Vanderbilt opens as 1-point underdog at Colorado State

Vanderbilt opened its season Saturday night with a 23-3 loss to East Tennessee State, but fear not: the Commodores have a chance to get in the win column next Saturday at Colorado State, if you believe the people setting the gambling lines.

Per vegasinsider.com, Vanderbilt opened as a 1-point underdog for Saturday night’s game. That quickly moved to a 5-point line in the Rams’ favor at Circa Sports, the one sportsbook listed that currently has a line on the game — an indication that early bettors probably favored Colorado State, because, well... we all saw what happened on Saturday night.

Then again, I watched some of Colorado State’s season opener against FCS South Dakota State on Friday night. The Rams got bullied by the Jackrabbits in a 42-23 loss, trailing by as much as 26 points in the fourth quarter before a late touchdown produced the final margin. South Dakota State racked up 466 yards of total offense on a cool 7.5 yards per play, and Colorado State managed just 3.1 yards per rushing attempt. In all honesty, Colorado State might have actually looked worse than we did in the opener.

So, it’s fine. Clark Lea will have a chance to immediately reverse the narrative. This is fine.