2025 CFB Week 0 Picks -- Doc Spo

Intro:

With Week 0 slated to kickoff in under 24 hours, I am hereby declaring the start of the 2025 College Football Season. While the games are admittedly pretty poopoo for the premature lid lifters, we MUST get our feet wet and shoot a few bullets as we prepare for the true opening week in about 7 days. Would be nothing worse than having a cold barrel heading into Week 1.

With that being said, Billy Tickets has gone full Hollywood and purports that he has “never been a Week 0 or Futures guy” – fair enough I suppose. The tea leaves read that Tickets has taken his finger off the pulse and can find no evidence of life on this week’s slate, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt considering the accuracy of his wagers last.

Fortunately for consumers, Doc Spo is quadruple board-certified and can ALWAYS find a pulse, and we will breathe some life into this Week 0 schedule. Follow me.

Picks:

Iowa State +3 EVEN (1.5u)

Coming back to the Matt Campbell well in Game 1 of 2025 just feels right, and it certainly won’t be the last time we drink from here this season.

Although my Matt Campbell adoration alone is enough to take this pick, there’s a little-known factoid that sold me on the Cyclones here – that factoid is, Kansas State only had 8 padded practices in the Spring, compared to the standard 15 padded practices that are allowed. Why? Because KState was so banged up, especially on defense, that HC Chris Klieman decided it would be better to just hit the weight room for 3 extra weeks than run half-ass practices.

I don’t disagree with the decision, and I don’t think the loss of a handful of spring practices is catastrophic, but what I do think is that this KState coaching staff may not have a great idea for what they have personnel-wise.

In a game that is pretty equal on paper, I like the team that has 1) more continuity from 2024 to 2025 and 2) has a better understanding of exactly who they have. Klieman also said they weren’t running “double reps” in the spring, so the first half of this game could look a lot different than the second half for these Wildcats as they work down the depth chart.

Look for the Cyclones to cover once again in this year’s installment of Farmageddon.

Avery Johnson Over 205.5 Passing Yards -115 (1u)

Game script play here. If the Cyclones can grab a lead in this game, KState is gonna have to air it out, hence the over in passing yards for Avery Johnson.

Iowa State also held the Wildcats to 4.6 YPCarry last season in this matchup, and that was with a severely injured defense. Common sense says they will do even better this time around and force the Cats to pass.

I’m not a big Avery Johnson guy, but he has allegedly made strides in his passing game this offseason, and for a QB getting paid $2M+ a year, you better be able to throw for 200 yards a game.

Kansas 1Q TT Under 7.5 -150 (1u) vs Fresno State  

It is inarguably a big year for Jayhawks football. 6^th year super senior Jalon Daniels is back after being total ASS last year. The Jayhawks can play home games again after the first phase of a nearly half a BILLION dollar renovation was completed. Oh, and some finance nerd that runs some investment company just stroked a check for $300M to fund the rest of the renovation. It’s safe to say Jayhawk football fans (if there are any) have something to look forward to this year.

Unfortunately, this Week 0 game will not go how they would like. Kansas draws a sneaky tough opponent in Fresno State, who is now under the direction of new Head Coach Matt Entz. If you don’t know, Matt Entz was the HC at North Dakota State for 5 years, won two FCS championships, and put guys like Trey Lance and Christian Watson in the league.

Entz finally got his due respect after 2023 when he was hired on D’Anton Lynn’s defensive staff at USC, and after just one year, Entz parlays it into a FBS HC gig. Pretty nice.

I say all that to say, Matt Entz is a winner. I do not think the Bulldogs win this game, but I do believe that they will be prepared out of the gate to put up a fight.

When you take a sneaky underdog coached by a certified winner and combine that with a historically awful program that has manufactured some internal hype via a tax write-off from a billionaire, it just screams let down.

The lights will be bright in Lawrence, Entz will have his Bulldogs fired up, and Jalon Daniels will continue to be Jalon Daniels. Take the Jayhawks 1Q Team Total Under.

Hawaii ML -130 (1.3u) vs Stanford

The stars are aligning for Timmy Chang and the Rainbow Warriors in Honolulu. Chang & Co. have an ideal opportunity to get a P4 win and get the wheels moving toward a bowl game bid.

The hype in Hawaii surrounding Redshirt Freshman QB Micah Alejado is real, and they also bring back their top rusher and top 2 receivers. The defense has improved year over year, and expect that trend to continue with 9 starters from last year back on this squad.

On the other side, Stanford football is just a train wreck. Head Coach Troy Taylor was fired after allegedly bullying female staffers, and new GM Andrew Luck has appointed old buddy Frank Reich to steady the ship.

The problem is, this all occurred in March of 2025, and every player worth their salt from the 2024 Stanford roster has exited stage left to greener pastures. Throw in the fact that Reich is implanted on short notice with ZERO collegiate coaching experience, and it does not look good for the Stanford Cardinal.

Ride Timmy Chang and the Rainbow Warriors to start the season on the right foot.

#BRADDAHHOOD

That’s all I’ve got for the Week 0 matchups. Don’t waste all your ammo on these poopoo games, but shoot enough to whet your appetite. Will see you all next week.

Cheers,

Doc Spo