{"id":24561,"date":"2012-08-27T16:45:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T21:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=24561"},"modified":"2012-08-27T16:45:50","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T21:45:50","slug":"college-football-week-1-picks-washington-state-cougars-vs-byu-cougars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-football-week-1-picks-washington-state-cougars-vs-byu-cougars-24561\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Week 1 Picks: Washington State Cougars vs. BYU Cougars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington State Cougars at BYU Cougars
\nThursday, 8\/30\/12, 10:15 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 BYU -13.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 BYU -13
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 58.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 62
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The BYU Cougars open up their 2012 season against the Washington State Cougars on Thursday night on ESPN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington State will begin life under new head coach Mike Leach, who will actually be facing his alma mater on Thursday night, graduating with honors from BYU in 1983.\u00a0 The Cougars shelled out a lot of money to retain his services, as he sat out the last two years after being fired from Texas Tech in 2009 due to off-field issues.\u00a0 \u201cThe level of confidence that they bring to this program and the level of excitement that they bring to the university is tremendous,\u201d commented Cougars quarterback Jeff Tuel.\u00a0 Washington State is 7-4 as a road underdog over the last two-plus years, while the \u201cunder\u201d is 9-2 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Cougars own a 69-42-5 record in season openers, but are just 20-27-3 when doing so on the road.\u00a0 Leach may help out with that lackluster performance away from Pullman in that situation, posting a 9-1 mark during his time in Lubbock when kicking off a new campaign.\u00a0 Tuel will undoubtedly try to connect with junior wide receiver Marquess Wilson, as they\u2019ve hooked up 61 times for 1,097 yards and seven touchdown over the course of their careers.\u00a0 Wilson finished first in the Pac-12 Conference in averaging 115.7 receiving yards per game in 2012.<\/p>\n

BYU enjoyed its first season as an independent program by finishing with 10 wins, as the offense took off once Riley Nelson was placed under center, averaging 37.5 points over the final eight contests.\u00a0 The Cougars are looking to win their sixth consecutive season opener, which includes victories in the last three occurrences against BCS foes.\u00a0 \u00a0 Fans in Provo should anticipate a huge year, as the last 11 senior signal-callers in the program\u2019s history have compiled a 117-23-2 record since 1977.\u00a0 BYU is 0-2 as a home favorite of 7.5 to 14 points the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Cougars have enjoyed tremendous success inside LaVell Edwards Stadium, especially since the 2006 campaign, ranking 13th in the country with 33 home wins in that span.\u00a0 BYU was first in the country in third-down conversions once Nelson took over the controls under center, while averaging 245.4 passing and 160.3 rushing yards per game.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, the defense finished ranked 13th nationally in allowing just 312.9 yards per game.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Cougars due to their 16-5 ATS record in their last 21 games.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington State Cougars at BYU Cougars Thursday, 8\/30\/12, 10:15 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 BYU -13.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 BYU -13 Opening Total:\u00a0 58.5 Current Total:\u00a0 62 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Washington State will begin life under new head coach Mike Leach, who will actually be facing his alma mater on Thursday night, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":23933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[434,5582,5453,562,5263,5572,3120],"class_list":["post-24561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-byu-cougars","tag-jeff-tuel","tag-lavell-edwards-stadium","tag-mike-leach","tag-pac-12-conference","tag-riley-nelson","tag-washington-state-cougars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24562,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24561\/revisions\/24562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}