Bowl Game Picks: Week Two Matchups
Week two of the bowl games get under way this week. Tonight's matchup is Utah vs. Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Bowl Game Picks: Week Two Matchups
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Bowl Game Picks: Hawai'i Bowl, Tulsa Vs. Hawai'i
Hawai'i Bowl Dec. 24th ESPN 8 p.m. EST
Hawai'i Warriors vs. Tulsa Golden Hurricane
Odds: Hawai'i -10.5
The Hawai'i bowl will feature a lot of fireworks in the form of the scoreboard blowing up at Aloha Stadium. Hawai'i and Tulsa both have prolific offenses; Hawai'i led the nation in passing offense while Tulsa was fifth in total offense. Unlike Tulsa, Hawai'i actually has a defense as they allowed under 300 yards per game in six of their wins and never gave up more then 400 in any of their 10 wins. The Tulsa defense is very questionable to say the least, they have a porous secondary and allowed opposing quarterbacks to throw for 400 yards in eight different games.
This game will not lack star power at all. Hawai'i has the nation's leading passer in Bryant Moniz who averaged 356.1 yards per game and tie for most touchdowns with 26. Someone had to catch all those balls, and that honor went to Greg Salas who was top three in the nation in yards (1st), receptions (2nd) and touchdowns (3rd). However, Tulsa has their own playmaker in Damaris Johnson who will be the most dynamic player on the field tonight. Johnson lead the nation in all-purpose yards for two years in a row -- somehow was not an All-American -- and is only 295 yards away from breaking the all-time NCAA record, oh and he is only a junior.
Hope your Christmas shopping is done and you can duck away from the family for a couple hours, because this game will be full of offense.
Now onto the picks, Hawai'i is favored by most and this includes my favorite computer friend AccuScore who has Hawai'i winning 40.1 to 30.9 and winning 66 percent of the time.
Then ESPN's national blogger Andrea Adelson again weighs in with her pick:
I have agonized long over this one, because I think both teams can win. Ultimately, I am going with Hawaii 44, Tulsa 38 because the Warriors will be able to take advantage of a weaker Tulsa defense.
My own prediction favors Hawai'i much more then the others. Look for Hawai'i to light up a bad Tulsa defense and win by at least two touchdowns.
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Bowl Game Picks, Poinsettia Bowl: San Diego State Vs. Navy
Poinsettia Bowl Dec. 23rd ESPN 8 p.m. EST
Odds: San Diego State -3
This is San Diego State's first bowl game since 1998, when it lost to North Carolina in the Las Vegas Bowl. On the other hand Navy is making its eighth straight bowl appearance. The big news out of San Diego was that Qualcomm was extremely flooded last night, and Twitter took to jokes about Navy now having the home-field advantage. Now the stadium is said to be fine and now that the all-important sponsor logo can now be painted on the field.
The game itself will be very interesting since Navy runs a prolific triple option offense that is very hard to stop and has the fifth best rushing attack in the nation at 280 yards per game while San Diego State throws the ball a ton and is 10th in the nation.
Players to watch for in tonight's game from Navy are quarterback Ricky Dobbs, who guides the triple option to near perfection, plus he has an arm so the Aztec secondary must play assignment football or they could get burned. Navy had eight players rush for over 100 yards, so essentially every back is a threat for Navy.
On the San Diego State side they are more balanced, but lean to the passing game with quarterback Ryan Lindley throwing deep balls to Vincent Brown and DeMarco Sampson. Those two were the top two receivers in the Mountain West and the only two to top 1,000 yards. The third best receiver had only 689 yards, so Navy must watch out for the passing game. Also, freshman Ronnie Hillman was the 12th leading rusher in the nation and the top freshman running back as well.
On to the predictions from the experts.
ESPN national blogger Andrea Adelson predicts a close matchup:
San Diego State 28, Navy 27. I think the Aztecs are going to be able to effectively use the play-action to win, with big games from Hillman, Sampson and Brown.
AccuScore also predicts a close game with San Diego State winning 30.4 to 29.6 and only 51.7 percent of the time. So, hopefully the bowl games can get back to some compelling games past the third quarter.
My prediction is going to be about the same. The Aztecs are going to be pumped to be playing in a bowl game for the first time in 12 years and having the game at home will be an added bonus. The Aztecs will use their running game to set up the deep pass and look for San Diego State to win by about a touchdown.
