AAC Championship Total Prediction
The Memphis Tigers will get another crack at the UCF Knights on Saturday afternoon in the AAC Championship Game at 3:30 p.m. ET. Will the game produce another high-scoring game or will the two defenses show up?
Game Snapshot
309 Memphis Tigers at 310 UCF Knights
3:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, December 1, 2018
Spectrum Stadium, Orlando, Florida
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Knights are 3-point favorites to beat the Tigers. The total, meanwhile, sits at 65 points. As of this writing, 59% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Knights.
Memphis Tigers
Memphis redshirt junior QB Brady White threw for 226 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions on 18-of-31 passing in a 28-18 victory over SMU on Friday. We’ve seen plenty of highs and plenty of lows for White in 2018. We saw a bit of both for the redshirt junior against the Mustangs on Friday. He had completed 70 percent of his passes in his last two contests, but he wasn’t nearly as accurate against SMU, and his two interceptions almost became costly. White clearly has talent, but his inconsistency is one of the reasons why the Tigers have been such an up and down team in 2018. He’ll close out the year against Houston next Friday.
UCF Knights
UCF junior QB McKenzie Milton is dealing with nerve damage in his injured right knee. Milton’s parents released a statement shedding a bit of light as to where the quarterback is at with his severe knee injury sustained against USF on Saturday, passing along that the junior signal-caller’s blood flow has been restored in the right leg. Though Milton did suffer nerve damage in that right knee, his parents said that the nerve itself remains intact. He will be undergoing a reconstructive surgery “at a later time.” Milton told teammates that he was able to take steps in the hospital over the weekend, but his will be a long, long recovery. We will keep tabs on his progress over the offseason. At this juncture, it’s impossible to know whether the quarterback will be healthy enough to play football at the start of the 2019 season.
Betting Trends
Memphis
The over is 10-1 in the Tigers’ last 11 games after accumulating more than 450 total yards in their previous game.
Central Florida
The under is 4-0 in the Knights’ last four games after allowing less than 170 yards passing in their previous game.
Prediction
With Milton out for the season the Knights will turn to redshirt freshman Darriel Mack under center for Saturday’s game. Mack entered last Friday’s game against USF and was not efficient as a passer but was effective as a runner. While coach Josh Heupel usually puts the ball in the air to move his offense, he’ll need to construct a game plan centered on Mack’s rushing ability. Memphis also has an incredible ground game thanks to Darrell Henderson, who rushed for 178 yards and two scores in the team’s victory last week over SMU. With both teams focused on their running game, I like the under on Saturday. In the last eight meetings between these two teams, the under is 5-2-1 and is also 7-1 the Knights’ last eight games.
AAC Championship Game Prediction: Memphis/UCF under 65