Part of the fun in betting college football is calling your shot on underdogs that you think either have a real shot of winning outright, or at least covering the spread.
Rooting for underdogs is always a good time, so here are two upset predictions we like for the college football Week 2 betting slate.
Virginia Moneyline (+100) FanDuel
UVA vs. Wake Forest, Sept 7, 7:00 p.m. ET
While this is admittedly not the biggest upset in the world, we are getting even money on the road underdog to win outright, so we’ll count it as an upset prediction.
This is also one of the sadder matchups of the slate, as both of these teams are in a power-4 conference in the 17-team ACC, but neither is projected to be very good this year. For context, UVA was 16th in the ACC preseason media poll heading into the year, with Wake Forest right in front of the Cavaliers at 15th.
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With that said, we think that the Cavaliers are going to win in this matchup on Saturday. Both teams had somewhat cupcake matchups last week, with UVA taking down Richmond 34-13, while Wake Forest beat North Carolina AT&T 45-13. UVA did manage to cover its large spread, while Wake did not.
The biggest advantage for UVA in this game is its passing game going up against the Wake secondary. Wake Forest lost four of its five starters from last year’s roster, which UVA QB Anthony Colandrea should be able to take advantage of.
He loves to get the ball out quickly and focus on high-percentage throws, but last week, the UVA offense was able to explode for seven plays of 30-plus yards. That is something Virginia should be able to keep up this week against Wake, as the Deacs allowed 35 plays of 30-plus yards last year, which ranked 118th in the nation.
On the other side of the ball, the guess here is that the Demon Deacons offense struggles in this matchup as well. Even though they ended last week with 45 points, they still started slow and that was against an inferior opponent.
The Cavaliers should be able to force a turnover or two, which will be enough to get the win.
Boise State +21 (-108) DraftKings
Boise State vs. Oregon, Sept. 7, 10 p.m. ET
For our second play of the day, instead of predicting the underdog to win straight up, we are instead going with Boise State to cover the large spread of three touchdowns against Oregon.
Oregon has a ton of talent, but it struggled with Idaho last week, and the same thing could happen again this week in another situation where it is heavily favored. The Ducks ended up beating Idaho 24-14, but they really struggled on offense.
They ran for only 2.9 yards/attempt, ending the game with 107 yards on 37 carries, and they are going to need to figure that out if they want to keep up with the high-flying Boise State offense.
The Broncos managed to score 56 points in their first game, albeit against much lower competition in Georgia State. Oregon is obviously a much more talented defense, but Boise should still be able to score plenty of points on Saturday. After all, the total for this game is 61, so the books are expecting points.
Boise was able to run for 371 yards last week, and they very well might have the best running back in the country in Ashton Jeanty. Yes, the Oregon defense is better than Georgia State and will have the athleticism to contain Jeanty better than Georgia State did, but the guess is that Oregon will not be able to shut down the Boise offense entirely.
Boise did struggle on defense, allowing 45 points in that game against Georgia State, so the total is set at a high number for good reason. The over is worth a look, but, in terms of the matchup itself, we like Boise State to keep this close.
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