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Bowl Game Picks, Las Vegas Bowl: Utah Vs. Boise State
Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 22st ESPN 8 p.m. EST
No. 19 Utah Utes vs. No. 10 Boise State Broncos
Odds: Boise State -16
Both schools have appeared in multiple BCS games and both are 2-0 in those matchups and Boise was very close to going to a third but two missed field goals against Nevada which dropped it to the Las Vegas Bowl. Utah was proven to be not as good as its ranking by getting crushed by TCU and then Notre Dame, so it is unsure how good Utah really is. Plus, the Utes are without starting quarterback Jordan Wynn who had season-ending shoulder surgery and will be replaced by Terrance Cain.
Here are the experts picks of who will in the Las Vegas Bowl. First up is ESPN national blogger Andrea Adelson:
Boise State 38, Utah 20. Utah has won nine straight bowl games, but that streak ends against the Broncos, a team that is far more talented and experienced. Boise State gets the edge in virtually every category, but the biggest edge is having Moore.
The computers from AccuScore also have Boise State as a huge favorite as well. They predict Boise State to win 87.2 percent of the time and by an average score of 39.6 to 19.5.
Utah's Kyle Whittingham and Boise State Chris Petersen are both famously known for preparing their teams with a long layoff, and that makes my prediction even more difficult. Predicting a score is futile in my opinion (others may call it cowardly) but my prediction is that Boise State will win, but not cover the 16-point spread and possibly for Utah to keep the game within 10 points.
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Bowl Game Picks: Predictions For The Beef 'O' Brady Bowl
The bowl season gets back underway tonight as Louisville and Southern Miss takes the field in St. Petersburg, Fla. at 8 p.m. EST on ESPN. Lousiville is ranges from a 2.5 to 3.5 point favorite over Southern Miss in tonight's game. The teams are old conference foes from C-USA, but Louisville is now in the Big East and apparently in a 'friendly' dance competition Louisville took it a bit too serious. There was an altercation that required the Florida Highway Patrol officers to intervene. These pregame scuffles have been quite the rage this post season. There is no indication that the melee made any of the experts picks change who they were going for.
ESPN's Big East blogger Brian Bennett picks Louisville to win tonight's game:
The Cardinals are a senior-laden squad full of veteran guys who are excited to play in their first bowl game. Strong's defense will limit Southern Miss' high-octane output, and Powell will run over the questionable Golden Eagles defense. Louisville wins 31-21.
While, his counter part Andrea Adelson who writes about the non-AQ schools predicts Southern Miss to win:
Southern Miss 30, Louisville 27. Yes, a good defense usually trumps a good offense, but Southern Miss is taking this challenge in a big way. The last time the Golden Eagles faced a good defense, they won -- 31-21 over UCF. The Knights have the best defense in Conference USA, and rank No. 18 in the country in total D. Louisville is No. 12.
Time to see who the computers like in tonight's game. AccuScore runs 10,000 simulations and predicts a very close matchup with the average final score being 31.4 to 31.1 in favor of Southern Miss over Louisville with Southern Miss winning 51 percent of the time. So, perhaps tonight will be the first exciting bowl game that is not decided by the first quarter.
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Bowl Game Picks: Week Two Matchups
Week one of the bowl games are in the books and now it is time to check out week two. To keep in line with last week's bowl picks we will once again peruse theYahoo! Sports' College Bowl Pick'Em to see who is picking what team to win this week. The first bowl game this week is Tuesday night's matchup in the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl where the Southern MIss Golden Eagles take on Louisville Cardinal on Tuesday night, Dec. 21st. Louisville is favored to win by 57 percent to 43 percent over the Golden Eagles.
The Mountain West has two games this week with Utah facing off against Boise State in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl this Wednesday Dec. 23rd and then San Diego State going up against Navy in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl the following night Dec. 24th. Utah is riding a nine game bowl winning streakThis is San Diego State's first bowl game since 1998.
Last week, Boise State was a heavy 97 percent favorite over Utah, but since last week a whopping one percent has moved toward Utah and making Boise State a 96 percent favorite to win.
The San Diego State vs. Navy contest has also swung toward the Aztecs from last week where Navy was favored 59-41 to now the gap has closed to Navy still being the team of choice, but at 57-43.
The final game of the week comes Christmas Eve which is the Hawai'i Bowl where the home team Hawai'i takes on Tulsa in what should be a passing frenzy. Currently, Yahoo has Hawai'i as the team of choice by 86 percent to 14 percent. That is not a surprise since this is a home game for Hawai'i.
