Arkansas State Red Wolves at Memphis Tigers (Saturday – 7pm ET)
Memphis impressed with a big win as a road underdog in Week 0 at UNLV. Charles Huff is a terrific head coach and had his team thriving down the stretch in the comeback victory. Huff embraces a “no fun” attitude, calling the atmosphere in the locker room after a win being the fun part. So Huff will certainly be doing his best to keep his team motivated here in Week 1.
That’s going to be easier said than done. Memphis earned a nationally televised win, and goes on the road again next week to face Boise State — another massive game when it comes to the Group of Six and the potential College Football Playoff spot. A letdown spot from Week 0 and a lookahead spot to Week 2 … the Red Wolves could be getting overlooked here.
Arkansas State has tape on Memphis, and the Tigers couldn’t hold anything back against UNLV. Butch Jones has also had tons of success with the Red Wolves in the underdog role. They’ve racked up 11 straight up wins as the dog over the last three seasons, including as a double digit dog at Texas State just last season.
Arkansas State has done a good job hanging around in big underdog spots as well — it lost by eight points last season to a ranked Iowa State team and by 10 points the season before at Michigan. The Red Wolves also have some potential talent at the QB position, with a Texas Longhorns transfer taking over at the helm. I like the talent, I like the coaching and I like the spot for Arkansas State.
This number opened 10.5 and was bet all the way down to 8.5 before the season began. Now it’s all the way out to 11.5 because of how Memphis looked in Week 0. I’ll buy low and fade some of that hype.
CFB Pick: Arkansas State +11.5 (-110)
