The Baylor Bears travel to the Bounce House to face the UCF Knights in a Friday night showdown. If you have never watched a Friday night game in Orlando, be sure to tune in, because it is wild, fun, and silly. There are a lot of storylines here in this game too, as both teams come in with 4-3 marks and 2-2 records in conference play. The Knights are really tough at home, as they proved last week by knocking off conference favorite BYU. But will there be a letdown after such a huge win? The Bears, on the other hand, took a tough road loss at Kansas, and then fired head coach Dave Aranda. Much of what you do with this game has to do with how you think the Bears respond after their coach was let go. I think the best play in this game is to take the game total over 48.5.
One of the failures of Aranda was a slavish devotion to analytics, especially when it came to going for it on 4th down. Baylor seemingly always goes for it, often when they should be taking 3 points instead. I expect to see them take points more often. There is a lot of upside to this Baylor offense, and we might see that get unlocked a bit more. UCF has found a nice balance to their offensive attack, something they will need against a talented Baylor defense. But playing at home on a Friday night in front of a very rowdy crowd, I expect UCF to find some big plays and push the scoring. I would imagine this game should easily climb into the mid-20s for both teams.
Baylor vs UCF Prediction: Over 48.5 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable to over 50.5.
