Welcome back to another week of CFB picks and college football best bets for Saturday's Week 12 CFB schedule. The regular season is coming to a close in a couple of weeks before the conference championships and bowl games get underway. Let's finish the year strong with some CFB Week 12 best bets. This week, our college football picks focus on Washington vs Oregon State and Coastal Carolina vs Army. Enjoy these CFB picks and college football predictions as you tune into the Week 12 games. Plus, keep an eye out for the CFB DFS Playbook for top Week 12 college football daily fantasy picks. Let's now get to the college football best bets and CFB betting picks for Saturday, November 18th.

 

College Football Week 12 Best Bets 

Washington at Oregon State

Saturday, 7:30 pm ET

Washington is undefeated and ranked No. 5 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings. Yet, the Huskies are underdogs on the road this week at Oregon State. Hmm, interesting. As tempting as it may be to take Washington as the dog, we’re not questioning Vegas on this. Back the Beavers to win at home on Saturday night as they present a particularly tough matchup for Washington.

The Huskies may boast the best passing attack in college football, but their rushing offense ranks 101st in the FBS this season. Michael Penix Jr. and his talented wide receiving corps are special, but Washington’s attack can be a bit too one-dimensional at times. Lately, running back Dillon Johnson has given the offense a spark with 360 rushing yards and 5 rush TDs over the past two games. However, Oregon State has one of the top run defenses in the country (17th in FBS in rush yards allowed per game). The Beavers should be able to shut down Johnson and the run game to force Washington to the air more often. It’ll allow them to gameplan better to limit Penix somewhat and potentially force a key turnover or two.

On the other side, the Huskies’ defense continues to be a big worry and it’s bound to catch up to them. Washington has allowed numerous Pac-12 opponents to hang around with California (33 points scored), Oregon (33), Stanford (33), USC (42), and Utah (28) all putting up points in recent games. Allowing some of those lower-tier offenses like Stanford and Cal to score a bunch is especially discouraging. Washington has looked vulnerable against both the pass and run, which doesn’t bode well against a balanced Oregon State offense.

The Beavs rank 20th nationally in rushing yards per game and 45th in passing. Once the run game gets going and workhorse RB Damien Martinez hits his stride, it might be over for Washington. The strong rushing attack allows QB DJ Uiagalelei to settle into his game-manager role with his strong 20:4 TD:INT ratio and ability to hit the deep ball for explosive plays. 

Oregon State is a more complete team than Washington right now and has the clutch homefield advantage for this matchup. The Beavers are 5-0 SU and 4-1 ATS at home this year. Under head coach Jonathan Smith, they’ve also gone 15-2 SU and 14-2 ATS as home favorites in Corvallis. 

PICK: Oregon State ML (-135 BetMGM)

Coastal Carolina at Army

Saturday, 12 pm ET

Simply put, this is a brutal spot for Coastal Carolina with multiple factors pointing towards Army as the underdog. The Chanticleers are already bowl-eligible and have their biggest game of the year coming up next week vs James Madison. That home matchup against a top-25 opponent could also give Coastal a shot at the Sun Belt East division title if things go their way this weekend. But that’s next week. 

This Saturday, Coastal has a rare late-season, non-conference road matchup against Army up at West Point, NY for a noon ET kickoff. Give all the credit in the world to Chants head coach Tim Beck for scheduling a service academy in mid-November – but it’s a very tough situation for the rest of the coaching staff and players to get up emotionally for it when you have a battle looming next week. The likely lookahead to that home showdown vs JMU is one small detail in this.

The other elephant in the room is that Coastal has to jump right in and deal with Army’s triple-option offense. Teams can get away with facing the run-heavy attack early in the year with a full summer to prep, but not as much in the second-to-last week of the season when you’ve been worrying about traditional college offenses all fall. It’s a big ask for the Chanticleers’ defense to be buttoned up and fully ready for all of the triple-option’s unique run schemes, threat of multiple ball-carriers, and cut-blocking tendencies. 

This is a headache to prep for and the Coastal defense may be already sneaking some tape/practice reps on JMU. As is, the Chants’ D has had issues against the run already this year. Opponents are averaging 4.4 yards per carry (90th) against this defense and 150 rushing yards per game (70th). They’ve also allowed 173 and 199 rushing yards in the past two games vs Old Dominion and Texas State, respectively. 

Plus, Coastal Carolina has a few injured players who could sit out this game considering next weekend’s matchup. Starting QB Grayson McCall and backup Jarrett Guest both have nagging issues and the Chanticleers will likely want to play it safe there. 

Finally, Army head coach Jeff Monken has been pretty profitable in this spot. When the Black Knights are dogs of more than a field goal under Monken, his teams are 28-13-1 ATS over his career and covering by an average of over six points per game. Army should have plenty of motivation to win this game outright too. The Knights need wins in both of the final two regular-season games to become bowl-eligible. Last week’s small win over Holy Cross was more of a letdown after upsetting Air Force the game prior. Expect Army to come out strong as the home dog with Navy on deck next week. 

PICK: Army +4.5 (-110 BetMGM)

Other CFB Week 12 Bets:

  • UCLA/USC Over 65.5
  • Oregon -23.5
  • Iowa State +7.5
  • Miami FL +1
  • ULM/Ole Miss Under 62.5