in BOLD. My result will follow. Let’s get to it!
In case you want to follow along:
Picks for week 2
TCU(-22.5) at SMU: HIT! The weather delay caused a sluggish start for TCU, but they pulled out of it. The Toadies scored 14 points in each of the last three quarters.
New Mexico at Wisconsin(-34.5): MISS! Even the garbage time passing touchdown couldn’t cover this for Bucky.
Mississippi State(-8.5) at Kansas State: HIT! We may not see a line this easy the rest of the year. I doubled my entire bankroll on this one. I hope you did too!
Western Michigan at Michigan(-27.5): MISS! Michigan’s offense didn’t need to do all that much. The defense was dominant. Absolutely dominant.
Eastern Michigan at Purdue(-16.5): MISS! That will teach me to believe in Purdue. Two quarterbacks equal zero.
Liberty at Army(-7.5): MISS! I thought they ran the option at the FCS level. Liberty acted like they had never seen one before…..
Nevada at Vanderbilt(-9.5): HIT! It took Vandy a bit to get going, but once they did, the Wolfpack had no chance.
Arizona at Houston(-3.5): HIT! This just in: Arizona can’t stop the pass either. It’s going to be a long season in Tucson.
Duke at Northwestern(-2.5): MISS! Northwestern was just dominated on their own field. They may have one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten(14), and that’s saying something.
Georgia State at North Carolina State(-23.5): HIT! This was a methodical beating, just like you would expect at the hands of a veteran QB like Ryan Finley.
UCLA at Oklahoma(-29.5): MISS! Unfortunately, our second and third string defense wasn’t as strong as I was hoping. UCLA was never really in this game.
Air Force at Florida Atlantic((-9.5): HIT! So, the logic was backwards. Freshman Chris Robison threw the ball all over the place, but FAU couldn’t run or stop Air Force. This was an entertaining one score game, so I was right about that part, and that’s what really counts.
Kansas at Central Michigan(-4.5): MISS! This one hurt. How was I supposed to know? Kansas hadn’t won a football game on the road since my birthday in 2009. I wasn’t even married yet!
Arkansas State at Alabama(-36.5): MISS! I guess when your backup quarterback has played in two National Championship games, it stands to reason that your second team offense would be pretty good. I need to keep that in mind for Bama games going forward.
Georgia(-9.5) at South Carolina: HIT! Georgia just reloaded. That backfield is jam packed again!
Rutgers at Ohio State(-34.5): HIT! Ohio State might be better than last year. Haskins looks better than Barrett already, and this defense is dominating the teams they are supposed to dominate. Penn State and Michigan State can’t say the same.
Ball State at Notre Dame(-34.5): HIT! Ball State might win the MAC now that they are fully healthy. No, I’m not kidding. One could argue that they played better than Michigan did against the Irish.
Colorado at Nebraska(-3.5): HIT! Nebraska looked a lot better than I thought they would, and honestly, if not for a dirty play that should be severely punished, they may have won. Adrian Martinez made his share of mistakes, but he added a new dimension to the offense and had a good enough arm to complete the deep balls that Nebraska needed down the stretch.
Buffalo at Temple(-4.5): HIT! Tyree Jackson is a pretty good quarterback. This Buffalo offense is a force to be reckoned with.
Memphis(-5.5) at Navy: HIT! I knew this was overcorrection for the Hawaii game. Memphis needs more stability at QB to get back to where they were. They aren’t going to have that by week 2.
North Carolina(-16.5) at East Carolina: MISS! Well, one team won big, but it sure wasn’t the Tarheels! What an ugly showing for the boys in powder blue. They were dominated in the second half.
Iowa State at Iowa(-3.5): MISS! Would this game have turned out differently with a healthy Kempt all game? Doubtful. The offense did little with him in there.
Maryland(-15.5) at Bowling Green: HIT! Maryland could surprise a couple of teams from the Big Ten(14) East that are sleepwalking right now.
Massachusetts at Georgia Southern(-2.5): MISS! Yeah, about that UMass “defense”……..
Appalachian State(-13.5) at Charlotte: HIT! Apparently my estimation of 20 was way too low. This is exactly what the Mountaineers needed after getting throttled by Liberty last week.
Clemson(-11.5) at Texas A&M: HIT! It was all Clemson could do to escape with a win. This is not Kevin Sumlin’s A&M team. They could have been buried early in the first half with Clemson up double digits but fought back and nearly pulled this out.
Louisiana-Monroe at Southern Mississippi(-5.5): MISS! Meet Jack Abraham, the newest gunslinging QB for the Warhawks. Southern Miss isn’t too fond of him right now.
UAB(-9.5) at Coastal Carolina: MISS! I guess being a whipping boy for South Carolina did the Chanticleers some good.
Baylor(-15.5) at UTSA: MISS! This could be a long year for UTSA if they had problems moving the ball against Baylor’s defense. Tennessee transfer Jalen Hurd is a huge piece of this Baylor offense and is going to wreck some Big 12(10) defenses.
