NCAA FOOTBALL BETTING PREDICTION - TEXAS LONGHORNS @ TEXAS TECH RAIDERS

NCAA Football

2008-11-01 - Texas Longhorns at Texas Tech Raiders

A Sports Betting Pick by Luccin

#1 Texas Longhorns (8-0)
@ #5 Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-0)
Venue: Lubbock, Texas
Saturday November 1st, 2008 - Kickoff 8:00 PM ET

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This is possibly the biggest game of the season so far, the winner will almost certainly take a slot in the Big XII title game and from there a shot at the national title is clear.

The loser of this game knows that their season is done. Big games call for big players, which side has them?

Previous Matchups

2007 Texas 59-43 Texas Tech
2006 Texas Tech 31-35 Texas
2005 Texas 52-17 Texas Tech
2004 Texas Tech 21-51 Texas
2003 Texas 43-40 Texas Tech

All time Texas lead 42-14

Texas Longhorns :

What a season so far for the Longhorns, many had them ranked no better than 4th in the Big XII coming into the season but they have shown amazing skills to be the number 1 team in the country at this point.

An unbelievable run in the last three weeks has seen them beat Oklahoma, Missouri and Oklahoma State, all teams who have a real shot at finishing in the top ten. Only this game stands between the Horns and an unbeaten season, the rest of the schedule is fairly soft.

The key to the game is star QB Colt McCoy, leading candidate for the Heisman, so far this year he ahs completed an incredible 82% of his passes and thrown for 21 TD's against 4 int's, simply amazing. The running game on the other hand does not feature highly, although Texas have proven to be solid at punching it in from scoring position.

Defence, the Big XII doesn't do defence although Texas have given up the fewest yards in spite of playing a tough schedule.
Texas will score on nearly every play, the key will be how often they stop their opponents from scoring.

Texas Tech Red Raiders :

Several pundits, myself included, had the Raiders down as an outside shot for the BigXII title this year, an easy schedule coupled with a potent atttack meant that the situation was in perfect harmony for a run, all has gone to plan so far but this is by far the biggest test.

The schedule has been weak with wins over 2 FCS schools which is a disgrace. They have handled all their opponents with ease but only Nebraska would have been considered a quality opponent.

Like Texas the offence is all about one man, Graham Harrell, whoever wins this game will probably go on to win the Heisman trophy.

Harrell has “only” completed 71% of his passes but with 3147 yards, 28 TD's and only 5 interceptions he is possibly the best QB outside of the NFL. Like their opponents the running game is almost irrelevant with no player going over 60 yards a game.

Of more concern will be the defence, since conference play started every opponent has managed at least 3 TD's and they rank only 59th in the country in this category.

If the defence can step up and play the game of their season then Tech could be on the good end of a famous victory.

The Verdict :

This should be a total shootout, both QB's will have a big day but in the end Texas will have that little extra to beat the Raiders

In my opinion the line has been set at a fairly generous 3.5 points in favour of Texas.

The Pick :

BEST BETTING TIP :

also consider Texas to win 1.621