Kennesaw State makes its FBS debut in a really tough spot. The Owls are attempting to follow in Sam Houston's footsteps from a year ago, but things will probably be a little tougher for this squad from suburban Atlanta. Much like Sam Houston did in its last season at the FCS level, Kennesaw State elected to redshirt several players in 2023 to prepare them for the jump to better competition. How did that work out for Sam Houston last year? Not great. The Bearkats scored a total of ten points in their first three games. After 11+ win seasons in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021, the Owls have lost a lot of momentum heading into this FBS transition. Kennesaw State has gone 8-12 the last two seasons as head coach Brian Bohannon has changed his triple option offense to adapt to the NCAA's new blocking rules (it's no secret that Army and Navy have also struggled with these rule changes). On the UTSA side, Owen McCown and Eddie Lee Marburger are battling for the starting QB spot, and we actually like that heading into this contest. Head coach Jeff Traylor says there's very little separating the two quarterbacks, and if both of them see the field in this contest, that will likely keep UTSA's foot on the gas a little longer in the second half to give both of them a fair shot at putting something on the game film. The RoadRunners have some talent to replace from last year's squad, San Antonio has opened the checkbook during the offseason. According to 247Sports, UTSA has attracted transfers from Oregon, Alabama, Texas, LSU, TCU, SMU and Texas Tech. That is definitely not something Kennesaw State can say. Sam Houston showed last year that if you go the redshirt route, it takes a while to get the offense back up to a competitive speed. We expect Kennesaw State to experience similar growing pains. We believe this number should be north of four touchdowns. At the time of posting, -24 is available at DraftKings, Caesars and ESPNBet.