Marshall vs Rice College Football Spread/Handicapping
The Marshall Thundering Herd are no surprise to be in the Conference USA Championship this season. They outdueled East Carolina to get here but find a surprising opponent in Rice.
CONFERENCE USA FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Marshall Thundering Herd (9-3) vs. Rice Owls (903)
Saturday December 7
Rice Stadium – Houston, TX
12:00PM
Moneyline: Marshall -180, Rice +205
Spread: Marshall -5
O/U: 61
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The Owls matched the Thundering Herd’s 7-1 conference mark and in a depleted CUSA West came out on top.
Neither of these team’s has a particularly strong defense so this game should be a back and forth CUSA special.
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No BCS implications but it should be a pretty evenly matched game and as a result nice to watch
Marshall
The Thundering Herd had a very good season. All three of their losses were on the road against reasonable opponents by a combined total of 13 points.
This team definitely wants to put points up on the board and finished the season 8th in the nation averaging 44ppg.
The weird thing about those totals is that QB Rakeem Cato had a more productive year last year year when he threw for more than 4000 yards, with more touchdowns. This year they are much more balanced and actually finished the season ranked 21st in both rushing and passing offense – weird.
These teams did not meet this season but they did last year when they played to a scoreboard busting 54-51 win by Marshall. That game was at Rice too.
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For me the only reason to pause on backing Marshall again this time around is that they have struggled on the road some this season.
Rice
The Rice Owls get full marks for making it to the CUSA championship game, I don’t think anyone saw that coming. No they are not a dominating team but they are very effective on both sides of the ball and their losses are acceptable with two of them being to Texas A&M and Houston, both good teams.
Unlike Marshall, the Owls are more run heavy featuring an attack that was 17th in the nation running the ball.
He is not a huge threat like some other quarterbacks around the nation but QB Taylor McHargue makes good decisions with the ball and usually gets positive yardage when he runs. More importantly he has mastered the art of not turning it over too as the senior has just 13 interceptions over the last two seasons combined as a starter.
On defense the Owls are pretty good too giving up just 22ppg. That is half the Thundering Herd’s season average so something is going to have to give on Saturday.
If they can get off to a good start they will have the crowd behind them and that has to count for something
C-USA Title Game Spread Pick: Marshall -5
O/U Pick: Over
Score Prediction: Marshhall 42 – Rice 31
