A Betting Deep Dive Of The Most Interesting College Football Game On The Card

Houston Baptist... Louisiana Tech...

Tell me how excited you are.

Well, I'm excited. This game has more to the eye then you might think. Currently LA Tech is a 24 point favorite and the total is 73.5. If you're in PA, go download the Barstool Sportsbook app and bet NOW. 

Houston Baptist is playing their final two game of the season this week and next week. With no Southland Conference play this year they decided to play a few pay games against quality opponents including 1 Big 12 team. I expect them to hold nothing back and go for it against a team that I think, they think they can compete with. Houston Baptist is electric. They run a Kliff Kingsbury/Mike Leach style air raid offense that allows QB Bailey Zappe to put up monster numbers. In their last game against Texas Tech, he threw for 567 yards and 4 TD's. Through 2 games, he's thrown for 1,047 yards, 7 TDs and winged it around 111 times. One thing I love about HBU as well is the receiver group. Brothers Jerreth and Josh Stearns are big, quick wideouts who have combined already for 30 catches. Josh had 5 catches for 209 yards against Texas Tech! Zappe has a plethora of players to go to. Expect them to air it out against a La Tech secondary that got pillaged last year in the draft and are extremely young. L'Jarius Sneed and Amik Robertson were the heart and soul of this defense. They're now long gone to the NFL. Last week Southern Miss QB Jack Abraham did what he wanted and I worry here about another good QB doing what he wants. . 

The issue Houston Baptist obviously has is on the defensive end. They are extremely susceptible and have been torched giving up 90 points in 2 games. The biggest issue has been the amount of big plays they give up. They've allowed 17 plays of 20 or more yards, 5 of those plays turned into TD's. The LA Tech skill players are good and should be able to overpower HBU and cash in on some of those big plays. LA Tech has played with 2 QB's and its worked for the most part. Luke Anthony, the transfer from Abilene Christian seems like the guy to get most of the snaps. He led the game winning drive last week and seems to be the more natural QB and has a better ability to attack a porous defense. Anthony also faced HBU last season and was 30-43 for 280 and 3 TDS in a 45-20 win. 

Pace is also something I have my eye on here. I talked about the ability for both offenses to do what they want. Pace though should be fast as well. Last week LA Tech ran 80 plays which was good for 11th in the county out of the 47 teams that played. Skip Holtz teams usually play fast, last year they were 28th in play ran per game. Houston Baptist is quick strike and should be forced to go fast to keep up. 

This game is fascinating because of the offenses, but also because of the tenacity and toughness Houston Baptist has played with. This is the last game against a good opponent for a team with a ton of optimism. Throw the kitchen sink at La Tech! Add in the fact also that they are getting 24 points and had a week off to prepare has me feeling good that we see plenty of points. They are never out of game, just ask Texas Tech who was a 39 point favorite and had to fend off a late two point conversion to beat the Huskies. LA Tech is young in the secondary but has plenty of capabilities on offense. Tech will get what they want and they will go back and forth. I get the feeling this is a 48-31 type of game.  

I'm gonna die on the Houston Baptist OVER hill... lets see how it goes.

As always, bet responsibly.