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Posts Tagged ‘BBVA Compass Bowl picks’

January 3rd, 2013 By Jack Wilshire

5Dimes SportsbookMy 2013 BBVA Compass Bowl picks between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Pittsburgh Panthers are all set and ready to go here at Cappers Info. The BBVA Compass Bowl kickoff starts at 1:00 p.m. ET at Legion Field in Birmingham, AL, and I’m going to be your expert college football handicapper that points you towards the winning bet for the Ole Miss vs. Pittsburgh game.

2013 BBVA Compass Bowl
Pittsburgh Panthers (6-6, 7-4-1 ATS) +3.5
Ole Miss Rebels (6-6, 9-3 ATS) -3.5
Over/Under 54

It’s interesting to think that all of the action has been on the ‘under’ in this game publically, as that’s generally a sign that offenses are being underrated. That makes matters especially unclear when the ‘total’ continues to rise. This is as sharp of an ‘over’ play as you’ll find in a bowl game, and I’m here to take the fullest advantage of it in a game that many think is going to be nothing but a snoozer that you’ll want to sleep through before getting ready for the NFL playoff games.

The Panthers aren’t as god awful of an offensive team as you would figure. The club did put up 400.4 yards per game and 27.4 points per game this year, and for as much as the team hates to be in Birmingham for the Compass Bowl for the third straight season, it does have to be out for some payback after scoring just six last year in this game against a significantly lesser SMU Mustangs outfit. Remember that the Panthers did score 26 on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, something that hardly anyone has been able to do this year, and there were 27 put up on both the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and the South Florida Bulls to end the campaign. It’s not a hapless team by any stretch of the imagination.

5Dimes

But what really pushes this one past the number for me is the exuberance that the Rebels are going to be playing with. This isn’t your average 6-6 team this year. This is a team that went through the wars together and clearly improved against a brutally tough schedule as the campaign went on. QB Bo Wallace dropped 41 on the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 35 on the LSU Tigers, and 26 on the Vanderbilt Commodores down the stretch, and there is no reason to think that there won’t be at least 30 put up in this game, especially with as well as Wallace has played at the end of his sophomore season. It wasn’t a mistake this year that the Rebs scored 30.9 points per game, and this offense, against the tough SEC, did average 426.8 total yards per game. That’s enough for me to think that this is an ‘over’ game waiting to happen in spite of the perceived notion that the Panthers can’t score.

Pittsburgh vs. Ole Miss Picks & Tips: Over 54

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Posted in Football Tipster, NFL Football Tips |

 
January 7th, 2012 By Andrew Ryan

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The duel between the Pitt Panthers and the SMU Mustangs is a great game to make BBVA Compass Bowl picks on, but we are wondering if the Arizona State Sun Devils shouldn’t sponsor this game. SMU’s Head Coach June Jones was once reported to have the job, and Pitt’s former coach Todd Graham is the man that ended up with it just 11 months after taking the job in the Steel City. Needless to say, it should make for a great game in Sweet Home Alabama.

Click Here For The Rest Of Our 2011-12 Bowl Game Previews

BBVA Compass Bowl Matchup: SMU Mustangs vs. Pittsburgh Panthers
BBVA Compass Bowl Date/Time: Saturday, January 7th, 1:00 ET
BBVA Compass Bowl Location: Legion Field, Birmingham, AL
BBVA Compass Bowl Odds: Pittsburgh -3
BBVA Compass Bowl Total: 48
BBVA Compass Bowl TV Coverage: ESPN, ESPN3.com

The big question in this game is how these teams are going to react to their coaching situations. Generally, we would like to think that the Panthers would find some way to rally around without their head coach, while we think that SMU may still have some questions for Jones about his loyalty, especially since he skipped out on his previous employers, the Hawaii Warriors rather quickly and with a huge element of surprise when he came here to Dallas for the Mustangs. There’s no doubt that the better schemer in this game is going to be Jones, as he has won some big time bowl games at pretty much all of his stops along the way, and he has had some extra time to prepare for this one on January 7th.

Remember that these Mustangs are the team that kept the TCU Horned Frogs from being in the BCS this year. On the road, the team was able to pull off an OT victory against what turned out to be a darn stout TCU team. However, two weeks later, the Mustangs were crippled by the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, who went on to win Conference USA, and they haven’t covered a spread since that points and were lucky to escape with a win over the Rice Owls in the regular season finale as 13 point favorites. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh had to beat the Syracuse Orange in its final regular season game just to make a bowl, but in the end, this was a team that really played better ball down the stretch, covering five in a row in conference and coming up with three wins and two just crushing late defeats in games against the Big East co-champs, Cincinnati and West Virginia that could have been won.

