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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Pete Fiutak

SMU vs Tulsa Prediction, Game Preview

SMU vs Tulsa prediction, game preview, how to watch. Week 9, Saturday, October 29


SMU vs Tulsa How To Watch

Date: Saturday, October 29
Game Time: 3:30 ET
Venue: Chapman Stadium, Tulsa, OK
How To Watch: ESPN+
Record: SMU (3-4), Tulsa (3-4)
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CFN 1-131 Rankings | Rankings by Conference
Bowl Projections | Week 8 Roundup
What 12-Team Playoff Would Look Like
College Football Playoff Rankings Prediction
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SMU vs Tulsa Game Preview

Why SMU Will Win

The passing offense continues to roll.

The team overall has a few issues and concerns, but the Mustangs are able to bomb away for well over 300 yards per game put the pressure on teams to try keeping up. Sometimes it works, and that’s when the mistakes come.

Tulsa hasn’t faced a whole slew of teams that can throw like SMU will, and it usually has big, big problems against the run. The Mustangs can run effectively when needed – they’re fine as long as they can crank up five yards per carry.

But they need to throw well to pull this off. They’ll get the yards, but …

NFL Expert Picks, Week 8

Why Tulsa Will Win

Is starting QB Tanner Mordecai okay? He’s questionable after getting knocked out of the 29-27 loss to Cincinnati last week. Preston Stone is promising, but he’s not close to being the proven passer the main man is.

Again, it’s not like Tulsa has faced a who’s who of passing teams, but the pass defense is technically the best in the AAC. And again, the stats skew one way because everyone runs on the Golden Hurricane D, but the secondary is able to keep teams from throwing when they want to.

Offenses are only hitting 53% of their passes against this bunch, and if it’s Stone under center the numbers might not be a whole lot better.

– Game Previews, Predictions CollegeNFL

What’s Going To Happen

Yeah, SMU is struggling at 2-5, but the losses came to Maryland and UCF on the road and at home against TCU and Cincinnati. None of those are egregious errors.

Tulsa has been way too inconsistent offensively, and the SMU defense has to take advantage of that by getting into the backfield against a struggling front line.

It’ll be a fight, but the Mustangs will sneak on by with the running game and pass rush working when it has to.

College Football Expert Picks, Week 9

SMU vs Tulsa Prediction, Line

SMU 30, Tulsa 27
Line: SMU -2.5, o/u: 64.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
SMU vs Tulsa Must See Rating (out of 5): 2.5
Predictions of Every Game

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