College Football Week 0 Betting Preview: Navy vs. No. 13 Notre Dame, San Jose State vs. No. 6 USC

Top 25 teams USC and Notre Dame are both heavy favorites this Saturday as college football returns.

Kyle Wood | Aug 24, 2023

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The Week 0 college football slate features a pair of top 25 teams, No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 6 USC. The good news is those storied rivals will play for the 81st time this season. The bad news is that game isn’t until October.

Instead, to kick off the season, the Fighting Irish and Trojans will take on Navy and San Jose State, respectively, teams they’re both expected to roll by at least three scores.

College football fans will have to wait until Week 1 for the first matchup of the 2023 campaign that features two top 25 teams (No. 5 LSU vs. No. 8 Florida State), but Week 0 still marks the return to the gridiron on campuses across the country — and across the pond in Dublin, Ireland.

USC quarterback and Heisman favorite Caleb Williams is in action and transfer quarterback Sam Hartman will don Notre Dame’s famous gold helmet for the first time. What more could you ask for? Football is back, folks.

Navy vs. No. 13 Notre Dame

Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman — John Mersits/USA Today Sports

The last five meetings in this series have gone to the Fighting Irish, but the Midshipmen almost executed a remarkable comeback last fall. Notre Dame, which had just rocketed back into the Top 25 fresh off two consecutive wins against ranked opponents, got out to a 35-13 halftime lead against its annual opponent. Navy, a 16.5-point underdog, nearly turned the tide with a 19-0 second-half run to draw within a field goal with less than two minutes to go. Head coach Marcus Freeman’s team kneeled the clock out and hung on for a 35-32 victory. Upset avoided.

A lot has changed at both institutions in the offseason. In South Bend, quarterbacks Drew Pyne and Tyler Buchner both transferred out, as did running back Logan Diggs. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees left to join Alabama’s staff and ND saw All-Americans at tight end (Michael Mayer) and defensive end (Isaiah Foskey) depart for the NFL. Hartman was the big addition. The Wake Forest transfer is a Heisman candidate heading into his sixth collegiate season. In Annapolis, former defensive coordinator Brian Newberry was promoted to head coach after longtime coach Ken Niumatalolo was fired following a 4–8 campaign.

Navy has struggled out of the gate in recent years with a 1–4 record in season openers since 2018. That includes a 14-7 home loss to FCS Delaware to kick off 2022. Notre Dame finished its first year under Freeman on a high note but suffered early upsets to Marshall and Stanford. That’s a fate the Fighting Irish will look to avoid in Ireland as heavy favorites.

The Midshipmen limited Notre Dame to 66 yards on the ground when these teams last met and only Georgia and James Madison had better rushing defenses last season. For that reason, look for the Fighting Irish to rely on the aerial attack, where they hold a clear advantage. Hartman led a top-10 passing offense nationally a year ago with the Demon Deacons. The Midshipmen finished 98th in passing yards allowed in 2022.

Take Notre Dame to cover in Ireland, where it has rolled Navy in its only other two appearances in 2012 (50-10) and 1996 (52-27). This game may be played thousands of miles away from Indiana, but it’s still a home crowd for the Irish.

BET: Notre Dame -20.5 (-110)

San Jose State vs. No. 6 USC

USC quarterback Caleb Williams at the Cotton Bowl. — Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports

The Spartans may have defeated the Trojans in Greek mythology, but in the world of college football, the USC Trojans have never lost to the San Jose State Spartans. The 30.5-point spread — the largest of Week 0 by a considerable margin — reflects the oddsmakers' strong belief that USC will improve to 6–0 all-time against their neighbors to the north.

It’s impossible to discuss this game without first bringing up Williams, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and projected first pick in the 2024 NFL draft. He led the nation with 42 passing touchdowns in his first season in Los Angeles under the tutelage of coach Lincoln Riley. The Trojans made up for Jordan Addison’s departure by adding Arizona’s Dorian Singer in the transfer portal. Tahj Washington, Mario Williams and Singer make up one of the best receiving corps in the country and USC has college football’s best quarterback to boot.

Offense wasn’t an issue for Riley’s team last season. Defense was. The Trojans ranked third nationally in points per game and 94th in points allowed. That’s what kept them out of the playoff as they allowed 40-plus points in two separate losses to Utah in the regular season and later in the Pac-12 title game.

Spartans quarterback Chevan Cordeiro led a middle-of-the-pack offense last year and now he’ll be without his top target, Elijah Cooks. On the other side of the ball, however, SJSU boasted a top-30 scoring defense that held six opponents below 20 points.

The Trojans will roll at home, where they went undefeated in 2022. USC covered both times it was installed as a favorite of 30-plus points, including a 66-14 season-opening win against Rice. But to avoid any concerns about a backdoor cover, let’s instead divert our attention toward the team totals. The Trojans are at 48.5, a number they cleared only twice last year while the Spartans are at 17.5. SJSU scored 16 and 10 points on the road against Auburn and San Diego State, respectively, last fall. Bank on a revamped USC defense similarly stifling San Jose State’s offense.

BET: SJSU Under 17.5 Points (-132)

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Published Aug 24, 2023

KYLE WOOD

Kyle is based in Washington, D.C. He writes the Winners Club newsletter and is a fantasy and betting writer for SI. His work has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald and Gainesville Sun.