My Week 2 CFB Picks

Every Friday morning during CFB season I join Columbia sports talk legend Teddy Hefner on his Fox Sports 1400 show to pick some of the biggest games of the week. If you beat my picks you may win a tailgate package from Mathias Sandwich Shop on St Andrews Rd.

Week 2

Troy at Clemson -32.5 3:30 ESPN +

Dabo is trying to hype up a creampuff opponent this week.  "When I think of Troy, I think about a university that's got some amazing tradition. I mean, they've won national championships". For those of you who may have forgotten Troy won the Natty twice….in 1987 and 84…in Division 2. Despite being creampuffs it’s hard to pick someone who is giving up 4 TD’s and a FG. I’ll take Troy.

Kansas at Mizzou -6.5 3:30 ESPN 2

 Kansas Jayhawks quarterback Jalon Daniels was very good in his freshman and sophomore year. Not so much last year. They think they have him back on track and if that’s the case they could pull the upset. Kansas is actually 2-0 already having pummeled Fresno State and Wagner last week so they may be right. Mizzou starts the season with a 61–6 rout of Central Arkansas. So this is both teams first real test. The rivalry and the fact Kansas feels so confident makes me a little hesitant but I believe Mizzou’s home field advantage will sustain them to a 7 point or more victory.

Ole Miss at Kentucky -10 3:30 ABC

Ole Miss is ticked after Kentucky upset the Rebels early last season keeping them from the playoffs. Ole Miss has a lot of new faces this time, at quarterback, key skill positions, and on the defensive side of the ball. Kentucky squeaked out a 24-16 win last week over Toledo while the Rebels were hammering Georgia State 63-7. It’s too early for a trap game, plus Lane wants to send a message his team is a lot better than their current ranking of 20. They cover the 10 easy.

Michigan at Oklahoma -5.5 7:30 ABC

Blue Bloods battling under the lights make for great TV. 2 highly touted QBs face off in Bryce Underwood against John Mateer. Bryce turned 18 last month. He is a true freshman starting his first real game….on the road…against Oklahoma. Most QBs collapse under that kind of pressure. Last week he played against New Mexico and had an OK day. 21-31 251 yards and 1 TD. Oklahoma D will be a massive step up. Going from a home game vs cupcakes to a road game in Norman is a massive step up. Everything will be sped up this week for the youngster and based off that I’m going with Oklahoma to cover.

Illinois at Duke-3 Noon ESPN

Not much of a home field advantage to begin with for Duke football which is the polar opposite of Duke Basketball. Wallace Wade stadium is less than half the size of most power 5 stadiums and as of this writing still hasn’t sold out their game for 48 hours from now. Tix are still available for under 30 bucks. Duke starts the year with a 45-17 win over Elon which is nice. Illinois though is coming off a 10 win season and returns 16 of the 22 starters including their QB and entire O line. The Fighting Illini should win by a TD or more.

Virginia at NC State +3 Noon ESPN 2

Gamecock fans remember Will Muschamp and his OC Kurt Roper probably less than fondly. He’s the new OC at NC State. He’s been with the program for 4 years but just elevated in the off season to the OC. They also have a new DC in DJ Elliot. Their first game last week against ECU started great jumping out to a 17-0 lead. But in the 2nd half it all fell apart and aside from one drive in the 3rd quarter that thankfully ended in a TD they had to cling to a 24-17 win over the Pirates. Tony Elliott's squad has veteran transfers all over the board including his shiny new QB Chandler Morris who tossed 2 TD’s in their opening route over Coastal 48-7. 48 is the most points scored in the Elliott era at Virginia. I’m guessing they saw something ECU was doing in the 2nd half and will exploit it. Also have no confidence in Roper to score so I’m taking the road dogs.

Vandy at VA Tech 1.5 7:30 ACC Network

Pavia vs Drones should be something to see. Pretty exciting QBs who are allowed to make plays. Back to back SEC opponents for Tech who enters Saturday’s contest with a nine-game winning streak in home openers. Last week the tech receivers showed vs South Carolina an amazing ability to catch contested balls. Vandy destroyed Charleston Southern 45-3 last week so that was nice but they were 36.5 point favorites so we didn’t learn much. Vandy upset Tech last year and this hasn’t set well with them.  Tech QB Kyron Drones told SI Definitely a Redemption game.” 

“For sure [a revenge game], we got a lot of guys that still have that bad taste in their mouth,” Virginia Tech linebacker Jaden Keller added. “Having that chip on your shoulder, having that usually adds motivation, fuel to the fire.” Going for their 10th in a row home open win plus it’s a revenge game, I’ll take Tech.

Tiebreaker Total yards for SC State against Gamecocks.

Really hard to predict this as they played Wofford last week and snuck out a 17-16 win. State used 2 QB’s combing for 309 yards. Then their RB’s added about 100 more.. Coach Chanis Barry will use both QB’s this week as well saying “We’ve got two really, really good quarterbacks that anyone in our league would love to have. And you’re going to have to prepare for both of them.” Gamecocks held VT to similar stats last week with 115 on the ground and 221 in the air. Seeing as how this offense should be a step down from VT and our D a step up from Wofford I’ll cut their production by a 3rd and say 204 yards