Gary Andersen has to be questioning his decision to become the head coach of the Oregon State Beavers. Andersen had a cushy job in Madison, winning eight to ten games a season and seemingly had a firm grip on that job. However, his continued clashes with AD Barry Alvarez led him to jump ship to join Oregon State, one of the toughest programs to win at in the PAC-12. Andersen now must try to improve upon a two-win debut season in Corvallis and would love a strong showing against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Week 1 of the college football season.
Watch this regular season Week 1 matchup live on Thursday, September 1, 2016, at 9 p.m. ET
at TCF Bank Stadium on the Big Ten Network.
College Football Odds at BookMaker.eu
Minnesota -13
Oregon State +13
Over/Under 51
Odds Analysis
Unlike many of the Thursday games that have had pretty static spreads, the line here has jumped significantly since the open. The Golden Gophers opened as 10-point favorites and that spread has since moved up to 13 where it has stabilized.
Player to Watch
Even though his stats haven’t been great, there’s been a lot of buzz around Mitch Leidner and his potential pro propsects. Leidner doesn’t have the skill position talent that other signal callers in the Big Ten possess, but was still able to lead the Golden Gophers to a bowl appearance. He was at the helm of quite a few almost upsets too, as Minnesota was within a score of TCU, Michigan, and Iowa.
Leidner had a pretty gruesome looking surgery to repair a lot of the problems on his foot, but he already seems to be moving around the pocket better than he was at the end of last season. The main issue with Leidner is that he keeps getting injured or banged up. If he can stay healthy and add even more mobility to his game, he may live up to some of the hype.
Coaching Angle
During his time at Wisconsin, Andersen performed well against Big Ten opponents, posting a 13-4 mark and went 2-0 against the Golden Gophers. These wins helped extend Wisconsin’s win streak against Minnesota to 12 and are something that new Minnesota coach Tracy Claeys has pointed out to his team.
Andersen is in desperate need of a win over a name opponent after beating only Weber State and San Jose State in his first season on the job. His success against Minnesota in the past shows that he knows what’s needed to beat the Golden Gophers, but there is a significant talent difference between Oregon State and Wiscosin.
Free ATS Pick
Oregon State played a lot of young guys in Andersen’s first season. The Beavers did need to be blown up and Andersen wasted no time in doing just that, but the product on the field was bad all season long. In his second season, more of his offense should be installed and the team should be better, but the Beavers were just bad last season and only stayed within single digits of one conference opponent.
For Minnesota, head coach Tracy Claeys learned on the job after replacing his long-time boss Jerry Kill halfway through the year. There were a lot of growing pains, but the hope is he has a better idea of what he’s doing now and won’t make the same mistakes that cost Minnesota a game or two late in the 2015 campaign.
The Golden Gophers should get the cover here. Minnesota has a tough, gritty QB in Leidner who will play through the pain as long as it’s not broken, while Oregon State is still working on finding offensive talent. The Gophers had a pretty decent run defense last season and will be able to stop what Andersen wants to do.
College Football Odds: Golden Gophers 31, Beavers 14
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