FTRS Picks Week 1: GAMEDAY Incoming!

Update following Week 0 results:

Week 0 was fun, here are the results from last week

It’s still very early so many of us are getting honed in on our picks. Didn’t take BearJackets and GP Burdell long though as they both tied for first place with 5 correct picks on the week. Congrats guys.

Some things I missed last week. The submissions will end at the start of the first game to be played that week. Anyone hoping to play each week please pay attention to Thursday games as you will need to submit before they are played.

Additionally, if games end on the exact spread (for example a -8.0 team wins by exactly 8 points) then the correct pick will be marked as the winner of the game. Hopefully this will not come into play too often, but drawing up ties is a bit difficult with large numbers of people so we use this method for simplicity week to week.

Hope y’all enjoyed week 0 and lets move on to the week 1 games.

Let’s go! Georgia Tech actually plays this week and we get actual P5 games. College football is back and with it comes all the joys and pains that accompany watching our teams take the field. I am both nervous and excited to see how our boys do on the field. I have high hopes for the season and I believe Georgia Tech has the talent to deliver on those. It all starts this week so lets get into it.

picks:

Aflac Kickoff: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets v Louisville Cardinals (-7.5)

Logan: Y’all have heard about Georgia Tech all offseason so I don’t think I need to explain much more about our new offense, the O-line situation, and the Defense with refreshed talent and returning talent. Regarding Louisville, they have what appears to be one of the more talented offensive teams in the ACC. While they have new players at WR and QB, they are mostly talented transfers familiar with similar offensive systems. The defense is the weak point for Louisville but they have a strong D-Line which might make things difficult for us. This will be a challenge for GT, but so will most games for GT. I think this will be a shootout but if our defense can step up and get some turnovers I think the Yellow Jackets will win this one, if nothing else I think we can certainly keep it within a touchdown. Gonna take GT in this one.

Logan’s pick: Georgia Tech

Florida Gators @ #14 Utah Utes (-4.5)

Logan: Florida found a way to win this one last year because of the talented play of Anthony Richardson. This game was a shootout last year and I would expect this one to be similar. Honestly Utah has enough talent that they should run away with this game at home, but Florida finds ways to make these games more exciting than they should be. This one will give us perspective on what the SEC East and PAC-12 will look like this season. Given how much Florida has lost I can’t side with them in this matchup, so I guess I’ll take Utah

Logan’s pick: Utah

Nebraska Cornhuskers @ Minnesota Golden Gophers (-7.5)

Logan: You have a Nebraska team with a large portion of the team being replaced and a new coach going against a talented Minnesota team which won 9 games last year and doesn’t have many starters to replace and playing at home. Minnesota should win by about 10 points if I had to guess. Maybe I’m slightly biased, but that’s what I’m sticking with.

Logan’s pick: Minnesota

UTSA Roadrunners @ Houston Cougars (EVEN)

Logan: Both these teams are in new conferences this year, and both deserved these promotions as they have been dominant forces in their previous conferences. I would normally take Houston at home to win this game, but UTSA returns 9 starters on offense including their star QB who is entering his 5th year at the program. Houston struggled on defense last year, so a super charged offense is going to be tough for them to tackle. I’ll take UTSA to win in a close matchup.

Logan’s pick: UTSA

Fresno State Bulldogs @ Purdue Boilermakers (-4)

Logan: In many ways this is a mirror match. Both of these teams are basically starting from scratch on offense with many players graduating and new coaches impacting the offensive schemes. Meanwhile both teams have returning players on defense which will make the defensive side of the ball more impactful this year than they were in the previous year. This one is tough, I like Fresno State a lot based on how well they have performed in the past few years, but Purdue has plenty of talented transfers which puts them above Fresno State in talent. I guess I will side with Purdue, but I do expect this to be a fun back and forth game which will be worth watching.

Logan’s pick: Purdue

Boise State Broncos @ #10 Washington Huskies (-14.5)

Logan: Boise State is not the same Boise State we are used to thinking of. They no longer have the same talent and coaching they had when they consistently ran the Mountain West and challenged high tier P5 teams. Washington has a dominant team looking to make a run not only at the last PAC-12 championship but potentially at the CFB playoff. To me, this one should not be as close as Vegas has it marked, Washington should win handily.

Logan’s pick: Washington

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers @ UCLA Bruins (-14.5)

Logan: Coastal Carolina is gonna need plenty out of their run game, after losing weapons at receiver last year, if they are going to beat UCLA. I think the offensive and defensive talent on UCLA is going to be tough for Coastal to compete against, especially after traveling across the country to play UCLA. 2 touchdowns is a big margin, but UCLA shouldn’t have a problem exceeding it here.

Logan’s pick: UCLA

Northwestern Wildcats @ Rutgers Scarlet Knights (-7.0)

Logan: Wow, Rutgers is actually favored in a game. I can’t say I’ve seen that too much since I started running the picks articles. I think this is the right call by Vegas though, Northwestern is struggling with plenty of turmoil within their athletics program and Rutgers returns plenty of talent on offense. If Rutgers is going to have a good year they need to start by winning this game. I think Rutgers will win, but it’ll probably be closer than a touchdown, so Northwestern is the pick.

Logan’s pick: Northwestern

#9 Clemson Tigers (-13.0) @ Duke Blue Devils

Logan: If anything this margin feels too small. Clemson tends to wipe the floor with teams like Duke. Personally I don’t think this will be a good year for Clemson, but I still expect them to beat Duke by at least 2 touchdowns. Clemson will be a big team we will need to play against down the line, lets see how they look in this game.

Logan’s pick: Clemson

Duke’s Mayo Classic: North Carolina Tarheels (-2.5) v South Carolina Gamecocks

Logan: Doesn’t it feel like North Carolina has been poised to make a run at the ACC championship for a while now? It seems weird that we keep talking about them and they keep falling just shy of expectations. The real question to me is can North Carolina’s defense hold together. I am picking UNC regardless, but I will be watching this game intently to see what they do in the game.

Logan’s pick: UNC

Camping World Kickoff: #5 LSU Tigers (-2.5) v #8 Florida State Seminoles

Logan: Our only top 10 matchup of week 1. This game is a tough one between 2 talented teams whose season did not end the way they wanted last year. I think its fair to say LSU is the best option here, but FSU does find ways to deliver against difficult opponents (even though they often choke against less talented ones). I’m picking LSU (which makes me feel bad for only picking one upset in this post) because I just feel the Tigers are more consistent and have more to prove going into this game.

Logan’s pick: LSU