UTEP vs. Jacksonville State: Top College Football Week 0 Bets (2023)

College Football is back! Well, kind of. Week 0 still counts, especially for fans who have been deprived of football for months! Saturday resumes the football action that many have missed. Thor Nystrom will have you covered through the entire college football campaign. He provides all of his best bets for the week here. And below you can find his top pick for UTEP vs. Jacksonville State.

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Best College Football Week 0 Bets: UTEP vs. Jacksonville State

  • 2022: 109-84-4 ATS (56.5%)

UTEP (-1) at Jacksonville State

In mid-July, I was asked on Twitter to pick one Week 0 upset. UTEP was low-hanging fruit, but I reached for it anyway. Jacksonville State was -2 at the time.

The market has since bet UTEP into small-favorite status. But in my opinion, it hasn't gone far enough yet. My system still believes we're getting over a field goal of line value, here.

Listen, I love RichRod. But it's asking a lot for him, in JSU's debut in the FBS, to beat a UTEP team that two seasons ago played in a bowl game, and last year probably should have (5-7 with a few near-misses - including a 24-0 blown lead against UTSA in the finale).

RichRod returns 16 starters from last year's 9-2 team. But it should be noted that JSU went 5-6 in the FCS the year before that. And now they're making a big leap up in competition.

JSU will run RichRod's patented run-first spread-shotgun offense. And though I think JSU will have success on the ground in Year 1, this is going to be a one-dimensional offense. Last year, seventh-year QB Zion Webb posted a 10/9 TD/INT rate at the sub-division level.

UTEP has 15 starters returning, and most of the bedrocks of the teams that have turned around the Miners' fortunes the past two years. QB Gavin Hardison is a three-year starter. RB Deion Hankins is a veteran 235-pound sledgehammer. WR Tyrin Smith, who returned home after spending the spring at Texas A&M, is one of the best playmakers in the conference. And UTEP has the conference's best OL, which returns four starters.

I further believe that this will be Dimel's best defense while at UTEP. The Miners return seven starters, and proven production along all three levels. The weak spot last year was the secondary, a fact Dimel acknowledged by signing five DBs in the portal, including an immediate starter from New Mexico.

Of course, even if UTEP's secondary is a weakness again, that isn't going to come into play against this Jacksonville State team. JSU must move the ball on the ground. They're going to run into resistance here: I believe UTEP has CUSA's No. 2 front seven behind MTSU.

Jacksonville State isn't up to snuff in this matchup on either side of the line of scrimmage. And the Miners, who came so close to reaching a second-straight bowl last year only to have their season end in devastating fashion, are a veteran-laden squad who are going to be ready to go in the opener.

The pick: UTEP -1

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