C-USA: Rice vs Charlotte 10/29/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Rice Owls and Charlotte 49ers do battle Saturday in a week 9 C-USA college football game from Rice Stadium.

The Charlotte 49ers will try to snap a four-game losing streak, falling to 1-6 on the year after a 34-15 loss to FIU in their last game. Chris Reynolds has thrown for 1,545 yards, 14 touchdowns and 9 interceptions on 62.8% passing while Shadrick Byrd leads the 49ers with 354 rushing yards and 3 TDs and ChaVon McEachern has 256 rushing yards as well this season. Elijah Spencer has a team-high 718 receiving yards with 4 touchdowns while Grant DuBose has a team-high 42 grabs for 501 receiving yards and a team-high 7 touchdowns. Victor Tucker also has 35 grabs for 321 yards and 5 scores as well this year. On defense, Wayne Jones leads the 49ers with 56 total tackles while Amir Siddiq has 3 sacks this season.

The Rice Owls will try to find some consistency, alternating wins and losses in each of their last five games after a 42-41 OT win over Louisiana Tech in their last game, improving to 4-3 on the year as a result. TJ McMahon has thrown for 1,485 yards with 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on 59.2% passing while Cameron Montgomery’s rushed for 298 yards to lead the Owls on the ground and Ari Broussard is right behind with 251 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns this season. Luke McCaffrey leads the Owls with 43 grabs for 555 yards and 5 touchdowns while Bradley Rozner also has 474 receiving yards on 22 grabs with 5 scores as well. On defense, Chris Conti has a team-high 44 total tackles with 18 solo tackles while Ikenna Enechukwu and Josh Pearcy each have 3.5 sacks to lead the Owls in that department.

Charlotte is 2-9 ATS in their last 11 games overall and 1-6 ATS in their last 7 conference games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 October games. Rice is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 home games.

I understand that the 49ers have looked brutal for much of the year, but truth be told, I’m not looking to back Rice with this kind of number even if they’ve been more consistent at winning football games this season. The 49ers have a solid QB in Chris Reynolds and he can keep this offense in games. It’s the Charlotte defense that we have to worry about but Charlotte’s done a decent job covering the big numbers against teams closer to their level, like covering against UAB and winning outright against Georgia Southern. Not a game I’m rushing to bet, but I’d lean towards Charlotte and the points here.