Houston hosts Washington State in week 3 college football betting action as 8.5 point home underdogs (5 dimes) this Friday night. The early money on this game has pushed the number from 6.5 to 8.5 as bettors jumped all over Wazzu.
This game is going to have a lot of points, there’s almost no way around it. Both Washington State and Houston have two of the more high-powered offenses in the country, while Houston’s defense could be as bad in the other direction.
It’s hard to get a good read on this Wazzu team given the two opening games against poor opposition. Either way, this offense looks primed for another huge season with quarterback Anthony Gordon, who has waited his turn the last few seasons as a backup.
His early numbers are a bit juiced (81.1 completion percentage), but this Air Raid seems to have success no matter who is leading the way. The receiving corps remains deep while Max Borghi looks like the lead back. This is a plug-and-play offense and there’s no reason to think Houston’s defense can slow it down.
Cougars Defense Torched by Jalen Hurts
The Houston Cougars were torched by Jalen Hurts in the opener and didn’t exactly look good against Prairie View last week. Unless something changes for this defense, it wouldn’t be surprising if Washington State put another 50-plus points on the board with 40 points a good minimum. The bigger question is how good Wazzu’s defense is because it hasn’t really been tested. It turned into a decent group last year, but still had some issues on the road, giving up 39 points to USC and 38 to Stanford.
Houston isn’t the same kind of team as those Pac-12 opponents, but it’s still one that has the potential to put up big numbers. There is somewhat of a worry given the early output for D’Eriq King in his first two starts with new head coach Dana Holgorsen.
This offense pretty much scored on every defense last year, but didn’t jump off the page against Oklahoma and didn’t consistently move the ball after scoring 24 points in the first quarter against Prairie View.
King Needs to Deliver thru Air
King’s passing remains a question, as he’s completing 54.7% of his passes for 5.8 yards per attempt. He’s still electric on the ground with top running back Kyle Porter, but sometimes that isn’t enough against better teams, which Washington State is.
Wazzu gave up a solid 136 rushing yards per game last year and have a lot of pieces from that group to reach similar numbers. If King can’t complete passes, it’s hard to see Houston reaching enough points to win this game.
Washington State is 8-1 ATS in its last nine September games, while the over is 4-0 in Houston’s last four following a straight-up win.
Our Pick – Houston +10 (if it goes that high)