Kentucky at Florida(-13.5): HIT! 32 years is a long time. 32 years ago, Ronald Reagan was president. The Iran-Contra affairs were ironing out and what would become the S&L scandal was already underway. SMU was serving the “death penalty.” The Bears began defense of their Super Bowl title. Dan Marino and the Dolphins were about 25 years ahead of their time, but still didn’t win a title. Oh, and the Kentucky Wildcats beat the Florida Gators. That was the last time until Saturday. Think Florida is looking for a new coach yet?
Virginia at Indiana(-5.5): MISS! Wait…….was Indiana actually playing defense? Yes, yes they were. Only seven total second half points were scored. This is the kind of game that Indiana would have had no chance in in years prior. This was an entertaining game even if they didn’t cover.
Arkansas(-13.5) at Colorado State: MISS! I guess the game experience of Colorado State finally helped them. Why did Arkansas stop running the ball? How could their defense not stop deep passes? It’s going to be a long SEC season for the Piggies. This was a team they really should have dominated. Instead, they allowed 17 unanswered in the fourth quarter to lose outright.
Wyoming at Missouri(-19.5): HIT! Missouri is a very dangerous team. Wyoming’s defense is pretty good, any they had no chance against the Lock to Emanuel Hall connection.
Utah(-10.5) at Northern Illinois: HIT! That very late pick six by the Utah D saved this one. The offense wasn’t going to be able to cover.
Florida International at Old Dominion(-1.5): HIT! The Monarchs lost their best QB in school history and best RB in school history in the span of two years. This is the result. They will rebound eventually, but this could be a tough season.
Fresno State at Minnesota(-2.5): HIT! This was one of the most exciting games of the weekend. I really like watching this Minnesota defense. Fresno is going to be an offensive force against most foes, but they couldn’t do a lot against this Minnesota D.
Penn State(-10.5) at Pittsburgh: MISS! Pitt just fell apart on both sides of the ball in the second half. Whatever adjustments Penn State made at the half, it worked.
New Mexico State at Utah State(-23.5): HIT! Jordan Love didn’t do much in this game because he didn’t have to. Utah State dominated every other aspect of the game.
South Alabama at Oklahoma State(-32.5): HIT! This was a nice practice for the Pokes, just as week 1 was. In that game, they proved they could run. Here they proved they could pass. Does that mean they’re ready for Boise?
Tulsa at Texas(-22.5): MISS! A seven point win over Tulsa at home should count as a loss. You could argue that Texas looked even worse in this game than the opener. Tom Herman’s seat is heating up, and the conference season hasn’t even started yet.
Middle Tennessee State at Vanderbilt(-2.5): HIT! The Blue Raiders kept it close for a while, but that Vanderbilt secondary really stepped up in this one, even without both starting safeties.
Cincinnati at Miami(OH)(EVEN): HIT! I knew this line was bogus. I should have bet more on this.
USC at Stanford(-5.5): HIT! The thing to take away from this is how well USC’s defense played. The offense was hassled by a good Stanford D, but I think the main thing for the Trojans was that they didn’t get blown off the Farm. It may have felt like it, but they hung around the entire game.
UTEP at UNLV(-23.5): HIT! I’m really shocked that this wasn’t worse. The only reason it wasn’t is because the UNLV defense still isn’t all that good.
Connecticut at Boise State(-31.5): HIT! Think Randy Edsall wishes he would have stayed at Maryland?
California at BYU(-1.5): MISS! I never expected Cal to make a QB switch already. It worked!
Michigan State(-5.5) at Arizona State: HIT! I ended up sweating this one, but I can say with confidence that the better team won. Michigan State’s offense just isn’t very good. Experience doesn’t necessarily equal results. This could have been a lot worse had Manny Wilkins not overthrown a half dozen open receivers behind the defense.
San Jose State vs. Washington State(-34.5): MISS! This was ugly, just not ugly enough. The Cougar defense pitched a shutout, so this is on the second and third string offense. They aren’t as good as they were last year.
Rice at Hawaii(-17.5): MISS! Thanks to Hawaii giving up 16 fourth quarter points, they didn’t end my week with a win. To me, this was one of the more surprising things I saw this week.
After a mildly disappointing week 1, I rebounded nicely this week with a 28-21 mark against the spread. That puts my season total at 48-47. Not a bad start, but still a little bit off of where I want to be. Now let’s get to the important part: the point bets. I hit my lock to move to 2-0 in lock picks. How did I do with the rest?
This week’s totals follow the number. The season totals are in parentheses.
1. 5-6 (8-11) = -3
2. 11-8 (20-21) = -2
3. 6-3 (12-8) = 12
4. 5-2 (6-5) = 4
5. 1-2 (2-2) = 0
I opened the season by losing 10 betting points, but gained that back and then some by winning 21 points this week. That puts me 11 over on the season and 24 points to the good after 3+ years. I did miss two of the five pointers, but the one I put my largest ever bet on in real life came through with Mississippi State handling Kansas State.
dark. Next. ESPN College Pick Em picks week 3
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