College Football Picks

Is Nick Foles ready to shine in the spotlight against a tough defense?

IOWA HAWKEYES @ ARIZONA WILDCATS (+2) — 10:30 ESPN

Both Brandon and The Kid like Arizona and I’m with them. Two factors here: it’s a home-dog play and it’s a revenge game for Arizona, who was beaten by Iowa 27-17 last year in week 3 when this game was in Iowa. The change in location will be key this time around as Arizona was 4-0 ATS at home against conference foes last year. Although a Big 10 team is rolling into town, I’m saying this because with covers against Oregon (-5.5), California (+7.5), Stanford (+4), and Washington (+33), they had an impressive home resume last year.

QB Nick Foles is really coming along and is ready to have a breakout year. Although he’s only faced Toledo and The Citadel, he’s completed 83.1% of his passes. Arizona is averaging over 500 yards of offense and has outscored their two opponents 92-8. Iowa’s offense has equally been impress with their two blowout wins, averaging 457 yards per game and 37 points per game.

In the Iowa game last year, Foles only got 11 passing attempts. It wasn’t until after that game that Foles became the man at QB. Another player to watch is the elusive RB Nic Grisby who has already piled up 160 yards and 5 TDs on just 19 attempts — a ridiculous 8.4 YPC. Iowa is going to have a tough time matching up with Foles and the weapons that he has around him. Foles has two very talented 6’4″ receivers in Juron Criner and Delashaun Dean.

On defense, Iowa will need another big game out of #94 DE Adrian Clayborn if they want a …

"Get off me bro!" Nebraska continues to run the ball with ease.

No. 8 NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS (-3.5) @ WASHINGTON HUSKIES — 3:30 ABC

Like I mentioned earlier this week, I’m liking the Cornhuskers -3.5 in this one.  I thought this spread would be more like -4.5 or -5.5. On the other hand, Washington was one of those teams that I wanted to ride this year with the development of QB Jake Locker and the nice weapons that he has around him. Washington let me down week 1 against BYU, but bounced back with a nice cover against Syracuse, a game that Brandon picked.

We all know that Nebraska is known for their defense, but the player to watch in this one is QB Taylor Martinez. Martinez has averaged 142 rushing yards per game with an average of 13.5 YPC — that’s ridiculous! He already has 5 rushing TDs in 2 games. Not only is Martinez a tremendous rushing threat, but he throws a nice ball as well, completing nearly 70% of his passes. Oh yeah, this guy is the real deal. See highlights below. Granted, the defenses he’s faced (Western Kentucky and Idaho) are laughing matters, but there’s no doubt that this kid is a talented player and he’ll be facing another weak defense. Washington has a questionable defense at best. I don’t think think they’ll have enough to stop this Nebraska offense that has put up 49 and 38 in their first two games.

One thing to worry about is how the redshirt freshman is able to handle his first start on the road. That is one thing to be concerned about. However, when it doubt, just your wheels Taylor. Nebraska has managed a 5-2 record ATS in …

Nevada loves the Friday night lights.

California Golden Bears @ Nevada Wolfpack (+3)

Take it if you like it, but my money is on Nevada tonight. Nevada looks like they should be getting more points just because California stomped Colorado last week 52-7. You have to look at the stat that Colorado turned the ball over five times that game and seemed completely lost on offense. With Nevada only turning it over one time in two games, you have to expect that they will take care of the ball and not give away any freebies. With 631 total yards against Colorado St. last week, Nevada is coming into tonight with the utmost confidence on offense.

This being California’s first road test of the season, I’m interested to see how they handle themselves. I don’t see a lot of turnovers coming from either one of these two teams tonight. Cal will have some confidence coming off the big win over Colorado, but it won’t be enough to hold off the Wolfpack tonight.

I like the home dog here. Home dogs are 15-10 (60%) ATS this season to date, and Cal is 0-6 ATS in their last six against WAC opponents. The Wolfpack love Friday nights going 5-1 ATS in their last six played on a Friday.

Play on Nevada (+3)…

Look for NC State to force those turnovers out of Cincinnati in tonight's epic battle.

CINCINNATI BEARCATS @ NORTH CAROLINA STATE WOLFPACK

North Carolina State hosts Cincinnati tonight starting at 7:45 pm. Cincinnati is coming off a 40-7 annihilation of Indiana St. in week two, along with NC State coming off a huge 28-21 road win in Central Florida.

