Central Florida at Houston

Written by Steve Janus

This Friday the Central Florida Knights will look for their fifth consecutive win when they host the Houston Cougars in a game that will go a long way in deciding who plays in the Conference Championship. The Knights come in off an impressive 49-35 win over East Carolina, while the Cougars topped Memphis 56-17 for their second straight win. The home team is a perfect 3-0 in this series, with Central Florida taking home a 37-32 win last season. If you are thinking about betting on the game this weekend, the current college football odds have the Knights favored by 3-points over the Cougars on the road.

Central Florida (6-2, 4-0 C-USA): The Knights came out on fire on offense last week against the Pirates, scoring touchdown on their first four possessions to take a 28-14 halftime lead. The offense didn’t slow down much in the second half, scoring three more touchdowns to keep Eastern Michigan from having a chance to really get back in the game.

The Knights have really ran the ball well all season, and that didn’t change last week, as Ronnie Weaver rushed for a career-high 180 yards with two touchdowns, and Latavius Murray added 47 yards and three scores. Quarterback Jeffrey Godfrey hasn’t got a whole lot of chances to throw the ball this season, as he has just 121 attempts on the year, but he really played well last week, completing 8 of 12 for 159 yards and a season-best two touchdowns.

Last week was the first time this season that the defense allowed more than 21 points in a game, but a lot of that had to do with the Knights being so far ahead for most of the game. On the season Central Florida is allowing just 16.5 points a game, and have held their opponents to 17 or fewer points in all but two games this season.

Houston (5-3, 4-1 C-USA): The Cougars offense continues to roll under freshman quarterback David Piland, as they now lead the conference with a 41.5 scoring average. Last week against Memphis, Piland was nearly perfect completing 20 of 23 passes for 292 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. In his four starts this season, Piland has thrown for at least 233 yards in each game with 11 touchdowns to just three interceptions.

Piland also got some help in the running game, as Michael Hayes rushed for 123 yards and a touchdown, and Chris Wilson added another 95 yard on the ground. Houston finished the game with 651 yards of total offense and a ridiculous 37 first downs.

Defensively the Cougars have put back to back solid performances together, allowing just 34 points in their last two games. The main struggle for the Cougars has been stopping the run, as they come in allowing just over 194 yards a game. With the way the Knights have ran the ball this season, whether or not the Cougars can stop the run this week will likely decide who comes out on top.

Looking at the Odds: Not only do I think the Cougars are going to cover the spread this Friday, I think they are going to win this game outright. Houston is a perfect 7-0 ATS in home games when they score 28 or more points over the last 2 seasons, while UCF is just 14-42 ATS when they allow 28 or more points since 1992. With the way the Houston’s offense has looked of late, I don’t think there is any way they score less than 28 points in this game. My final score prediction is Houston 42, UCF 38.

Comments

One Response to “Central Florida at Houston”

NBA Tickets on November 2nd, 2010 8:32 AM

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