The Houston Baptist Huskies will showcase their passing game when they face the North Texas Mean Green on Saturday to kick off their abbreviated season. The Southland Conference cancelled fall football and intends to play next spring, but the Huskies will play three road games, all this month and all against FBS foes. The young Huskies (5-7, 2-6 in 2019) will get valuable experience, and star quarterback Bailey Zappe will air it out. The Mean Green, 4-8 and 3-5 in Conference USA last season, boast an impressive aerial attack of their own.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Apogee Stadium in Denton, Texas. North Texas is a 23-point favorite and the over-under for total points scored is 73.5 in the latest North Texas vs. Houston Baptist odds from William Hill. Before making any Houston Baptist vs. North Texas picks, be sure to see the college football predictions from SportsLine's Emory Hunt.
Hunt is the founder and CEO of Football Gameplan, which has been supplying analysis for all levels of football since 2007, and he is a former running back at Louisiana-Lafayette. He knows the game from a player's and coach's perspective.
The football analyst was SportsLine's No. 1 college football expert last season. Hunt went 116-79 on college football picks against the spread in 2019, returning a huge profit of $2,976 to his followers. He capped off the year with LSU -5.5 over Clemson in the national championship. Anyone who has followed him is way up.
Now, Hunt has studied North Texas vs. HBU from every angle and has revealed his picks over at SportsLine. Here are the college football odds from William Hill and trends for HBU vs. North Texas.
- North Texas vs. Houston Baptist: North Texas -23
- North Texas vs. Houston Baptist over-under: 73.5
- North Texas vs. Houston Baptist money line: North Texas -2800, Houston Baptist +1300
- HB: QB Bailey Zappe threw for more than 250 yards in nine games in 2019.
- NT: RB Tre Siggers ran for at least 75 yards in seven games last season.
Why Houston Baptist can cover
Hunt has been intrigued by the Huskies' passing game, which sees the return Zappe, who threw for 3,811 yards and led the FCS in touchdown passes with 35. He also led the subdivision in completions (357) and attempts (560) and was second in yards. The defense will be led by all-conference linebacker Caleb Johnson, who had 104 tackles and six sacks last season. The unit produced 24 turnovers last season and had 35 sacks.
Receivers Ben Ratzlaff and Jerreth Sterns also return on offense, and they combined for almost 2,000 yards and 21 touchdowns in 2019. Ratzlaff set a school record with 1,139 yards and was the big-play man, scoring on a 60-yard pass and averaging 13.1 yards per catch. Sterns was the possession option, leading FCS with 105 catches. The Huskies passing attack could be a handful for a Mean Green defense that ranked 81st in defense, allowing 410.9 yards per game.
Why North Texas can cover
Losing quarterback Mason Fine is a big blow, but Hunt expects the Mean Green passing game to continue to excel. Austin Aune and Jason Bean saw limited action last year, though Bean threw three TD passes. They have a top receiving option in all-conference wideout Jaelon Darden, who caught 76 passes for 736 yards and scored 12 touchdowns last season. Siggers rushed for 853 yards and six TDs, averaging 5.6 yards per carry for an offense that averaged more than 30 points.
The offense averaged 283.3 passing yards last season (27th in the nation), and the HBU defense ranked 123rd in FCS against the pass (316.6 yards per game). Receivers Greg White and Jyaire Shorter also give the quarterbacks some options after combining for 44 catches last season. Linebacker KD Davis (88 tackles) and Tyreke Davis (4.5 sacks) lead a defense that allowed 32.5 points per game in 2019. The Huskies defense allowed 36.8 points (113th in FCS).
How to make North Texas vs. Houston Baptist picks
Hunt is leaning over on the total, and he's also found a critical x-factor that makes one side of the spread a must-back. You can only get the pick at SportsLine.
So who wins Houston Baptist vs. North Texas? And which critical x-factor has Hunt jumping all over one side of the spread? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the North Texas vs. Houston Baptist spread to jump on Saturday, all from the expert who was up almost $3,000 last season on college football picks, and find out.
