Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii Prediction, Pick Against the Spread, and Latest Odds

Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii Prediction, Pick Against the Spread, and Latest Odds

These two teams will be meeting for the second year in a row as Vanderbilt trounced the Rainbow Warriors by a score of 63 to 10 last season. Can Hawaii get revenge tonight? Let’s break it down.

Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii Date, Time and Where to Watch

• Date: Saturday, August 26, 2023
• Time: 7:30 pm ET
• Where to Watch: SEC Network

Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii Prediction

These two teams are a bit familiar with each other as they faced off last season in what turned into a bit of a laugher in the second half as Vanderbilt ran away with things and ended up winning by a score of 63 to 10. What people forget about that game though is that the first half was actually fairly close.

Hawaii was up 7-0 early in the first quarter but Vanderbilt quickly struck back as they took a 21-10 lead into halftime. The wheels fell off in the second half for the Rainbow Warriors though as they did not score a single point in the third or fourth quarters and allowed a defensive touchdown and 5 total TDs in the 3rd quarter to the Commodores.

If you simply looked at the box score of this game, you would assume that Vanderbilt blew out Hawaii from start to finish, but that was not necessarily the case. If you took a look at Hawaii’s schedule last year in general, you may think they had an abysmal season but box score watching does not tell the full tale of their season.

Hawaii was actually a fairly formidable opponent, particularly in the first half of many of their games last season. In their road game against San Diego State last season, which I think is a comparable contest to today’s matchup against Vanderbilt, the Rainbow Warriors were 24-point underdogs and nearly won the game outright and trailed by only three points at half time as they fought extremely hard.

Hawaii was actually a fairly good team against the spread last season and while it didn’t lead to wins for their program, bettors frequently rejoiced backing them, which in turn netted a fairly solid return at the end of the season.

Hawaii returns their starting quarterback in Brayden Schager so they do have some continuity at one of the most important positions on the field and I am not sold on the quality/depth of the Vanderbilt defense, which was awful last season. Hawaii should be able to move the ball to put up points and should at least be able to move the sticks enough to control the field position game a bit which will be critical for them if they want to keep this game close.

This spread is a bit tricky and I almost expected it to be 20+ given how bad Vandy beat them last season and how bad Hawaii was against better opponents last year so this spread appears to be painting a picture that maybe Hawaii surprises some people early and keeps things close and then runs out of gas late in the second half, as they did so many times last season.

With that being said, I do think Hawaii has enough firepower to score points and move the ball early in this game which should yield a closer score into the locker room at halftime so I am rolling with HAWAII 1H +10.5 at -110 for 1.5u as one of my most confident College Football plays for week 0.

Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii Pick

• PICK: 1.5 units - Hawaii +10.5 1H (-110) Click here to find out which sportsbook has the best odds