College Football Results Against The Spread Week 7 2018
By Mike Marteny
College Football Results Against The Spread Week 7 2018
There were some really good college football games in week 7, and a few upsets along the way. Seven ranked teams lost this week, and four of them were in the top ten. Three other top ten teams survived by one score. And then there’s Alabama.
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It was another bad week in ESPN College Pick Em. Despite my worst week ever last week, I still finished at .500 here. I guess that’s all I can hope for this week, but my hopes aren’t very high.
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:
Tuesday-Friday
Picks for week 6
Let’s kick this off with the Tuesday through Friday games!
Appalachian State(-9.5) at Arkansas State: HIT! Appalachian just ran off with this. Literally.
Georgia Southern(-17.5) at Texas State: HIT! Wow, this was an ugly game. I do think that Tyler Vitt is going to do good things at Texas State sometime in the future. He held himself together pretty well.
Texas Tech at TCU(-7.5): HIT! TCU had problems with Jett Duffey’s running more than passing.
South Florida(-7.5) at Tulsa: MISS! I go against my season-long streak of picking Tulsa not to get covered, and guess what? They don’t get covered. Honestly, Tulsa should have won this outright. 15 unanswered for USF in the fourth quarter kept them undefeated.
Air Force at San Diego State(-11.5): HIT! As expected, this was a pretty ugly game. More injuries for Air Force likely kept the Aztecs from losing this outright.
Arizona at Utah(-13.5): HIT! Wow, Arizona looked horrible in this game. One part was Utah’s stout defense. Another was….uh….Utah’s stout defense. In Arizona’s defense though, they haven’t really looked good against anyone.
Minnesota at Ohio State(-29.5): MISS! Ohio State barely scored 29.5! This was an impressive showing by the Gophers, and it was all because they found their bellcow at running back again. That is when Minnesota is at their best.
Florida(-7.5) at Vanderbilt: HIT! I was prepared to take a loss on this one. How in the world do you allow Florida to score 17 points in the fourth to steal this if you’re Vanderbilt. If you’re Florida, how in the world did you not realize you had this with Lamical Perine? I tried to tell you!
Tennessee at Auburn(-14.5): MISS! Yep….I regret it. How bad do you have to be to lose to a Tennessee team that has just been awful this year at home?? This should count as two losses….
Rutgers at Maryland(-24.5): HIT! I knew this looked low. Now I want to see Rutgers play Princeton just to see if I’m actually right……
Iowa(-4.5) at Indiana: HIT! I will admit that I thought Iowa was going to have a pretty good game on offense. However, if you would have given me an over/under on Nate Stanley touchdown passes at five, I would have taken the under with a very large bet. I mean really! When was the last time a Big Ten QB threw for six touchdowns?
Nebraska at Northwestern(-3.5): HIT! Nebraska had a 98.7% chance to win up 10 with three minutes left. They still lost. If Scott Frost weren’t the coach, how psychotic would this fan base be right now? 0-6 for the first time ever!
Oklahoma State(-6.5) at Kansas State: MISS! This was just a beating dished out by the Wildcats. Alex Barnes has suddenly become the best running back in the conference. Or is it just bad defenses? We’ll find out soon enough.
Akron at Buffalo(-11.5): MISS! This was a really good win for Buffalo. Oh, and it’s the best start for the Bulls since 1959.
Toledo(-2.5) at Eastern Michigan: MISS! Guadagni had a nice game, but Eastern Michigan still managed to hang on for dear life despite not scoring in the second half.
Duke at Georgia Tech(-2.5): MISS! I hate picking Duke. I don’t know if I’ve picked one of their games right this year…..
Louisville at Boston College(-13.5): HIT! I’m pretty sure an eighth grader from my local middle school could run for triple digits on Louisville right now.
UAB(-16.5) at Rice: HIT! Rice may have hit a new level of awful getting blanked at home – and allowing 42 – against UAB.
Troy(-9.5) at Liberty: MISS! There go the Flames again. Setting fire to my picks……
Southern Mississippi at North Texas(-9.5): HIT! Spread obliteration completed, but with little thanks to Mason Fine.
Pittsburgh at Notre Dame(-20.5): MISS! This was an ugly game on both sides. Little did we know that it was just a precursor to the impeding chaos.
Kent State at Miami(OH)(-10.5): HIT! Ragland only threw one touchdown, but he Redhawks still dominated.
Western Michigan(-14.5) at Bowling Green: MISS! It’s nice to see Jarret Doege making some plays again. He has been really quiet this year.
Ball State at Central Michigan(-2.5): HIT! You know, it’s to the point that if there isn’t come sort of chaotic finish in a MAC game that I’m left feeling unfulfilled. This one was nuts as advertised thanks to a Letterman’s flurry of fourth quarter points.
Georgia(-7.5) at LSU: HIT! I didn’t see LSU losing by two scores at home, but I didn’t see them blowing out Georgia either. Maybe Florida is better than we think……
Washington(-3.5) at Oregon: MISS! This was one of the more entertaining Washington/Oregon games in a while. Washington definitely had their chances to win this one.
Michigan State at Penn State(-13.5): MISS! This was ugly, all right. Especially for Penn State fans.
Baylor at Texas(-14.5): HIT! I don’t know that Baylor would have kept it close had Sam Ehlinger not got hurt. You have to give Texas credit though. Ehlinger looked like he could go back in there, but the Longhorns decided to hold him out even if it meant losing the game.
Central Florida(-4.5) at Memphis: MISS! Where did that come from? Not only did the Memphis defense hold their ground, they should have won this game. UCF doesn’t look quite as invincible as last year, but they are really only in trouble again if they face another running back like Henderson. They don’t.
Texas A&M(-2.5) at South Carolina: HIT! This was a really good comeback by the Gamecocks, but they came up just short.
