USC vs. Texas Total Prediction
The Pac-12 will take on the Big 12 on Saturday night when the Texas Longhorns host the USC Trojans at 8:00 p.m. ET. Will the game turn into a defensive struggle for bettors?
Game Snapshot
201 USC Trojans at 202 Texas Longhorns
8:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, September 15, 2018
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Longhorns are 3-point favorites to beat the Trojans. The total, meanwhile, sits at 48 points. As of this writing, 52% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Longhorns.
USC Trojans
USC freshman QB J.T. Daniels (hand) was a full participant in Tuesday’s practice. Daniels bruised his hand against Stanford over the weekend, but he was able to throw on Monday and has now stepped up to a normal practice workload. Full speed ahead to start against the Longhorns on Saturday. USCfootball.com’s Keely Eure passes along that backup Matt Fink did appear to be taking more reps than usual on Tuesday, which allowed Daniels to rest when needed. Fink would work as starter versus Texas if the true freshman isn’t ready come Saturday, but so far, so good.
Texas Longhorns
Texas sophomore QB Sam Ehlinger completed 21-of-27 passes for 237 yards and two touchdowns in Saturday’s 28-21 win over Tulsa. Ehlinger also added 51 yards and a score on the ground. The sophomore drew the start over Shane Buechele and played well enough to stay in the game the entire time. Ehlinger was much better in tonight’s win than last weeks loss to Maryland. Lil’Jordan Humphrey scored from 40 yards out and running back Tre Watson scored a red zone touchdown on a Ehlinger pass. With the win, Ehlinger is definitely the favorite to start next weekend against USC, but if he struggles, Buechele is likely to enter.
Betting Trends
USC
The over is 7-3 in the Trojans’ last 10 games overall.
Texas
The under is 4-1 in the Longhorns’ last five games played in September and is 37-18-1 in their last 56 home games.
Prediction
This should be a defensive struggle throughout. The Longhorns rank 113th in red-zone offense and 112th in third-down percentage. USC has struggled offensively as well under Daniels, who is currently banged-up. USC also owns an outstanding defense, ranking 18th nationally in passing yards allowed (140.0). This Texas offense could only score 28 points against a bad Tulsa team last week at home. I don’t expect the Longhorns to suddenly turn it only offensively on Saturday night against a top defense.
College Football Prediction: USC/Texas under 48