Bowl Previews (December 19-21)

December 13, 2018 by CFP Staff

The Frisco Bowl (Wednesday, December 19, 8:00 p.m. ET) takes place in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas. The Toyota Stadium venue was built for soccer and seats 20,500. The inaugural Frisco Bowl took place last season with Louisiana Tech beating SMU 51-10. Incoming head coach Sonny Dykes had to coach the Mustangs despite knowing little about the team as he had just been hired 9 days before the game took place. This year's edition will have no such issues as Ohio and San Diego State have two of the longer-tenured head coaches in the FBS. Frank Solich is in his 14th season with the Bobcats while Rocky Long is in his 8th season with the Aztecs. Ohio brings an 8-4 record to the game while San Diego State is 7-5. This is one of 13 bowls in 2018 that feature a first-time matchup for its participants. The Aztecs fell to 74th in rushing this season after being a top 14 running team for 3 straight seasons behind Rashaad Penny and Donnel Pumphrey. Ohio was 17th in rushing this season with A.J. Ouelette gaining 1,142 yards on the ground and scoring 12 TD's. The Bobcats also got 831 yards and 8 TD's out of Maleek Irons while QB Nathan Rourke ran for 816 and 13 scores. Rourke also threw for 2,228 yards on a 22-7 TD-INT ratio and a 61.1% completion clip. The computer likes Ohio by 5.62 points.

The Gasparilla Bowl (Thursday, December 20, 8:00 p.m. ET) moves across the bay from Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays MLB Stadium) in St. Petersburg to Raymond James Stadium (Tampa Bay Bucs NFL home venue) in Tampa. This is super news for football fans as "The Trop" is bad enough as a baseball stadium, and was absolutely horrible for football. One thing is for sure - the USF football team couldn't be happier as it gets to play this bowl game on its home field against Marshall. The 7-5 Bulls limp into this game on a 5-game losing streak after a 7-0 start that included a 49-38 win over Georgia Tech. The Herd closed an 8-4 campaign with a 41-20 loss at Virginia Tech after reeling off 3 straight wins. The computer favors Marshall by 6.52 points in the first-ever meeting between these schools.

Friday, December 21 features a pair of games - the Bahamas Bowl and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

In Nassau, Florida International (8-4) will take on Toledo (7-5) in the 12:30 p.m. ET game. This is the 5th Bahamas Bowl, all involving a matchup of Conference USA and MAC teams with the conferences alternating victories. Last year's game was a 41-6 blowout win for the MAC as Ohio crushed UAB. Some of the pundits believe the location of this game gives the Panthers an advantage because of the proximity to the Bahamas as FIU is located in Miami, but the oddsmakers favor the Rockets and the computer agrees though the computer margin of 4.66 is under the 6-point spread. These teams last met in the 2010 Little Caesar's Bowl with the Golden Panthers prevailing 34-32, and FIU owns a 2-1 series advantage. The Panthers rank 54th on offense and 58th on defense, while Toledo comes in with the 29th-ranked offense and 94th-ranked defense. All 5 Toledo losses came against bowl teams - Miami (FL), Fresno State, Eastern Michigan, Buffalo, and Northern Illinois. As for for FIU, the Panthers lost to bowl teams Miami (FL) and Marshall, but also fell to Indiana and rival FAU. Toledo head coach Jason Candle, who is 1-2 in bowl games, began his head coaching career with a bowl win for the Rockets in 2015 and he's had them in a bowl game in all four years of his tenure. FIU head coach Butch Davis is 5-3 in bowl games, but that includes a 4-0 mark at Miami. He is 0-1 at FIU and was 1-2 at North Carolina.

By the way, the official name of the Bahamas Bowl this year is the "Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl". In case you're wondering, 'Makers Wanted' is an ad campaign slogan for an industrial park in Elk Grove, Illinois. You can't make this stuff up.

The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise pits Western Michigan (7-5) against BYU (6--6) at 4:00 p.m. ET. Organizers are hoping Cougar fans show up in droves from Utah as this game has taken place in front of a half-empty stadium (capacity 36,000) for three of the last four seasons. When Wyoming beat Central Michigan last year, only 16,512 witnessed it in person. BYU brings one of the worst offenses in the FBS, averaging just 25.4 points per game. But the Cougars have stayed in most games because of a defense that allowed only 21.7 points per game. That defense will be crucial as Western Michigan ranked 30th in total offense and 32nd in rushing. Nonetheless, BYU seems to be the prohibitive favorite with the oddsmakers setting the spread at 12 points and the computer taking the Cougars by 8.75.