The wait is over! College Football action is kicking off! It’ll start with the TCU Horned Frogs taking on the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland. After that, it’s a full day of games. The question now is, which teams can pull off the Week 0 upset? Let’s build a Week 0 upset parlay.
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic has the main stage with a noon ET kickoff on ESPN. San Jose State heads to USC at 3:00 on NBC/Peacock. North Carolina State and Virginia square off at 3:30. North Dakota State kicks off its inaugural FBS campaign hosting Jacksonville State. Sacramento State heads to Eastern Michigan. Hawaii at Stanford and New Mexico State at Florida State both have 7:00 kickoffs. The evening wraps up with a nightcap of Memphis and UNLV at 10:00 ET on Fox.
North Carolina (+260)
Let’s just start right from the first kickoff in Ireland. Last season, these teams opened the year against each other. It was Bill Belichick’s first game as a college head coach, and it went very badly for the Tar Heels. TCU blew them out in Chapel Hill 48-14. If you don’t think that hasn’t bothered Bill Belichick ever since, I don’t know what to tell you. I picture “The Hoodie” with the iPad in hand in the chair Jordan-style, “and I took that personally.”
Having all of the offseason for Belichick to prepare, who, while he hasn’t been a great college coach just yet, is still one of the best to ever do it. Gives me some hope with our limited selections that UNC could pull this off on a neutral field overseas. TCU should be the favorite in this game; they have the stability and depth. But UNC has made some big upgrades in the off-season, especially to their offense. Belichick brought in Bobby Petrino as the playcaller, and Billy Edwards Jr to take over at quarterback.
TCU also has a new starting quarterback, Harvard transfer Josh Hoover; we know that can go either way for both of these teams. The team also lost offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, who took the head coaching gig at South Carolina. UNC needs to have a plan to get the ball out quickly and not let this TCU defense wreak havoc on their quarterback like last season. UNC needs to control the ball and not get in a shootout, keep it close, and be there with a shot at an upset and revenge for Bill Belichick.
Sacramento State (+260)
Like North Dakota State, Sacramento State is also playing in their first-ever game as an FBS team. Sacramento State has all the odds stacked against them. They are a new team, have a new head coach, are traveling a long way for this game, new to the FBS. But most importantly, they have nothing to lose. This game is one of only a few in the afternoon, and they have a shot to make their name in game one.
Eastern Michigan returns the coach, returns the quarterback, and has nine starters coming back. This should be an easy game to just walk in and sleepwalk through. The sleepwalking part is what we’re hoping for. EMU’s rushing defense was terrible last season, and that’s what Sacramento needs to try and take advantage of. Run the ball, protect the ball, keep Noah Kim off the field. These will be the keys to Sacramento State welcoming themselves to the big leagues with a win.
Hawaii (+170)
Of all the dogs for Week 0, the Rainbow Warriors are my favorite ones. Micah Alejado returns as the team’s quarterback after a stellar freshman season. He threw for 3,106 passing yards and ranked eighth in the nation in passing yards per game (282.4). He also had a four-game stretch of 300+ passing yards as a freshman. Stanford, on the other hand, last season, allowed the most passing yards per game (288.9) in the entire FBS.
Hawaii showed last season they can beat Stanford, doing so 20-23. Stanford has an entirely new coaching staff from last year’s game, so it isn’t as much of a revenge spot for them. Hawaii has come up in some longshot Group-of-6 College Football Playoff talk. Now, they aren’t even getting the respect of being favorites against an unknown Stanford team? The Rainbow Warriors will reign victorious Saturday night in Palo Alto.
