As you guys probably know by now, there are a few people in college football that I am rather obsessed with. PJ Fleck (Row the Boat) is my favorite coach and an inspiration to me, Jeff Brohm is pure football guy, Jim Harbaugh is rough around the edges, doesn’t care what anybody thinks, and he’s a bigger football guy than Brohm is. Then there is Mike Gundy and his mullet. Gundy is the ultimate wildcard in the college football world, and his mullet is even more mysterious. He started growing it in the Spring of 2016 (1.5 years ago), and he now has the best head of hair in all of college football (sorry, Dana). I don’t know if you guys know this or not, but this mullet is not the only one he’s ever had. He had one when he was going to college and playing for Oklahoma State back in the late 1980s and it’s even better than his current head of hair! People may be wondering why Mike Gundy feels the desire to grow this luscious mullet. There are several reasons he could be doing this: recruiting, superstition, or maybe his wife really likes it. I have thought about all of these, and they are very possible, but I think there is one reason he is growing this mullet and one reason only: To distract the media from covering how FREAKING AWESOME HIS FOOTBALL TEAM IS! Ahhh, after 239 words I have finally gotten to my point. In this weeks AP Poll, Oklahoma State is ranked 6th and is behind both USC and Penn State. Here’s the deal, USC is not a top 10 football team, and Penn State only beat Pittsburgh by 19 points while Oklahoma State doubled that and beat Pittsburgh by a whopping 38 points! I know that the rankings will work themselves out eventually, but I have no idea how they aren’t ranked in the top 4 yet. They have the best offense in college football this year, no one can argue that. At least two if not three of their wide receivers could be starting NFL wide receivers right now and their quarterback, Mason Rudolph will be a Heisman candidate and will most likely be a top 10 draft pick in the 2018 NFL draft. I know they haven’t really played anybody worth noting yet, but the defense is pretty stout as well (for a Big 12 team). I know you guys did not come to read about how great Oklahoma State is (except Eric Gengenbach), but gosh dang it, you guys need to start paying attention to them because they are such a fun team to watch. Don’t wait until they play Oklahoma on November 4th, start watching now. Here’s my hot take of the week and I’ll finally shut up and get to the picks: Oklahoma State is not only the best team in Oklahoma, but they are the best team in the Big 12 Conference and Mike Gundy and his mullet will lead them to the College Football Playoff this year. I know what you’re thinking, it literally took me a week to bet against Baker Mayfield and his Oklahoma squad, but that’s how good this Cowboy team is.
Before we get to the picks, just a quick reminder, I don’t actually gamble real money, because gambling is illegal in Nebraska. If I could gamble legally, these would be the picks I would go with. All of the lines and totals are set at time of publishing (odds coming from oddshark), and will not change as the week goes on. So get’em while their hot! Here we go, Bart’s Best Bets Baby!
Saturday, September 23rd
TCU @ Oklahoma State (-13)
If you read the introduction, then you all know how I feel about Oklahoma State at this point so I won’t repeat myself, but I do have some interesting stats on TCU that makes me like this even more. It’s pretty simple, they gave up 36 points to SMU last weekend on 463 total yards and 363 through the air. That is terrible news for TCU, because I’m about 99% sure that OSU’s offense is like two times better than SMU’s. When I originally started writing this on Tuesday, OSU was favored by 11, but that didn’t last long. I thought long and hard about taking it off my board when it shot to 13, but I’m going to stick to my guns here. Oklahoma State at home against an inferior opponent favored by less than two touchdowns (barely)? I’ll take that everyday of the week. Oklahoma State wins by 14 or more on Saturday. Tune in and enjoy the air show, you won’t regret it I promise. Bonus pick: I also like the over 72 in this one.
UCF/Maryland OVER 59.5
I’m not sure why, but when I was looking at the board on Monday, this one caught my eye for some reason. Maybe it’s because I haven’t seen UCF on the board for a couple weeks since their games have either been cancelled or postponed. Meanwhile, Maryland has gotten off to a nice 2-0 start and they have outscored their opponents 114-58. UCF has been on the rise ever since Scott Frost arrived there and I think they will continue to do so (until he leaves of course, which could be sooner than later). Bottom line here is that both teams like to score points, and I’m not sure how great (or interested) the defenses will be at stopping those high powered offenses. Those sound like perfect ingredients for an over to me.
USC @ California (+17)
This honestly might be my favorite pick of the weekend, and it just goes to show how overrated of a team USC is. Sure, they have a top 10 pick playing quarterback (not as good as Mason Rudolph). Everyone is talking about how great of a win USC had against Texas last Saturday. Yeah, it was a fun game to watch, but Texas is not a good football team and if USC was an actual top 5 team in the nation they would have creamed Texas by double digits! Meanwhile, the Cal Bears, chosen to finish dead last in the PAC-12 South is off to a nice 3-0 start and just had a hard fought 27-16 win against Ole Miss. I honestly think this is going to be a great game that comes down to the end. USC is just not as good as the media thinks they are and California is a confident football team right now. At the very least California will give USC a real scare, so I will graciously take the 17 points they are giving me with this one.
Michigan @ Purdue (+10)
This is a match up between two of my favorite football guys: Jim “Milk Man” Harbaugh and Jeff “Street Fight Between the Whistles” Brohm. I feel like I’m obligated to take Purdue for the third week straight because they just keep on covering the spread (3-0 so far). Purdue continues to be a better football team than anyone realizes and I will continue to take advantage of it. I was just listening to Jim Harbaugh’s podcast and he was talking about how good of a football team Purdue is and that Brohm is well on his way to winning Big Ten Coach of the Year. That is obviously just Harbaugh coach speaking, but there is a lot of truth to that. I’ve read that Purdue is going to have their first sellout in years. I’m not sure how crazy Purdue football fans can be, but I feel like they will reach their full potential this weekend in West Lafayette. Michigan is not in the business of blowing teams out this year, the defense is elite, but the offense just does not have the fire power to do it. Purdue is confident, motivated, and will be super prepared for this game. I think Michigan wins the game by 3-7 points.
Washington/Colorado OVER 50.5
This total really surprised me when a first saw it, and I still can’t believe these two teams are hovering around 50 total points. Washington can put up points with the best of them and Colorado isn’t all that bad on that end either. I think they set this total so low because they are both ranked in the top 15 in team defense so far this year. Here’s why I think that is: they really haven’t played any high powered offenses yet this year. Washington is clearly the better team here and will look to set the pace early, forcing Colorado to follow suit. I figured this line would be set somewhere around 60-65, and I think that’s where this game will be at when it’s all said and done. This game could turn into a low key shoot out, who knows with PAC-12 after dark. All I know is that I will be rooting for the over in this game and hoping that it stays exciting enough to keep me up past 10:00!
Bart’s Best Bets Year to Date: 10-5 (7-3 ATS, 3-2 O/U)
There you have it, folks. Week 4 of Bart’s Best Bets. I hope you enjoyed reading (especially you, Eric) and enjoy my picks this week even more. We had our first bad round of picks last weekend and I expect to bounce back this week. Have a GREAT weekend of football watching, and don’t forget to check out DaveCh999’s NFL Week 3 picks!
Double COVERage 