College Football Parlay Picks: Saturday, September 5

Here we go! Our first full Saturday of the college football season is just about here. The action will kick off at noon ET with a handful of games, including Oregon State vs Houston, Liberty vs James Madison and East Carolina vs Alabama, and will extend well past midnight with nightcaps out west including UNLV vs Hawaii, Western Kentucky vs Nevada and UCLA vs Cal. 

Ahead of the Week 1 action, I’ve come prepared with a five-leg college football parlay consisting of my favorite plays and angles on Saturday’s slate. Let’s get right into the breakdown, and don’t forget to find our college football picks for more tips and analysis on every FBS game this season.

Nebraska -23.5 (-114)

Oregon TT Over 37.5 (-128)

Auburn ML (-295)

UNLV ML (-152)

UCLA TT Over 27.5 (-106)

CFB Week 1 Parlay Odds: +1342

Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing

CFB Parlay Pick: Nebraska Cornhuskers -23.5 over Ohio Bobcats (-114)

The Bobcats have their second new coach in as many years after Brian Smith was fired for misconduct last season and was replaced by a first-time head coach in John Hauser. As if starting the season on the road at a Big Ten opponent wasn’t difficult enough, Hauser will lead a Bobcats squad that sits 138th out of 138 FBS teams in returning offensive production – bringing back just 18% of that unit. The defensive side is much better off, though it still sits outside the top 80 in returning production. 

Nebraska simply cannot relate to Ohio’s continuity struggles, as the Cornhuskers are third nationally, bringing back 69% of their production on both sides of the ball. Coach Mark Rhule supplemented that production with a transfer portal class that ranks top-35 both by On3 and 247Sports, headlined by dual-threat, UNLV-transfer quarterback Anthony Colandrea – who accounted for over 4,000 yards of total offense last season. 

The Bobcats are fairly undersized in the trenches for what they’re going up against in the Cornhuskers, especially on the offensive line. That’s likely to take a toll on Ohio pretty quickly here, and we haven’t even touched on their downgrade at quarterback, going from the Rourke brothers and Parker Navarro to Nick Poulous – a career backup with just 57 career FBS pass attempts. It’s just too much change to navigate in this setting; the Bobs are overmatched here.

Get our CFB Week 1 best bets

CFB Parlay Pick: Oregon Ducks Team Total Over 37.5 vs Boise State Broncos (-128)

The Boise State secondary went through a massive overhaul this offseason, losing four of its key contributors, including now-LSU stud safety Ty Benefield and cornerback A’Marion McCoy, who was trying out for NFL rosters this summer. Moreover, this Broncos front doesn’t have much of a proven pass rush outside of edge Jayden Virgin-Morgan, which simply isn’t enough against an Oregon offense that is protected by one of the best pass-blocking lines in the country. 

Ducks quarterback Dante Moore excels with a clean pocket, and he should have one for a good portion of this game, which is just a cheat code when you consider the stable of pass-catchers he has at his disposal. 

Oregon had a second-half meltdown in the College Football Playoffs last year against James Madison, and the 2024 matchup against Boise was a three-point nail-biter. The Broncos won’t have Ashton Jeanty this time around, but expect Dan Lanning to use those games as motivation to hit the ground running and never let up offensively. 

CFB Parlay Pick: Auburn Tigers ML over Baylor Bears (-295)

Auburn beat Baylor 38-24 on the road in Waco last year despite the Bears outgaining the Tigers 483-415. It was the Auburn ground game that was the difference-maker, as the Tigers ran for an eye-popping 307 yards on 52 carries – an average of nearly six yards per attempt. That ended up being an omen for the remainder of Baylor’s season, as the Bears finished outside the top 115 in both rush yards allowed per game and rush yards per attempt. 

Baylor is going to have to prove to me that they can stop the run before I refrain from picking on their defense. The Tigers have a new coach at the helm in Alex Golesh, and he’s an offensive mastermind from Josh Heupel’s coaching tree that spent the last few years at USF. He will have the Tigers playing fast, while they spread the opposition wide and use the run to set up aggressive passes vertically. Considering the dual-threat USF quarterback Byrum Brown followed his coach to Auburn, the Tigers offense should click pretty quickly. I’m looking for Brown and the deep stable of Auburn running backs to torch this Bears defense once again. 

CFB Parlay Pick: UNLV Rebels ML over Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (-152)

Hawaii was outgained 483-322 against Stanford last week. They faced a 23-7 deficit going into the fourth quarter before rattling off 20 unanswered points to take a 27-23 lead, just for Stanford to take the lead right back and cap it off with a defensive score to win by 10. It was an impressive comeback for Hawaii, but it was aided by Stanford’s in-game injuries, specifically to the offensive line. Prior to Stanford center Aidan Kilstrom’s injury, Micah Ford and the Cardinal marched the ball down the field effectively, averaging more than 5.5 yards per carry. After Kilstrom went down, Stanford barely averaged two. It’s hard to credit the Hawaii defense for an in-game adjustment, especially now that we know Stanford played Friday against Miami without four of their projected starting linemen.

UNLV has an extremely talented stable of running backs, led by Jai’Den Thomas, who accumulated over 1,950 rushing yards combined the last two years with the Rebels. Thomas is spelled by Jaylon Glover, who averaged six yards per carry last year, and he now plays with a mobile backfield mate in quarterback Jackson Arnold. UNLV may have blown their Week 0 game against Memphis last week, but the Tigers have a great defensive line. The Rainbows Warriors’ doesn’t even compare.

CFB Parlay Pick: UCLA Bruins Team Total Over 27.5 vs Cal Golden Bears (-106)

New Cal coach Tosh Lupoi will immediately know where he stands as a head football coach when the Golden Bears host Bob Chesney’s UCLA Bruins on Saturday night. Lupoi is a defensive-minded coach that played on the defensive line at Cal, and he was most recently the defensive coordinator at Oregon, but building this program from the ground up is going to be a work-in-progress. Lupoi will lead a defense that ranks 90th in returning production, and most of the current pieces don’t have significant playing experience. The upside is there, but I’m expecting growing pains early, especially against what could be a well-oiled machine of an offense from UCLA. 

UCLA will look completely different with Chesney at the helm, but he brought plenty of pieces from James Madison along with him, including his offensive coordinator, running back Wayne Knight, wide receiver Landon Ellis and multiple offensive line starters. I like this unit against this upstart Cal defense and think the Bruins will have enough possessions to score at least four touchdowns against their former Pac-12 rival. 

Now check out our favorite college football player props for Saturday's slate