Cincinnati had a very tough time running the ball in week one against Fresno State, giving it 32 times and only gaining 15 yards. They relied heavily on their passing game, which resulted in a 28-14 loss. Then in week two, they learned how to run putting up 263 rushing yards and only passing for half as many yards as they did in week one. I believe in this match-up tonight, Cinci is going to want to start the game off by pounding the ball on the ground, which means a lot of time consumption.

NC State is second in the nation right now in turnover margin at three, not to mention the five they forced out of Central Florida last Saturday night. They have yet to turn the ball over this season.

Don’t Forget: Cincinnati has gone under in five of its last seven non-conference games. NC State likes to stay under on Thursday nights (13 of last 16).

Let’s face it, when you combine defense and running, it usually results in an under.

Play on under (54.5) Winner…

After we started the day last Saturday 2-2 we had a great chance to end the day with a profit, but UAB failed miserably in the 2nd half, leaving me down 4 units for the season. There is still a lot a research to be done for the week ahead, but a couple games I am getting on early and I think you should too.

Boise St (-24) at Wyoming: My forte does not come in the form of playing road favorites, as documented through my time here at thepassrush, but this is a must play for me. Boise St pulled out the dramatic outright win over VT in week 1 and as I have stated several times this is BSU’s best chance at winning the National Title and there was no better way to start the season than with a solid win over a nationally ranked and recognized program. However, VT forgot that their season wasn’t over and needed to show up in week 2 and suffered the worst defeat in school history. The important question is where does that leave BSU? Without VT’s loss, BSU still needed and needs to dominate the rest of their schedule and if you think that BSU’s Coach doesn’t know the line for this game at Wyoming you are nuts. For BSU to have any chance at the National Title it is now more important than ever for them to absolutely blow teams out. Even one weak game against a weak opponent means they will not be playing in the Title game. Therefore, I fully expect BSU to win by 40+ in the game against Wyoming.

The Play: BSU (-24) for 1 unit.

Ball State (+17) vs Purdue: First off I just …

This is how Vegas wins.

Hello THE PASS RUSH fans and users:

We would like to thank Vegas Martin and Brandon for welcoming us and letting us become a part of this great sports analysis website. We are here to add and provide our insights and picks for the remainder of the NCAA and NFL football seasons.

The first thing that all of you should know when betting is: Vegas ALWAYS wins! Vegas will always set lines that bait the ‘squares’ into betting one way or another. One prime example in week one of this NFL season was the Indianapolis Colts @ Houston Texans. Now for all of you Colts and Manning fans who saw that all the Colts had to do was win this game with a spread of -1, you should have thought twice. This is how Vegas gets easy winners. I bet most of you reading this either bet, or would have taken the Colts in this game. We, on the other hand, saw that line and had an easy winner on Houston. Also, we asked some of our peers who they would take in that game with that spread. 100% of them had a comment like this, “Oh, Colts all day. No WAY they will lose the season opener; they have Peyton Manning.”

Well, Joey G and The Kid are here to help guide you along to some free winners. Vegas Martin and Brandon have done a fabulous job for the past four years. We are here to help you ‘squares’ turn into ‘sharps’ and ultimately beat Vegas at the weeks end.

STAY TUNED: our confidence picks on NFL and NCAAFB are coming soon. We look forward to advancing your betting skills and making you …

Alabama's running game should roll all over Duke.

ALABAMA CRIMSON TIDE (-23.5) @ DUKE BLUE DEVILS

Last week I took Alabama (-11.5) over Penn State and Alabama won in convincing fashion 24-3, running all over a very respectable Big 10 defense in Penn State with 180 yards on the ground and 229 through the air for over 400 yards of offense. Naturally, I would look to ride them against this week as they started off the season 2-0 ATS.

We all know that Duke’s defense is terrible. They lost to Wake Forest this past week 54-48 and beat Elon by a score of 41-27. Duke gave up an average of 452 yards in those games and was miserable against the run, giving up an average of 8.4 yards per carry. Against a team that loves to run the football and imposes their will over top-tier NCAA defenses, I don’t see how Alabama doesn’t score on essentially every drive that they get the football, especially considering that Duke gave up 54 points to Wake Forest and allowed 27 to Elon. The Crimson Tide should be due for at least 40 points in this game.

Some betting trends that I’ve spotted:

• ALAB are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 road games.
• Over is 6-2-1 in ALAB last 9 games in September.
• ALAB are 13-5 ATS in their last 18 games on grass.
• Over is 19-5-3 in DUKE last 27 home games.
• DUKE are 16-34-1 ATS in their last 51 home games.

Based on Duke’s history and the trends, you know that Duke will give up a ton of points. Last week I took Oklahoma (-9.5) over Florida State and this line even drifted down to Oklahoma (-7) by game time for …