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Under-the-Radar College Football Bets: Week 7 (2019)

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Week 7 of the college football season features a number of great games like Oklahoma-Texas, Alabama-Texas A&M and Florida-LSU. That’s left the USC-Notre Dame game slightly overshadowed, so that’s where we’ll start our weekly under the radar picks.

Record: 6-6

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USC at Notre Dame

Odds: Notre Dame -10 at PointsBet

The Fighting Irish played Georgia relatively even on the road, taking an elite team down to the wire before falling just short of victory. Notre Dame had the ball in Georgia territory in the final minutes before losing. That kind of performance is worth taking into account when comparing the Irish to a USC team which has already lost to BYU, a team that has failed to beat Toledo this season.

Notre Dame is so much tougher than USC that the Irish should be able to lean on USC up front and wear down the Trojans as this game moves along. The Trojans have struggled in road games this season, going 0-2 and while they’re coming off a bye and are getting Kedon Slovis back, I don’t think that will be enough. USC has not defeated a top 10 Notre Dame since 2006 and I’m not expecting it to happen here.

I did consider USC at bigger prices but at -10, I like the Fighting Irish. They have balance on offense, a veteran quarterback, and are far more disciplined than the Trojans.

Pick: Notre Dame -10

Michigan State at Wisconsin

Odds: Michigan State +10.5

The best argument for Michigan State is that Wisconsin does not have a high-octane offense or an elite passing game. If they’re forced to be one-dimensional and they can’t run the ball, this could be a game.

The Badgers do not do well against good defenses as we saw with Northwestern. They were able to contain the Badgers for 24 points on a day when Northwestern’s offense barely did anything for the first three quarters. Many of those points came off of turnovers and Northwestern’s mistakes.

Michigan State, provided that it doesn’t commit turnovers deep in its own territory, has a defense that should make it very hard for Wisconsin to move the ball down the field. If Wisconsin is forced to make 80-yard drives, this game will not have a lot of points. Michigan State will try to run the ball and control the clock, playing the kind of game which will end with a score in the area of 20-14 or 17-10.

I’m looking at a grind-it-out dog fight in this one and that being the case, I’ll take the points here.

Pick: Michigan State +10.5

Syracuse at North Carolina State

Odds: North Carolina State -3

Admittedly, I got this earlier in the week but the line has climbed up to -4.5. I’d still recommend the Wolf Pack at that number.

The Syracuse Orange have not faced many good opponents this season. They faced Liberty, Western Michigan, and Holy Cross, and all were easy wins. Whenever they played decent if not great teams, they have struggled, getting pounded by 35 or more points against both Maryland and Clemson. That fact alone should lead people to be skeptical of Syracuse, which looks like a greatly diminished version of the 2018 team that won 10 games. This team has regressed in many areas, and even though North Carolina State has gone through quarterback problems with Matt McKay, the Wolf Pack – playing at home in a night game – should have enough offense to get passed the Orange and cover the spread.

Pick: N.C. State -3

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Dave Golokhov is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Dave, check out his archive and follow him @davegolokhov.