No one is going to sit here and claim that Week 3 is a must-watch college football Saturday.

After all, College Gameday settled on LSU/South Carolina and the primetime offerings are Indiana/UCLA, Colorado/Colorado State and Georgia/Kentucky.

It’s the perfect weekend to spend time with your loved ones and step outside, but if you’re a college football junkie like myself, you know the weeks with shitty schedules usually produce the most chaos.

If anything, there should be a ton of hate spread across the slate with the Backyard Brawl, Civil War, Apple Cup, and plenty of other intrastate rivalries on the slate.

 


Game of the Week: No. 20 Arizona at No. 14 Kansas State (-7.5) (Friday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox)

The best game, at least on paper, takes place on Friday night, which drives home the point that you can spend parts of Saturday afternoon away from your televisions.

Arizona has a potential top 10 NFL Draft pick in wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan and  an electric quarterback Noah Fifita who has thrown for 595 yards and five touchdowns in two games.

But K-State will be the favored team among bettors because Chris Klieman is an incredible coach against the spread. He had a 17-8-2 ATS record in the last two seasons. K-State hasn’t covered in two games this season, but it’s still a trend worth pointing out.

K-State is also 11-3 straight up in Manhattan over the last two seasons. Two of the defeats occurred in 2022 to Tulane and Texas and the only 2023 home loss came against Iowa State.

Arizona has the better talent, but K-State has the better team, superior coach, and a strong home-field advantage in its favor.

 

Favorite to Trust: No. 6 Missouri (-16.5) vs. No. 24 Boston College (12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network)

Boston College vs. Missouri is a fake Top 25 game.

BC is ranked in the Top 25 because it beat an overrated Florida State team in Tallahassee in Week 1.

The Eagles should compete for bowl eligibility, but I don’t see them competing with Mizzou, one of the strongest SEC teams, on the road on Saturday.

Missouri’s defense has not given up a single point through two games. The Tigers have one of the best wide receiver duos in the FBS with Luther Burden and Theo Wease. Burden is a likely Top 10 pick in April.

Simply put, Mizzou just has too much talent for BC to handle.

The only way BC competes is if it wins the time of possession battle with a few extended drives, and while that worked against FSU, it won’t versus Mizzou’s superior defense.

 

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Underdog To Back: Nevada (+16.5) at Minnesota (3:30 p.m. ET, BTN)

Nevada was projected to be one of the worst FBS teams in 2024.

But the Wolf Pack have turned things around under a new coach and have competed in all three games against SMU, Troy, and Georgia Southern.

Nevada has already been on the road twice, and once against a power conference team in SMU, so a trip to Minnesota will not be intimidating.

And why would Minnesota intimidate you? The Gophers are averaging 2.7 yards per carry and quarterback Max Brosmer was sacked five times and only threw for 165 yards in the opener against North Carolina.

Nevada’s secondary has 17 passes defended over three games. The defensive backfield is its strength and it will prevent Minnesota from running away with the win.

 

Points! Points! Points! UCF at TCU (Over 61.5) (7;30 p.m. ET, F0x) 

UCF/TCU just feels like a game that’ll hit the Over.

Well, if you look at the stats from the first two weeks, it sure looks like that type of game.

UCF scored 102 points in the first two weeks, while TCU posted 79 total points.

Sure, most of those numbers were put up against bad teams, but it shows that both offenses are humming right away and that’s the perfect setting for a chaotic Big 12 game in primetime.