College Football “3-Pack” Free Play Overview —
We hope you’ve been following Underthecovers.us and cashing some tickets as we get the football season underway. We picked up a couple of more preseason NFL winners on Saturday and ended the August slate with an 8-2 record. Here’s looking at you Baltimore Ravens and your 23-game preseason win streak – they sure count when you’ve got some cheddar on the line!
We also released a 2 unit free play on the UTEP vs North Texas matchup to go under the total of 55, which it did comfortably with a 31-13 final.
We are ready to jump into Week 1 of the College Football slate, so let’s get started. Sometimes in these early season games, it is easier to find value going against teams that are clearly going to struggle than it is to get behind the teams that you know will be the cream of the crop. Case in point – just take a look at the spreads involving Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State this week. If you want to play on these teams, you will pay a premium price.
TCU Horned Frogs (-13.5) vs. Colorado Buffalos
In this game, we have identified a team that is clearly going to have a tough road this season in the Colorado Buffalos. The offseason was not kind to the team from Boulder. They lost their all-conference running back and nearly their entire secondary to the portal as the team had one of the longest lists of transfer portal losses in the country. The Buffs averaged 257 yards of offense per game in ’21 (ugh!) and its offensive line is worse than last year’s. For TCU, their defense was a sieve against the power offenses of the Big 12, but 8 returning starters will see to some improvement. The strength of this TCU team is its passing game, which boasts one of the top wide receiver rooms in the country. They should torch a young Colorado secondary. We see TCU getting a quick early lead on some big gains to Quentin Johnson and company. The line in this game has steamed to TCU -13.5 and we advise you to get on it before it hits the key number of 14.
You can find TCU (-13.5) at BetOnline.
Louisville Cardinals (-4.5) vs. Syracuse Orange
In our second Saturday game, we are playing on Malik Cunningham and the Louisville Cardinals against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. One of the keys to successful handicapping is finding clear mismatches within the game. We have one here as the ACC’s top-rated offensive line for Louisville will be taking on the conference’s worst D-line in the Orange. Making matters worse is turning the cheetah in quarterback’s clothes loose on the artificial turf, namely Malik Cunningham. On the other side of the ball, Louisville’s defense improved by 130 yards per game given up from ’20 to ’21, and they dominated Syracuse last year in a 41-3 drubbing. We like Louisville currently laying 4.5 to Syracuse.
Check out Bovada to get down on the Louisville Cardinals (-4.5).
Utah Utes (-2.5) vs. Florida Gators
Our third game is a showdown in the Swamp. The Utah Utes, the team we like to win the PAC 12 this year, travel to Gainesville to take on the Gators and new coach Billy Napier. The last time we saw the Utes take the field, a track meet broke out against Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. The offense that hung 45 on Ohio State that day returns eight starters including QB Cameron Rising. The O-line is one of the best in the country and their defense is loaded with talent, especially in the back seven. We see the Gators as a team that will improve as the season wears on as they adjust to a new system under Napier. Talented but erratic QB Richardson will struggle against a young but talented Utah D. It’s never an easy task for a west coast team to make the trip east into the August heat, but we believe this Utah team is a class above the Gators at this point.
This line has been creeping up and we are grabbing Utah (-2.5) right now at BetUS.com.
