It’s always fun to overreact to the official Week 1 in college football. Stunning comebacks, unexpected losses, and the annual notable QB injury. Here are 10 bold(ish) statements I believe to be true going forward after a wild Week 1:
- After his stunning 332 yard passing, 176 yard rushing, 6 TD performance against Houston, Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts is the current frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy. The Alabama transfer would be Oklahoma’s 3rd straight Heisman QB winner if he can pull off the stunning feat.
- Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor finishes ahead of either Trevor Lawrence or Tua Tagovailoa in the Heisman voting IF Wisconsin wins the Big Ten’s West Division.
- Auburn, despite a heroic last minute comeback against Oregon, will still win no more than 8 games in 2019.
- The SEC will get a lot of heat for being “weak” and “top heavy” this season. Tennessee’s opening week loss to Georgia State (pictured above) didn’t help to counter that argument.
- Even though he’s only in his second season at Florida State, coach Willie Taggart will be fired if his team fails to win more than six games this season.
- Virginia is the CLEAR favorite to win the ACC’s Coastal Division and face Clemson in the conference championship game.
- Army has a legitimate chance to play in a New Year’s Six Bowl Game with a stifling defense. They won’t beat Michigan this weekend but afterwards the schedule is very manageable.
- USC fails to finish higher than 3rd in the Pac-12 South after the season-ending injury to QB J.T. Daniels. Coach Clay Helton is unceremoniously fired after the season finale against UCLA.
- UCLA fails to make a bowl game in Year 2 putting Chip Kelly on the hottest coaching seat heading into 2020.
- UofA has a sub-.500 season but pulls off one major upset to keep the fanbase completely from alienating the Kevin Sumlin-regime.
Week 2 Picks
A nice Week 1 for me starting off 10-3 ATS and SU thanks to a solid run of games beginning last Saturday morning. The last few years it was a struggle to get above .500 ATS but off to a nice beginning thus far in 2019.
| Eric Cohen | Jon Bell | Steve Malina | Wesley Franco | |
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| Last Week (SU) | 10-3 | 8-5 | 8-5 | 10-3 |
| Last Week (ATS) | 10-3 | 8-5 | 6-7 | 7-6 |
| Season (SU) | 11-4 | 9-6 | 9-6 | 11-4 |
| Season (ATS) | 10-5 | 8-7 | 7-8 | 7-8 |
| Sacramento State at ASU (-35.5) | ASU 51-28 | ASU 27-9 | ASU 47-10 | ASU 38-17 |
| Northern Arizona at Arizona (-26.5) | AZ 45-24 | AZ 41-20 | AZ 55-17 | AZ 35-28 |
| Cincinnati at Ohio State (-15.5) | OSU 40-17 | OSU 42-20 | OSU 35-13 | OSU 45-10 |
| Army at Michigan (-21.5) | MICH 24-14 | MICH 38-24 | MICH 34-10 | MICH 32-7 |
| Texas A&M at Clemson (-16.5) | CLEM 34-26 | CLEM 21-20 | CLEM 37-17 | CLEM 35-24 |
| Nebraska (-3.5) at Colorado | NEB 35-30 | NEB 41-35 | NEB 28-23 | NEB 17-10 |
| San Diego State at UCLA (-7.5) | UCLA 24-10 | UCLA 31-27 | UCLA 24-20 | UCLA 24-17 |
| LSU (-6.5) at Texas | TEX 27-23 | TEX 24-20 | LSU 27-24 | LSU 35-31 |
| Miami (-3.5) at North Carolina | MIA 30-20 | MIA 24-23 | MIA 28-22 | MIA 35-27 |
| Cal at Washington (-13.5) | WASH 27-10 | WASH 20-17 | WASH 31-13 | WASH 17-10 |
| Stanford at USC (Pick’em) | STAN 17-13 | STAN 13-10 | STAN 24-21 | STAN 42-20 |
| Oregon State at Hawaii (-6.5) | HAW 42-34 | HAW 42-31 | HAW 42-29 | OSU 27-7 |
This Week’s Bold Predictions
EC: A victory this week over LSU will do what wins over Oklahoma and Georgia last year didn’t for Texas…stamp them as a legitimate national championship contender. Other than the October game against Oklahoma, the Longhorns should be favored the rest of the way and if they can beat the Sooners in the Big XII Championship Game, they’ll have a legitimate case to be in the Final Four.
JB: One of two things happens here for USC. Either Kedon Slovis comes in and saves Clay Helton like Sam Darnold did in 2016 or Helton’s already scorching hot seat hits an all time high. In a week of close games, I’ll take Stanford over the true freshman.
SM: Rutgers puts an extreme scare to Iowa until the very end of the 4th quarter when Iowa hits a game winning field goal at the end of regulation to win by a single point.
WF: Cal’s defense is better than everyone gives credit for, keeping Washington to the air and giving an overconfident Huskies team its usual early season scare before pulling this one out with a late touchdown.
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Cohen's Corner 