Texas Football: Early odds, FPI favoring Longhorns over Iowa State

The early odds in the betting line and ESPN’s Football Power Index predictions favor Texas football to take care of business against Iowa State.

The biggest remaining matchup of the season is set for the Texas football program and fourth-year head coach Tom Herman against the No. 15 ranked Iowa State Cyclones and rising head coach Matt Campbell this week. Texas gets Iowa State at a weird time, with kick off set for 11 a.m. on a Friday.

Friday morning is not the usual kick off time for any game, let alone when the No. 20 ranked Longhorns are taking on a top 15 ranked Iowa State team (going by the AP Poll). This game could largely decide who potentially takes on the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 19 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

This is the home finale for the Longhorns, and likely the last time that we will see star senior quarterback Sam Ehlinger taking to the field to play a game at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Ehlinger and the Longhorns come into this game with a record of 5-2 (4-2 Big 12), with the No. 20 slot in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the Coaches Poll this week.

Texas is also coming off a de facto double bye week, since their originally scheduled Nov. 21 game on the road against second-year head coach Les Miles and the Kansas Jayhawks had to be delayed due to novel coronavirus-related issues. Kansas and Texas will now face each other the week before the Big 12 Championship Game, on Dec. 12.

Moreover, the last game that the Longhorns played in resulted in a narrow 17-13 home win over the West Virginia Mountaineers back on Nov. 7. They currently sit on a three-game winning streak dating back to Oct. 24, when they beat the Baylor Bears at home.

How Texas football stacks up vs. ISU

Meanwhile, Iowa State comes into this game with a record of 6-2 (6-1 Big 12), with their last game resulting in a drubbing of the Kansas State Wildcats at home in Ames on Nov. 21. The two losses on the season for Iowa State thus far came at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys in Big 12 play and the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns back in their season opener.

Considering there is a lot on the line for both Iowa State and Texas in this game, both teams should come out with their best efforts on Black Friday. But Texas is the early favorite in the betting line, as a two-point favorite as of the morning of Nov. 24. And the ESPN Football Power Index gives Texas a whopping 71.9 percent chance to beat Iowa State.

Granted the FPI has been high on Herman and the Longhorns all season long.

Texas needs a win to stay alive in the race to land a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game next month. Win this game, and it looks like we will be setup for another rematch of Red River in the conference title game.