Week 1: South Alabama vs Nicholls State 9/3/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The South Alabama Jaguars and Nicholls State Colonels do battle Saturday in week 1 college football action from Hancock Whitney Stadium.

The Nicholls State Colonels will try to take another step forward in 2022 after finishing the 2021 season at 6-5 overall including a 5-3 mark in Southland conference play. Kohen Granier will be tasked with leading Nicholls at QB after replacing Lindsey Scott Jr. Granier will have options at his disposal, including top receiver KJ Franklin who had 46 grabs for 636 yards and 6 TDs last season as well as experienced starters like Lee Negrotto and Al’Dontre Davis. The Colonels also have one of the best running backs in FCS with Julien Gums who has amassed over 2,500 rushing yards and 32 TDs. On defense, Hayden Shaheen returns after logging 56 tackles with 6.5 TFLs, Tyreke Boyd had 49 tackles and Perry Ganci had 34 tackles with 5 TFLs and 6 sacks last season.

The South Alabama Jaguars will enter the 2022 campaign looking to bounce back from a tough first year under Kane Wommack, finishing at 5-7 overall, including a 2-6 mark in Sun Belt conference play. Desmond Trotter will hope to regain his form from 2020 after a short stint in 2021, but if he can’t execute the Jaguars have Carter Bradley waiting in the wings after transferring in from Toledo. Terrion Avery will lead the charge for USA at running back after rushing for 508 yards last season while Marco Lee comes in from Virginia and Omni Wells transfers in from Mississippi State looking to make an immediate impact. The Jaguars lost their top receiver in Jalen Tolbert who is now a Dallas Cowboy, but Jalen Wayne returns after chipping in 53 catches and Caullin Lacy is back as well as top TE Lincoln Sefcik. On defense, Charles Coleman leads the pass rush after posting a team-high 4.5 sacks last season as well as the majority of last year’s starters while Brock Higdon is expected to be a beast at the edge rush position. He will get help from the incoming Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge from Oklahoma and James Miller who comes in from Indiana. AJ DeShazor had a team-high 64 tackles and Quentin Wilfawn will be a name that’s heard fairly frequently as well. The secondary’s also headlined by all-Sun Belt First-Tearmer Darrell Luter.

Nicholls State is 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall and 2-6 ATS in their last 8 road games while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games overall. South Alabama is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games while the under is 8-2 in their last 10 home games.

I get the case to be made either way here, but I’m looking at the under in this one. The Jaguars had a solid start last year, but even in winning those games, the Jaguars had a tendency to make life a lot harder on themselves than it needed to be and I think that could be the case here as well as I think they could take Nicholls State a bit likely here. On the other side I don’t expect a ton from Nicholls either as the Colonels usually have a hard time making the jump and putting points on the board in these FCS vs. FBS games. I’ll side with the under in this one.