subject: College Football Week 1 Picks: Maryland vs Navy [print this page] A fading program and coach will start off their season against a program and coach on the rise from M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore as the Maryland Terrapins meet the Navy Midshipmen at the home of the NFL Ravens. Kick-off is scheduled for 4:00pm EST for the game that can be seen on ESPN. Online sportsbooks have opened with Navy -6 in college football betting picks with an over/under total of 48.5. Ralph Friedgen begins his 10th season at his Alma Mater as a dead man coaching. "The Fridge" and his Terrapins slipped to a horrific 2-10 college football betting season after an 8-5 bowl campaign in 2008. The Terps return 7 starters on offense and 5 on defense.
Junior QB Jamarr Robinson takes over as the new signal caller. Friedgen's offense has been stagnant the past 4 years in college football odds as it has averaged a mediocre 21 points per game for 3 of those seasons including last year. The defense imploded last year as it allowed 31 PPG, a 9 point increase from 2008. Maryland has had just 2 winning seasons in college football picks out of the last 6 and has not won 10 games or more since 2003. Friedgen has not recruited game breaking talent and it has shown.
Navy is coming off a fabulous 10-4 season in college football odds in which they killed Missouri in the Texas Bowl 35-13 as well as winning at Notre Dame and nearly upsetting Ohio State at The Shoe. Head coach Ken Niumatalolo has maintained the standards of previous coach Paul Johnson and has 8 starters back on offense that scored 28 PPG led by senior QB Ricky Dobbs, who ran for 1367 yards and 27 TD's. The defense returns 5 starters after allowing 19 PPG last year. Navy has covered 14 out of their last 22 games as favorites in college football picks when playing at neutral site games.
