2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Odds

Written by Steve Janus

The UCLA Bruins will take on the Illinois Fighting Illini in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Kickoff is scheduled for New Year’s Eve at 3:30 ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN. These two teams don’t exactly have the greatest resumes. UCLA is the first team in a decade to play in a bowl game with a losing record, while the Fighting Illini are the first team in history to finish the regular season 6-6 after starting the season 6-0.

Taking a look at the college football bowl spreads, oddsmakers currently have Illinois favored by 2.5-points over UCLA with the total set at 47 points.

UCLA:

The Bruins finished the year 6-6 overall and 5-4 in the PAC-12, but fell to 6-7 after losing to Oregon 31-49 in the PAC-12 Championship Game. The only reason UCLA even made the title game, is because USC was suspended from postseason play. While the Bruins put together some nice wins, including a 29-28 victory over then No. 19 Arizona State, it wasn’t enough for head coach Rick Neuheisel to keep his job. Neuheisel has been replaced by Jim Mora Jr, but offensive coordinator Mike Johnson will coach UCLA in the bowl game.

Offensively UCLA is pretty one-dimensional. The Bruins finished with the 29th ranked run offense (190.7 ypg), but were just 81st passing (198.1 ypg). All that led to the Bruins being inconsistent offensively, as they finished the year averaging just 23.8 ppg.

The Bruins were forced to turn to junior Kevin Prince at quarterback after fellow junior Richard Brehaut was lost for the season. Prince led the way with 1,527 yards, but had just 10 touchdowns to seven interceptions. Prince does provide a nice addition to the running game, as he finished third on the team with 455 yards.

The majority of the offensive came from the running back duo of junior Johnathan Franklin and senior Derrick Coleman. Franklin rushed for 947 yards and five touchdown, while Coleman added 726 yards and a team-high 11 touchdowns.

The entire UCLA offense figures to struggle to do much of anything against the Fighting Illini. Illinois comes in 38th against the run (132.7 ypg) and 4th against the pass (159.1 ypg).

Illinois:

It will be interesting to see how the Fighting Illini come out for this bowl game. When you start a season 6-0, players start to really believe and think they are going to have a great season. To follow that start up with six straight losses has to have taken a huge hole both mentally and physically on this team. While most of their losses were extremely close games, they ended the season with a 7-27 loss at Minnesota, who won just three games all season.

The horrific finish wound up costing head coach Ron Zook his job. He too will not be coaching his team in the bowl game. Illinois has went out and hired Tim Beckman from Toledo, but it will be defensive coordinator Koenning serving as the interim head coach.

As you probably notices earlier, it’s not the Illinois defense to be blamed for the teams six game losing streak. Illinois didn’t score more than 17 points during the stretch, and three teams failed to even reach double-digits.

The Fighting Illini were expecting a big year out of sophomore quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, but he didn’t make the improvements they had hoped for. Scheelhaase completed 63.6% of his passes for 1,971 yards with 12 touchdowns to seven interceptions. Like Prince, he helped out the ground game, finishing second on the team with 514 yards and six touchdowns.

If Scheelhaase does throw the ball, it’s likely going to senior wide out A.J. Jenkins, who caught a team-best 84 passes for 1,196 yards and seven touchdowns.

Illinois has a trio of backs who share the work load. Jason Ford led the team with 600 yards and seven touchdowns, Troy Pollard added 462 yards, and Donovonn Young chipped in 406 yards and six touchdowns.

As bad as the Fighting Illini have been offensively, it’s hard telling if they will be able to move the ball against a mediocre UCLA defense. The Bruins are 89th against the run (191.5 ypg) and 69th against the pass (232.6 ypg).

Betting Trends:

UCLA is 4-1-1 ATS in their last 6 vs. Big Ten.

Illinois is 5-15 ATS in their last 20 non-conference games.

Predicted Score: Illinois 26, UCLA 24

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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