The Colorado State Rams are staring down the barrel of an 0-3 start. Colorado State was surprisingly upset as a big favorite per the CFB betting odds against Hawai’i in their opener, and the Rams were drubbed by arch-rival Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Showdown last week. Now, they must take on an Arkansas Razorbacks team that is going to score plenty of points in this Week 2 showdown. Arkansas had little trouble cruising past Eastern Illinois in its opener, racing out to a 38-6 halftime lead in an eventual 55-20 win.
Kickoff for this regular season Week 2 game is set for Saturday, September 8, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. ET at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado.
College Football Odds at BookMaker.eu
Arkansas -14
Colorado State +14
Over/Under 70.5
Odds Analysis
Colorado State is the only team that is 0-2 ATS at this point of the season. With that in mind, it’s probably no surprise that the CFB betting line has moved against the Rams since this one opened on Sunday evening. Arkansas was initially an 11.5-point road favorite, but that number has gone up to two touchdowns.
The total has really shot up too. There are many who are blindly betting the over in Arkansas games this season until sportsbooks adjust, and those bets have moved the NCAAF betting total from 65 to 70.5.
Coaching Angle
Comparing this team to last year’s team is like comparing night and day for Arkansas. The Razorbacks parted ways with Bret Bielema after a 4-8 season in 2017, and they brought in former high school coaching legend Chad Morris to replace him.
While Bielema is an old school coach that likes to pound the ball in the three yards and a cloud of dust of vein, Morris wants to spread it out and run as many plays as possible. Morris made a name for himself at Clemson, helping teach the Tigers the spread that has since been so successful for the team. He became a hot coaching candidate during his four years there, and Morris eventually took over for June Jones at SMU.
Morris turned around an SMU program that was one of the worst in college football when he arrived, bringing them back to respectability in his second season and bowl eligibility by his third. He will look to do the same at Arkansas, but as with SMU it may take some time. The Razorbacks don’t have the personnel to run the hurry-up style that he prefers quite yet.
Player to Watch
We knew it wouldn’t be easy for Colorado State to replace Nick Stevens, but the Rams had no idea it would be this difficult to move onto another signal caller. It was thought this position would be in good hands with graduate transfer K.J. Carta-Samuels joining from Washington and Collin Hill backing him up, but instead the quarterback play has been iffy.
Carta-Samuels ended up with great numbers in the season opener against Hawai’i, but the bulk of that came in garbage time after the game was thought to be over. Hawai’i relaxed on defense after going up 37-7 with three minutes to go in the third quarter, and Carta-Samuels picked them apart for the last quarter and change to throw for over 500 yards and five touchdowns. His numbers were much more pedestrian against Colorado, as the Buffaloes didn’t slacken on defense, and Carta-Samuels was unable to put up the numbers he did the previous week.
Free ATS Pick
Colorado State’s defense has really struggled through the air. Hawai’i and Colorado were both able to rip apart this pass coverage, and Morris has likely been waiting for this moment all offseason. It’s not generally a good idea to lay double digits on the road, but in this case it works.
College Football Odds: Arkansas 40, Colorado State 20
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