The Slate: Deion Sanders, Colorado Could Ruin Futures In Week 1

Welcome to The Slate, your home for college football picks at NESN.com. Here you can find our best bets to follow across each time slot on (mostly) Saturdays in the fall. Let’s keep things rolling with Week 1.

The Week 0 slate wasn’t very kind to us, as our process was right but our picks were wrong. We knew USC would hit the over with Caleb Williams and that god awful defense, but we unfortunately didn’t know just how dominant Notre Dame would look and how competent UMass would look. (Yes, that’s a compliment toward the Minutemen.)

The Week 1 slate doesn’t exactly give us a respite, however, as all of the teams on our board are playing in their season openers. It’s a good chance to get back on track, though, starting with a big-time matchup.

Here are your Week 1 picks, with all odds coming from DraftKings Sportsbook.

Utah (-4.5) vs. Florida
(Thursday, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN)

The Florida Gators are a tough nut to crack. It seems like this is a game that Utah should easily win, as the No. 14 Utes came incredibly close to knocking off Ohio State in the Rose Bowl last season and the Gators got blown out in the Las Vegas Bowl and lost their starting quarterback Anthony Richardson to the draft.

Florida head coach Billy Napier isn’t one to be counted out, however. He’s long been known for his ability to add transfers, with starting quarterback Graham Mertz, running back Montrell Johnson Jr. and the starting right side of the line all coming in as some of the top swaps in college football. There’s a question as to whether Utah quarterback Cam Rising will play, but the Utes won’t have a problem scoring points with a phenomenal ground game and one of the nation’s best tight ends in Brant Kuithe catching passes.

These two teams averaged more than 69 combine points per game last season. If Florida can even come close to its 29.5-point pace from one season ago, we’re going to have a good amount of points.

The Pick: Over 45.5

TCU (-20.5) vs. Colorado
(Saturday, 12 p.m. ET on FOX)

Do we really think Colorado is going to contend this season?

Deion Sanders’ boys have gotten a ton of love from the betting public, with 51.1% of money on the Buffaloes to win the Pac-12, per BetMGM Sportsbook. That is dumb.

We don’t even think Colorado is going to win four games, but we’ll slow our roll and try to pick this game based off what we do know. The Buffs have Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter on offense, while No. 17 TCU boasts three offensive transfers from Alabama (JoJo Earle, Tommy Brockermeyer, Trey Sanders) and quarterback Chandler Morris, who started the season before Max Duggan took over due to injury and became one of the best players in college football.

Let’s root for points, again!

The Pick: Over 64

Wisconsin (-27.5) vs. Buffalo
(Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1)

If we can make a quick admission, last week’s Navy pick was a complete and total over think.

The idea was that an unfamiliar location and a rivalry matchup would keep things close, when in reality, Notre Dame was always going to blow the doors off the Midshipmen. We won’t get caught in that spot again, so we’re taking the suddenly dynamic offense of No. 19 Wisconsin to score enough to (respectfully) embarrass a MAC school.

The Pick: Wisconsin -27.5

North Carolina (-2.5) vs. South Carolina
(Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC)

Who doesn’t love a rivalry matchup in Week 1?

This isn’t your normal rivalry, as South Carolina is in the SEC and North Carolina is in the ACC, but the cross-border aspect gets the juices flowing a little bit. UNC enters the year at No. 21, with quarterback Drake Maye serving as a Heisman Trophy favorite.

This is a big chance for Maye to get out to an early lead in the Heisman race, facing off against an SEC defense and a high-profile quarterback like Spencer Rattler. The Tar Heels are a better team, so we’ll take the favorite to make a big statement.

The Pick: UNC -2.5

Season Record: 1-2-0