Arizona State vs Southern Utah 9/2/21 College Football Picks, Odds, Predictions

The Arizona State Sun Devils meet the Southern Utah Thunderbirds Thursday in week 1 2021 college football action from Sun Devil Stadium. This will be Arizona State’s first on-field activity of the new season, but the Thunderbirds opened with San Jose State on August 28. In that one, Southern Utah fell in a blowout loss. Check back all season long for free college football picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Southern Utah managed to play six games in the spring, finishing a disappointing 1-5 overall. The Thunderbirds posted losses to Northern Arizona and Idaho State before their lone win over Cal Poly. After that it was three straight defeats by Idaho, Weber State and Northern Arizona. 

In the Saturday game versus San Jose State, the Thunderbirds gave up 21 points in the first quarter and never had much chance at catching up in an eventual 45-14 defeat. QB Justin Miller put up 117 yards on 15-of-29 passing, and Karris Davis led the rush on 36 yards from five totes. 

Over on the Arizona State side, they were able to get in an abbreviated season last fall, playing four of an originally-scheduled seven games on the schedule. The Sun Devils finished 2-2 in those games, leaving them in fourth place in the South Division of the Pac-12. 

Arizona State took a couple of close losses to USC (28-27) and UCLA (25-18) before destroying Arizona 70-7 and taking out Oregon State 46-33. Fourth-year head coach Herm Edwards will attempt to build on that late-season momentum going into the 2021 campaign. 

The Thunderbirds are 1-4 ATS in their last five versus the Pac-12 and 0-7 ATS in their last seven overall. Southern UT is 0-4 ATS in their last four in September and 0-6 ATS in their last six non-conference games. 

Meanwhile, the Sun Devils are 4-1 ATS in their last five overall and 8-3 ATS in their last 11 in September. Arizona State is 2-5 ATS in their last seven versus a team with a losing record and 2-6-1 ATS in their last nine at home. 

PICK: I’m probably going to take Arizona State, even with the thick line. Last year, the Sun Devils led the conference in total offense—helped mostly by that 63-point win over Arizona. The idea here will be for Arizona State to keep that explosive consistency going, and they’ve got a good shot on paper with almost all the key players returning. All the contributing receivers from last year are back (except for Frank Darby), and Jayden Daniels has the goods to take another step forward as a big-impact player. It will be interesting to see what the Sun Devils have in store here.