After getting the taste of a two-game losing streak against the Oklahoma schools out of their mouths with a dominant 43-0 victory over Kansas, the No. 21 Texas Longhorns are -14 favorites this Saturday in a home game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Bettors have clearly come down on the Longhorns' side, as the line has already moved four points from where it opened at Texas -10.
The ground game, a struggle for Mack Brown's program ever since Jamaal Charles' departure, has become a strength for Texas. Against the Jayhawks, freshmen RB's Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron combined for 255 yards and 4 TD's on 41 carries.
For the second consecutive game, freshmen QB David Ash got the majority of the snaps, throwing for 148 yards on 14/18 passing with 1 INT. The Longhorns will likely try to protect their young QB again on Saturday, as the Red Raiders defense gave up 144 yards rushing in a shocking 41-7 home loss to Iowa State.
For Texas Tech, the big question is what team will show up to Darrell K. Royal Stadium. Will it be the one that stunned Oklahoma 41-38 in Norman, the biggest win in head coach Tommy Tuberville's tenure in Lubbock, or the one that returned home to national acclaim and face-planted against the Cyclones?
Tuberville has kept a lot of former coach Mike Leach's "Air Raid" concepts, and their passing offense, ranked 5th in the nation, will test a young Texas back seven which was burned by Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Seth Doege, a 6'1 200 junior QB, has put up impressive numbers in his first season as a starter: 2,779 passing yards with a 67.9% completion percentage, throwing for 22 TD's and only 6 INT's.
For the Longhorns, a win would clinch a bowl berth after last season's 5-7 debacle while a loss would raise questions about how deep a hole the program will have to dig out from to return to Big 12 contention.
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