College Football Predictions: Tulsa vs. UCF Preview

Written by Jake Thompson
Thursday, 03 November 2011 00:51

Our predictions will try to peg down the final score in Thursday’s college football game between Tulsa and UCF.

The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (5-3) and the UCF Knights (4-4) won’t be one of the Thursday college football games covered by ESPN, but that won’t stop us from making predictions in what we think is the easiest clash of the day to call.  The Tulsa vs. UCF game will be shown live on the CBS Sports Network and start time is set for 8:00 PM ET.

The Knights started their season off with consecutive wins over Charleston Southern and Boston College, but then dropped road games against Florida International and BYU.  UCF rebounded with a win over Marshall before losing two more in a row against SMU and UAB.  The Knights are coming off a 41-0 win over Memphis but really don’t seem as consistent as they have shown to be in previous years.

UCF is, statistically, a very good team on both sides of the ball.  Their offense tends to suffer from inopportune turnovers and poor red zone play, but their combination of the run and the pass indicates that they could show an improvement in the 27.1 points per game they have averaged thus far.  The Knights shut down the run on defense and have been extremely tough to score on, although they have occasionally been weak at defending the pass.

Tulsa has suffered losses against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Boise State this year but did pick up a week 2 win over Tulane and are on a 4-game winning streak against North Texas, UAB, Rice, and SMU currently.  The Golden Hurricane have covered the point spread in their last 2 games, but the Knights bring a perfect 4-0 home record into Thursday’s clash with Tulsa.

The Tulsa offense has passing and rushing totals very similar to UCF’s, yet Tulsa’s ability to make good on their drives has them averaging 4.5 more points per game.  Quarterback G.J. Kinne (1895 yards, 64.3%, 16 TD, 8 INT) has done a nice job of guiding the Tulsa offense, but they are not as strong on the defensive side of things.  The Golden Hurricane allow 27.6 points per game on 284.8 passing yards each time out, but they have done a solid job at stopping the rushing attack of their opposition.

Tulsa and UCF last met up in 2008 and it was the Golden Hurricane that snatched a dominant 49-19 win as 22.5-point favorites.  These teams met up twice in 2007, with UCF winning 44-25 and 44-23 as the favorite in both games.  This year the Knights are favored by 1.5 on the point spread at Legends Sportsbook, while the wagering total sits at 48.5.

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Predictions in the Tulsa vs. UCF game call for this one to be razor tight and fairly likely to go into overtime.  The Golden Hurricane have the edge on offense but they haven’t been nearly as strong on the road.  Tulsa has faced much stronger offenses than UCF and I feel the defensive statistics are a bit skewed, but I have to believe the Knights find a way to get the win at home.  Their offense is due for a good game and our score predictions will call for them to get it by a narrow margin.

Tulsa vs. UCF Score Predictions:

Tulsa 24

UCF 27