Taking Bets | Will the Seminoles Ever Win? | Week Four

Taking Bets | Will the Seminoles Ever Win? | Week Four

2024 ATS Record

Blaine Duncan: 7-4 (Week Three: 2-2) 

TD Wood: 4-7 (Week Three: 3-1)

Mallory McCormack: 5-6 (Week Three: 2-2)

Greg Bosworth: 2-9 (Week Three: 1-3)

Each Friday evening, “Taking Bets” gets you ready for the glorious football weekend with some ideas on the bets worth making or the games in need of avoiding. It’s host of The Staredown Mallory McCormack, host of Takin’ On Sports TD Wood, editor-in-chief Blaine Duncan, and co-host of Takin’ On Sports Greg Bosworth! Find their bets, which includes one NFL game per week, on the site each Friday evening!

Blaine Duncan 
Going fifty percent ain’t cutting it when you gotta pay the sugar, too. I need a nice 3-1 run this week at least to put some walking money in me pockets. 

Arizona State at Texas Tech (-2.5) – Welcome to the Big XII, Arizona State! A few more eyes than an ol’ PAC12 game, I presume. I like the Raiders on the simple premise that they are at home and only have to get a field goal to cover. Pair it with the Sun Devils’ having the most lackluster 3-0 start of anyone in college football, and the bet feels safe. I’m not putting stock in Arizona State just yet even though they don’t have a loss.  

Cal at Florida State (-2.5) – Deducing what happened to Florida State is still a mystery, but the Seminoles surely have to put together at least one game for a win; and since the Golden Bears are coming in at night, it may be their best shot for a few weeks. It’s Cal’s debut in the ACC (so fucking weird, y’all) and that plane ride may wear ‘em out the first time! Come on, Norvell. Put one win on the board. Lord, Jesus! 

Rutgers at Virginia Tech (-3.5) – Tech at home can put together a win against one of the worst in the Big Ten. This week, as you can tell, I’m enamored with the home teams having to win by a small margin. Once “Enter Sandman” hits, Hokies are ready to play. 

NFL Game of the Week: Chiefs (-3) at Falcons – Nothing excites me this week in the big leagues, so I’ll go with the obvious. And maybe it’s too obvious, but I’d believe Mahomes and the Chiefs have the better team here. It can’t hurt that they’d want to start the season 4-0. 

TD Wood
That’s more like it, 3-1 is more my flavor. Definitely didn’t see Georgia struggling with Kentucky, but good to know Mark Stoops’ Wildcats have some fight in them. Not a spectacular slate this week, but some sneaky good games are on the docket. 

Arizona State (+3) at Texas Tech – Unlike Blaine, I believe in the Sun Devils. Kenny Dillingham has ASU playing tough, hardnose football, and they seem to be going in the right direction. Texas Tech got a big win last weekend, but their defense is problematic, and they’ve had an inconsistent start to the season. I like Arizona State to win their first Big 12 game.

Miami (OH) at Notre Dame (-28) – I don’t know how pissed off the Fighting Irish still are, but they should at least be invigorated after last week’s dismantling of Purdue. Meanwhile, the RedHawks are fairly inept offensively, and I don’t foresee them doing much of anything against the Notre Dame defense.

UCLA at LSU (-23.5) – UCLA is not good. They are far from it, in fact. LSU certainly has their own issues, but they are miles ahead of UCLA in the talent department, and that alone should propel them to an easy win at home. I imagine they’re also riding high after last week’s win over South Carolina. 

NFL Game of the Week: Packers (+2) at Titans – Malik Willis revenge game, baby! Green Bay will likely ride Josh Jacobs to victory like last week, but I wouldn't be shocked if Willis makes a play or two against his old team. I still have no idea why the Titans fired Mike Vrabel.

Mallory McCormack 
Alright, look, I can’t let TD catch me so it’s time to turn on the gas and act like I’m playing with real money (but please please please don’t play with your money based on my picks ok? I’d feel horrible if you did…) Anywho…0-3 FSU?  Will the real Kentucky please stand up? And don’t even get me started on whatever the heck was happening in the NFL last week. Aye, aye, aye…I expect a quieter Week Four of CFB before we hit the true conference schedules next week and maybe a more stable NFL Week Three but before that can happen, let’s dig in.

