Alright, the long weekend is over (even if I am still on vacation for the rest of the week!) and it's time to move past the deflating opening loss to Colorado State in the Rocky Mountain Showdown. Las Vegas certainly has. Even after the loss and a trip across the country oddsmakers have still installed the Buffaloes as a 17-point favorite over the UMASS Minutemen in Foxboro Stadium. 17-point road favorites.
In new head coach Mark Whipple's first game as head coach at Massachusetts the Minutemen fell to Boston College 30-7, also at Foxboro Stadium, where they will play half of their home schedule this season. They were pretty thoroughly beaten in all phases of the game, allowing 511 yards while accumulating just over 200. The Minutemen's lone score came on a 77-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Blake Frohnapfel to Tajae Sharpe, accounting for almost half of those 200 yards in one play. The Minutemen held on in the first half, only allowing Boston College and former Florida quarterback Tyler Murphy to take a 6-0 lead into halftime but the Eagles broke it open with two long scoring drives in the second half.
It's hard to say whether or not Vegas thinks Colorado State is significantly better than expected or Massachusetts is worse (or, more likely, a combination of the two) but this opening number still shows that there is plenty of work for the Buffaloes to take care of in non-conference play. If the Buffs can head into Foxboro and take care of business there will be a little bit more optimism allowed in Boulder heading into a week three tilt with Arizona State.