College Football Picks – 2008 Week 1 Predictions

College football season is upon us!  A nice slate of games went Thursday night and a few lousy games Friday night.  But Saturday gets rolling with a huge schedule of games and I’ve got my best picks for you now!

Enjoy this handicapping, analysis and predictions.  Use of this information is intended for entertainment purposes only, although I’ve been know to do pretty well over the years.  Good Luck!

Kansas Jayhawks -36 over FIU
It’s a huge line, yes.  But KU has an exceptionally impressive offense and although they aren’t an elite college football team they are the clear pick here as FIU is one of the worst teams in Division 1 football.  The Jayhawks hammered FIU 55-3 in Lawrence last season.  I predict much of the same here.  Although Kansas probably not as good as last season and FIU perhaps a bit better this game is still not close.

Utah Utes +3 over @Michigan
Can Michigan possibly start the season with another home loss?  Absolutely.  The Utes are a quality football team with an impressively balanced offense and a tough hard nosed defense and they will not be intimidated in this game – they are ready to make a huge national splash – again.  The Utes could end the season undefeated and of course a win at Michigan will be a huge plus to their bowl resume.  Michigan brings in a lot of new players and are working on new system.  This team will struggle this season, especially early on.  Utah plus the points the pick here with an outright win very possible.

Wisconsin Badgers -26.5 over Akron COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAY OF THE WEEK
Wisconsin has spent years beating up on teams early in the season that simply aren’t big enough, strong enough or deep enough to slow the power running game behind a huge offensive line.  That is exactly the formula in this one.  The Badgers will be able to run all day and dominate the line of scrimmage.  He who wins the battle at the line wins the war.  All Wisconsin the easy pick here.

Idaho/Arizona OVER 63.5
Two impressive offenses will look to take full advantage of defenses that still have plenty to prove and simply have not upgraded nearly enough since last season.

Clemson Tigers -4.5 over Alabama @ Georgia Dome
Look for an evenly split crowd in this great early season match up.  What is less even is that Clemson has one of the top stop units in the nation and the Alabama offense, although solid, does have some limitations that I don’t see allowing them too many (if any) big plays and certainly don’t see long drives.  Bama plays a strong brand of defense of their own but they aren’t on the same level and the balanced Clemson attack will be too much making Clemson the better pick.

Missouri Tigers -9 over Illinois @ St Louis
This has shaped up as a nice rivalry game to start the season and with MU coming in as a Top 10 team and the Illini in the Top 25 this is one of the marquee match ups in week 1 of the college football season.  Last year this was a high scoring game that saw Mizzou with simply too much in the engines at the end.  The biggest difference this season we saw building last season – the Tigers defense is significantly better this year and we I don’t see the same improvement for Illinois.  MU will absolutely get their points, they will all season and the Tiger will not allow Juice and Co to keep up this year.  9 points might look small by the time this one ends, could be all Missouri.

Colorado Buffaloes -11.5 over Colorado State Sunday Night in Denver
Traditionally these two teams play close games and the dog is quite often a strong pick.  However this year marks the exception.  CU will be a surprise team in the Big XII and they out talent Colorado State by a wide margin and should extend this margin to close to 3 TDs.