College Football Odds Week 2: Picks, Spread Predictions for Top 25 Games
If you were hoping for a light weekend of college football, think again. The slate for Week 2 of the 2017 NCAA season is jam-packed with marquee matchups that will test your proficiency in channel flipping.
The top of the ticket will once again feature a faceoff between Top 5 teams, though No. 1 Alabama won't be anywhere near this one. Instead, the nation's attention will turn to Columbus, Ohio, where No. 2 Ohio State is set to host No. 5 Oklahoma at 7:30 p.m. ET.
These two titans of the Midwest last met during Week 3 of the 2016 campaign. The Buckeyes blasted into Norman, Oklahoma, and came away with a 45-24 win over the Sooners. Quarterback J.T. Barrett led the way for Scarlet and Grey, tossing four touchdown passes—all to wide receiver Noah Brown, including a miraculous catch falling out of bounds toward the end of the first half—without a pick.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Head coach Urban Meyer's squad also managed to control the game on the ground. Running back Mike Weber, then a freshman, scampered for 123 yards. Curtis Samuel added 118 total yards and a touchdown, and Barrett came through with 74 rushing yards of his own.
The personnel between these two red-clad blue bloods has turned over in some key spots since then. Brown and Samuel have since moved on to the NFL. So has Joe Mixon, who ran for 78 yards on nine carries against Ohio State last September.
What hasn't changed is that the Sooners are still led under center by quarterback Baker Mayfield. Last week, the senior threw for 329 yards and three touchdowns while completing all but one of his 20 pass attempts. This time around, he'll look to extend Oklahoma's best-in-the-nation 11-game winning streak to an even dozen against a Buckeyes defense that regularly ranks among the stingiest in the sport.
So far, the oddsmakers haven't shown much faith in new head coach Lincoln Riley's Sooners to keep their good times rolling. OddsShark has Ohio State pegged as a nine-point favorite at home, where the team has rattled off seven straight wins since suffering a 17-14 upset against Michigan State two seasons ago.
Barrett, now a redshirt senior, is back to lead the Buckeyes into battle after piling up 365 total yards and four combined touchdowns during a 49-21 beatdown of Indiana. OU will have its hands full with him as well as his latest backfield co-star: freshman running back J.K. Dobbins, who debuted with 181 yards on 29 carries in Bloomington.
OSU-OU won't be the only home-and-home rematch with serious College Football Playoff implications going off this Saturday. At 7 p.m. ET, No. 13 Auburn will head to Death Valley to take on No. 3 Clemson in yet another classic SEC-ACC clash.
It's easy to forget now that Clemson bookended its run to the national title with wins over premier programs from the Yellowhammer State. Four months before upsetting Alabama in the championship game, head coach Dabo Swinney's Tigers went down to Auburn and escaped with a 19-13 season-opening win.
Whatever turnover there's been between Oklahoma and Ohio State pales in comparison to all the new faces on display for both sets of Tigers.
Clemson can no longer count on quarterback Deshaun Watson, wide receiver Mike Williams and running back Wayne Gallman to save the day on offense. Rather, that task will fall to a new dual-threat quarterback (junior Kelly Bryant) and a rising stable of backs and receivers.
Auburn, meanwhile, will once again start sophomore Jarrett Stidham under center, though not solely because of his sturdy performance (185 passing yards, three total touchdowns, one interception) during a 41-7 whitewashing of Georgia Southern.
Sean White, who performed unsteadily as a starter for head coach Gus Malzahn last season, was suspended for the first two games of this campaign for a violation of team rules. With White out again, Auburn will have to hope that Stidham stays healthy, lest the staff have to consider burning Malik Willis' redshirt.
"Malik's ready, and like I've said before, he has impressed us numerous times and he's got a lot of practice reps," Malzahn said, per the Montgomery Advertiser's Matthew Stevens. "I think he'll be ready to go if called upon, if there's an injury."
Those Tigers will get tailback Kamryn Pettway and wide receiver Kyle Davis back from suspension on Saturday, but they won't get the benefit of the doubt against Clemson. OddsShark lists the defending champions as nine-point favorites at Memorial Coliseum, where these Tigers suffered their only loss last season: a 43-42 November stunner to Pitt.
Top 25 Point Spreads and Predictions
(All points spreads provided by OddsShark)
Sept. 8
No. 11 Oklahoma State (-26.5) at South Alabama: Oklahoma State
Sept. 9
No. 17 Louisville (-6) at North Carolina: Louisville
No. 21 South Florida (-20) at Connecticut: South Florida
Florida Atlantic at No. 9 Wisconsin (-36): Wisconsin
Louisiana-Monroe at No. 10 Florida State (-33): Florida State
Cincinnati at No. 8 Michigan (-31.5): Michigan
Charlotte at No. 19 Kansas State (-35): Kansas State
Northern Colorado at No. 22 Florida (No Line): Florida
Fresno State at No. 1 Alabama (-45): Alabama
Pittsburgh at No. 4 Penn State (-20): Penn State
Delaware at No. 18 Virginia Tech (No Line): Virginia Tech
No. 23 TCU at Arkansas (-2): TCU
Indiana State at No. 25 Tennessee (No Line): Tennessee
No. 13 Auburn at No. 3 Clemson (-9): Clemson
No. 5 Oklahoma at No. 2 Ohio State (-9): Ohio State
Chattanooga at No. 12 LSU (No Line): LSU
No. 15 Georgia at No. 24 Notre Dame (-6.5): Georgia
Montana at No. 7 Washington (No Line): Washington
No. 14 Stanford at No. 6 USC (-10.5): Stanford
Boise State at No. 20 Washington State (-7): Washington State
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
