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St. Petersburg Bowl Odds: Memphis vs. South Florida Football Picks

Written December 17, 2008 by Jason Lowry

South Florida Memphis Football

The two teams doing battle in the St. Petersburg Bowl game this Saturday will be the Memphis Tigers out of Conference USA and the South Florida Bulls out of the Big East. Now Memphis finished the season at 6-6 overall, but with only 6 teams finishing above .500 in the conference, the Tigers sneak into the Bowl picture once again this season. As for South Florida few expected this team to be playing in a bowl game this early, as this was suppose to be the year they won the conference and possibly contended for the National Title, but after starting the season 5-0, the Bulls went on to win just 2 of their last 7 games, and wound up finishing 2-5 in the Big East. So for those of you looking to do a little NCAA football betting on this game, the oddsmakers have South Florida 12.5 point favorites over Memphis at Sportsbook.com

Now the Tigers might not play the best of competition this season, but this team has really been able to move the football. The offense is coming into this one averaging 205 yards on the ground and another 226 through the air. All those yards have led to 28 points a game, and most importantly 3 wins in their last 4 games to get to the magical 6 win mark. The offensive stars for the Tigers are running back Curtis Steele, who has ran for 1,175 yards and 7 scores this season, and quarterback Arkelon Hall stepped in to lead this team throwing the football, as the junior college transfer racked up 2,121 yards and 11 scores on the season. Hall’s favorite target was Carlos Singleton had totaled 759 yards and 5 touchdowns on 50 catches this season. Look for the balanced offensive attack to take whatever the Bulls give them in this one.

The Tigers defense is likely the reason this team doesn’t have a better record heading into their Bowl game, but this unit really showed up in the final game of the season, allowing Tulane just 6 points. Now the defense wasn’t all that good against the run letting teams nearly rush for 150 yards a game against them, but they were able to keep teams from throwing all over them as well. The defense didn’t make a ton of big plays this season recording just 17 turnovers, but they surprisingly do get some pressure on the opposing quarterback, as they had 20 sacks this season, with Clinton McDonald leading the way with 7 quarterback takedowns. The defense will have to be strong in this one, as they gave up 35 points to Louisville, who finished worse than South Florida in the Big East. Bet Memphis Tigers +12.5 at Sportsbook.com

Taking a look at what South Florida brings to this one, you get and offense that really fell apart at the end of the season, as this failed to light up the scoreboards in any of its final 5 games where they won just 1 game during that stretch. Now the offense is pretty much centered around the play of quarterback Matt Grothe, as he not only led the team with 2,675 yards and 15 passing scores, he was also the top rusher, running for 508 yards and 4 more touchdowns. Now as good as Grothe was for this offense, he is prone to making mistakes, as he racked up 14 interceptions this season. Look for running back Mike Ford to get a few carries here and there, but the main focus will be Grothe airing it out to the teams leading receivers Jessie Hester and Taurus Johnson.

The Bulls defense did what it could to get this team where it wanted to be when the season got underway, as they allowed just 20.5 points a game, while allowing teams to just 292 total yards of offense per contest. The defense is best against the run allowing a just 97.7 yards a game, good enough for 10th best in the nation, and are not much worse against the pass. The one problem you could point to on this unit is there lack of forced turnovers, as they had just 17 takeaways on the season. Now the defense was good at getting to the quarterback, as they had 22 sacks, but never got the year out of defensive end George Selvie that they expected, as his sack totaled dropped from 14.5 in 2007 to just 5.5 this year. The Bulls have the talent to win this game, and its likely the defense that will play a big role in them doing so. Bet South Florida Bulls -12.5 at Sportsbook.com

Looking for a little help on who to pick in the Bowl games this season, check out these great NCAA football picks, and grab the latest college football odds for all the games at Betfirms.

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