There are just two ranked matchups today, and one of those was between two SEC big shots, and then this one between two Big 12 teams. The Big 12 hasn’t gotten a ton of love this season, but there are four teams in the top 14 of the national rankings. You could make an argument that this is the best conference in college football. It wouldn’t be a great argument, but you could make it.

Tonight we have Houston taking on Utah in one of the best matchups of the day.

The Houston Cougars come into the game with a 3-1 record and as the 14th-ranked team in the country. Their lone loss this year was against Texas Tech in a very close road game. They lost the game 28-26, clearly putting up a strong fight. It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing for the team, though. They’ve won the past four weeks, beating Georgia Southern by 14 points, then UCF by 10 the following week.

In the past two weeks, the team has taken down Kansas State and Oklahoma State. Against Kansas State, they won by 19 points on the road. Against the Cowboys, they won by just three. In fairness to Houston, they entered the fourth quarter with an 11-point lead over Oklahoma State. The Cowboys put up 14 points in the quarter, but a Houston touchdown gave them a lead Oklahoma State could never get passed.

The Utah Utes, the worst-named team in football, are 6-0 and the 10th-ranked team in the country. This will be the toughest game they’ve played to date, and it might be one they were already focused. Last week they took on Colorado on the road, but won 27-24. I think Utah might’ve already been thinking about this game, because the Buffaloes aren’t even close to being as good as the Utes. Sometimes teams just have bad games, but that’s okay.

Utah has also beaten Kansas, Iowa State, Utah State, Arkansas, and Idaho this season. The only game that was within one score was the Colorado game. Their next closest game was against Iowa State, also a road game, where they still won by 14 points. At home this season, they’ve won by an average of 33.8 points.

Their team is built around quarterback Devon Dampier. He has completed about 69% of passes this season with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has also run for another three scores this season. He does a bit of everything for the team, and Houston will have their hands full trying to stop him.

This game features two really good offenses. Connor Weigman from the Cougars is one of the better quarterbacks in the league. He has 20 touchdown passes this season in seven games. Dampier might be slowed down a bit, but I doubt he can be stopped altogether. I expect the two teams to both challenge all three levels repeatedly. I’m going to take the over 56.5 in this game.

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