College football expert Jake Butt is back for Week 9 with value you can use right now.
In his conversation with Covers’ Joe Osborne, he digs into his best NCAAF picks, weighs in on Arch Manning's tumultuous sophomore season, and explains why Michigan–Michigan State still hits different.
Missouri vs 
Vanderbilt best bet
Pick: Eli Stowers Under 48.5 receiving yards (-115 at FanDuel)
Jake is a big fan of tight ends, having played the position himself, but he's not entirely sold on Vanderbilt star Eli Stowers.
"Stowers is capable of hitting 49 yards on any one play, but I'm going to take the Under in this one" he says. "You look at his season averages and they've been skewed by non-SEC play. He has not hit Over that number one time in SEC play this year, so I'm just going to follow the trend here and say that once again he'll be productive, but he's not going to hit Over 48.5 against the Missouri defense."
Read our full Missouri vs. Vanderbilt predictions ahead of kickoff.
Wisconsin vs 
Oregon best bet
Pick: Oregon -30.5 (-108 at FanDuel)
Jake believes Wisconsin has begun waving the white flag after going 0-4 in Big Ten play.
"What scares me about Wisconsin is the fanbase has become apathetic," he says. "They just don't even care anymore. That is really really concerning, and I think that bleeds down to the locker room. They just got their butts whooped last week, and now you're going across the country to an Oregon team who's still pissed off about losing to Indiana. They sent a message to college football on the road against Rutgers last weekend, and they're going to try to send another message against Wisconsin. Unfortunately for the Badgers, they're just the next team in the Ducks' way."
Is there hope for Arch Manning?
It's been far from a dream season for Texas quarterback Arch Manning, who entered the year as a Heisman favorite and now ranks 103rd in the nation in completion percentage.
"He doesn't look like a quarterback that's maximizing what he can do," Jake says. "His fundamentals don't look great, and he looks rushed and uncertain."
However, Jake doesn't think Manning is entirely at fault for the way Texas' season has unfolded.
"The offensive line has been an extreme disappointment this year," he says. "I understand the expectations for Arch were sky-high, but that doesn't mean the other 10 guys can take their foot off the gas. It's been a disappointing year for the offense as a whole particularly the offensive line. That was one of the big strengths last year for for Quinn Ewers. He had stability all around him and that's just that's just college football these days. Teams are too spread out and the talent is too spread out. You need to win by playing team football and right now Texas is not playing unit offensive football. If I'm Steve Sarkisian, my focus is giving my guy a stable offensive line let me get him a dominant run game. I bet Arch will look better with that."
Michigan vs Michigan State is like a backyard brawl
As a former Wolverine, Jake knows there's no love lost between Michigan and Michigan State.
"The hatred is is legitimate," he says. "I think one of the big mistakes made by Michigan State head coach Jonathan Smith last year, and he's even acknowledged this, is he said 'Oh, I didn't realize how important this rivalry was.' I can't believe a head coach said that, but at least he acknowledged it. He came from the Oregon-Oregon Oregon State rivalry, which shares some similarities. It's an in-state rivalry and there's a premiere school in Oregon against the underdog in Oregon State, and I think Jonathan Smith expected it to be the same. It's not the same."
Jake still remembers the message he and his teammates would receive before facing the Spartans.
"On Monday morning Sherrone Moore, and when it was Jim Harbaugh, you get into a team meeting they were very clear in addressing the offensive line and everyone on offense. They would say, 'Hey if you do not have the ball you follow the ball carrier. And when he gets tackled we need three guys helping him up off the ground because it's just a reality. Who knows what's going on at the bottom of that pile? It's one of those type of games and and I remember my adrenaline had never been higher than when I would play Michigan State. We we had a team outbreak of strep throat and hand, foot and mouth disease my senior year and guys were so sick, and yet all of us played. I think we were just riding on pure adrenaline knowing this was going to be like an ancient Viking war down there in East Lancing. Playing Michigan State is like a backyard brawl between like true hated rivals, and I think that's really fun too and the fans embody that energy as well."
Read our full Michigan vs. Michigan State predictions ahead of game time.
