SMU Mustangs @ Texas A&M Aggies<\/h3>\n
Sunday, September 4, 7:30 p.m. ET
\nNCAAF Sportsbook favorite: Texas A&M -14<\/p>\n
Can Texas A&M build on a breakout season? It will be interesting to see what the offense does now that quarterback Ryan Tannehill and tailback Cyrus Gray have been handed the keys to the starting jobs for the whole year. To me, Texas A&M\u2019s defense is the greater question mark. It struggled against the pass last season and will open the year against SMU\u2019s Kyle Padron, who threw for 3,838 yards and 31 touchdowns last year. Also, how will the Aggies fare against the run with Von Miller off to the NFL? SMU\u2019s Zach Line ran for 1,494 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry last season.<\/p>\n Texas A&M should win at home but will it cover the 14 points? I\u2019m not convinced. Southern Methodist beat its one big underdog spread last year against TCU; I think it can repeat that feat.<\/p>\n Pick: SMU +14<\/strong><\/p>\n Monday, September 5, 8:00 p.m. ET The ACC should be a hotly contested conference this season, so I for one am excited about the Miami-Maryland tilt to open the season.<\/p>\n Like Texas, Miami gets awarded favorite status more than it should simply on reputation. The Hurricanes were 7-6 overall and just 5-8 ATS last season. It\u2019s still unclear whether Jacory Harris or Stephen Morris will start at quarterback for them this year.<\/p>\n I like Maryland\u2019s overall chances in the ACC better than Miami\u2019s for 2011. That said \u2013 the Hurricanes are a bad matchup for the Terrapins. Miami\u2019s pass defense is a force. I like Maryland quarterback Danny O\u2019Brien but Miami shut him down last year, holding him to 134 yards, one touchdown and one pick on 9 of 28 passing. <\/p>\n Yuck. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Maryland should have a good year but I like Miami to steal the opener from them on the strength of its pass \u201cD.\u201d<\/p>\n Pick: Miami (FL) -4<\/strong><\/p>\n Saturday, September 3, 3:30 p.m. ET Only six games have set lines at all sportsbooks for Week 1 so far. But Minnesota\/USC is a game that has rumors of a projected line, which will be at least 10 points for the Trojans.<\/p>\n Sure, USC is disqualified from playoff contention again this season, but that doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t have football games to play. And it could have a quarterback that joins the Heisman Trophy discussion in Matt Barkley. He threw for 26 touchdown passes versus just 12 interceptions last season and has a budding star receiver to throw to in Robert Woods.<\/p>\n However, Minnesota may be equipped to cover what should be a big spread. Its above-average pass defense could keep Barkley in check. Also, Trojans top rusher Marc Tyler has been suspended for the first game of 2011. So USC\u2019s offense may not be totally on track.<\/p>\n The Gophers have an intriguing new weapon at quarterback in MarQueis Gray. He\u2019s a total wild card but he\u2019s a good athlete; he was second on Minnesota in receiving <\/em>yards last season. Considering that USC was terrible against the pass last year, Gray may help Minnesota put some points on the board.<\/p>\n USC should still win this game no problem but the conditions are right for Minnesota to beat the spread.<\/p>\n Pick: Minnesota to cover<\/strong><\/p>\n This is installment #2 in the Week one series of\u00a0free college football Pick<\/strong><\/a> articles by our experts here at CappersPicks.com. Check back with us all\u00a0NCAA Football Betting<\/strong><\/a> season long, and keep on winning those College Bets folks!<\/p>\n Shea Matthews weighs in with his Free College football week 1 predictions and an indepth look at top matchups and their NCAA football Sportsbook Lines for all the best Week 1 CFB Matchups…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":26038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[328,2421,50813,38130,50816,765,50814,50784,50815,1323,50817,17061,1341],"class_list":["post-41053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football-sportsbooks","tag-free-football-picks","tag-free-ncaa-football-week-1-predictions","tag-miami-vs-maryland","tag-minnesota-vs-usc","tag-ncaa-football-gambling","tag-ncaa-football-sportsbooks-bonus","tag-ncaa-football-week-1-matchups","tag-smu-vs-texas-am","tag-week-1","tag-week-1-college-football-games","tag-week-1-lines","tag-week-one"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41053"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41061,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41053\/revisions\/41061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Texas-A+M-Cheerleaders-e1295071371564.jpg\" "\\"Texas")
Miami (Florida) Hurricanes @ Maryland Terrapins<\/h3>\n
\nNCAAF Sportsbook favorite: Miami -4<\/p>\nMinnesota Golden Gophers @ USC Trojans<\/h3>\n
\nNCAAF Sportsbook projected favorite: USC by at least 10 points<\/p>\nLooking for Sports Picks for all today’s Gambling Matchups? CLICK HERE!<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"