Southern Miss vs. Auburn Total Pick
The Auburn Tigers will take a break from SEC play to take on non-conference foe Southern Miss on Saturday. Will the Tigers and Golden Eagles produce enough points to push the combined score over the total?
Game Snapshot
169 Southern Miss Golden Eagles at 170 Auburn Tigers
4:00 p.m. ET, Saturday, September 29, 2018
Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, Alabama
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Tigers are 27-point favorites to beat the Golden Eagles. The total, meanwhile, sits at 53 points. As of this writing, 68% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Tigers.
Southern Miss
Southern Miss senior RB George Payne retired with a career-ending injury. Payne missed the entirety of the 2015 and 2017 seasons with various injuries, and he’d not appeared in any games this year either. He rushed for a career 940 yards and nine touchdowns in three seasons. This leaves Southern Miss thin at running back. Fellow senior running back T’Rod Daniels announced his intent to transfer last week. Behind Tez Parks, the Golden Eagles will continue to rely heavily on Steven Anderson and Trivenskey Mosley.
Auburn Tigers
Auburn redshirt junior QB Jarrett Stidham completed 15-of-22 passes for 134 yards in Saturday’s 34-3 win over Arkansas. Just not much going on here for Stid the Kid, who probably could have used a more crisp performance after trudging through a two-interception showing against LSU last weekend. In general, it’s been something of a grind for Stidham this season. He’s thrown for just 768 yards with a 3/2 TD/INT ratio over the course of four games played.
Betting Trends
Southern Miss
The over is 6-1 in the Golden Eagles’ last seven games overall.
Auburn
The under is 8-1 in the Tigers’ last nine non-conference games.
Prediction
I don’t see this one going over the betting total. Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham is coming off an impressive victory over Rice, throwing for 428 yards and four touchdowns while holding off Kwadra Griggs (suspension) in the process. That said, Auburn is a different beast and I could see Griggs entering the game at some point as Abraham struggles. That said, the Golden Eagles have been solid defensively this season. They rank eighth in total defense (271.7), fifth in passing yards (139.3 per game), 46th in rushing yards (132.3), and 21st in points allowed (16.7). Granted, Auburn isn’t Rice. But I’m banking on the Golden Eagles struggling offensively so even if Southern Miss gives up some points, I still like the under.
College Football Prediction: Southern Miss/Auburn under 53