2011 Valero Alamo Bowl Odds

Written by Steve Janus

The No. 12 Baylor Bears will look to add to their impressive season when they take on the Washington Huskies in the 2011 Valero Alamo Bowl. The game will take place on Thursday, December 29 at the Alamodome. Kickoff is scheduled for 9:00 ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN. The Bears lost 14-38 to Illinois in their first bowl appearance since 1994 last year, and have not won a postseason game since beating Arizona 20-15 back in 1992. The Huskies pulled off a shocking 19-7 win over Nebraska in the 2010 Holiday Bowl, and will be big underdogs again this year.

Taking a look at the college football bowl spreads, oddsmakers currently have Baylor favored by 9-points over Washington with the total set at 78.5 points.

Baylor:

Most expected the Bears to get back to a bowl game again this season, but few predicted this team to finish ranked in the Top 25 with a 9-3 overall record. The Bears finished third in the Big 12 with a 6-3 conference mark. Baylor got things rolling with a 50-48 win over what turned out to be a very good TCU team. They would suffer a couple of bad losses to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, but finished up the year with five straight wins, including a 45-38 win at home over then No. 5 Oklahoma and 48-24 win over then No. 22 Texas.

The Bears feature one of the most explosive offenses in all of college football. They finished 6th in the country with a scoring average of 43.5 ppg. While most of the damage came from a passing attack that ranked 5th in the nation (356.2 ypg), they also had the 18th best rushing attack (215.1 ypg).

Baylor is led by junior quarterback Robert Griffin III, who will likely come into this game as the Heisman winner. Griffin III completed 72.4% of his attempts for 3,998 yards with 36 touchdowns to just six interceptions. That wasn’t the extent of what Griffin III did for this offense, he was also the second leading rusher with 644 yards and nine rushing touchdowns.

Griffin III isn’t the only weapon that opposing defenses have to worry about. Senior running back Terrance Ganaway rushed for a team-high 1,347 yards with 16 touchdowns, and junior wide out Kendall Wright caught 101 passes for 1,572 yards and 13 scores. Junior wide out Terrance Williams added another 53 receptions for 895 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The Bears offense should put on a show in this game, as they face a horrible Washington defense that finished 52nd against the run (142.5 ypg) and 115th against the pass (283.6 ypg).

Washington:

A lot of people, including myself, thought Washington was in for a down year after losing star quarterback Jake Locker. Instead, Washington finished up with a better regular season record than they did a year ago at 7-5. They ended up going 5-4 in the PAC-12, which was good enough for third in the North Division.The one thing to keep in mind is the Huskies went 0-4 against teams who finished ranked inside the Top 25, losing badly to Nebraska, Stanford, Oregon, and USC.

Washington got some pretty good quarterback play of their own, as sophomore Keith Price stepped in an impressed in his first season as a starter. Price started the year playing like an All-American, throwing for at least three touchdowns in his first seven games, with 21 touchdowns to just four interceptions. However, he wouldn’t be able to keep up that pace, as he struggled down the stretch and ended up finishing the year with just 29 touchdowns to 11 picks.

While Price had an up and down year, junior running back Chris Polk delivered for the Huskies all season long, finishing with 1,341 yards and 11 touchdowns. He rushed for at least 100 yards nine times.

Both Price and Polk figure to have a great opportunity to finish up with monster games against a bad Baylor defense. The Bears are 97th against the run (198.7 ypg) and 111th against the pass (278.8 ypg).

Betting Trends:

Baylor is 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games as a favorite of 3.5-10.0.

Washington is 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games in December.

Predicted Score: Baylor 44, Washington 35

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win this college football bowl season.

Comments

Got something to say?