Apologies in advance if you tailed me on my first college football teaser of the season. I ended up being spot on with my pick of LSU to cover the CFB betting line against Miami, but Florida State fell flat at home against Virginia Tech in Willie Taggart’s debut. The good news is last week was Week 1, and there is still plenty of college football betting to be done this season. Let’s make it up this week.
College Football Teaser Betting Odds (Courtesy of BetDSI)
7-point teaser option at -130 betting odds
Mississippi State Bulldogs -2.5 at Kansas State Wildcats
Georgia Bulldogs -3 at South Carolina Gamecocks
I’m backing a pair of SEC Bulldogs this week in order to right the ship and get back to .500 with my teaser plays this season.
There’s a ton of fanfare surrounding Mississippi State’s hire of Joe Moorhead, who established himself as an offensive innovator when he was the head coach at Fordham from 2012 to 2015 and furthered that reputation as Penn State’s offensive coordinator in 2016 and 2017. Dan Mullen left the cupboard in Starkville pretty stocked when he made the move to Florida at the end of the season, and Mississippi State showed what they can do with a back-up quarterback against Stephen F. Austin.
Mississippi State racked up over 600 yards of offense and put 63 points on the board against the Lumberjacks. The Bulldogs didn’t sputter on offense in the slightest despite a new coach and a back-up quarterback running the show, and that’s a great sign for the rest of the season.
If you’re more of a numbers person and still have doubts about Mississippi State, take a look at Bill Connelly’s most recent S&P+ Rankings. S&P+ has the Bulldogs rated as the sixth-best team in the country, while Kansas State is rated as the 74th best team in the country.
Speaking of the Wildcats, you can always count on them to be competitive under Bill Snyder. However, the talent just isn’t there with this year’s team, and Kansas State is replacing a good chunk of its defense. The quarterback play was dreadful in a near loss to South Dakota, and it’s hard for me to see them staying within a score here.
In the second game of this teaser, I’m laying a field goal with Georgia on the road. The Bulldogs are a burgeoning powerhouse and it’s only a matter of time until they get the same respect that Alabama commands with the recruiting classes they have been bringing in.
Georgia no longer has Nick Chubb and Sony Michel, but D’Andre Swift looked very good as a freshman last season and Elijah Holyfield is someone to keep an eye on too. This ground game should put up similar numbers to what we saw last year with so much talent up front, and if Jake Fromm takes another step forward, this offense could be lights out in 2018.
The Gamecocks are a pretty good team, and they should win seven or eight games in the regular season. However, they are simply no match for a Georgia team that will be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
