College Football Best Bets: Florida State vs. Georgia Tech

Introduction and Welcome Welcome back to News Wire here on Sports Grid. Bill Bender has been covering college football for decades. I've been watching and by the way, covering college College Football's Global Expansion football for decades, too. Let's be honest. University of Miami, Florida Gators. And I wonder if you know, Bill and I had a had to write a diary to our old self and we would have told each other, hey, Bill, you know, the National Football League in week one is going to open up in Brazil. And the college football season is going to open up in Dublin, Ireland. Bill, I wonder what you would have told me 20 years ago if I would have told you that was going to happen? Yeah, my college self wouldn't have believed it. I think this year in particular, it's everything's new. Have something next to your remotes where it tells you what teams and what conference, and that there's a two minute warning now and that this game has playoff implications. There are so many changes to the game, but it's almost here and it's a very exciting time. Yeah. No definitely. So I can't wait. You Florida State's Pivotal Season know honestly once Monday comes of next week we're here. So let's get started off Florida State playing with a chip on their shoulder all season. There's no question that this is this is going to be a very pivotal season as far as attitude for them. They're going to want to show the college football world that not only should they have been in the College Football Playoff, maybe that they would have won it. They're ranked 10th coming into the season. They take on a Georgia Tech team that once again, Bill, it feels like the yellow Jackets once every like four years are good. And then the other three, they're not very good. Noles 11.5 point favorites. Neutral site total of 56.5. So I guess we're not going to have a shortage of offense in this game, are we? No. And there's a fascination obviously with Florida State and DJ Uiagalelei. Uiagalelei got it right. It takes many years of practice with that, coming over from Oregon State, coming over from Clemson. How does he look in this offense? That's one piece of the puzzle Patrick Payton the edge edge rusher on the other side for the Seminoles. Really good player as well. And you mentioned that chip on the shoulder after last year playing a really good Georgia Tech team though. He's King led the ACC in touchdown passes last year. They have a strong running game. Their defense was terrible against the run though 128th. So I think Florida State's going to test the running game early. Let DJ you settle in and go from there. That spread though looks a little high to me knowing that Georgia Tech was seven and two against the spread under Brant Key last year, I don't know if they're an ACC championship contender, but I think they can hang around with both these teams get their footing in a let's just say, unfamiliar setting. Yeah. No, that that's definitely a fair assessment. And, you know, the other part of this too, that may tell a bigger story about who Florida State is. They're ranked 10th going into the season, Bill, but let the controversy already begin because they're know to make the college Football Playoff is -200. So try to make sense of that one bill. They're ranked 10th in the country, which puts them at least at the start of the season. What would be in the playoff with 12 teams. But the oddsmakers are basically saying that they're not going to make it here. So, what am I missing? I think there's some faith in Clemson and their roster and their defense. I think there's a lot of faith in Miami. I know you're closer to that. There is a lot of hype around the hurricanes right now. And cam Ward and Damien Martinez, the Oregon State transfer running back as talented a team as Miami has had in a while. And able to compete. They do play Florida State this year. I still think Florida State is the favorite in the ACC, though. The depth that they have on the defensive side of the ball, the availability, the that Mike Norvell has been able to capitalize on, and the transfer portal and add guys on that defense and DJ, you will be the key to that. I think a guy in this Georgia Tech game to keep an eye on is Hykeem Williams, sophomore receiver. A bit of a role player last year, but Florida State always has those guys. And Craig, you've been around it down there long enough to know. I think Mike Norvell has Florida State in a spot, maybe a little bit like Bobby Bowden and Jimbo where they're good for ten wins a year in the as long as they're playing in the ACC against those teams and they're playing at this level, they should be good for double digit wins every season. Maybe not a national title, maybe not the playoff every year, but they're going to be in the hunt. Yeah And Norvell I thought was criticized extremely unfairly after his second year at Florida State. It was like I mean, he basically said that you got to give me a Georgia Tech's Prospects couple years to get my kids in. He did. And then look at what the results have been since then. So I agree. Meanwhile, let's talk about Georgia Tech here. You think they're a little bit better maybe than they show here. Their win total though is four and a half though. I mean this is like the bottom of the conference. 142 is the money line on the over there. Is that the way you would lean? I'm a little surprised at that number, given how they closed last season. Brant key I trust guys that are alum of the place. They coach and you can tell they care. And Georgia Tech and Brant Key was able to do that last year. They played well in their bowl game. They have Jamal Haynes back. Jamal Haynes averaged 6.1 yards per carry last year for the yellow Jackets. Excellent in the backfield. They did need to fix that run defense, which gets you in trouble if you can't stop the run. You can't win more than 4 or 5 games anyway. So Kyle Edwards back there linebacker. They got a couple guys in the transfer portal I think they're going to compete. Haynes King the thing with him enjoyable to watch. But he turns the ball over a little bit. So they're going to have to play clean more clean this year if they want to get to a bowl game. All right 8:00 PM eastern. My buddy Rich Waltz, who we're going to have on the show next week, he's calling the game for CBS sports Network. I mean, Bill, if this was you know, if there were ten SMU vs. Nevada Preview games on a Saturday night, we wouldn't pay any attention to it. But this is like the premium game here. SMU taking on Nevada I'm shocked here 27.5 point favorites to open up the season 56.5 is the total. So this tells me that Nevada must be awful. I mean I can't see this any other way. First year for SMU in the ACC, but I don't I don't remember SMU being this big a favorite against any Division one team in a long time. Well Nevada new coach to Jeff Choate. They were two and ten last year. They are at home. So I look for them to be loose maybe throw an onside kick in there. Try to do some things to get the crowd fired up. And Jeff Choate's first game. But SMU is pretty strong. Preston Stone's back, he can throw it around. Elijah Roberts had ten sacks for them last season. Pretty good. They weren't great against the spread. Two and two against the spread. As a road favorite last year. But I like the Mustangs. They could be an ACC sleeper. The spread and the over are right about where I think this game is going to be. I think it'll be about 4214 SMU you're right on the line. It's risky. I like SMU to cover and maybe a slight under, depending on if Nevada can punch it in a few times. Yeah, they're going to have to do that several times for this Conclusion and Final Predictions to go over, at least from what I'm looking at here in the total here. Okay. Well Bill, get your rest this weekend. It all begins next week and I look forward to making the final