Ohio at Northern Illinois(-4.5): HIT! Ohio didn’t take it straight up, but they still won for my purposes.
Temple(-6.5) at Navy: MISS! I keep picking Navy like they are close to last year’s version. They really aren’t. Temple has conjured up a pretty good quarterback there in Anthony Russo. He could be really good before the end of the season.
San Diego State at Boise State(-13.5): MISS! Brett Rypien regressed to last season. He made some poor decisions in this game. The Aztecs were in his grill the whole game. In other news, I’m shooting like Iverson from three this week…..
Western Kentucky(-7.5) at Charlotte: MISS! This was quite a show put on by Charlotte, specifically by Benny LeMay. Too bad very few saw it…..
Marshall(-4.5) at Old Dominion: MISS! The best thing that could have ever happened for Vegas was for Old Dominion to beat a top 15 Virginia Tech team. They have made enough to power the city for a decade off of people betting for, and losing on, the Monarchs since.
Army(-16.5) at San Jose State: HIT! They should package and sell the video of this as an instructional video on how to effectively run a triple option. This was an absolute clinic!
Purdue(-10.5) at Illinois: HIT! Hey, wasn’t Lovie regarded as a defensive coach? Isn’t his DC a former pro bowl linebacker? You would never guess it by this showing.
New Mexico at Colorado State(EVEN): HIT! This was a very close, and very ugly, game. How these teams have a combined six wins is beyond me.
UNLV at Utah State(-26.5): MISS! One thing’s for sure: this Utah State team can put up big points in a very short time.
New Mexico State at Louisiana(-7.5): HIT! I stand by my point bet, but what a show by the Cajuns. They put up 28 in the first quarter and 45 in the first half and didn’t look back.
New Mexico at UNLV(-9.5): HIT! That is the correct way to rebound from a game that the Lobos feel like they shouldn’t have lost. That was the largest margin of victory for the Lobos since October 22nd of 2016 when they clobbered Louisiana-Monroe by 42 points. I really don’t mean to pile it on the Warhawks. It just worked out that way.
Louisiana-Monroe at Coastal Carolina(-6.5): HIT! The Warhawks sure had it going here on the Carolina coast.
Missouri at Alabama(-29.5): HIT! The half giveth here. This also highlights just what a genius Saban is for getting Jalen Hurts to stay. Tua went down, and the offense didn’t miss a beat. Well, okay, maybe a little, but barely enough for people to notice.
West Virginia(-6.5) at Iowa State: HIT! I…I’m hooking on a feeling…..I’m high on believing……that Iowa State may be the best team in the Big 12. Okay, maybe not that far, but to be the best you have to beat the best. This is one of the conference’s best. We should have known from the Iowa game that this team was going to be a handful. We keep finding out the better that Iowa plays.
Miami(FL)(-6.5) at Virginia: MISS! I wildly underestimated just how stagnant the Miami offense can be when given resistance. When they started changing quarterbacks, I knew I was in trouble. That’s Richt grasping at straws because he couldn’t solve the Virginia defense.
Houston(-16.5) at East Carolina: HIT! I I am killing those one point picks again!
Virginia Tech(-6.5) at North Carolina: MISS! Now we move up a couple of decades and bring you a track from rock icons AC/DC. It’s a little number called Shot Down in Flames.
Louisiana Tech(-10.5) at UTSA: HIT! It’s saying something when the Roadrunners are now roadkill at home as well.
UCLA(-6.5) at California: HIT! I’m glad we played UCLA when we did. This young team is starting to grow up pretty quickly, especially on offense.
Wisconsin at Michigan(-9.5): MISS! One thing I’ve noticed with Michigan this year that is different from previous years under Harbaugh is that they are showing up for big games this year. This was domination of a team that was supposed to be pretty even with them.
Mississippi(-6.5) at Arkansas: MISS! Arkansas probably should have won this game. They played well enough to. You could see the defense tiring a little down the stretch, but that will change as the culture does.
Middle Tennessee State at Florida Atlantic(-2.5): HIT! Singletary didn’t hit 30 carries, but the Owls still managed to cover.
Hawaii at BYU(-10.5): MISS! I’m just giving away points this week! Cole McDonald had an average day. So did John Ursua. Nothing about BYU was average, which is why they went away from Tanner Mangum in the first place.
Colorado at USC(-6.5): MISS! The Ralphies have still never beaten the Trojans. We saw exactly why in this game. USC’s defense even shut down Shenault!
Wyoming at Fresno State(-17.5): MISS! I knew better. What is impressive to me is the Fresno defense. They are playing really well right now.
Washington State(-16.5) at Oregon State: HIT! I’m surprised that the Beavers kept it this close. I guess this is where I thank Wazzu for not letting off the gas in the fourth quarter.
Boise State(-16.5) at Nevada: MISS! There was a lot of yuck in this game, especially in the stagnant Boise offense. They should work that out against a pretty poor Rams defense tonight.
I was a touch better than last week at 28-26. That puts my season total at 185-179. I have that 55% goal in sight if I can keep finishing above .500 every week. It was better than I was expecting, but….
Even though I finished above .500, I’m still pretty sure i lost points thanks to a lot of things not going as planned. If my one pointers were fives, I would be much better off this week.
This week’s totals follow the number. The season totals are in parentheses.
1. 6-2 (35-25) = 10
2. 12-11 (75-72) = 6
3. 8-6 (49-44) = 15
4. 2-3 (18-27) = -36
5. 0-4 (8-11) = -15
I missed on all the five, and lost another four, so I lost 12 points despite my over .500 week. That puts me at 20 points down on the season, and only four points left in my bank. Time to batten down the hatches and maybe get a little conservative this week.
Next. ESPN College Pick Em picks week 8. dark
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