Memphis vs Tulane 9/28/18 NCAA Football Odds, Preview and Prediction

The Memphis Tigers open their American Athletic Conference campaign by traveling to New Orleans to face the Tulane Green Wave at the Yulman Stadium on Friday, September 28, 2018.

Memphis is 3-1 on the season with their lone loss coming at the hands of Navy, who beat the Tigers 22-21 in week two. On the other hand, Tulane’s 1-3 record is a mirror of their opponent. After the Green Wave picked up their first win of the season by defeating in-state rival Nichol in week 2, they have suffered back to back road losses to UAB and Ohio State.

Memphis has looked like an offensive monster to start the 2018 NCAA Football season. They poured in 52 points against South Alabama last week and rained 59 points over Georgia the week before. During their opening game, The Tigers scored 66 points in Mercer.

The thing with Memphis though is that their defense has not been as good as their offense. In their last game against South Alabama, they yielded five touchdowns. Considering that game was played at their home field, it was a disaster for Memphis. Statistically though, the defense isn’t that bad as they give up 317.2 yards per game and 151 rushing yards per outing. In terms of national rank, that’s still 24th and 65th respectively.

On Offense, running back Darrell Henderson has rushed for 709 yards and nine touchdowns while averaging 12.2 yards per carry. Meanwhile, junior quarterback Brady White has been big time, throwing for 1,064 passing yards with 12 touchdowns and just 1 interception for the Tigers.

Tulane got a beating from Ohio State last week, losing 49-6. But perhaps even worse than that was their loss at the hands of University of Alabama-Birmingham which didn’t have a football program anymore a couple of years back. Still, there are positives on the young season for the Green Wave: They took Wake Forest to overtime before losing 23-17 and then built on that moral victory with a win over Lincoln.

Green Wave quarterback Jonathan Banks has been struggling as he’s completed just 49.7% of his passes for a total of 792 yards and five scores. Last season, Banks threw for 1,797 yards with 12 touchdowns and 5 interceptions while completing 56.6% of his passes.

Tulane is only averaging 22.3 points per game this season and their running game has only produced 136.1 yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry. Against Memphis, Tulane’s offense will have to kick it up a notch because as we showed earlier, the Tigers are an offensive juggernaut this season.

Memphis leads the overall head to head matchup between these teams at 22-11-1. The Tigers have won the last 11 games against the Green Wave including last year’s 56-26 win in Memphis. Memphis is 10-3 SU in their last 13 games and 14-7 in their last 21 games on the road. The Tigers are 5-0 SU in their last five games against the Green Wave.

Memphis is 12-1 ATS in their last 13 games road games versus teams with a losing home record. They are also 6-0 ATS in their last six Friday games and 6-2-1 in their last 9 conference games. On the other hand, Tulane is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 home games and 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 conference games. But when it comes to head to head matchup, the Tigers have the edge.

The total has gone under in six out of Tulane’s last eight games. The under is also 6-2 in the last 8 meetings between these two teams and under in the last five meetings between these teams when playing in Tulane.