Posted:
#1
CFB Season Record 96-87 (52.5%) -1.462 units (-$1,462)
Looking forward to a successful bowl season after a slightly south of breakeven regular season. I will use this thread for the entire bowl season and will try to do writeups when time permits. Good luck to everyone and feel free to debate selections:
PAPAJOHNS.COM BOWL - 12/22 1PM
SOUTHERN MISS vs. CINCINNATI
CINCY -10.5 (2 UNITS) - A lot of wood to lay here but having seen Southern Miss play several times this season, each time I was unimpressed. Conference USA in my mind was one of the weakest conferences in Div 1 A. SM played two teams that were at one point in the Top 25 (Tennessee and Boise) and were outscored by a combined 42 points. In addition, they faced 5 bowl teams and were 1-4 straight up and ATS. In those 5 games, they were outyarded by an average of 414-333 and outscored 32-21. Out of the 64 bowl teams, SM ranks 53rd in net yard differential against bowl eligible teams with a -82.8 per game. SM is just 2-4 ATS on grass the last two years. and 7-16-1 ATS their last 24 away from home. SM was 7-5 this season, but six of their wins were against weak teams: Tennessee Martin (Div 1AA), SMU (1-11), Marshall (3-9), UAB (2-10), Arkansas State (5-7) and UTEP (4-8). Their one lone solid win was at East Carolina. Overall, Southern Miss faced a very weak slate of opponents with an average ranking of 92nd in offensive ratings and 116th in defensive rankings (tied for lowest among all bowl teams). SM ranked as the 109th toughest schedule out of 119 Division 1 teams. Meanwhile, SM inexplicably fired head coach Jeff Bower after his 14th straight winning season and 10th bowl appearance in the past 11 years. He has been retained to coach in this bowl game, which is a unique situation to say the least.
- A lot of wood to lay here but having seen Southern Miss play several times this season, each time I was unimpressed. Conference USA in my mind was one of the weakest conferences in Div 1 A. SM played two teams that were at one point in the Top 25 (Tennessee and Boise) and were outscored by a combined 42 points. In addition, they faced 5 bowl teams and were 1-4 straight up and ATS. In those 5 games, they were outyarded by an average of 414-333 and outscored 32-21. Out of the 64 bowl teams, SM ranks 53rd in net yard differential against bowl eligible teams with a -82.8 per game. SM is just 2-4 ATS on grass the last two years. and 7-16-1 ATS their last 24 away from home. SM was 7-5 this season, but six of their wins were against weak teams: Tennessee Martin (Div 1AA), SMU (1-11), Marshall (3-9), UAB (2-10), Arkansas State (5-7) and UTEP (4-8). Their one lone solid win was at East Carolina. Overall, Southern Miss faced a very weak slate of opponents with an average ranking of 92nd in offensive ratings and 116th in defensive rankings (tied for lowest among all bowl teams). SM ranked as the 109th toughest schedule out of 119 Division 1 teams. Meanwhile, SM inexplicably fired head coach Jeff Bower after his 14th straight winning season and 10th bowl appearance in the past 11 years. He has been retained to coach in this bowl game, which is a unique situation to say the least.Cincy won 9 games this year for the first time since 1953. With a new "coast to coast" offense implemented, Cincy scored a school record 441 points (4th best in the country) and averaged 436 yards per game. Cincy played 6 bowl caliber teams and were 4-2 straight up and 5-1 ATS. They outscored those opponents by an average of 29-20 although they were outgained by an average of 385-383. QB Ben Mauk broke the school record with 27 TD's this season while throwing only 6 INT's. As good as the offense is, Cincy's success can be attributed to its outstanding, quick and opportunistic defense which tied for 1st in the country in INT's with 23 and #2 overall with 39 forced turnovers. The Bearcats defense ranks 35th nationally allowing 19 ppg and 371 yards and allow just 3 yards per carry. Cincy also has the nation's #1 punter in Kevin Huber who averaged 46.9 yards per kick.
The only things that made me not play this for more was the fact that it is (1) Jeff Bower's final game, (2) SM is healthy and gets Easterling back at RB (he played only 1 game this year) and he is exciting and a nice complement to Damion Fletcher and Chris Johnson back at WR (3) SM has 16 Alabama kids on its roster and the game is being played in Birmingham and (4) Cincy probably should have gone to the Sun Bowl or Car Care Bowl but have sold limited tickets in previous bowl games and were snubbed. Overall, Cincy is the much more dominant team coming out of a much better conference and still merits a solid play.
0
on offense and a much better d. purdue 55---22
gl to all
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