Kansas Jayhawks football vs. Texas Longhorns: Prediction, TV, sports betting line
Update: Kansas beats Texas 57-56 in overtime. Here’s how the Jayhawks stunned Longhorns in Austin
The details
Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WHB (810 AM) in Kansas City, KFH (1240 AM) in Wichita
The line: Texas by 31.
Prediction
Trying to predict this game could take you in a lot of different directions.
Texas football couldn’t have much more turmoil than it’s facing this week while also on a four-game losing streak. The team is unsure of its top quarterback and also could be missing standout running back Bijon Robinson because of a neck injury. Not only that, a Longhorns player leaked a video of the defensive line coach ripping into the team on the bus, and yeah, that whole pet monkey story hasn’t fully gone away either.
If there’s a time to catch the Longhorns, it’s probably now. The team’s confidence has to be shaken at least a bit with all the recent events, and a home-field advantage might not bring as much benefit Saturday because of the antsy nature surrounding the program.
KU, though, has its own reasons for concern.
Injuries hit the Jayhawks hard last week against Kansas State, and most notably, it’s still unknown whether starting quarterback Jason Bean will be able to play against Texas or whether third-stringer Jalon Daniels will take his place.
The Jayhawks didn’t have much depth to start with, and now even that’s cratering in a hurry. Receiver Luke Grimm picked up an injury last week, and running back Torry Locklin and fullback Spencer Roe are both now out for the year. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that KU’s offensive line hasn’t performed as well the last two weeks as it did previously.
A couple of potential positives for KU: Texas has struggled to stop the run, which gives KU an avenue toward the type of time-draining, ball-control success it had against Oklahoma a few weeks ago. The Jayhawks also have 22 players from the state of Texas on the roster, which in the past has added a little extra juice to this particular game.
KU, though, remains 2-15-1 against the spread over the last two seasons, with an overwhelming tendency to get blown out in these types of contests if things don’t go well at the very start.
As awful as everything has gone lately for Texas ... it’s still the more talented team playing against a depleted KU squad with major personnel issues, especially on defense. Momentum can shift quickly once a game starts, and remember, Texas Tech had similar in-house issues before soundly beating KU 41-14 in Lawrence a week before firing coach Matt Wells.
I’ll stick with both the numbers and recent trends and say Texas gets both the win and cover.
Texas 49, Kansas 7
Last game prediction: K-State 45, Kansas 14 (Actual: K-State 35-10)
2021 record vs. spread: 5-4
2021 record on picks: 9-0
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
