College Football Week 8 Best Bets: Friday, October 23

A healthy college football card awaits on Friday as a prelude to Saturday’s main course, with two ACC matchups and three Group of Six meetings on tap, as well as some FCS action. With our CFB predictions, we have you covered with tips and analysis on each of those contests.  With the weekend swiftly approaching, it’s time to get into my college football best bets for Friday of Week 8. I’m 3-0 on these picks over the last three weeks, so here’s to keeping that momentum going.

CFB Week 8 Friday Best Bet: Army Black Knights +2 over Tulsa Golden Hurricane (-110) 

Odds available at Fanatics Sportsbook at the time of publishing. Playable to PK. 

In case you haven’t heard, Tulsa played two option offenses in Navy and Rice in consecutive games over the last two weeks, giving the Golden Hurricane ideal preparation twice over for the option-based Army offense. I don’t disagree that it’s ideal to face not only one, but two option offenses ahead of arguably the best one in the country, but simply facing less efficient offenses doesn’t exactly mean the defense is well-equipped to stop the run. In fact, Tulsa surrendered nearly 700 rushing yards in those games combined, and both teams averaged at least 5.4 yards per attempt. 

Cale Hellums is the ideal service-academy quarterback. Behind him, the Black Knights are third nationally in PPA per rush, fourth in rush success, sixth in stuff rate and havoc allowed, 10th in line yards and top-25 in standard downs PPA outside of garbage time over the last six weeks. After all the yards surrendered to Navy and Tulsa, who respectively sit 36th and 93rd in PPA per rush since Week 2, it’s hard to envision Tulsa being able to limit Army’s ground game.

Fatigue is likely to play a factor for the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa is yet to have a bye, and they’re coming off three road games in four weeks. I don’t find that to be very comforting when lining up opposite an offense that will run right at you for four full quarters, forcing contact and running behind physicality. 

Army could have revenge on their mind this week, as well. They held a double-digit lead in the second half against Tulsa last year, eventually blowing said lead and losing by just one point. Even with Army’s leaky defense, I feel Tulsa is getting too much love here, so I’ll take the points with the Black Knights. 

Get our full Army vs Tulsa prediction for Friday night's college football action

CFB Week 8 Friday Player Prop: Keenan Jackson (NCST) Anytime Touchdown (+125)

Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at the time of publishing. Playable to +100. 

I cannot resist picking on the Stanford secondary here. This unit is outside the top 80 in PPA per pass and outside the top 100 in pass explosiveness outside of garbage time (CollegeFootballData), while it’s 128th in passing touchdowns allowed (CFBStats). They’ve specifically struggled with big-bodied receivers like NC State’s Keenan Jackson, giving up touchdowns to those power-conference playmakers more often than not. 

Jackson leads NC State in receiving in all three categories – receptions, yards and touchdowns. Moreover, he’s elite when it comes to contested catches, pulling in seven of nine contested targets, and he has only one drop on 37 passes thrown his way. At plus-money odds and fresh off a bye, I feel Jackson is a great bet against a Stanford secondary that is without its best-graded coverage corner in CB Brandon Nicholson.

Check out our NC State vs Stanford prediction for a pick on the side in this ACC showdown