Colorado State vs. Michigan Odds, Picks & Predictions: Target the Total in This Potential Blowout

After their best season under head coach Jim Harbaugh, Michigan opens their 2022 season as massive favorites against the Colorado State Rams.

This game is being played in Ann Arbor as a home game for Michigan on Saturday, September 3rd at 12 p.m. ET.

Colorado State vs. Michigan Betting Odds

For the first time in the college football playoff history, which was changed in 2014 from the BCS format to the format we have now, Michigan participated!

Unfortunately, the Wolverines were matched up against the eventual national champion in Georgia, a game in which they got throttled to the tune of 34-11.

Now, Michigan is hoping to continue that success as they head into the 2022 season as the 8th ranked team in the nation according to AP.

Luckily, Michigans start to the season is essentially a tune-up game against Colorado State, where they are favored by four touchdowns. An easy week one game is probably necessary for this Michigan team that has to replace both coordinators.

On offense, they have two coordinators in Matt Weiss and Sherrone Moore, while defensively they hired Jesse Minter, who takes over for Mike Macdonald. Macdonald, funny enough, left Michigan and Jim Harbaugh to join Jims brother, John Harbaugh, to be the defensive coordinator of the Ravens.

Even with the new coordinators on offense, Michigan projects to be a prolific offense in 2022. At quarterback they can go with Cade McNamara, who started for Michigan last year, or J.J. McCarthy. Either way, both players are capable enough to lead this Michigan offense that is riddled with talent elsewhere.

Defensively is where Michigan figures to take a step back from last year. They have to replace two elite players along the defensive line in Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo, as well as three starters in the secondary.

While Michigan should figure to have some growing pains on defense, they should have no issues putting points on the board, especially against this Colorado State team.

The Rams finished the 2021 season with a 3-9 record, which led them to make a change at head coach bringing in Jay Norvell from Nevada.

On offense, they figure to be almost unrecognizable from last years squad (in a good way), with Norvell bringing his high-octane passing style to Colorado State along with a litany of transfers.

The most notable transfer is quarterback Clay Millen, who comes over from Norvells old squad Nevada. Norvel also brought over talented receiver Tory Horton from Nevada as well.

While Colorado State has to replace four starters along the line, all four of which coming over from the transfer portal, they have a lot of talent at the skill positions so they should be able to put points on the board even if the offensive line takes time to gel.

Defensively is a different story, though. Norvell didn’t poach as many players from his old team, so it will be tough sledding trying to improve a defense that gave up 377 yards and 28 points per game last year.

They do have talented players, but they lost their best pass rusher Scott Patchan who will be tough to replace.

While I give Colorado State almost no chance to win this game, I don’t see any value currently on the spread. I think the spread is accurately priced at 27.5, and I don’t have a lean either way. Instead, there is a ton of value on the total going over.

As shown in the table above, the OddsJam Line prices this total at 58.5, but, with that said, thanks to line shopping on the OddsJam NCAAF odds page, I can get this total at 57.5.

I love this over in general, so beating the line by a full point represents a ton of value. The Michigan offense alone could put up 50+ points, and I expect Colorado State to have a better offense than defense this season.

Colorado State vs. Michigan Betting Pick: Total Over 57.5 | -110 at Caesars