Thursday night at 8:00pm ET, two Conference USA teams kick off the season with a division battle. Southern Methodist University will travel to Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas to take on the Rice Owls. The game will be June Jones first as head coach of SMU; Jones had served as the University of Hawaii's skipper the past nine years. College football picks odds at BetUS.com are favoring the home team Rice at -3.5.
June Jones took over a bottom feeder Hawaii football program in 1999 and turned it into a competitive force. SMU officials are hopeful he can work the same magic in Dallas, where the Mustangs finished 1-11 in 2007. The team is returning six starters from an offense that had no problems finding the end zone (28.3 points per game) and seven from a defense that seemed to enjoy showing opponents the end zone (39.8 points per game allowed in 2007). It is almost certain that Jones will have the offense scoring and scoring frequently; his real work will be on the defensive side of the ball where Tom Mason will serve as his coordinator.
Rice Head Coach David Bailiff (3-9 record) enters his second year with the program. Like SMU, the Owls were very adept at scoring last season, but they too had trouble keeping teams from returning fire. Rice posted a stellar 31.4 point per game average but countered that number with a dismal 42.9 points per game allowed. The offense should be high flying again as they return nine starters from a year ago.
The key match up here will be the Rice defense against the Mustang ground game. Rice recorded most of their gaudy stats last season through the air. SMU showed a little more versatility in their offense by cranking out 170 yards per game on the ground. The Rice defense yielded 198 yards rushing per game last year. It will be interesting to see how SMU's young offensive line performs against the Owls defensive line, which will start two sophomores at the end spots.
BetUS.com's line for Southern Methodist University vs Rice University:
SMU Mustangs +3.5 (-110), Over 71.5 (-110), +150 (Money line)
Rice Owls -3.5 (-110), Under 71.5 (-110), -170 (Money line)
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