Each and every Saturday throughout the fall, there will be underdogs who surprise. This can sometimes be as simple as an unexpected cover, but there will also be some outright upsets which few saw coming.
In this weekly article, we’ll be trying to spot those situations before they come to fruition.
For this edition, we’re seeing three solid cover opportunities for underdogs with one of them being more than capable of getting the straight-up victory.
Syracuse at Maryland, 12 PM, ESPN
Spread: Maryland -2 (-110)
The Orange opened up the year on the road with a 24-0 victory over Liberty. QB Tommy DeVito was a bit out of sync, but the backfield made up for it with 192 yards and three scores. The Terrapins were home last weekend smoking Howard to the tune of 79-0.
Josh Jackson made his debut behind center and had himself a day, throwing for 245 yards and four scores in the rout. The competition level kicks up several notches for both programs this week.
Maryland is installed as a 2-point favorite for this afternoon tilt. They’re looking to bounce back from a season of turmoil in 2018 which ended at 5-7. The team is off to an excellent start on that front, but let’s not forget that they rolled over an FCS squad in Week 1.
Syracuse is a program which has an under-the-radar shot at a 10-win campaign. They’re the more complete team for this contest, and we’ll gladly take the points. In fact, you can put us down for an outright victory as well.
As of now, MyBookie has the Orange at +110 on the moneyline.
Texas A&M at Clemson, 3:30 PM, ABC
Spread: Clemson -17 (-110)
A meeting of a pair of Top 12 teams makes for a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. The defending national champion Clemson Tigers will be welcoming a Texas A&M Aggies squad to town for a rematch of a memorable regular season contest in 2018.
Last year’s tilt took place at Kyle Field. Clemson escaped with a 28-26 win after being up 28-13 after three quarters. Quite simply, the Aggies provided the Tigers with one of the toughest they faced all of last year.
Both programs handled business without issue last week. Clemson trounced Georgia Tech at home by a score of 52-14. Texas A&M was also home to open the season, walking off the field with 41-7 win over Texas Tech.
Clemson is rightfully favored here, and we fully expect them to win the game. However, the Aggies are one of the few teams on the regular season docket which can actually make them sweat.
We’re looking for that to happen on Saturday in Death Valley and rolling with Texas A&M plus the points.
LSU at Texas, 7:30 PM, ABC
Spread: LSU -6.5 (-110)
The second meeting of ranked teams for the day gets the primetime treatment on ABC. The LSU Tigers are ranked 6th in the latest AP poll. They’ll spend Saturday evening in Texas taking on the #9 Longhorns.
These two squads also opened up the season with easy wins. For LSU, it was a 55-3 home shellacking of Georgia Southern behind a five TD performance from Joe Burrow. Not to be outdone, Sam Ehlinger tossed four scores as he led the Longhorns to a 45-14 win.
The two programs enter 2019 with visions of a berth in the College Football Playoffs. For LSU, that would mean at least overtaking Alabama in the SEC West. Texas has its own herculean task to conquer as they look to end Oklahoma’s run of Big 12 dominance.
It may only be Week 2, but there’s a ton at stake for this one. One of these programs is about to make a very big statement to the nation on primetime TV. The Tigers look like the more complete team, and we concur with the oddsmakers that they should win the game.
However, we also think the Longhorns can bring it down to the wire, especially on the home field. We like Texas plus the points.
