Upset Picks for This Week’s College Football Games – November 14, 2020

Targeting upset picks in college football can be a fruitful proposition – so long as you are looking in the right places. I was on Colorado (+220) last week against UCLA and am tempted to go back to the well as the Buffaloes traverse into Palo Alto.

On the other hand, Stanford is battle-tested after a trip to Eugene and should be primed to pick up a victory.

Brushing that matchup aside, I’ve zeroed in on my three best college football upset picks.

As you’ll learn below, there’s plenty to be intrigued about on Saturday.

Originally slated to head to Charlottesville on November 7^th, the postponement of this game allowed the Cardinals to get their roster back up and running.

Scott Satterfield said Louisville football had zero positive COVID-19 tests from any of its athletes on Friday or Sunday. Will test at least four times this week.

— Jody Demling (@jdemling) November 9, 2020

Virginia has had some extra time to bask in their glory from beating 15^th-ranked UNC, but is that necessarily a good thing?

As much credit as the Cavaliers deserve from upending the Tarheels on Halloween, let’s not forget that this is a 2-4 squad that allows over 312 passing yards per game (last in the ACC). With Micale Cunningham and Tutu Atwell strolling into town, the Wahoos could be in deep trouble.

I liked Louisville to win this game once I dug into the matchup, and then I saw that ESPN’s Football Power Index pegged the Cardinals to win outright 57.5% of the time.

It all adds up to buying stock in Louisville.

There’s not a whole lot to like when you assess the Golden Eagles. With that being said, the Hilltoppers appear to have even less hope in 2020. 

Southern Miss (2-5) can at least move the chains on offense and has a quarterback who’s completing over 65% of his throws. Flip the coin and you’ll quickly see that Western Kentucky’s offense is entirely stagnant.

The Hilltoppers (2-6) average a minuscule 272.8 yards and 15.3 points per game. QB Tyrrell Pigrome is connecting on just 56.6% of his passes and the team averages an inadequate 3.6 yards per carry.

Typically, the Golden Eagles shortcomings revolve around being unable to get off the field on defense. That job gets much easier facing a Western Kentucky team that scored six points last weekend against FAU.

It’s enough for me to endorse Southern Miss as one of my top upset picks for college football this week.

I’m a little scared to back a top-10 team getting points on the road versus an unranked conference rival. In fact, I usually target the home team that’s laying the points in these scenarios.

However, Miami is sticking out in this instance.

The Hurricanes offer much more balance on offense and have the more versatile unit on defense. As tremendous as the Hokies are stuffing the ball down their opposition’s throat, Manny Diaz has the athletes in place to put a dent in VA Tech’s progress.

Plus, that D’Eriq King guy – he’s pretty nifty.

There's a new king in town ?@DeriqKing_ now has 3 career games with 5 Pass TD and 100+ rush yards, the most of any FBS player over the last 20 seasons ? pic.twitter.com/kfirGctNCU

— ACC Network (@accnetwork) November 7, 2020

In a game that is likely to go down to the wire, give me the more well-rounded program with the more dynamic quarterback.

Are you a bit gun-shy to pull the trigger on these college football upset picks?

No problem.

In the post below I key in on a couple of favorites, as well as the “under” in an enticing Big Ten showdown. Those predictions are a bit safer than the NCAAF upset picks featured on this page.