Ray “The Razor” Monohan – Last Updated on January 29, 2023 8:27 am
Free Week 1 Prediction: Cardinal vs Owls Odds
Looking for Stanford Cardinal vs. Rice Owls free picks? Week 1 betting sees the Cardinal taking on the Owls Saturday August 26th at Allianz Stadium, Sydney. Cappers Picks provides complimentary handicapping picks all NCAA football season long so stay tuned for more FREE college football predictions like this Stanford Rice free pick.
College Football Handicapping: Week 1
(0-0) Stanford Cardinal vs. Rice Owls (0-0)
Date: Saturday, August 26th
Time: 10:00 pm EST
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Sydney
NCAA Football Spread: Opened Stanford -31.5 NOW -30.5
NCAA Betting Total: 51.5
Live CFB Odds
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The season will kick off on Saturday August 26th, with this one being out of the country.
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The Rice Owls and Stanford Cardinal will battle in Sydney to start the season off. These two teams battled in their regular season finales last season, with Stanford coming out on top 41-17.
Stanford Cardinal
This year will be an interesting one for the Cardinal.
They’ll endure life without Christian McCaffrey, who ran all over the Owls last season to cap off what was a ridiculous season for him.
However, this year, the Cardinal do enter with some question marks. The offense without a true playmaker is certainly one.
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Stanford averaged just 6.7 yards per pass completion last season, one thing this team must improve on. One thing to really watch here will be Keller Chryst and his health. He was injured in the Sun Bowl win over North Carolina last season.
Chryst led them to a 6-0 stretch at the end of the season and is still in question how healthy he will be at the start of the 2017 season.
Rice Owls
The Rice Owls will breathe a sigh of relief not having to see Christian McCaffrey in the backfield this year.
However, the defense has to find a way to figure things out early if they want to slow this Stanford offense down.
Rice was one of the worst defenses last season, allowing 30 points on 9 different occasions. In terms of yardage, they allowed over 500 yards per game as they were just torched through the air and pushed back when it came to the run game.
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The Owls just simply don’t have enough to keep up here with Stanford.
What they’ll look to do is certainly really chew this clock up. They simply cannot allow the Cardinal to control the offensive pace in this one.
Expect a heavy dosage of this rice run game, really trying to keep this one from getting out of hand.
NCAA Football Handicapping Trends
- Cardinal are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 neutral site games.
- Cardinal are 45-22-1 ATS in their last 68 games on grass.
- Owls are 15-5-2 ATS in their last 22 non-conference games.
- Owls are 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 Saturday games.
- Owls are 5-2-1 ATS in their last 8 games overall.
- Owls are 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games on grass.
Free Week 1 NCAA Football Pick
Keeping this respectable will be the main goal for Rice as they just don’t have enough to pull this one outright.
4* Free NCAA Betting Pick: Rice +31.5
Look for the clock management to play a role here. Neither team moves very fast and we should see a lot of run plays combined between offenses. Given that, expect Rice to be able to keep this one within the spread.
Week 1 Free Score Prediction: Stanford 40- Rice 17
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