There are definitely some injury concerns on both sides. SMU’s best season in quite some time was last year, and QB Kyle Padron and RB Zach Line were leading the way. Padron was benched right at the start of the year and was miserable when he was in there, but missing Line really hurts. Beyond him, RBs Rishad Wimbley and Jared Williams only combined for 65 carries and 303 yards on the campaign, a far cry from the 1,224 yards and 17 TDs that Line had on the ground by himself. Predominantly a running team, the Panthers have been in trouble trying to find healthy running backs of late. RB Ray Graham, who was arguably the best back in the Big East this year, has been sidelined for the last month and won’t be available for this one either, and his backup, RB Zach Brown has missed a few games with a sternum injury as well. He at least has a shot of playing in the BBVA Compass Bowl, but hopes aren’t high that he can give it a go for the full game.

We just don’t see the Mustangs being able to pull this one out. We’ve doubted Jones and have been wrong before, but this isn’t nearly as good of an SMU team as he normally has to work with. One other note to remember about Pitt… This is a team that has now had four different head coaches in the last 13 months. Dave Wannstedt was fired, Mike Haywood was dismissed before ever really settling down with the job after some off the field legal issues, and Graham has now hopped out of town. If the team can survive that and still live to tell about a bowl game, there is no way that we can doubt that it will win it as well.

Free BBVA Compass Bowl Pick: Pittsburgh -3

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Posted in College Football |

 
January 7th, 2011 By Andrew Ryan

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The BBVA Compass Bowl might look like just another bowl betting bash featuring a pair of mediocre teams from power conferences, but there are a ton of storylines that go along with the duel on Saturday after that kicks off a triple header of football action including the NFL playoffs.

BBVA Compass Bowl Matchup: Kentucky Wildcats vs. Pittsburgh Panthers
Date: Saturday, January 8th, 12:00 ET
Location: Legion Field, Birmingham, AL
BBVA Compass Bowl Line: Pittsburgh -3.5
Over/Under 52

Wildcats Notes: This is the first bowl game for Head Coach Joker Phillips, who did a fantastic job taking care of this team this year in spite of the fact that many thought they would struggle to get into the second season. Kentucky survived the rugged SEC this year to finish at .500 and would love nothing more than to be able to pull off the upset here at Legion Field to finish up the campaign with a winning record. If he is going to do that though, it is going to have to happen with QB Morgan Newton calling the shots, not QB Mike Hartline. Hartline, who had a fantastic senior season, was suspended for this game and has not made the trip to Birmingham with the team. Newton, just a sophomore, is the future of the Kentucky program, and he brings a significantly tougher challenge to the table than Hartline does for the U-Pitt defense. No, Newton really isn't set to break all sorts of passing records, but he does have great legs, making this offense very, very fun to watch. Mr. Do It All, Randall Cobb is inevitably going to be taking some snaps as well as the Wildcat signal caller. Cobb threw the ball 10 times this year and accounted for 58 yards and three TDs. He was the second leading rusher on the squad as well with 401 yards and five scores. And of course, he was the top receiving option as well with 79 receptions, 955 yards, and seven TDs. Don't forget about the play of WR Chris Matthews either, though. This explosive star only caught 57 passes, but he averaged 15.7 yards per catch, giving him 897 yards and nine TDs on the year. RB Derrick Locke had 816 yards and 10 TDs on the ground as well. UK's defense had some bad games this year, like when it allowed 44 to the Georgia Bulldogs and 48 to the Florida Gators, but in totality, things weren't really that bad. The Wildcats held teams to just 344.9 yards and 28.5 points per game, numbers which probably would be good enough to beat the BBVA Compass Bowl odds on Saturday.

Panthers Notes: Trying to find a man that can take control of the Panthers right now is a hard enough task. Head Coach Dave Wannstedt was forced to resign at the end of the season, and the man that was hired to replace him, former Miami Redhawks Head Coach Mike Haywood, was fired on New Year's Day amidst allegations stemming from a domestic violence case. That alone, might be causing enough turmoil to cause the Panthers not to want to really show up here in Birmingham. On top of that, U-Pitt really didn't play well down the stretch, losing to both the Connecticut Huskies and West Virginia Mountaineers in games that really should have been won. Instead of playing in the BCS, something that seemed like a foregone conclusion going into the month of November, here it is in Birmingham, playing in a second tier game against a second tier team. Still, the Pittsburgh defense can make a real difference here at the BBVA Compass Bowl. This team allowed just 298.6 yards per game this year, ranking No. 9 in the land, though we must remember that this schedule wasn't nearly as tough as the one that the Wildcats faced. Do watch out for both RBs Dion Lewis and Ray Graham, who combined to account for almost 1,800 yards between them on the ground on the season. They also scored a combined 20 times. QB Tino Sunseri will be starting his first career bowl game as well after a 2010 season in which he threw for 2,476 yards and 15 TDs against eight picks.

The Final Word: We're not really so sure why the line in this game keeps going in Pitt's favor. We're not so certain that Kentucky isn't the better team in this game, and we really know that the Panthers probably don't have a lot of motivation to be here. Don't be surprised if Cobb, Newton, and company just continually find ways to puncture hole after hole in this Pittsburgh defense, and if that's the case, the Cats very well could run "Wild" in Birmingham.

BBVA Compass Bowl Free Pick: Kentucky +3.5
BBVA Compass Bowl Prediction: Kentucky 38 – Pittsburgh 20

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Posted in College Football |