Week 1 is upon us. We are about 2 hours from kick-off, and I’m about to close the lap-top for the day and head to Camp Randall. It’s a beautiful evening in Madison for 10 beers and some college football. With kick-off closely approaching, it’s time to name our guy. With it being a week 1 matchup against a MAC opponent, the sportsbooks aren’t offering too many player props. The pickings might be slim, but we’re taking the freshman running back, Dilin Jones, over 73.5 rushing yards. Jones only got a few carries last year, but he showed some electricity when he did get the ball. Not a huge back, but he runs tough downhill. He’s not afraid to lower the shoulder and fight for a few extra yards.
The main reason I like Jones here is that the Badgers are trying to get back to their roots and run the football more. Jeff Grimes, the new OC from Kansas, is a run first kind of guy. Early in the season look for the badgers to establish the run to get things moving in the right direction. The RedHawks are top of the MAC, but I don’t see their Dline keeping up with the Badgers big guys. (We finally have some BIG guys upfront this year).
Jones was named RB #1 earlier this week, but the only thing I see holding Jones back would be splitting carries with the other backs. With it being week 1, you never know how the load will be split up, however Grimes gave his starting back at Kansas a ratio of 2:1 carries with the backup. Let’s hope that carries over to Madison.
Here’s to the start of college football. Go Badgers!
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