I'm a big fan of Bill Connelly/Football Study Hall. Takes a while for these "advanced stats" models to shake out (not unlike the KemPom/RPI in basketball), so no reason to get too worked up about Week 1 projections. That said, it's interesting ... and not all that surprising, given how low we ranked in all the computer rankings at the end of last season (S&P+ had us 95th nationally).
Anyway, for Saturday S&P+ favors Southern Miss by 3. The F/+ (of which the S&P+ is a component) favors Southern Miss by 2.
Connelly cites our game as one of the one of the the week's more interesting S&P+ projections (relative to the spread):
Southern Miss by 2.9 over Kentucky (per S&P+). S&P+ really, really doesn’t like the Wildcats this year. And it’s not that hard to see why. Experience in the receiving corps, a former blue-chipper at QB, and some new offensive coaching could lead to solid offensive success and massive UK overachievement compared to projection. But if it doesn’t, then this season could go horribly in Lexington.
http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2016/9/1/12748262/college-football-schedule-tv-listings-vegas-picks
Anyway, for Saturday S&P+ favors Southern Miss by 3. The F/+ (of which the S&P+ is a component) favors Southern Miss by 2.
Connelly cites our game as one of the one of the the week's more interesting S&P+ projections (relative to the spread):
Southern Miss by 2.9 over Kentucky (per S&P+). S&P+ really, really doesn’t like the Wildcats this year. And it’s not that hard to see why. Experience in the receiving corps, a former blue-chipper at QB, and some new offensive coaching could lead to solid offensive success and massive UK overachievement compared to projection. But if it doesn’t, then this season could go horribly in Lexington.
http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2016/9/1/12748262/college-football-schedule-tv-listings-vegas-picks