NCAAF Matchups: With Johnny Manziel having departed to the NFL, conventional wisdom entering the season said that the Texas A&M Aggies would take a step back in 2014. Instead the great talent that head coach Kevin Sumlin has hauled in with his top ranked recruiting classes has kicked into gear and the Aggies actually look better than ever. The Rice Owls were crushed 48-17 in their season opener at Notre Dame and have had two weeks to heal and regroup.
The Texas A&M Aggies will host the Rice Owls at Kyle Field on Saturday night with coverage on ESPN2 starting at 9 PM ET. BetDSI opened with Texas A&M as a 30.5 point favorite.
Step Back for Rice?
Rice won the Conference USA Championship last year, which was their most successful season in over 50 years and it stands to figure that a program with such a long record of futility would be dropping back a notch after winning a title. Rice enters this game totally out-manned at each position.
“Kenny Football”
Texas A&M is 2-0 both straight up and against the spread and is coming off a 73-3 win over 1-AA Lamar that followed a statement making 52-28 win at South Carolina as new QB Kenny Hill has a 7 to zero TD/INT ratio.
Matchup and Pick
Rice has been a decent board value in road games recently with nine payouts in their last 14 away matchups as seven out of their last 10 away games have gone over the total. Texas A&M has been a reliable betting value at Kyle Field however with five payouts in their last eight home games as eight out of their last 10 home games have gone over the total. The Aggies have covered the spread in 11 out of their last 19 games as favorites of more than eight points with nine out of their last 11 games in that role going over the total. Rice has covered just 13out of their last 20 games as a dog of more than eight points with just eight out of their last 19 games in that role going under the total. Rice has covered both of their games with Texas A&M including last year in a 52-31 loss at Kyle field in which they got the money as 28 point dogs with the game going over the total of 69.5. We like the SEC powered Texas A&M Aggies (-30.5) and all of that five star talent this time however.
