2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl Odds

Written by Steve Janus

The 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl will feature a Big Ten/ACC clash between the Texas A&M Aggies and Northwestern Wildcats. The game is scheduled for Saturday, December 31 at Reliant Stadium and will be televised nationally on ESPN. The Aggies will be making their third straight bowl game appearance, but they haven’t had a whole lot of success in the postseason. Texas A&M lost each of those games and hasn’t won a single bowl game in the last decade. Northwestern is headed to their fourth straight bowl game, but they do have been unable to win. The Wildcats haven’t won a bowl game since 1947.

Taking a look at the college football bowl spreads, oddsmakers currently have Texas A&M favored by 10-points over Northwestern with the total set at 67 points.

Texas A&M:

The Aggies had some pretty high expectations coming into the season, after they finished tied for the Big 12 South Title. They opened up the season No. 8 in the AP poll, but their inability to finish games ended up costing them. The Aggies ended up going just 6-6 overall and 4-5 in the Big 12. Five of those six losses came by a touchdown or less.

The poor finish cost head coach Mike Sherman his job, as he was fired a week after the Aggies lost their season finale to in state rival Texas. They went out and hired Houston’s head coach R.C. Slocum after nearly taking the Cougars to a BCS Bowl out of Conference USA. However, Slocum will not coach the bowl game. Defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter is serving as the interim head coach, but he will be leaving after this game to become the head coach of Fresno State.

Offensively the Aggies had little to no trouble moving the football. Texas A&M finished with the 18th best passing offense (287.9 ypg) and the 20th ranked ground attack (209.1 ypg).

Senior quarterback Ryan Tannehill really emerged into a star this season, as the converted wide out threw for 3,415 yards with 28 touchdowns to just 14 interceptions. Tannehill also finished third on the team with 296 yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

A big reason Tannehill had so much success throwing the ball, were his two star wide outs Ryan Swope and Jeff Fuller. Swope caught a team-high 81 passes for 1,102 yards and 11 touchdowns, while Fuller added 63 catches for 709 yards and five scores. Junior wide out Uzoma Nwachakwu doesn’t get a lot of hype playing alongside these two studs, but he finished with a solid 45 catches for 572 yards.

The running game was fueled by the duo of senior Cyrus Gray and junior Christine Michael. Gray had a team-best 1,045 yards and 12 touchdowns, but Michael wasn’t far behind with 899 yards and eight scores. The Aggies will have to play this game without Michael, who was lost for the season in the game against Oklahoma.Gray has been bothered by a shoulder injury, but is expected to play.

Texas A&M figures to have no trouble moving the ball offensively. The Wildcats defense finished 85th against the run (184.8 ypg) and 58th against the pass (222.2 ypg).

Northwestern:

The Wildcats also had some lofty goals coming into the season, but that was before they learned they would be without starting quarterback Dan Persa for the early part of the year. The Wildcats were a very streaky team during the season. They started out the year with back-to-back wins, lost their next five, and then won four straight before losing the season finale to Michigan State. Northwestern ended up finished 6-6 overall, but were just 3-5 inside the Big Ten conference.

While the Wildcats didn’t have as explosive offense as Texas A&M, they featured a pretty balanced attack, averaging 256.6 ypg through the air and 176.2 ypg on the ground.

Persa ended up completing 74% of his attempts for 2,163 yards with 17 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, despite missing three games to injury. Persa injured his Achilles in the third to last game of teh 2010 regular season. While the injury didn’t seem to take much away from his ability to throw the ball, he wasn’t near as quick on his feet. Persa had just 71 rushing yards and one touchdown on 69 attempts. Last year he rushed for 519 yards and five touchdowns.

The Wildcats have a couple of talented wide outs in Jeremy Ebert and Drake Dunsmore. Ebert led the way with 71 catches for 1,023 yards and 11 touchdowns, while Dunsmore hauled in 43 passes for 509 yards and six scores.

Northwestern used a wide variety of players to run the football. Backup quarterback Kain Colter led the team with 589 yards and eight touchdowns, senior Jacob Schmidt added 465 yards and six scores, and they also got some help from freshman Treyvon Green and sophomore Adonis Smith. Sophomore Mike Trumpy was expected to be the feature back, but he played in just three games due to a knee injury.

Northwestern will likely have to rely on Persa and the passing attack to win this game. While the Aggies defense comes in allowing over 28 ppg, they are 13th against the run (106.0 ypg) and a horrible 112th against the pass (280.5 ypg).

Betting Trends:

Texas A&M is 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games as a favorite.

Northwestern is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 vs. Big 12.

Predicted Score: Texas A&M 38, Northwestern 27

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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