2011 Insight Bowl Odds

Written by Steve Janus

The No. 19 Oklahoma Sooners are set to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2011 Insight Bowl. The game is scheduled for Friday, December 26 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. This will be Oklahoma’s 13th straight bowl game appearance under head coach Bob Stoops. The Sooners crushed Connecticut 48-20 in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl. The Hawkeyes will be making their fourth consecutive bowl game appearance. Iowa knocked off Missouri 27-24 in the Insight Bowl a season ago, for a school-record three straight bowl wins.

Taking a look at the college football bowl lines, oddsmakers currently have Oklahoma favored by 14-points over Iowa with the total set at 57.5 points.

Iowa:

The Hawkeyes finished up the regular season 7-5 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten Conference. It was an up-and-down season for Iowa, as they never won more than two games in a row. They also never had back-to-back losses. There season includes impressive wins over Pittsburgh and Michigan, but they also had a couple of bad losses at Iowa State and Minnesota. One thing to keep in mind about the 14-point spread for this game is the fact that Iowa had just one loss by more than 13 points all season.

The offense will be without one of their best weapons against Oklahoma, as sophomore running back Marcus Coker has been suspended for this game. Coker finished second in the conference with 1,384 yards and 15 rushing touchdowns. Without Coker the Hawkeyes likely wouldn’t have beat Missouri last year in the Insight Bowl, as he rushed for 219 yards and two scores in that game. The big question for Iowa is who will take his spot. Backup Mika’il McCall is out for the season. Red-shirt freshman De’ Andre Johnson finished second on the team with just 79 yards on 18 attempts.

With the ground game likely struggling to move the ball, look for Iowa to turn to junior quarterback James Vandenberg and the passing attack to lead them to a win. Vandenberg was pretty impressive in his first season as a starter, throwing for 2,806 yards with 23 touchdowns to just six interceptions.

Vandenberg benefited greatly from the play of senior wide out Marvin McNutt, who will be playing in the NFL next season. McNutt caught a team-high 78 passes for 1,269 yards and 12 touchdowns. McNutt isn’t the only receiving threat at Vandenberg’s disposal, junior Keenan Davis and freshman Kevonte Martin-Manley have both made some big catches for this offense.

Normally when you go up against an Oklahoma defense, you don’t expect to have a whole lot of success moving the ball. That really hasn’t been the case this season. The Sooners finished 47th against the run (139.6 ypg) and 82nd against the pass (243.6 ypg).

Oklahoma:

The Sooners didn’t expect to be playing in the Insight Bowl when the season kicked off. A lot of pre-season rankings had Oklahoma No. 1. The Sooners opened up the season 6-0, but injuries would spoil their run at a National Championship. Oklahoma had a chance to still make it to win the Big 12 and make it to a BCS Bowl, but were dominated 44-10 by Oklahoma State in the season finale. The Sooners ended up going 9-3 overall, with all three losses coming in conference play.

Oklahoma’s first loss of the season came after leading rusher Dominique Whaley was lost for the season with a broken ankle. The next two losses came after future NFL wide out Ryan Broyles was lost for the year to an ACL injury. On top of not having Whaley or Broyels, the Sooners will be without freshman running back Brandon Williams, fullback Aaron Ripkowski, and wide out Jaz Reynolds.

Oklahoma finished with the 4th best passing attack in the country (365.1 ypg), behind junior quarterback Landry Jones. Coming into the season Jones was considered by many to be a threat for the Heisman, but those talks were put to rest in the second half of the season. Jones finished with 4,302 yards with 28 touchdowns to 14 interceptions, but really struggled down the stretch. Over his last three games, Jones threw for 318 ypg, but had zero touchdown passes to five interceptions. A big reason why Oklahoma won just one of those games.

Sophomore Roy Finch is next in line at running back, but his status is a bit up in the air after he was cited for property damage back on Dec. 8th. At first it looked as though he was going to be suspended, but his status is listed as probable. Finch finished second on the team with 601 rushing yards to go along with three touchdowns.

The good news for the depleted Oklahoma offense is they face a pretty mediocre Iowa defense. The Hawkeyes finished 62nd against the run (159.5 ypg) and 68th against the pass (228.1 ypg). It is one of the worst defensive units Iowa has fielded in the last decade.

Betting Trends:

Iowa is 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games as an underdog of 10.5 or greater.

Oklahoma is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 Bowl games as a favorite.

Predicted Score; Oklahoma 37, Iowa 23

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win the rest of the college football bowl season. Also, check out our 2011 college football bowl predictions for a preview of every bowl game.

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