Central Florida vs. Rutgers – St. Petersburg Bowl Picks Against The Spread
Bowl Season is finally here and the pros at FiveStarPick.com have been working overtime to analyze today’s college bowl schedule. The focus of this preview is the St. Petersburg Bowl between the Central Florida Knights and the Rutgers Scarlett Knights. Las Vegas Sportsbooks list Rutgers as 2.5-point favorites with a total of 44.5.
Rutgers (8-4 straight up, 5-5 against the spread) enters their fifth straight bowl game after returning nine starters. Gone from last year’s squad are quarterback Mike Teel along with wide receivers Tiquan Underwood and Kenny Britt. This season, command of the offense has been turned over to Tom Savage with and Tim Brown and Mohamed Sanu catching balls over the middle.
This year’s Rutgers offense has missed the loss at the skill positions. In 2008, Rutgers had the 18th ranked passing attack in the nation with 270.4 yards per game through the air. That has been reduced to 183.4 YPG in 2009 and a 95th national rank. Savage has completed 43 percent of his passes for 127.3 YPG with two touchdowns and four interceptions in his last three starts. Thankfully the Rutgers D has been awesome in 2009 giving up just 312.7 YPG, good enough for 19th in the country.
Central Florida (8-4 SU, 9-2 against the spread) opened the season with a 3-3 start, but UCF got its offense going and closed the season on a 5-1 run and an invitation to it’s 3rd bowl game in school history. Central Florida’s success has been mainly because their offense that has been averaging 348.0 yards per game in 2009 and it is mostly due Wake Forest QB trasfer Brett Hodges. The senior QB has completed 61 percent of his passes for 2,265 yards with 15 scores and 11 INTs. Hodges’ last three starts have been just short of flawless completing 70 percent of his passes for 235.0 YPG and five touchdowns.
The Knights defense is pretty good too. They are ranked 46th nationally in total defense, giving up 348.1 YPG this season and 4th in the country against the run allowing just 82.5 YPG on the ground.
The public is heavily favoring Rutgers who are on a 3-0 SU and against the spread in bowl games, while the Knights are 0-2 SU and against the spread in their last two postseason games. In addition, Central Florida is 0-13 SU and 2-11 against the spread when taking on Big East teams. On the other hand, the Scarlet Knights are 3-3 SU and 4-2 against the spread when facing Conference USA opponents.
So who covers the spread in the St. Petersberg Bowl? It’s very easy to find out. Try FiveStarPick.com tonight for just ($19.99) and see if our talent for picking college and pro football winners exceeds your expectations. We are the only sports handicapping service in the business who documents wins and losses and displays them on our homepage for all to witness. It’s because we have nothing to hide…we just win games against the spread. Join our family today and start your winning streak tonight.
Rick Riley – FiveStarPick.com
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