2024 College Football Bowl Previews (Dec 19th)

Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl: Marshall Thundering Herd (6-6) vs UTSA Road Runners (8-4)

What you need to know: These teams have been on complete opposite tracks all season. Marshall started 4-0 and finished 6-6, while UTSA started 1-3 and finished 8-4. Marshall’s offense is led by RB Rasheen Ali, keep an eye on his status because he could opt out. Marshall’s QB Caleb Fancher transferred out because “the fans hate him and he is miserable” (actual quote from HC Charles Huff!) That leaves Cole Pennington, son of Chad Pennington as Marshall’s starter for the game, feel old yet? UTSA is led by 7th year senior Frank Harris who is always an electric player to watch, but the biggest challenge for the road runners will be the transfer of Trey Moore who was an absolute game wrecker on the defensive line this year. Unbelievably unless the coaching carousel ramps up again, UTSA is somehow going to keep Jeff Traylor another year. When I first saw the sponsor for this bowl I assumed Scooter’s coffee was local to Texas, but it’s more national than I thought! They’re expanding rapidly and just opened a location not far down the road from me!

Previous Meetings: For a short period of time these two programs were in CUSA together, but didn’t play often, only 3 times. Marshall holds a 2-1 edge on UTSA. For whatever reason these teams left their offense at home in their 2 most recent meetings, a 23-0 win for Marshall in 2018 and a 9-7 UTSA win in 2017.

Motivation Edge: Marshall strikes me as a team that just wants to be done with this season and move on, it was a rough one for them but maybe after a bit of a break they could come out motivated to end the season on a more positive note. You would think UTSA had their eyes set higher, and maybe they do but oddly enough despite all the success the program had recently they have yet to win a bowl game. I’m sure Traylor will remind the team of that and have them ready to go for this one.

Best Bet: Under 54.5 – it’s hard to get a read on this game overall, mainly because Marshall hasn’t been close to being the same team week to week, they spent a lot of the season alternating between shootouts and rock fights. 54.5 just feels like a lot of points with Marshall starting a freshman QB against a UTSA defense that’s been tough and 7 UTSA games went under this year (1 pushed).