Tulsa
Free NCAA Football Prediction: Cougars vs. Golden Hurricane Odds
Looking for Houston Cougars vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricane free picks? College football betting sees the Houston Cougars taking on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Friday, October 1, 2021, at Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, OK. Cappers Picks provides complimentary handicapping picks all NCAA football season long so stay tuned for more FREE college football game Week 5 predictions like this Houston Tulsa free pick.
College Football Handicapping Analysis: Week 5
Houston Cougars (3-1) vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricane (1-3)
Date: Friday, October 1, 2021
Time: 7:30 pm EST
Venue: Chapman Stadium
NCAA Football ATS Spread Odds: Houston +4.5 / Tulsa -4.5
NCAA Football Moneyline Odds: Houston +150 / Tulsa -170
NCAA Betting Total Odds: O/U 57
Week 5 college football sees the Cougars and Golden Hurricane meet at Chapman Stadium.
The Houston Cougars have already picked up an American Athletic Conference win after getting past Navy last weekend, 29 – 20. Looking to extend their win streak to 3 over Tulsa, the Cougars find themselves listed as underdogs under the Friday night lights of Chapman Stadium.
The Golden Hurrican snapped their 0 – 3 skid to start the 2021 campaign with a win last weekend over Arkansas State, 41- 34. The losses to Oklahoma State and Ohio State may not come as the surprise of the year, but losing to UC Davis to start the season sure had this program in early trouble. Coach Montgomery had much higher expectations coming into the year after a 6 – 1 regular season and an appearance in the AAC title game in 2020. A loss to Cincy and a bowl loss to Mississippi State took some time to get over, but the first win is in the books, at least.
The Golden Hurricane will start AAC play with two home games as they’ll have homecoming next weekend when Memphis pays a visit to Chapman Stadium.
The Golden Hurricane is favored by -3.5 points in this American Conference matchup.
Houston Cougars
The best unit on this field will be the Cougars’ defense, as they rank 3rd in the nation in passing defense and 5th in total yards allowed. Through 4 games the Cougars allow 16.3 ppg and that puts them at 23 in the nation so we know Tulsa will not have it easy.
Houston has taken the last two meetings and of course, their meeting last year was canceled due to covid-19 issues.
Houston opened conference play last weekend and a 28 – 20 win over Navy although it looked like Navy might take the win early. Houston found themselves down 17 – 14 going to the 4th quarter but the ground game took over, ironically, against the Naval Academy defense who certainly knows about running the ball.
Alton McCaskill had seen most of the carries during the game, but Ta’Zhawn Henry scored twice in the fourth quarter to ensure the 28 – 20 win for the Cougs. Mulbah Car was supposedly in line to be the guy coming out the backfield in 2021, but he has been limited to only 19 carries for 65 yards through the first 4 games of the season.
McCaskill and Henry were the only players to carry the ball outside of a few glances from QB Clayton Tune. Tune connected with 11 different receivers last weekend and certainly has a more reliable staff of ball-catchers around him.
Tulsa Golden Hurricane
The season obviously got off to a rocky start when anyone loses to an FCS program to start the year. Losing to UC Davis after all this team accomplished in 2020 was simply not in the 2021 playbook. The Canes gave OK State a tough battle and sort of held their own against the mighty Ohio State, but getting a win over Arkansas State last weekend did not come easily either. We are talking about a game that one score that could have changed the outcome and this could just as easily be an 0 – 4 Tulsa program.
Arkansas State held a 14 – 7 lead and outscored Tulsa in the second-half, 20 – 17, so this was certainly no easy win against a Sun Belt Conference squad last weekend.
Canes QB Davis Brin threw for 355 yards despite only completing 17 passes using 3 different receivers outside of Ezra Naylor’s grab for 24 yards. It is amazing to look at the receiver stats and basically have 3 receivers over 99 yards and basically nothing else to talk about.
Josh Johnson caught 9 balls for 127 yards.
Sam Crawford Jr. caught 2 balls for 105 yards and both of those were strikes in the end zone.
Juan Carlos Santana had 5 grabs for 99 yards and a score and Naylor’s one catch for 24 yards sums up the entire day.
That kind of limitation will certainly not help open the playbook when you have only 2 or 3 guys to rely on.
Shamari Brooks will certainly be relied on again to carry the ball, as he saw the ball 22 times last weekend even though he and Prince have shared most of the duties in the running game. Prince is only 5 carries behind Brooks (52 – 47) and they both average 5.2 yards per carry for the 46 ranked rushing offense that puts up 187.8 a game.
The Tulsa defensive numbers leave much to be desired as they rank 103rd in points allowed surrendering 30.5 ppg. The passing defense allows 247.5 and ranks 95 and their offense puts up 25.3 ppg which also has them ranked 95.
NCAA Football Handicapping Trends
- Cougars are 19-7-1 ATS in their last 27 games as a road underdog.
- Cougars are 10-4 ATS in their last 14 Friday games.
- The road team is 8-1 ATS in their last 9 meetings.
- Underdog is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 meetings.
- Under is 4-0 in the last 4 meetings in Tulsa.
- Under is 4-1 in Cougars last 5 games overall.
Free Week 5 NCAA Football Pick
Who set this line and what the hell is Tulsa even doing favored at all? Hey, I am a thinkdog kind of guy and this is certainly a spot we are going dog again.
4* Free Week 5 NCAA Betting Pick:
We will enjoy the points and expect Houston to possibly just take the win outright.
4* Free Week 5 NCAA Betting Pick: Houston +4.5
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