C-USA: WKU vs North Texas 10/29/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and North Texas Mean Green do battle Saturday in a week 9 C-USA college football game from Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.

The North Texas Mean Green will look to rebound from a 31-27 loss to UTSA to drop the Mean Green to 3-4 on the year as a result. Austin Aune has thrown for 2,017 yards, 20 touchdowns and 9 interceptions on 55.1% passing while Ayo Adeyi and Oscar Adaway III have combined for 1,107 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. Roderic Burns leads North Texas’ receiving group with 28 grabs for 541 yards while Jyaire Shorter has 350 receiving yards and a team-high 6 touchdowns. Var’Keyes Gumms also has 317 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns this season. On defense, KD Davis has a team-high 84 total tackles including 49 solo tackles while Larry Nixon III has 54 total tackles this season. Mazin Richards has a team-high 6.5 sacks and Roderick Brown has 4 sacks while Ridge Texada has 3 interceptions this season.

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers will try to build on back-to-back wins, improving to 4-3 with a 20-17 win over UAB last time out. Austin Reed has thrown for 2,442 yards, 21 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on 70.4% passing while Kye Robichaux has a team-high 458 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns this season. Daewood Davis has a team-high 606 receiving yards with 5 touchdowns while Malachi Conley has 50 catches for 604 yards and 6 touchdowns. Michael Mathison also has 35 grabs for 346 receiving yards this season. On defense, JaQues Evans has a team-high 63 total tackles including 42 solo tackles while also logging a team-high 4.5 sacks. Kahlef Hailassie and Derrick Smith each have 3 sacks apiece as well this season. Hailassie, Kaleb Oliver and Upton Stout also have a pair of interceptions each as well this season.

North Texas is 10-1 ATS in their last 11 conference games and 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games on turf. Western Kentucky is 8-3 ATS in their last 11 home games and 20-8 ATS in their last 28 games overall and 4-0 ATS in their last 4 conference games while the over is 37-18 in their last 55 home games.

I get the case to be made either way in this game, but I think the better play in this game is the under. These are two teams that have a lot of potential offensively while the defense has left something to be desired, especially for North Texas. However, this total just feels too high as I do expect points, but I think we top out here in the low- to mid-60s, so I’ll side with the under in this one.