Kansas Jayhawks football vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders: Prediction, kickoff time, TV
The details
Kickoff: 6 p.m. Saturday
Where: Booth Memorial Stadium, Lawrence
TV: FS1
Radio: WHB (810 AM) in Kansas City, KFH (1240 AM) in Wichita
The line: Texas Tech by 4 1/2.
Prediction
It’s time to put the self-jinx on.
I’ve kept quiet for superstitious purposes, but if you go back to look at every one of the KU football predictions in this space each week, you’ll realize that the selections this year — so far — are 7-0 against the spread.
Hope you bet the house on it.
That puts some pressure on to keep the streak going, though, and also makes this an awkward pick; before the season began, I had KU beating Texas Tech for the Jayhawks’ only Big 12 win of the season.
We know so much more now than we did in August. Texas Tech lost starting quarterback Alan Bowman to a shoulder injury early, while KU also had its own major setback when linebacker Dru Prox also hurt his shoulder.
Something else that wasn’t expected then: The emergence of new KU offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon. The Jayhawks scored 48 at Texas last week while utilizing the skills of their position players much better, which should provide plenty of hope for the team’s offense, both now and into the future.
For this week, though, it’s worth reiterating a phrase we say here a lot: Don’t overreact to last week’s result. KU’s offense was amazing in Austin ... yet the Longhorns have defensive issues of their own, with the Jayhawks also playing clean football with no turnovers. In other words, some natural regression should be expected for Dearmon’s offense in Week 2.
Meanwhile, KU’s defense might have been fortunate to only give up 50 against Texas. Two turnovers and two fourth down stands kept the Longhorns from doing even more damage, and the truth is that the Jayhawks have some personnel problems right now on that end that likely won’t be solved until the team is able to get another recruiting class into the program.
The weather should be about perfect for the offenses, as forecasts call for cool temperatures without much wind.
I think there will be plenty of points scored, but in the end, I think Texas Tech is the better team with the more capable defense.
Give me the Red Raiders for both the win and cover in a shootout.
Texas Tech 44, KU 34
Last game prediction: Texas 42, KU 24 (Actual: Texas 50-48)
