CFB Best Bets, Picks and Analysis For Connecticut vs. Utah State on August 27, 2022

The Utah State Aggies were one of the most surprising teams in college football last year, but they're not going to sneak up on anybody this season. In fact, they open as massive favorites against the Connecticut Huskies in their home opener at 4:00PM ET on Saturday, August 27.

This isn't a game that we'd normally dive into, but it's Week 0 and we know people need to get their college football bets in. With that said, we have you covered with one of the few CFB games on national television this weekend. 

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For the most up to date live college football betting information, check out our interactive predictions for Connecticut vs. Utah State. It's constantly updating based on hundreds of different data points.

UConn vs. Utah State Best Bets, Predictions and Analysis

Spread Breakdown

Last year, Utah State ended up winning a Mountain West title in a season in which the team had extremely low expectations. Now, people are expecting the Aggies to go out and compete for yet another conference championship, and they certainly have the talent in place to do just that. It is, however, hard to ask a team to win games by four touchdowns — especially when the opposing team is led by Jim Mora, the former head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and UCLA Bruins. 

It's a little random to see Mora with the UConn job, but it's hard to rule him out as a potential boon for this program. Mora has already done a nice job of adding talent from the transfer market, with quarterback Ta'Quan Roberson coming in from Penn State to give this offense a jolt. Mora also got linebacker Marquez Bembry to come over from Kentucky. Getting Big Ten and SEC talent to come to Storrs is no small task, and Mora has also done a decent job assembling a staff. 

MORE: CFB Futures Probabilities

Roberson is going to be the key to this game for the Huskies. We never really got a chance to see what he can do with the Nittany Lions, but Roberson entered college with a reputation for being a great running quarterback. And being that Utah State's most glaring weakness heading into this season is its linebacking corps, it wouldn't be surprising if Roberson's ability to use his legs helps UConn move the chains a little more than expected. 

With a spread as big as this one, all it will take is a couple of scores for the Huskies to end up covering. Of course, that's assuming UConn's defense can keep Utah State quarterback Logan Bonner from completely lighting it up. But the word out of camp was that the Huskies secondary was holding up rather decently, with the team actually having a pair of good safeties and an intriguing prospect at corner in Kaleb Anthony. UConn also brings back leading tackler Jackson Mitchell, who will have his work cut out for him in this game. Regardless, we think the Huskies will do just enough to cover here. Perhaps the deficit bounces back and forth between two and three touchdowns and we end up sweating it out at the end. 

Over/Under Breakdown

With UConn coming into this season with a defense that is both experienced and improved via the transfer portal, we're thinking there's a decent chance this group doesn't get torched. Mora knows that the Aggies are going to want to attack his unproven secondary, which could result in the Huskies leaning on something of a bend-don't-break approach. If his secondary can just avoid consistently getting beaten over the top, it's hard to see this game busting wide open — especially considering how hard it can be to find a rhythm in the first week of the year. 

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On the other side of the ball, the fact that UConn will likely lean run-heavy is another reason to like the Under — even in a game we think the Huskies will have some offensive success. The Huskies have a dual-threat quarterback and a group of trustworthy rushers running behind what should be an improved offensive line. That means the clock will likely be running quite a bit when UConn has the ball. 

The Under also happened to be 8-6 in Utah State's 14 games last season, and it was also 4-1 in the five non-conference games the team played last year. 

Best Bet: Huskies vs. Aggies

While we don't really see any scenario in which UConn keeps this game close, it's definitely hard to envision Utah State winning by four touchdowns. Mora might not have a great reputation, but he has had a lot of success in his career — he took the Falcons to the NFC Championship Game in 2004 and earned double digits in wins with UCLA Bruins — and has had so much time to get his team ready for this one.

The Huskies are also a lot more talented than they were a year ago. Look for this UConn team to be somewhat similar to last year's Arizona Wildcats, who went 1-11 straight-up but 6-6 against the spread. The Huskies can be a lot more competitive in losses and that's what we expect to see right from the jump. We're riding with UConn +27 and recommend using the DraftKings bet $5 to get $200 offer mentioned at the top of this article. You can claim it ➡️ here ⬅️.