College Football: 5 teams on upset alert in Week 2
By Shane Lunnen
After a fun Week 1 of the 2017 college football season, what teams should be worried heading into Week 2?
The 2017 season opened up with a bang with some exciting contests and a few upsets. While Week 2 doesn’t appear on paper to be as appetizing for fans, there are still some good games and potential upsets on the docket.
Last week I said Ohio State, Texas and Tennessee should be on upset alert. For two and half quarters against Indiana, Ohio State was in trouble. Tennessee nearly lost if not for a dumb mistake by Georgia Tech to go for two in double overtime. Nailed that Texas prediction.
This week there are some interesting games and a few ranked versus ranked match-ups. Let’s see if we can predict a few more upsets. The odds are provided by Sportsbook Review.
Before the season started, South Florida was a favorite to run the table and earn the Group of Five’s automatic bid to the New Year’s Six bowls. After two games, the Bulls are 2-0 but not everything has been perfect so far. They enter this week’s contest with UConn a 17 point favorite.
The Huskies are on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Bulls. Most picked them near or at the bottom of the American Athletic East. They are returning a team that was terrible on offense last season, averaging less than 15 points per game. This past Saturday, the Huskies were down 20-7 to FCS foe Holy Cross before rallying to win 27-20.
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With that said, there is still potential that UConn could pull a big upset. First, it’s a home conference game, so a slight advantage there. Head coach Randy Edsall has named Bryant Shirreffs as the Huskies’ starting quarterback this weekend. Shirreffs appears to be the hot hand after coming off the bench and leading UConn to scores on three of four possessions against Holy Cross.
Lastly, South Florida has been less than impressive so far, especially this past weekend where they were down at halftime to Stony Brook.
If South Florida continues to start slow, it may eventually catch up with them. Maybe UConn isn’t that team, but you can only play with fire for so long before getting burned. The Bulls should watch out.