Week 9 of the College Football season is officially here, and there are a ton of great games on the slate! Three games feature ranked opponents, and several others could provide some fireworks and excitement for college football fans.
While we’ll likely tune into several games this weekend, we’ve narrowed our Underdog player prop efforts to a few key matchups. One of those is the game between No. 3-ranked Texas A&M and No. 20-ranked LSU.
Texas A&M is a 2.5-point favorite on the road with a 49.5-point over/under, an indication that oddsmakers believe this could be a higher-scoring close game. With that in mind, let’s waste no time and get right into our favorite picks!
Garrett Nussmeier came into the year as a Heisman Trophy favorite, but he hasn’t lived up to expectations. LSU has lost two games, which has been something of a surprise, and Nussmeier’s passing numbers haven’t been anywhere close to his projections.
He has only had 236+ passing yards in three games this season, and hasn’t hit this line against a ranked opponent. We have to see it from Nussmeier to start taking the over on his passing lines, and we’re just not seeing it at the moment.
Plus, Texas A&M’s defense only allows 200.9 yards per game, so we’re especially skeptical against a strong defensive opponent.
We might be fading the total on Nussmeier’s passing line, but we’re confident enough in his No. 1 target, Barion Brown, to have at least 41 yards in this one.
Brown leads the team in receptions, and because we’re expecting this to be a pass-heavy game for Nussmeier and LSU, he should target his top guy.
Brown doesn’t have a 75+ yard ceiling every week, especially with Nussmeier playing how he has this year, but the 41-yard threshold shouldn’t be a problem.
We almost wrote about the over on Marcel Reed’s passing yardage prop, which we still might take for this game. For this article, however, we’re focusing on his rushing yards, which have been fantastic this year.
Reed has put up 30+ rushing yards in six of his seven starts this season, with the only negative rushing game being against Auburn.
He should have a field day on the ground against LSU, which is why we’re taking the over on his rushing total without hesitation.