Kentucky vs Missouri NCAA Football Week 9 Odds & Expert Pick

Kentucky vs Missouri NCAA Football Week 9 Odds & Expert Pick

Written by on October 26, 2018

You may not have been paying attention, but the University of Kentucky is ranked 12th in the AP Poll and tied for first in the SEC East! And I don’t mean basketball but football. The Cats can win the division but can’t get caught looking past Missouri on Saturday ahead of a big game with Georgia. UK is getting no respect as a MyBookie Sportsbook betting underdog vs. the Tigers.

 

How to Bet Kentucky vs Missouri NCAA Football Week 9 Odds & Game Info

 

  • When: Saturday, 4 PM ET
  • Where: Memorial Stadium, Columbia
  • TV: SEC Network
  • Stream: WatchESPN
  • Radio: TuneIn
  • NCAA Football Week 9 Odds: Mizzou -7 (Total 56.5)

 

Washington State at Stanford NCAA Football Week 9 Spread & Pick

 

Weather Forecast

  • Clear: 18°C/64°F
  • Humidity: 49%
  • Precipitation: 0%
  • Cloud Cover: 12%
  • Wind: 6 mph W
  • Stadium Type: Open

 

Last Season

Kentucky beat Missouri 40-34 in 2017 as Austin MacGinnis kicked four field goals, including two in the fourth quarter, and Stephen Johnson and Benny Snell each had two touchdowns. Kentucky led by double digits three times but allowed Missouri to eventually tie the game at 27 late in the third quarter and 34 early in the fourth. Tigers quarterback Drew Lock threw TD passes of 50, 58 and 75 yards, the last of which tied the game. Lock’s final pass attempt to Albert Okwuegbunam in the final seconds fell a few yards short of the end zone.

 

UK has won three straight in the series and leads it 5-3.

 

Why Bet on Kentucky?

If the Cats win out, they will be in the SEC title game and, shoot, even in the running for the College Football Playoff. Sorry, though, UK fans. You aren’t beating Georgia next Saturday. Even if you do, you AREN’T beating Alabama in the SEC title game. Still, a great job by Coach Mark Stoops, who gets a $250K bonus for every win UK has the rest of this year.

 

Kentucky avoided an upset last week, beating Vanderbilt 14-7. It took nose guard Quinton Bohanna to force Jamauri Wakefield’s fourth-down fumble that he recovered at the 20 midway through the fourth quarter to jump-start Kentucky from game-long inconsistency. Benny Snell took control from there, rushing 10 times for 74 yards on a drive that ended with a 7-yard TD run with 8:04 to go for the lead. The junior rushed 32 times 169 yards, his 16th career 100-yard game, on a that Kentucky outgained Vanderbilt just 298-284. Snell Jr. leads the SEC and ranks sixth nationally in rushing yards per game (124.0). He is fourth in the nation in total rushing yards (868).

 

It was the second-earliest date in school history that UK won its sixth game. The quickest season to six wins came on Oct. 13, 2007. UK is 4-1 in the SEC, UK’s best five-game SEC start since the 1977 team started 5-0. UK will finish .500 or better in the SEC for three straight seasons, first time that has been accomplished since 1953-56. Kentucky has 12 SEC wins over the last three seasons, most since the 1976-78 teams won 13 SEC games.

 

The UK defense, led by senior pass rusher extraordinaire Josh Allen (8.0 sacks, 12.5 TFL), ranks among the nation’s best units and has allowed just 12.9 points per game, including four games of yielding 10 points or less. They have allowed 90 points this season, fewest in the first seven games of a season since 2008. They have given up 60 points in five SEC games this season, fewest in the first five SEC games since 1977. And Kentucky has allowed 20 points or less in all seven games this season, first time since 1955 that UK has begun a season by holding seven straight opponents to 20 or less.

 

Why Bet on Missouri?

As good as UK has been defensively this season, the Tigers have one of the nation’s best quarterbacks in Drew Lock and are averaging 38.6 points per game. Mizzou, though, is winless in the SEC. It comes off a 65-33 non-conference trashing of Memphis.

 

Lock turned in the sixth-best single-game QB rating in school history (226.2) as he threw for 350 yards on 23-of-29 passing with four TDs, his 11th career game with four scores. Lock moved into seventh placed on the SEC’s all-time career passing yards list. Lock passed Jared Lorenzen of Kentucky, who finished his career with 10,345 passing yards.

 

Kentucky vs Missouri looks like an upset.

 

Many of those passing yards last week went to sophomore TE Albert Okwuegbunam, as he tallied a career-high 159 yards on just six catches with three of them going for scores, matching his career-high. His multi-TD performance gave him five such performances his career, tying him for the most ever by a Mizzou tight end with All-American and Mackey Award Winner Chase Coffman (2005-08). Coffman tallied his fifth career multi-TD game in his 51st career game. Okwuegbunam needed just 20.

 

Mizzou has scored at least 29 points in all four home games this season and is averaging 46.3 points per game at home this season. Dating back to last season, Mizzou has scored at least 29 points in seven straight home games, averaging 49.7 points per game in that span.

 

Under head coach Barry Odom, Mizzou is now 9-4 in the second half of the regular season under the third-year coach. Mizzou has won its last seven second-half regular season games and is outscoring its opponents, 373-161, in those games, good for a 53.3-to-23.0 average in that span, with an average margin of victory of 30.3 per game.

 

Oregon vs Arizona NCAA Football Week 9 Odds & Analysis

 

Kentucky vs Missouri NCAA Football Week 9 Betting Trends

  • Wildcats are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games after scoring less than 20 points in their previous game
  • Wildcats are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games in October
  • Tigers are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 home games
  • Kentucky is 6-1 SU in its last 7 games
  • The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Kentucky’s last 6 games
  • Missouri is 10-4 SU in its last 14 games
  • The total has gone OVER in 5 of Missouri’s last 6 games

 

Expert Prediction for Kentucky vs Missouri

Missouri pulls the upset.