Like pretty much everything else I put out last week, I was a winner on the college football teaser front. It turns out I should have pleased both sets of Bulldogs as Mississippi State and Georgia each hammered their opponents. Mississippi State had little problem in a 31-10 win over Kansas State, and Georgia waxed South Carolina 41-17.
I’m now just down juice on the season after Florida State got housed in its season opener by Virginia Tech in Week 1. Let’s get into the black.
College Football Teaser Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
7-point teaser option at -130 betting odds
Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors +13.5 at Army Black Knights
Miami (FL) Hurricanes -3 at Toledo Rockets
Everyone is high on Hawai’i right now. The Rainbow Warriors are 3-0, and they are already halfway to bowl eligibility. Not much was expected out of Hawai’i this year, but Nick Rolovich’s decision to move back to the run-and-shoot is paying immediate dividends.
Cole McDonald is the nation’s leading passer, and he has thrown for over 300 yards in each of the Rainbow Warriors’ first three games. With all that in mind then, why did the oddsmakers make Hawai’i a touchdown road dog at Army?
Hawai’i does not have a good defense. The offense needs to score a lot of points because this defense is going to give up a ton, and the Rainbow Warriors are allowing 5.2 yards per carry on the ground. That seems to play right into Army’s hands, but there is a big caveat here.
The triple option is employed by a handful of teams, and those teams bank on opponents not being prepared for it. However, Hawai’i just faced Navy two weeks ago, so they will be more ready to stop Army’s running game than most opponents.
Additionally, Army has just one returning starter along the offensive line, and the Black Knights have not run the option as well as they did last year with Ahmad Bradshaw leading the way. Hawai’i has a great chance to win this one outright.
For the second part of this teaser, I’m backing another road team. People have been jumping off the Miami Hurricanes’ bandwagon left and right after their end of the year swoon carried over into their season opener against LSU.
Malik Rosier’s play has been a big reason for the growing panic. Rosier has completed under 50 percent of his passes in each of his last four games against FBS teams, and he did not play well against LSU two weeks ago.
However, Rosier torched Toledo’s defense when these teams met in Miami last year. He went 27-36 for 333 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, and he led Miami to 52 points on the day.
Rosier has faced four straight FBS teams with very good secondaries, but Toledo’s is not one to really worry about. The Rockets are susceptible to decent passing games, and the Hurricanes should be able to lighten the load with a good ground game too.
Toledo no longer has star quarterback Logan Woodside either. Sophomore Eli Peters will start the second game of his career, but it will be his first against a real opponent. The Rockets played a bad VMI team in their opener, so they didn’t get to truly prepare for a team like Miami and they had a bye last week.
