National College Football Preview: Week One

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

After a bizarre, tumultuous and eventful offseason, college football is back! Well, sort of. The ACC and Big 12 do not start until next week and the SEC won’t start until later this month. Meanwhile, the Big Ten and PAC-12 are continuing to do a “will they/won’t they” dance with proposed starting dates ranging from early October to Thanksgiving weekend. What does that leave us for the typically grand opening Labor Day weekend of college football? To be perfectly honest, not much. Not much is better than nothing though!

The format of this weekly article is going to change as the season evolves but for this first week, I’ll point out a couple of games and a couple of betting “tips” (I also write for Saturday Edge, a college football betting site).

Middle Tennessee at Army (-3) – 1:30 on CBSSN

This game was scheduled about one month ago so I don’t have much confidence that the Blue Raiders are prepared adequately for the grinding triple option of the Army Black Knights. Rick Stockstill’s defense in 2019 was 117th in defensive S&P+, something that does not bode well heading into a matchup against Army. MTSU’s offense has some promising pieces but Army is a rock solid program and their coaching defections are not going to deter them from what they do so well. This should be a fun contest but I feel comfortable taking Army and the points.

Arkansas State at Memphis – UNDER 74.5

I know that both of these programs have had explosive offenses and they should be good on that side of the ball again. That being said, my theory for early in any season, especially this one, is that offenses are sloppy early. The under tends to be the smart play when the number gets inflated and I like it a lot in this one. Memphis should win somewhat comfortably and this is perhaps the most impactful game of week one as the Tigers are one of the favorites in the American. If ever there was a year where an unbeaten Group of Five squad can get into the playoff, it would be this season. The Tigers have an early primetime showcase contest to prove they are a contender for that.