NCAA Football Wagering – Texas Longhorns vs. Kansas Jayhawks
Any time two teams from the Big XII hook up, sports betting fanatics know that the scoreboard operator will be busy. This Saturday should be no exception when the Texas Longhorns (9-1, 7-3 ATS) travel to Lawrence to do battle with the Kansas Jayhawks (6-4, 5-4 ATS).
These teams haven’t met since 2005, and that’s probably a good thing for the Jayhawks, as they’re probably still licking their wounds from losing to the Longhorns 66-14. Since 1996, Texas is 6-0 SU and 5-1 ATS against Kansas. The margins of victory haven’t been overly close either, with UT outscoring KU by an average of 30.8 points per game. With the Longhorns hoping to impress the voters, it could be another long day for the Jayhawks.
After rolling off seven straight covers to start the season, Texas bettors have now lost three straight college football betting decisions. They must’ve thought that they were headed back to the win column when Texas took a 45-14 lead with just 5:47 remaining, but Baylor found the backdoor by scoring a touchdown less than a minute later to stick within the 25.5-point spread.
QB Colt McCoy had another fine day to impress the Heisman voters, completing 26-of-37 passes for 300 yards and five touchdowns. McCoy has 2,879 passing yards on the season to go along with 35 total touchdowns. He leads the UT offense, which ranks in the Top-10 in total yards (476, 9th), passing yards (301.9, 10th), and points scored (44.3, 5th).
UT’s defense has only allowed 20.7 points per game so far this year, but it ranks 110th in the nation in pass defense, allowing 266.9 yards per game.
Kansas blew its best chance to stay alive in the race for the Big XII North title when it lost to Nebraska 45-35 in Lincoln last weekend. The defense put forth quite an uninspired effort, surrendering 324 passing yards to QB Joe Ganz and the Huskers. The rush defense wasn’t much better, allowing Nebraska to average 4.8 yards per carry.
It wasn’t the greatest game in the world for QB Todd Reesing either after completing just 15-of-30 passes for 304 yards. WR Dezmon Briscoe had another fantastic game, racking up 176 yards. He now averages 16.2 yards per reception. ‘Over’ bettors have had a tremendous time of late in KU games, as the 70 total points easily eclipsed the 62.5-point ‘total’ to cash the fourth consecutive ‘over’ game for the Jayhawks.
Oddsmakers aren’t giving the hosts much of a chance, as the Longhorns have been installed as 13-point road favorites, and the ‘total’ has been set at a lofty 68 points. Expect to see a ton of points on the board again in this one. Kansas has played ten of its L/12 games ‘over’ the ‘total’, while eight of the L/9 Big XII games for the Longhorns have been of the higher scoring variety. They’re also on a 16-5-1 spurt of ‘overs’ in their L/22 road games.
