Frisco Bowl – UTSA Roadrunners vs Marshall Thundering Herd Free Picks
Our UTSA vs Marshall Free Picks For The Frisco Bowl Have Been Revealed!
The UTSA Roadrunners earned an exciting matchup in the Scooter’s Cofee Frisco Bowl against the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Marshall clinched a bowl spot in their final regular game. The Thundering Herd lost three of their last five games but finished 6-6 on the season after a 35-21 win over Arkansas State.
On the other hand, UTSA’s seven-game winning streak was snapped in late November after a loss to Tulane, 29-16, on the road.
The Roadrunners have one of the more notable quarterbacks in college football. They’ve got Frank Harris, who began his college career in 2017. Harris is a grown man facing athletes who haven’t even matured yet.
That allowed him to throw for over 2,500 yards with 18 touchdowns in 10 games this season. At the same time, Harris will play in this game for the Roadrunners, Marshall’s, without their starting quarterback.
The Thundering Herd learned that starting QB Cam Fancher will join the transfer portal. That means Marshall will start Cole Pennington, who is the son of former NFL quarterback Chad Pennington.
That’s significant news.
Marshall was only an 8.5-point underdog on Sunday and Monday. However, when bettors learned about Fancher’s departure, the line drifted to as high as +10. UTSA is currently sitting at -9.5 with a -115 price tag.
Marshall went from +260 at open to +280.
After learning the news about Marshall’s quarterback situation, the total dropped from 56.5 at open to 54.5.
Below, we’ll provide our UTSA vs Marshall free picks for the Frisco Bowl.
Frisco Bowl Information
UTSA vs Marshall Game 
Day/Time:
Location: Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX
Stream: ESPN
UTSA’s Jeff Traylor Will Stay Put For Now
UTSA’s Jeff Traylor has done an incredible job making UTSA relevant. With that comes other opportunities to level up.
Traylor was contacted about multiple head coaching positions over the last month, but nothing landed and he will stay at UTSA for at least another year.
That ultimately means he’ll be coaching in this game against Marshall. That’s another reason why the line has settled around -9.5 for UTSA.
Lots Of Movement In Marshall
Marshall’s starting quarterback, Cam Fancher, is headed into the transfer portal after he threw 2,182 yards with 11 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
In his Marshall career, his stats weren’t very good. He secured 61.2% of completions and added 21 touchdowns with 17 interceptions in two seasons. His decision-making wasn’t always at a high level.
Now, freshman Cole Pennington will start in his place. He played in three games this season and completed 62% of passes on 70 attempts. Having thrown for 435 yards this season, he never threw a touchdown but had six interceptions.
Marshall is also without a starting offensive lineman, Trent Holler, TE Sean Sallis, and WR Caleb Coombs.
Another Snoozer?
Marshall and UTSA have played three games head-to-head. All three of those games have gone Under the total. At least one team scored ten or fewer points in each game.
Ironically, UTSA has scored no more than ten points in any game against Marshall in their head-to-head NCAAF matchups.
Marshall’s box score defensively doesn’t share the whole picture. The defense is dominant. They’ve got an excellent secondary and have looked really good against the run most of the time. There’s been some inconsistency, but the talent level on this Marshall defense can’t go unnoticed.
Meanwhile, UTSA won’t have any opt-outs or transfers on the offense. They’ll be at full strength with its super senior, Frank Harris. The offense scored nearly 32 points per game, averaging 236 yards in the air and almost 175 yards on the ground.
But don’t expect the offense to find rapid success against Marshall. It struggled against Tulane, and Marshall’s defense is almost comparable. However, the Marshall offense isn’t. Cole Pennington has thrown six interceptions and no touchdowns in three games this season. He’s a freshman quarterback making plenty of mistakes.
He’ll already be without a top offensive lineman and won’t have one of the best receivers in Caleb Coombs. For all we know, Rasheen Ali could opt out. Some journalists on the inside suggested he could sit out and not play. Ali hasn’t made that decision yet, but he rushed 203 times for 1,043 yards this season and scored 14 touchdowns.
There will be many college football bowl scores that have a lot of points. We don’t think it’ll be this one. Looking at the college football spreads, we’d back Marshall as an underdog solely on the defense. That’s one of many college football betting lines sticking out to us this year.
For our UTSA vs Marshall free picks, we’ll side with the defenses. Let’s grab Marshall at +9.5 and +280 as a value play on the moneyline. We also like the Under 54.5 in this game.
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