We went 0-3 with our three upset calls last week with Vanderbilt being the only one to cover the spread. Let’s hope for better things with our three Week 2 shockers.
UPSET #1: Kent State (+7) +230 at Kentucky – Kentucky struggled to score points last season and the offense wasn’t exactly scintillating in a 32-14 loss to rival Louisville in the opener. Quarterback Maxwell Smith did pass for 280 yards, but that was on a whopping 50 attempts for a low 5.5 YPA average. Kent was pathetic on offense last season, so the 41-21 win in the opener was encouraging, even if it did come vs. an FCS school, albeit a very good one in Towson. The defense might be the best in the MAC and it returns nine starters from last season, and although the Golden Flashes are facing an SEC school here, the Kentucky offense looks to still be out of sync. Now Kent may not score 41 points again here, but if the offense puts up just a decent amount of points, this could be an outright upset.
UPSET #2: Army (+4½) +155 at San Diego State – This is Army’s first game this season while San Diego State covered the spread in a 21-12 loss at Washington. Still, the Aztecs have a new quarterback this season with Ryan Lindley now in the NFL, and new starter Ryan Katz was not impressive vs. the Huskies, completing only 10-of-19 passes for just 128 yards with one touchdown and one pick. Even with Lindley at the helm last year, San Diego State failed to cover the spread in a 23-20 win vs. Army at West point, as the Army option torched the San Diego State run defense for 446 rushing yards. The Black Knights return six starters on offense including quarterback Trent Steelman, who is the first player in Army history to both run and throw for over 2000 yards each, so the Army triple option should be as lethal as ever. The best way to combat that of course would be to open up a big lead to put Army in a come-from-behind mode, but the way Katz looked last week, we are not sure that the Aztecs can do that.
UPSET #3: Connecticut (+6) +210 vs. NC State – Last week NC State let us down by losing to Tennessee as one of our upset choices, so this week we hope the Wolfpack accommodate us by going down as a decided road favorite vs. a pesky opponent. Connecticut took a step back last season, finishing 5-7 straight up one year after winning the Big East championship. The Huskies were held back by weak quarterback play last year, which allowed opposing defense to stuff the box and take away the strength of the Connecticut team, which is the run. However, new starting quarterback Chandler Whitmer passed for 219 yards in a 37-0 whitewashing of Massachusetts out of the MAC last week, and if he can have similar success vs. a Wolfpack defense that allowed 333 passing yards and 524 total yards to Tennessee, it could make UConn very tough to beat at home.
