Caleb Wilfinger
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At long last, Week 1 is finally here! Sure, Week 0 was a nice appetizer, but this week truly marks the start of the 2023 college football season. The action kicks off with a plethora of games on Thursday before getting into a weekend slate that features a number of high-profile matchups including LSU vs Florida State on Sunday night.
Thursday’s slate looks to be a very entertaining one that offers a handful of compelling matchups to officially get the season underway. There is value to be had across the board, so I built a 3-leg college football parlay of my favorite plays on the slate. Let’s look at the three components of our NCAAF mega parlay for Thursday’s action.
UCF -36.5 (-115)
Nebraska +7 (-105)
UConn +14.5 (-105)
NCAAF Parlay odds: +610
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing.
For this parlay, we are going with two underdogs against the spread and one favorite against the spread. Let’s break down each of these legs one by one.
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UCF Knights -35.5 over Kent State Flashes (-115)
This is a game between 2 programs heading in completely opposite directions. Kent State’s offseason was absolutely devastating, as Deion Sanders poached the Flashes’ head coach to become the offensive coordinator at Colorado, and then it seems like most of the team jumped into the transfer portal shortly after. The Golden Flashes are replacing all 11 starters on offense, and it isn’t certain what sort of offense they will be running this season. Regardless, I’ve got a strong bet that this offense will struggle mightily in Week 1 as the long rebuild starts to take place. On the other side, Gus Malzahn returns veteran QB John Rhys Plumlee to lead an offense that should play with a ton of tempo and absolutely dominate Kent State at the line of scrimmage all night. This one should be a laffer, so let’s back the Knights here.
Get our college football picks for all of the big Week 1 matchups!
Nebraska Cornhuskers +7 over Minnesota Golden Gophers (-105)
Both of these teams have had some major turnover in the offseason, as Nebraska brought in Matt Rhule to lead a program turnaround, while Georgia Tech transfer Jeff Sims is expected to make his Cornhusker debut under center. As for Minnesota, veteran quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis is set to start his first full season for the Gophers after starting the final 5 games in 2022. The Gophers will be without Mohamed Ibrahim in 2023, but I have no doubt that head coach PJ Fleck will still look to establish the run, especially considering that this is a big pressure spot for his quarterback.
Nebraska returns a decent chunk of its pass rush from a season ago, which could give Kaliakmanis problems and make him uncomfortable in the pocket. This could also keep the Cornhuskers in this game if Sims struggles a bit on offense. Road conference underdogs with a total in the low 40s have done very well against the number over the last 20 years, and I’d expect that trend to continue here. Expect a low-scoring affair with Nebraska keeping the game within a touchdown.
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UConn Huskies +14.5 over NC State Wolfpack (-105)
This line continues to move in the direction of the Huskies, but I still like it at anything over 2 touchdowns. After all, no team was more motivated to get to a bowl game down the stretch of the 2022 season than UConn, and Jim Mora’s group took major strides over the final 6 games. The reunion of NC State quarterback Brennan Armstrong with offensive coordinator Robert Anae (Virginia) is sure to help the Wolfpack in the long run, but as of now, it’s just inflated this number a bit too much given the questions that NC State has at the skill positions. I’m expecting a solid effort from a Huskies offense that returns nearly all of its top pass-catchers from a season ago, plus former Penn State dual-threat quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson under center. Back UConn to keep things respectable.
Be sure to get our college football expert’s win total best bets before Week 1 kicks off!
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