Texas vs. USC Spread Prediction
The Texas Longhorns have not looked overly impressive in their first two games, losing to Maryland on the road and then failing to cover as a massive favorite last week versus Tulsa. Will the Longhorns finally impress when they host the USC Trojans at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight?
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 3.5-point favorites to beat the Trojans. The total, meanwhile, sits at 46.5 points. As of this writing, 52% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Trojans.
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 Trojan s are 0-6 against the spread in their last six non-conference games and are 0-5 at the betting window in their last five games played in the month of September.
Texas
The Longhorns are 2-5 against the spread in their last seven games played overall.
Prediction
While Texas hasn’t looked overly impressive to start the season, neither has USC, which failed to cover the spread in booth of its games. The Longhorns had an opportunity to beat the Trojans last year in Los Angeles, but USC escaped with a victory in double overtime. While the Trojans are coming off a physical game against Stanford, Texas played Tulsa a week ago, so I expect the Longhorns to come out relatively fresh and motivated in this revenge spot. I’ll lay the small number but buy the hook.
College Football Prediction: Texas Longhorns -3 (buy hook)