Mississippi State at Florida (UNDER: 58.5) - Ugh.  Two teams I don’t like.  Two teams that my Rebels will see in the last two weeks of the season.  Will either have an offense that shows up? I know Lebby has some offensive genius stored somewhere, but I think both offenses are so bad that they’ll be lucky to score a total of 40.  Taking the under here.

Tulane (-2.5) at Louisiana Lafayette - I love Jon Sumrall, the new Green Wave head coach.  We expected a little dip after last season for Tulane, but I think that the Green Wave faithful will travel to ULL and show those Rajun Cajuns who can really rage.

USC at Michigan (OVER: 44) - Michigan  has a new starting QB this week with Alex Orji slated to take the first snap. I expect the Big House will be rockin’ and both teams will score in the high 20s. Or one team will score high 30s or all the points. At this point who knows, but I think it’s more than 44.  

NFL Game of the Week: Broncos at Buccaneers (-6.5) - Look, I wanted to stick with my Giants being horrible but when I saw the line was 6.5 I thought maybe I should look somewhere else. But have no fear, I do enjoy hanging out in the bottom tier so how about the Broncos going to Tampa Bay? Yeah, sounds good to me. Also, don’t put money on the Giants.

Greg Bosworth 
Yikes, it has been a rough start to the season. It can only go up from here, right?

Tennessee (-7) at Oklahoma - This should be a fun atmosphere especially with GameDay being in Norman and the return of Josh Heupel to his alma mater where he was fired as OC less than decade ago. We also get to see Nico vs. Jackson, which hopefully won’t be the last time these two soon-to-be stars face off in the expanded SEC. The Vols come into this game having blown out everyone on their schedule. Their schedule has been full of cupcakes to this point – yes even NC State – but they have thoroughly slaughtered everyone. Last Saturday they could have hung 100 on Kent State if they had wanted. OU on the other hand comes into this game with a struggle win against Houston as well as a less than perfect win over a solid Tulane team. The Sooners seem to still be finding themselves on the offensive side of the ball and that will be the difference in this game. It may be a close affair  for two or maybe three quarters, but eventually the dam will break. Expect ol Rocky Top to win by 2 touchdowns or more. 

USC (-7) at Michigan - Michigan once again gets another marquee game at home and this one has a very Rose Bowl feel to it. Even though we are a few weeks into the season it still seems weird seeing the Trojans as a member of the Big 10. The atmosphere should be a good one in the Big House, but expect the crowd to be taken out of the game similar to how they were when Texas came into town two weeks ago. Michigan’s defense may keep them around for a while, but USC has too much fire power. The offense is once again electric and the defense seems to be improving each week. USC will not only win its first Big 10 game in history but will do so while covering the spread easily. Expect to hear a lot of Fight On Saturday in Ann Arbor.

Florida (-6) at Mississippi State - It has been an absolute nightmare of a start to the season for the Florida Gators. Billy Napier is on borrowed time and it is more about “when” than “if” the powers at be in Gainesville give him the ax. However, going to Starkville should breathe a little life into Billy’s stay as the Bulldogs are terrible. I am not sure if this team will win anymore games this year. Toledo absolutely destroyed them a week ago, and I expect something similar this Saturday as well. This is a get right game for the Gators as they look to end the bleeding against other Power Four conference opponents. No matter which QB plays – or if both take snaps – the Gators will roll. They need a game like this, as things only get harder the rest of the season.

NFL Game of the Week: Dolphins at Seahawks (-4.5) - The Dolphins are without Tua and are far from a good road team. Seattle is one of toughest stadiums to win in as a visitor and this one may get ugly. Miami still has a lot of talent, but they aren’t the same team without Tua.  I expect the Seahawks to control the game from start to finish and in my mind this is about as close to a lock as I saw on this week’s NFL schedule. 

Note: All games are against the spread. Odds are taken from MGM Grand Sportsbook.