Rice Western Kentucky Odds

A rare opening week conference matchup comes to us as the Rice Owls travel to face the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in Conference USA action Thursday night. The game kicks off at 8:00 pm ET from L.T. Smith Stadium in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The contest will be televised on the CBS Sports Network. The current odds show Western Kentucky as a 16 point favorite with the over/under set at 63 points in this contest.

The teams have met once previously, with that matchup coming last season. Western Kentucky pulverized the Owls, rolling to a 49-10 win en route to a Conference USA title.

Rice finished the 2015 season 5-7 and missed out on a bowl game. The losing campaign was the school’s first since 2011. Western Kentucky finished the year with a school-record 12 wins under coach Jeff Brohm. In addition to the conference crown, the Hilltoppers outgunned South Florida 45-35 in the Miami Beach Bowl.

Early Lean on Western Kentucky -16

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Rice brings back 16 starters from last year’s team but they have to come up with pieces at skill positions. That starts at quarterback, where the Owls may turn to senior Tyler Stehling. He completed 50 percent of his pass attempts for 320 yards with a touchdown and two picks last season.

Defensively, Rice was terrible as they were 110th in the nation in scoring defense. The Owls lack the weapons to overcome allowing 35.8 points per game. Rice allowed 460.3 yards per game on the road last season and went 2-4 as the visitors. Don’t get too excited about the fact that Rice won two road games: they beat North Texas and Florida Atlantic as a visitor. Those teams combined to go 4-20 last season. Even more painful for Rice, at least as far as this contest goes, is the fact that Rice allowed 308.4 yards and four touchdowns a game through the air in their seven losses.

Western Kentucky’s fast paced, high octane offense may slow down slightly this season. Brandon Doughty, who tossed for 5,055 yards with 48 touchdowns against nine picks last year, graduated. That means either Nelson Fishback, who has 26 pass attempts in his career, or transfers Mike White and Jesse Ferguson will get the keys to an offense that scored 620 points last year. Whoever it is that gets that opportunity has a ton of talent at the skill positions.

The Hilltoppers have a trio of terrific running backs, especially if Leon Allen has recovered from a knee injury that knocked him out in week two last year. In his stead, Anthony Wales and DeAndre Ferby proved more than capable of cranking out yards. A pair of big time receiving options returns to keep Western Kentucky humming along. Taywan Taylor and Nicholas Norris, who combined for 149 grabs for 2,431 yards and 23 scores last year, will make the transition from Doughty a painless one.

Western Kentucky may not average 44.3 points a game again this season. They still have more than enough weapons to outscore most teams on any given day. It’s a safe bet that they’ll be right in the hunt for another Conference USA crown. If their defense improves even slightly, the Hilltoppers are that much more dangerous to opposing teams.

The Hilltoppers are 4-0 ATS in their last four overall, 5-1 ATS in their last six at home and 8-2-1 ATS in their last 11 conference games. Rice is 1-4 ATS in their last five conference games, 1-4-1 ATS in their last six overall and 0-5 ATS in their last five on Thursday.

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