College Football Betting – Texas Looking to Corral (5) TCU in Austin

(5) TCU Horned Frogs (-6.5, 56.5 o/u) at Texas Longhorns

The No. 5 TCU Horned Frogs (9-1, 6-1 Big 12) are tantalizingly close to a berth in the College Football Playoffs, sitting one spot out of the all-important top-four. As the selection process nears, all TCU can do is keep winning and hope for an upset at the top of the rankings.

Without a Big 12 championship game in which to wow the Selection Committee, TCU needs to sharpen its bona fides with a victory over the Texas Longhorns (6-5, 5-3 Big 12) on Thanksgiving, followed by a win against lackluster Iowa State (2-8).

TCU head coach Gary Patterson said, “Our job is to keep our nose down and to finish the journey. That’s what we’re trying to get accomplished.”

The Horned Frogs are led by quarterback and Heisman hopeful Trevone Boykin, who has led his team to nearly 46 points and more than 350 yards per game. While running back B.J. Catalon is questionable, Boykin, who ran for 123 yards and three touchdowns earlier in the month against then-No. 9 Kansas State, can pull up the slack.

As for the Longhorns, they had a dreadful start to the season – losing four of their first six – and mass panic started to sweep through Austin. However, they have salvaged what they can from a down year by winning three straight (all within the Big 12) and four of their last five. The Longhorns became bowl-eligible thanks to a win over Oklahoma State in their last game. Quarterback Tyrone Swoopes led the charge for the surging Longhorns, passing for 305 yards and two touchdowns. It’s the defense that has really caused the turnaround for Texas, though, giving up just 12 points over the last three.

Wide receiver John Harris said, “This is the best football we’ve played in November since I’ve been here. [The loss to Kansas State on Oct. 25] was a turning point for this team. We made up our minds we had to be better.”

That said, something has to give in this game. The Horned Frogs are on a five-game win streak and must win in order to keep Baylor and Kansas State at bay for the Big 12 title. Considering the Longhorns’ defense is stout, look for this game to, uncharacteristically, hit the under (56.5).

(Photo credit: Johntex (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)