College Football Picks & DFS Podcast Week 0: We’re Back

We made it.

Months of anticipation for a new year — that seemed to drag on even longer with the heightened expectations for Florida State this season — have finally come to an end. College football is back in our lives.

Yes, it’s a snack size week zero once again, but it’s more than we had a week ago. For that, I am thankful.

The new year comes with some new and exciting changes, or really I should call them additions to the content many of you have come to enjoy from this article.

For those of you new to the proceedings, each week I pull together 10 games that I think we are worth your time to watch. I make some picks, you make picks in the comments and we all have a great time naming Comment Section Champions each week until one of us stands supreme at the end of the year. I’ll name a champ by adding up wins and losses before the following week’s article and give a salute to whoever dominates the weekend. I don’t have prize other than the pride of being better than everyone else (unless one of you is interested in sponsoring one, in which case let me know).

It’s a pretty simple formula that I’ve followed for two years that continues to be the most fun part of my college football experience and I hope plays a small part in yours.

If you’re new, welcome. Get those picks in before the first game starts please (or at least don’t include ones that already started. If you’ve been around, welcome home.

Could you be the first Comment Section Champion of the season? Leave your picks in the comments.

I mentioned changes — or sorry, additions — for this season so let’s not waste anymore time getting to them.

First, once again off the rip, nothing is going away. I will still give you the usual college football picks article that I’ve given you each week of the last two years (including from my hotel in Paris last year while on a trip with my wife). As I said, I love this thing.

The first new big addition will be a new accompanying podcast, Sharpen the Point.

Each Friday when this article drops, we’ll also drop a podcast episode of myself and long-time friend Chris Tyndall talking about the games that most standout that weekend — some week’s maybe two games others may be all 10 — as well as, another new addition, which matchups will make the difference.

Chris is an avid college football daily fantasy player who I believe knows more about third-string running backs and college football injury reports than many college coaches may know. So we’ll leverage his deep knowledge of those things to hopefully give us a deeper look into the games and his perspective on where he’s interested in building lineups for this week’s competitions.

Remember, that we are just two guys with keyboards and microphones, not gambling pros, so this isn’t advice. I’d call it more a viewing guide for the weekend with some deeper insights and hopefully provide us all rooting interest as we watch the football season.

To update the format of the article to better match the format of the podcast, we will be getting all the lines and salaries from DraftKings because they provide lines and DFS prices so it’s easier to track picks.

Note: I will add a half point to any even line so that we don’t get any ties in our fun contest. I’ll try to remember to make note of it.

One final note, we will make the podcast (like the article has been) FSU-centric. We’ll talk Florida State each week they play and discuss the games an FSU fan should keep an eye on. That could be the best matchups for FSU or how the Clemson/USC games could impact their ACC or CFP chances.

Whether you like picking games or playing DFS, we want the podcast to be something any fan of college football can enjoy and learn something from and hopefully we can accomplish that for you. Allow us some growing pains as we build the plane in the air and let’s have some fun with what’s shaping up to be a very fun college football season for the Garnet & Gold.

Without any further adieu (I promise these will be shorter going forward), let’s get rolling with our seven-game slate.

Brian’s College Football Week 0 Picks

Navy Midshipmen (+21.5) vs. No. 12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in Dublin, Ireland (2:30pm ET, NBC)

Another year where the college football season starts on the Emerald Isle this time with the Fighting Irish. The perennial kings of will they won’t they college football realignment have decided to realign themselves to Europe and they’re bringing the U.S. Navy with them. The Midshipmen arrive to the shores of Ireland as a bit of a mystery with a new head coach and a new offensive coordinator. The word going around is new wrinkles to the option offense. Is that good? Is that bad? I don’t know, but it might prove hard to defend because the option is tough enough to defend. I’ll likely be wrong here, but I’ll go with Navy grinding this down enough to stay within three scores. Note: The DK line is 21, but it’ll be 21.5 for our purposes.

Brian’s Pick: Navy +21.5

UTEP Miners (+1.5) at Jacksonville State Gamecocks (5:30pm ET, CBSSN)

I won’t drag this pick out since I’ve rambled on long enough. I know nothing about either team and won’t pretend to know anything. Jacksonville State always seems pretty strong and they’re at home. I won’t bring it up either.

Brian’s Pick: Jacksonville State -1.5

Ohio Bobcats (+2.5) at San Diego State Aztecs (7:00pm ET, FS1)

Same as above. I don’t know anything and won’t drag it out. Let’s go with some early season MACtion.

Brian’s Pick: Ohio +2.5

UMass Minutemen (+6.5) at New Mexico State Aggies (7:00pm ET, ESPN)

I promise I won’t do this every week, but it’s a small slate and I’ve given you enough to read about above so I’ll once again make this short.

Brian’s Pick: New Mexico State -6.5

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (+17.5) at Vanderbilt Commodores (7:30pm ET, SECN)

Vanderbilt always has low expectations in football. I figured the bare minimum I could ask for as an alum of a fellow SEC school (I graduated from LSU if you’re new) would be win your group of five games and don’t embarrass the conference in your power five games. They’ve got a renovation project still ongoing at the stadium so don’t be surprised to see a construction site behind the endzones. Vandy, don’t embarrass me please.

Brian’s Pick: Vanderbilt -17.5

San Jose State Spartans (+30.5) at No. 6 USC Trojans (8:00pm ET, Pac-12 Network)

If Jordan Travis wants to win the Heisman, he’ll have to unseat the reigning best player in college football and expected top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Caleb Williams. It’s not hard to see why Caleb is getting that level of praise. He was prolific last season and excelled in his brief time at Oklahoma. He showed everything you’d want in a quarterback and is just waiting to be eligible before he makes the jump to pros. The issue was his Trojans struggled, especially defensively, against more physical teams. I don’t expect SJSU to be that team though.

Brian’s Pick: USC -30.5

FIU Panthers (+11.5) at Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (9:00pm ET, CBSSN)

Once again, I don’t know anything about this one. I’m from Louisiana so the expectation is I should go with LA Tech. But... Not. So. Fast, my friend. I’m a Florida man now. Sorry, Tech. Note: The DK line is 11, but it’ll be 11.5 for our purposes.

Brian’s Pick: FIU +11.5

Chris’ College Football Daily Fantasy (DFS) Plays

QB

• USC Caleb Williams — $9900
• Ohio Kurtis Rourke — $5500
• Louisiana Tech Hank Bachmeier — $5800

RB

• Vanderbilt Sedrick Alexander — $3700
• Louisiana Tech Charvis Thornton — $5400
• FIU Shomari Lawrence — $6200

WR

• Vanderbilt Will Sheppard — $5000
• Louisiana Tech Smoke Harris/Cyrus Allen — $6600/5700

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.