Thursday night college football betting action at America’s Bookie offers a couple of very interesting challenges. One of the two games is going to have some affect on the national championship derby, but it’s the other one that might be a little more intriguing.
Both of these games start at 7:30 PM ET in the Lone Star State. Let’s first talk about the game that could have a real impact on who eventually wins the national title. The TCU Horned Frogs, who are ranked #5 in the latest Playoff Rankings, pay a visit to the Texas Longhorns, who are trying to initiate a revival under first-year head coach Charlie Strong.
We can have endless discussions as to why TCU is rated ahead of Baylor, which beat the Frogs in head-to-head competition with that furious comeback in the last five minutes, but the fact remains that there is a very real opportunity for TCU to slip into one of those four spots in the playoff. This game also could provide TCU with a share of the Big 12 title.
Texas lost its quarterback very early in the season, when David Ash had to bow out with concussion problems. There were a number of other injuries the Longhorns had to deal with, and that, coupled with some of the disciplinary expulsions by Strong, left the ‘Horns rather shorthanded. This is a team that was good enough to play some talented squads very close, like UCLA (lost 20-17) and Oklahoma (fell by a 31-26 score). And they are coming off three impressive wins, where they also covered against the America’s Bookie college football betting odds. One of those came against West Virginia, which gave TCU a real scare. But Texas also failed, particularly on the offensive end, when facing higher level squads like Baylor and Kansas State, which beat the Longhorns by a combined 51-7 score. This team is bowl-eligible right now, but can they beat TCU?
Remember that Trevone Boykin is a game-breaker, with 24 touchdown passes, and this team has averaged 45 points a game playing at a fast pace, with perhaps its most impressive moment coming against Kansas State, with a three-touchdown victory which was sandwiched by close calls against West Virginia and Kansas. Tyrone Swoopes, who had to take over for Ash, has been hot-and-cold; he’s 59% accurate, with 12 touchdown passes, but he really doesn’t produce all that much on the ground, at least not what you would be hoping for. He’s not nearly as refined as Boykin is at this point in time. We wonder whether Texas can really hang on this kind of a stage. In the college football betting odds that a been established in America’s Bookie, they are seven-point underdog at home.
LSU has to be in a very angry mood after being shut out 17-0 by Arkansas in its last outing. Remember that the Razorbacks have lost 17 straight games in SEC competition before beating the Bayou Bengals. Now the Tigers take on the Texas A&M Aggies, who started out the season like a house afire but have cooled off considerably. Last season it was a 34-10 LSU victory, despite the presence of former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel at the helm of the Aggies, and to show how crazy Texas A&M’s season has been, they played horrible enough to lose 59-0 to Alabama, but well enough to beat Auburn (last year’s national runner-up) two weeks ago.
What will be the telltale sign here? Well, maybe it is the fact that Texas A&M does not play stingy defense, as evidenced by the 5.1 yards per carry it allows. Missouri trampled all over the Aggies a couple of weeks ago, with 335 rushing yards. Remember that LSU can throw two or three running backs at the opposition, and one of them is the outstanding freshman, Leonard Fournette, who has 745 yards, which is deceiving because he may have had a lot more if he’d have been at a different program. LSU ranks fifth in the nation in scoring defense, so there are edges they carry into this game on both sides of the football. That’s probably why they are a three-point favorite (priced at -120) at America’s Bookie, and may be worth a pop.
