The Orange Bowl is one of the games on the college football bowl schedule this year, and today, I’m set to make my NCAA football pointspread picks for the ‘total’ in this clash. The Northern Illinois Huskies and the Florida State Cowboys are going to do battle at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL. Join me for my Orange Bowl tips for this 8:30 p.m. ET kickoff that can be seen on ESPN.
The question that I have to ask myself about the Orange Bowl this year is whether the Seminoles are going to play defensively. If they do, there really should be no way that these Huskies should do all that much against this unit. If they don’t, this could end up being a dogfight that results in 40 points a side, because the one thing that I do have the utmost confidence in is the fact that QB EJ Manuel is going to put some points on the board against a defense that got some fat and impressive stats off of some awfully weak teams that had no business competing against a BCS team this year.
2013 Orange Bowl
Northern Illinois Huskies (12-1, 9-2-2 ATS) +13.5
Florida State Cowboys (11-2, 3-9 ATS) -13.5
Over/Under 58.5
Many are going to point to the fact that both DE Tank Carradine and DE Brandon Jenkins are out of the lineup for the Noles as a big time problem, but I just don’t see it that way. DE Bjorn Werner is going to want to prove that he should be a Top 10 pick in the NFL Draft, and a good game in the Orange Bowl could do just that for him. This is still a very deep defense with a lot to prove, especially after the unit was trampled at times by the Florida Gators. As we saw against the triple option of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, the gimmicks aren’t going to work against Florida State, and that will remain true against the Huskies as well.
Take all of the yards and all of the points that QB Jordan Lynch put up this year and throw them out the window in this one. Remember that the Iowa Hawkeyes held Lynch and the gang down to just 17 points, and the Kansas Jayhawks kept NIU down to just 23. If that’s what two bad AQ conference schools were able to do to the Huskies, what are the Seminoles going to do to them with a full month to prepare for the game? Though in the end, the disappointing Seminoles might not show up to play and get run over, I have to think that they are really going to care about this one and get the job done. If that’s the case, this could be a shutout.
Northern Illinois vs. Florida State Picks & Tips: Under 58.5
