Houston vs Arizona 11/15/24 Game Information

Houston vs Arizona Preview

Houston (4-5, 3-3 in Big 12) joined the Big 12 Conference last season while Arizona (3-6, 1-5 in Big 12) joined this year after playing in the Pac-12 for so long, and on Friday night, they will meet in a relatively meaningless game. The Cougars head in winners of 2 straight, beating Kansas State (24-19) and Utah (17-14), so their recent résumé looks good. Arizona, on the other hand, comes in losers off 5 in a row, getting rolled by UCF in Week 11 (56-12) after losing to West Virginia (31-26), and Colorado (34-7), both here at Home. Houston has been the best Under team in FBS, playing 8 Unders in 9 games (88.9%) including all 4 on the Road.

Houston Feeling Pretty Strong After Two Straight Upsets

Houston (5-4-0 ATS, 1-8-0 O/U) only has 4 wins, but they have come against some decent opponent’s (RICE, TCU, UTAH, KSU) and with 2 more wins, the Cougars will become Bowl eligible so beating Arizona here and/or Baylor (Nov. 23) or unbeaten BYU (Nov. 30) is on the team’s to-do list. Houston is led on offense by QB Donovan Smith (867 passing yards), RB Re’Shaun Sanford II (300 rushing yards), and WR Joseph Manjack (266 receiving yards), but their season numbers look like ones you would see after 3 games and not 9, so this is a team that plays slow football. In eight of the last 10 Cougars games overall, one of the teams had 14 points or less, so if you expect to be entertained watching Houston games, better bring a rhesus monkey to watch them with you. The First Quarter scores vs KSU (KSU 3-0) and Utah (UTAH 7-0) reveal this reality.

Houston Betting Trends

• Houston has won as outright Underdogs the last 2 games
• The Under is 9-1 in the last 10 Cougars games
• Houston is 3-1 ATS in its last 4 games
• The only Over (45) in a UH game this year was at KU (KU 42-14)
• Houston was 5-7 O/U last season

Arizona’s Early High Expectations Now Nothing But Dust

Arizona (1-8-0 ATS, 4-5-0 O/U) entered the 2024 season with high hopes, with one of the best QB’s in the land (Noah Fifita) and one of the top WRs (Tetiaroa McMillan). But dreams of a Top 25 ranking and Bowl appearance quickly vanished into thin air as the Wildcats lost to Kansas State, Texas Tech, BYU, Colorado, West Virginia, and UCF last weekend. Fifita (2,324 passing yards) and McMillan (1,024 receiving yards) have to be disappointed and their NFL Draft stock has probably taken a hit, but this team is very mistake-prone and makes some bad decisions and silly penalties on defense and is often its own worst enemy as the First Half of its season opener against New Mexico showed when the Cats only led 27-24 at the break. The Lobos had 29 First Downs in that game to Arizona’s 24 and much was revealed about how flawed this team was.

Arizona Betting Trends

• Arizona is just 1-8 ATS, the worst mark in FBS
• The Wildcats are 0-2 SU/ATS vs Houston 
• The Point Spread in all 3 meetings has been tiny (HOU -1, HOU -3, AZ -1)
• The Under is 2-0 in both series meetings
• Sophomore QB Owen McCown has never faced North Texas

Houston vs Arizona Pick and Prediction

The Totals in the two previous meetings were extremely high (64.5, 71), and both games went Under the number with Houston winning 19-16 in 2017 at Arizona, and the Cougars rolling 45-18 in the last meeting at Home. There will be Clear Skies on Friday night in Tucson, but the temperatures are expected to drop to 42°, meaning a real Autumn chill in the air which these two warm weather teams won’t love.This Houston vs Arizona prediction and free NCAAF pick will also lean on the Totals market and expect a low-scoring slog in the Sonoran Desert. Arizona averages 22.1 ppg in Scoring Offense (#107) with Houston averaging just 15.2 ppg (#131) with only Kent State (15.1 ppg) and Florida State (13.3 ppg) averaging less.

Kevin’s Pick: Under 45.5