College Football Week 8 Betting Odds, Picks, and Trends

We are in the thick of the college football season, and in addition to covering DFS as well as PrizePicks, I will be releasing a couple of weekly betting articles. The purpose of this writeup is to highlight some of my favorite college football games to bet on, give you my reasoning for picking said game and to direct you to the site with the softest line.

Let’s take a look at my favorite spots to attack for Week 8.

UAB Blazers vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

(WKU -1.5, O/U 57.5, DraftKings Sportsbook)

I’m all over the UAB moneyline here at +100 currently, as I believe they just win this game outright. The Hilltoppers are 4-3 overall, but their wins are over Austin Peay, FIU, Middle Tennessee and Hawaii — we aren’t talking about murderer’s row here. Their offense was far less potent against better competition like UTSA, Troy and Indiana which happen to be games they lost.

UAB sits at 4-2 with wins over Alabama A&M, Georgia Southern, Charlotte and Middle Tennessee. They’ve been a far scarier team when it comes to their almost violent brand of football though and their reliance on a strong ground game will make it difficult for WKU’s offense to get into any kind of rhythm. The Hilltoppers throw the ball at the ninth-highest rate at the collegiate level but UAB’s defense will be ready as they rank 13th in yards per play allowed. The Blazers defense held pass-happy offenses Charlotte and Georgia Southern below 22 points each so there is reason to believe they’ll give the Zach Kittley-less Hilltoppers fits.

DeWayne McBride leads UAB with a healthy 778 rushing yards and 11 TDs through six games while sporting a YPC of 6.7. He rushed for almost 1400 yards and 13 scores in 13 games last year, so he is pacing for career highs in multiple categories. Backup Jermaine Brown has also been lethal rushing for 418/3 and a YPC of 6.3 — WKU is giving up over 120 yards per game on the ground, and they’re going to be hard-pressed to contain UAB’s ridiculously strong 1-2 punch at the RB position.

Betting Trends

UAB has won four of their past five meetings with WKU.
UAB is 6-2 against the spread in their past eight road games.

Best Bet

UAB ML +100

Syracuse Orange vs. Clemson Tigers

(Clemson -13.5, O/U 49.5, DraftKings Sportsbook)

The battle between the last two unbeaten teams in the ACC should be a good one, and I guess we can even call it the real “Orange Bowl” when we consider their school colors. Clemson has been much more efficient on offense, but their defense has continued to fall flat in their past few games. Meanwhile, the Orange have been a total surprise with how they’ve played and the maturation of Garret Shrader as a passer has taken this team to a whole other level.

The improved defense of the Orange and the emergence of Shrader (1,427 passing yards, 12 TDs/3 INTs) and WR1 Oronde Gadsden (31-507-5) make them a very imposing squad and stud RB Sean Tucker (644/6) is always a problem for the other team. Clemson held off a tough FSU team last week and outlasted NC State a few weeks before that. Anything less than perfection this weekend will end up with the Cuse having a shot to win this game. Clemson beat the Orange by a score of 17-14 last year and asking them to cover two scores just feels like it’s too much.

Syracuse head coach Dino Babers is 4-2 against the spread in his career against Clemson, which includes covers in their last two meetings. He always seems to keep things close against the Tigers and that gives me plenty of confidence to put money on them to do it again, even on the road.