College Football kicked off last weekend as Florida and Hawaii started their season with winning starts. Week one matches continue this week and Stats Insider model has you covered with all the pre-game model predictions. We will also have live in-game predictions which land on match pages following week 2.

Houston Cougars' senior punter, Australian ice-cream salesman turned superboot, Dane Roy, dives into the matches to keep an eye on in 2019.

University of Brigham Young vs University of Utah

Not even a week into the college football season and we have yet another interesting rivalry game in front of us. This time we see the Utah Utes travel an hour south to Provo, to take on local rivals BYU Cougars in the 100^th edition of the ‘Holy War’. Utah currently have a stranglehold on the series having won the last 8 games, with a total of 61 wins. A win on Thursday night will equal the series record of 9 wins in a row.

Utah’s offense will be led by senior QB Tyler Huntley, who threw for 1,788 yards and 12 TDs in 9 games last season. Huntley will be supported by explosive senior RB Zack Moss, who was responsible for 1,096 rushing yards and 12 TDs last season. On top of this impressive offense, is the hot Utah defense who were ranked 5^th in the nation last year against the run.

The Utes, according to some experts, are potential playoff contenders. In order to fulfil the monumental task of reaching the CFB playoffs, they will need to go through the season undefeated or close to it. Anything other than a win here will hurt those chances.

It's shaping up to be yet another tough battle against the Utes for the Cougars, but it's not all doom and gloom just yet. The Cougars have a very impressive opening game record of late, having won five straight, and on top of that, they haven’t lost a home opener since 2005. Sophomore QB Zach Wilson is poised to start for the Cougars after an impressive 2018 campaign throwing for 1,578 yards and accounting for 14 TDs, and his last game of the season being the most impressive, with 18/18 passes and 4 TDs.

Look out for:

Freshman Aussie punter Ben Lennon, as he makes his collegiate football debut for the Utah Utes. The former Richmond footballer trained with Prokick Australia for the past few years and has taken over from Mitch Wishnowsky (who was drafted to the 49ers).

Verdict:

This looks like it could be another low scoring battle, and if the Utah defense continues its 2018 form, BYU may find it hard to compile a winning score.

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University of Cincinnati vs University of California

The UCLA Bruins and Cincinnati Bearcats kick-off their 2019 college football campaigns this Thursday night at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. Last year the two teams met at the Rose Bowl to start their 2018 seasons and Cincinnati stunned everyone winning 26 to 17.

The season didn’t get much better for the Bruins who eventually went 3 and 9, making it their third losing season in a row.

UCLA QB, Dorian Thompson-Robinson (1,311 yards and 7 TDs last season) should get the starting job this season and with year of experience under his belt he could be the one who turns around this Bruins form slump. RB Joshua Kelley, is coming off a 1,200-yard, 12-touchdown season and should provide some explosive plays for the UCLA offense.

But with the Bruins losing four of their last five road games, the trip up north to Nippert stadium doesn’t read well on paper for UCLA.

The Bearcats had one of their best seasons last year, going 11 and 2 under coach Luke Fickell, and they will be looking to keep that form going into the new season. Nippert stadium has been a fortress for the Bearcats recently, with the last Bearcats loss at home coming way back in November of 2017. Desmond Ridder is likely to start at QB for the bearcats after throwing for 2,445 yards and 20 touchdowns last season. Running back Michael Warren II is one to look out for this game, after recording 1,329 yards last season with 19 rushing touchdowns with 3 of those TDs scored against UCLA last year. The Cincinnati defense was ranked 11th in total defense last year, and they have retained a fair few of those starters, so it could be too much of a task for the Bruins to come away with the win.

Look out for: The Aussies!

Cincinnati punter James Smith and UCLA graduate transfer punter Wade Lees are both products of Australian punting academy Prokick Australia. Smith, a junior, who was in the top 3 punters of season 2018 has had a very impressive off-season and should continue his punting dominance. Lees, the second-oldest player in CFB, spent 3 years at Maryland and transferred to UCLA after graduating earlier this year. Hopefully Lees can unleash a few spirals for his new team and show everyone what he is capable of.

Verdict: 

Expect UCLA to improve, but at the same time Cincinnati is about to show the nation that last season wasn’t a fluke.

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University of Oregon vs University of Auburn 

The Auburn Tigers #16 face the Oregon Ducks #11 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas to kickstart season 2019. With both teams travelling from afar for this game, there is no home ground advantage. This will be the second time in history that Auburn have played Oregon, with the previous matchup coming in the 2010 National Championship game. The Tigers won that game 22-19.

Auburn started the 2018 season by defeating Washington, their only PAC-12 opponent, and eventually finished 8 and 5 for the year. Ranked 16 in the Preseason AP Top 25, the Tigers have a chance to continue the SEC’s dominance over PAC-12 teams of recent years (SEC are 5-1 vs PAC-12 in the past 3 years). But if Auburn want to get off to a winning start, it is all in the hands of true freshman QB, Bo Nix. Nix, a five-star recruit, was recently named as starter for the opening game. Helping out Nix and the offense, is sophomore RB JaTarvious Whitlow, who went for 787 yards off 150 carries last season including 6 rushing TDs. Whitlow made a very impressive start to his collegiate career last year and it was the first time he had played RB. On the other side of the ball is the outrageously potent Auburn D-line, which is ranked one of the highest in the nation.

The 11^th ranked Ducks will be out to prove they are a better team than last year, after going 9-4 in 2018. Senior QB, Justin Herbert, returns for Oregon. The 6’6” passer threw for 3151 yards and 29 TDs last season and could have declared for the draft but decided to return for his final season. Sophomore RB CJ Verdell will be one to watch out for as he comes off a spectacular 2018 as a redshirt freshman, where he rushed for 1,018 yards and 10 touchdowns in 13 games last year.

Look out for:

Auburn’s Aussie punter Arryn Siposs, who made his collegiate debut last season averaging a hefty 44 yards per punt is certainly one to look out for. The former St Kilda footballer is on the Ray Guy Award preseason watchlist, which goes to the best punter in college football.

On the other side of the field is another Aussie, Tom Snee from Melbourne. He's played in 10 games last season for the Ducks, and is listed as 2^nd punter on Oregon’s most recent depth chart.

Verdict:

If Auburn can get their freshman QB off to a good start with some safe play calling and easy drives, then it could be smooth sailing from then on for the Tigers, but if Oregon can cause some havoc early on, the Ducks might have enough experience to close this one out.