Caleb Wilfinger
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After a long and eventful college football regular season, the most wonderful time of the year is here. Bowl season has arrived and with it comes a myriad of interesting games between teams that we don’t often see paired up against each other in a neutral site setting. This year’s installment of the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl features the UTSA Roadrunners against the Marshall Thundering Herd. Will the Roadrunners finish off their season with a flourish or can Marshall pull off the upset? Let’s get into it.
Here is my UTSA vs Marshall Same Game Parlay for Tuesday’s matchup, which will be televised starting at 9:00 pm ET on ESPN. Also, be sure to check out our full UTSA vs Marshall predictions.
UTSA -11.5 (-110)
Under 52.5 (-110)
Kevorian Barnes to record a touchdown (-136)
NCAAF Same Game Parlay odds: +452
One of the benefits of Same Game Parlays, of course, is that you don’t have to correlate the plays and your odds will increase as a result. That is some of the plan here, as the game going under doesn’t necessarily correlate with UTSA winning by a margin and Kevorian Barnes scoring a touchdown. Let’s break down each of the legs.
UTSA Roadrunners -11.5 over Marshall Thundering Herd (-110)
After a long and fruitful career at UTSA, this game marks the final start of Frank Harris’ career under center. The longtime Roadrunners quarterback has put up video-game-type numbers all season long and he should lead this electric offense (top 40 in success rate and EPA per play per CFB-Graphs) to putting up another crooked number against an inferior opponent. Harris and the offense should see success, while a greatly improved Roadrunners defense should feast against a Marshall offense that is outside the top 100 in a myriad of categories.
Additionally, the real driving force behind this leg of the parlay is the absence of Marshall QB Cam Fancher, who hit the transfer portal at the start of bowl season. Fancher threw for 2,155 yards, 11 TDs and 11 INTs, while running for 277 yards and 4 scores in the process, and I expect a significant downgrade to the backup at this position. Let’s roll with a red-hot Roadrunners team on Monday.
Under 52.5 (-110)
UTSA cashed the under in 3 of its last 4 regular-season games and the total stayed low in 5 of the final 7 games. And as we mentioned, Fancher will not be in at quarterback in this game for Marshall. In steps true freshman Cole Pennington under center, and he had a disaster 6 INTs with zero TDs in his 3 appearances this season. The team will lean heavily on RB Rasheen Ali, who rolled for 1,037 yards and 14 TDs on the ground. Under bettors love a run-intensive offense that keeps the clock moving throughout the game. As it stands, the Thundering Herd have cashed the under in 4 of their last 6 regular-season games, and the offense accounted for 9 or fewer points in those 4 under results. Let’s go with the under in a game that should have fewer possessions than most fans would think.
Don’t miss our NCAAF picks for EVERY bowl game
Kevorian Barnes to record a touchdown (-136)
UTSA’s offense is multi-faceted and can beat you in a number of different ways. And while we can expect Harris to see success through the air, the Roadrunners do want to run the ball with regularity throughout the contest. That’s where Kevorian Barnes comes in. The top running back for Jeff Traylor’s team has 6 touchdowns on the season, to go along with 698 yards on 139 carries (good for an average of 5 yards per carry). Barnes also came on strong as the season neared its conclusion, racking up a combined 221 yards and 2 touchdowns on 28 carries over his past 2 starts. I’d expect him to pick up at least a few goal-line carries on Monday, so let’s go with Barnes to find the end zone.
