2. Boise State at Utah State
LINE Boise State -9.5
ATS PICK Utah State
I hate picking against Boise State in Mountain West play, but …
Utah State could win this outright. +300 on the money line isn’t all that awful.
I don’t like to buy into the idea of momentum, and negative energy, and all that other stuff that made me pick Louisville over Florida State earlier, but Boise State suffered a few gut punches.
The loss at UCF to start the season was tough, and the 21-20 heartbreaker to Oklahoma State last week was brutal.
There’s been no rhythm to the season so far in the first year under new head coach Andy Avalos, there’s no running game whatsoever, the defense is getting run over too easily for being Boise State, and now it all might be walking right into a buzzsaw.
Utah State has been fabulous.
New head coach Blake Andersen came in from Arkansas State with a few parts, like QB Logan Bonner. All of a sudden, the program that couldn’t do anything right over the back half of 2019 and through 2020 has been a force.
There’s nothing cheap about this 3-0 start, winning at Washington State and Air Force with a tougher-than-you-might-think North Dakota at home in between.
The offense has been almost perfectly balanced, Bonner has been fantastic, and all of a sudden this is starting to look a little bit like the dynamic 11-2 team of 2018.
I still hate this pick because it’s a default mechanism to always take Boise State, but …
Yeah. Utah State +9.5 at home.
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