College Football Betting – Weekend Preview

Last week, four games featured two teams in the top 25; and all four were decided by 10 points or more.

This week, only one game features two top-25 opponents; but the schedule is loaded with intriguing matchups.

Here’s a look at two of the best games coming up this Saturday in college football betting.

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#6 Texas Longhorns at Texas Tech Red Raiders

Last season, the Texas Longhorns went undefeated and played in the National Championship Game. To repeat that feat, the Longhorns must overcome their first real obstacle of the season; a trip to Lubbock to take on their rivals, the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

On the surface, there isn’t much of a problem with being off to a 2-0 SU start. But the Texas Longhorns got off to slow starts against both Wyoming and Rice, which is part of the reason they are sitting at 0-2 ATS.

Quarterback Garret Gilbert, Colt McCoy’s replacement, hasn’t been bad in his first two games and hasn’t thrown any interceptions; but he also has only one touchdown pass, and will likely be called upon to do more against Texas Tech.

Since 2008, the Texas Longhorns have a remarkable regular season record of 26-1 SU (14-12-1 ATS). The one game in the loss column was a 39-33 loss to Texas Tech the last time they visited Lubbock back on November 1, 2008. While the key players on these two teams are very different from their 2008 counterparts, the game is once again an extremely important one in deciding the Longhorns’ fate for the season.

The Tommy Tuberville era is off to a nice 2-0 (1-1 ATS) start. After a tough test in Week 1 against the high-powered offense of SMU, Texas Tech went on the road and got an easy 52-17 win and cover over New Mexico. Quarterback Taylor Potts has had an excellent start to the season, passing for 652 yards over the first two games with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 7-to-0.

With an 8-4 (6-5 ATS) regular season record last season and an 11-1 (5-4-1 ATS) record in 2008 (including a 12-4 SU record in Big-12 play over the two-year span), the Texas Tech Red Raiders clearly have the talent to be near the top of the Big-12.

But much of their success over the last few seasons has been credited to ex-coach Mike Leach; games like this week’s against rival Texas will serve as a good measuring stick for Tuberville.

#9 Iowa Hawkeyes at #24 Arizona Wildcats

The Iowa Hawkeyes visit the Arizona Wildcats this weekend in the only matchup between two top-25 teams this week. Who will win the battle between Arizona’s high-octane offense and the Iowa Hawkeyes’ shut-down defense?

With games against Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State coming at home this season, this trip to Arizona is arguably the toughest road game on Iowa’s schedule. While it won’t affect their Big-10 standings, if Iowa wants to keep their National Championship hopes alive, they’ll need a win. The defense seems to have picked up where it left off last season, surrendering only 14 total points in two weeks.

At 2-0 SU to start this season (1-0 ATS), the Iowa Hawkeyes are now 20-6 SU and 15-8 ATS since 2008. Finishing 7-4 ATS in both 2008 and 2009, Iowa has been a consistent moneymaker for their backers over the last few seasons. Last season, Iowa hosted Arizona, and won the game 27-17. The Hawkeyes dominated time-of-possession at 37:56 to 22:04.

The Arizona Wildcats put up a good fight in 2009, but after falling to Oregon, they kept their unwanted reputation as the only team in the Pac-10 to never earn a Rose Bowl berth. Arizona has looked extremely sharp in tune-up games against Toledo and The Citadel, improving to 2-0 (1-0 ATS) and winning the games by a combined score of 93-8.

A win over Iowa wouldn’t bring Arizona any closer to a Pac-10 Title in the standings, but it would definitely boost confidence and get some buzz going in Tucson. In last season’s matchup against Iowa, Arizona started the game with Matt Scott at quarterback, but made the switch to Nick Foles when Scott couldn’t get anything going on offense.

Foles has been great in the starting role since, and will get his shot to start against Iowa this time.