Week 1: FIU vs Bryant 9/1/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The FIU Panthers and Bryant Bulldogs clash Thrusday in week 1 college football action from Riccardo Silva Stadium.

The Bryant Bulldogs will hope to carry over their success from the NEC as new first-year members of the Big South Conference after going 7-4 in 2021 with a 5-2 mark in NEC conference play. Zevi Eckhaus is back at QB for Bryant after leading the Bulldogs with 2,392 passing yards on 62.8% passing with 21 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions. Fabrice Mukendi returns as the top option at RB for Bryant, rushing for a team-high 652 yards and 9 touchdowns in his freshman season. The Brulldogs also bring back a pair of their top receivers with David Zorrilla back for his 5^th year after leading Bryant with 47 grabs for 623 yards and Anthony Frederick had 32 catches for 516 yards and a team-high 8 touchdowns last season. On defense, the cabinet is stocked for the Bulldogs, returning their top tacklers in Ryan Saddler and Joe Andreessen who combined for 171 tackles last season atop the Bulldog defense while the top two sack men in Kenny Dyson Jr. and Christopher Eaton Jr. are also back after combining for 11 sacks. Andreessen also had a team-high 3 interceptions last season.

The FIU Panthers will try to right the ship after a disastrous 1-11 mark in 2021, making it just one win in the last 17 games across the last two years for FIU and then head coach Butch Davis. Enter Mike MacIntyre, who has seen and done this before with San Jose State in the early 2010s, now it’s the start of a new era at FIU. Gunnar Holmberg transfers in from Duke to battle for the starting QB gig alongside Grayson James and Haden Carlson, and the pieces are there to help FIU and help their QBs make some progress as Tyrese Chambers returns after leading the Panthers with 1,074 receiving yards and 9 scores last season. And it’s not just Chambers. Randall St. Felix returns as well while Sharod Johnson and Jacolby Hewitt transfer in fron Syracuse and Indiana respectively. On defense, Davon Strickland returns to lead the pass rush for FIU, while Gaethan Bernadel had 44 tackles for FIU’s linebacker group but there will need to be some depth developed for the Panthers at that spot. In the secondary, Jamal Potts and Demetrius Hill are back at safety but the priority for FIU will be developing new corners to take charge after losing a fair amount of depth at that position coming into 2022.

I get why FIU’s favored as the FBS team in this matchup, but frankly I don’t think they should be favored by more than a field goal. Sure, the Panthers bring in a power 5 transfer QB in Gunnar Holmberg from Duke, but he’s not anything special and had 7 touchdowns to 10 interceptions with Duke. The Bulldogs were one of the best teams in the FCS in terms of turnover margin last season and with that being the case, I think they can keep this one close and potentially pull off the upset. Give me the Bulldogs and the points.