There are only two seasons in my house – football season and waiting for football season. Finally, waiting for football season is over and the best part of the year begins. Weekends curled up on the couch from noon until late in my mighty Tar Heels onesie are back again. College football is back and so is betting on the NCAAF, so with that comes the opportunity to sniff out some value and beat the books.
Even though there are only a handful of college football games on the slate tomorrow, there are still plenty of markets open at US online sportsbooks to get our teeth stuck into. One of the first games of the year kicks off in Dublin when the Nebraska Cornhuskers take on the Northwestern Wildcats.
It seemed to me as though Adrian Martinez had been at Nebraska for about 25 years, but he has finally moved on, and Texas transfer Casey Thompson is the likely starting quarterback. Thompson is a fairly efficient passer and is certainly capable of doing his job against what I suspect will be an underwhelming Wildcats defense that gave up over 30 points per game last year. Mark Whipple is the new offensive coordinator for the Cornhuskers after he spent a couple of years at Pittsburgh developing Kenny Pickett into a first-round pick. Whipple’s offense at Pittsburgh were ranked top twenty in plays per game in 2020 and 2021, and it seems likely he opts for a similar high-octane attack with the Nebraska offense to tire out the Northwestern defense. The advantage will probably lie with Nebraska when these two units meet on the field.
Northwestern will likely trot out former Gamecock, Ryan Hilinski at quarterback. Well, good luck with that, I guess! The Cornhuskers will return a competent linebacker corps and have made some savvy transfers in order to strengthen their defense this season. It really should be enough to lead them to a comfortable victory in Dublin this week. At the time of writing, the Nebraska Cornhuskers 10.5-pt favorites (-110) with BetOnline, and they should have enough in the tank to cover this line.
Northwestern vs Nebraska Week 0 Odds
Below are the college football odds for this weeks featured NCAAF game.
| Team | Moneyline | Spread | Total | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern | +360 | +11, -110 | O 51½, -105 |  |
| Nebraska | -450 | -11, -110 | U 51½, -115 | |
Our other favorite bet of the weekend is in the nightcap where the Vanderbilt Commodores to travel to the Hawaii to take on the Rainbow Warriors. There has been a mass exodus of players leaving Hawaii this summer when around twenty (yes, 20, two-zero) of their players hit the transfer portal following the fallout of allegations that former head coach, Todd Graham mistreated his players. Their starting quarterback, running back and best wide receiver have all said “toodles” to Hawaii and they are going to have a lot of issues with an inexperienced, young team trying to figure it out in their first game.
Vanderbilt are by no means world beaters, but they are an improving outfit and they have enough returning starters and transfers to blow out Hawaii in this one. The line seems to be creeping up every time I peek at it, but at the moment, Vanderbilt -8.5 at -110 is available with MyBookie and that still looks to be the bet in this one.
Vanderbilt vs Hawaii Week 0 Odds
| Team | Moneyline | Spread | Total | Play |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanderbilt | -330 | -9½, -110 | O 54½, -115 | |
| Hawaii | +275 | +9½, -110 | U 54½, -105 | |
NCAAF Week 0: Augusta Free Press’ Picks
Below are our Week 0 college football picks.
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Johan Wallman
