Under the Radar Underdog Play for College Football Week 10

Week 10 of college football features some big marquee games and ranked match-ups but one game that isn’t included in that list is a Conference USA matchup between Florida International and North Texas. Well, this game is a marquee for me and my card this weekend as I really like the underdog play in this one. First, we’ll get into a game breakdown and then get into which side I’ve had circled since the start of the week.

Game Preview

The Panthers of Florida International enter this week with a (4-4) record and will head to take on the second-place team in the conference in North Texas who have a (5-4) record. Both teams enter this week coming off high-scoring conference wins setting up an entertaining matchup.

FIU started the season slowly with a (2-4) record but has since won two games in a row scoring a combined 76 points in those games. The main reason for this offensive outburst is the high-level play of starting quarterback Grayson James. On the season James has thrown for 11 touchdowns and 6 interceptions but in the last two weeks, he has thrown for a total of 627 passing yards with 6 touchdowns and completed 70% of his passes.

James will have the chance to continue this momentum since North Texas is currently 120th in the country in yards allowed with an average of 472.9 per game. The true strength and reason for their position in second place is the Mean Green offense. This offense, led by quarterback Austin Aune, is averaging 32.6 points per game and putting up an average of 271.8 passing yards a game.

North Texas also has two runningbacks with over 500 rushing yards on the season which is a nice matchup for them against a mediocre at best Panthers rush defense.

The Play for the Game

Florida International opened as 21.5-point underdogs and currently sits at (+21) which, is my play for this game. I really like the Panthers here as road underdogs with the way they have been playing as of late. This FIU team is 4-1 ATS in the last five games they have played.

I think North Texas definitely has talent and they come in this week off a nice win but the momentum the Panthers have right now with their quarterback play I think is more than enough to keep this game within three touchdowns. This could certainly be another high-scoring Conference USA game but I think the Panthers can keep pace with the Mean Green.

The Mean Green is averaging 1.6 turnovers per game and an inability to protect the football makes bigger numbers like this hard to cover. The Panthers are averaging 1.4 takeaways a game and are 5-2 ATS in the last seven matchups between these two teams so I am all over the Panthers in this under-the-radar game.