Free Daily NCAA Lock Pick, Wednesday October 18th: New Mexico State vs UTEP 9:00pmET
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The American Athletic Conference hits national television on Friday night when the SMU Mustangs (4-2, 3-3 ATS, 2-0 AAC) travel to take on the Temple Owls (2-5, 1-6 ATS, 0-3 AAC). SMU played last Thursday, picking up a 31-10 win in East Carolina, covering the 11.5-point spread as road favorites. Temple played on Saturday, losing in North Texas 45-14 as 8-point road underdogs. SMU is currently listed as 19.5-point road favorites. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 EST from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, and can be found on ESPN2.
SMU has played six games this season, the closest the final score has been in either direction is 17 points. The Mustangs lost by exactly 17 to Oklahoma and TCU, and won by a larger margin in all of their victories. SMU is one of four teams in the AAC that are undefeated in conference play along with Tulane, Florida Atlantic and UTSA. The Mustangs have a great chance here to go into Philly and pick up a third conference win on the road. In their last game, quarterback Preston Stone only hit 50% 0f his passes, but had 273 yards with a 3-0 TD-INT ratio to lead his team to an easy victory.
Stone is a 6'1 sophomore quarterback, he is 2nd in the AAC in passing touchdowns with 14 on the season, with just five interceptions. He averages 244.5 passing yards per game while completing 57.1% of his passes. Stone's QBR is 61.4, which ranks 57th in the nation. Jaylan Knighton has been reliable presence o ut of the backfield, he averages 59.7 yards per game with two touchdowns on the year. Knighton had a career game two weeks back against Charlotte, running for 150 yards and two touchdowns. Stone shares the ball amongst his receivers, there are four pass catchers with between 204 and 223 receiving yards on the season. Jordan Kerley leads the way with 223 yards and two touchdowns. Nine different players have caught a touchdown pass this season.
SMU ranks 3rd out of 14 teams in the AAC in scoring with 33.3 points per game. They have the top scoring defense in the conference allowing just 17.0 points per. The SMU defense has 16 sacks over six games, lead by defensive ends Nelson Paul and Elijah Roberts with three each. The Mustangs have just four defensive takeaways, three coming from intercepti0ns.
Injury Report:
Questionable: RB Camar Wheaton (32 carries, 148 yards)
Free Daily NCAA Lock Pick, Wednesday October 18th: New Mexico State vs UTEP 9:00pmET CLICK TO SEE PICK NOW