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Humanitarian Bowl: Nevada vs. Maryland Football Picks

Written December 28, 2008 by Jason Lowry

Maryland Nevada Football

This Tuesday the Nevada Wolf Pack and the Maryland Terrapins will meet up for the first time in their schools history, when they face off in the Humanitarian Bowl on Boise States famous blue turf in Bronco Stadium. The Terrapins started off strong going 6-2 with wins over teams like Clemson, California, and Wake Forest, but the end of the season was not so fortunate, as Maryland dropped 3 of its last 4 including the final two against Florida State and Boston College. As for the Wolf Pack they started off slow as they faced both Missouri and Texas Tech out of the Big 12 in their non-conference schedule, but wound up finishing the season 7-5 and tied with Louisiana Tech and Hawaii for 2nd in the WAC. For those of you looking to do some college football betting on this one, the oddsmakers have Nevada 1.5 point favorites over the Terrapins at BetUS.com.

Looking at Maryland’s offense they really don’t have any big numbers that step out and make you worry if you are an opposing team, as they come in averaging just 20 points a game, and only 342 yards of total offense. The running game is ran through tailback Da’Rel Scott, who rushed for 959 yards and 6 touchdowns this season. As far as the passing game is concerned Chris Turner is the guy in charger, and he needs to play better than his seasons numbers, as Turner threw for 2,318 yards with just 11 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. If Turner gets the passing game going its likely going to be to Darrius Heyward-Bey, who led the Terrapins with 561 yards and had 5 touchdowns.

The defense for the Terrapins is the strong point of this team, as teams scored just 21 points a game while giving up just 355 yards of offense. The big strength of this defense is the play against the run, as they allow just under 150 yards a game on the ground, but they have struggled stopping the pass, as teams average nearly 206 yards through the air. The concern we have with this unit, is they forced just 14 turnovers this season and thats not a very impressive number at all. The two guys worth keeping an eye on are Alex Wujciak and Moise Fokou, Wujciak is a tackling machine with 121 tackles on the season, while Foko brings the pressure with 11 tackles for loss and 5 sacks. Bet Maryland Terrapins +1.5 at BetUS.com.

The Wolf Pack have a pretty explosive offensive group, as they are scoring 37.8 points a game and averaging over 500 yards of total offense. While the team is throwing for over 200 yards a game with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who was WAC Player of the year, the team is strongest when it runs the football, as they are averaging 291 yards a game. The guy doing most of the damage on the ground is Vai Taua who ran for 1,420 yards and 14 scores. Taking a look at Kaepernick’s numbers he finished the season with 2,479 yards and 19 touchdowns, but most importantly just 5 interceptions. It’s going to be interesting to see how this offense looks against a solid school in a big time conference, as the Wolf Pack struggled to score in their two games against Big 12 opponents.

As good as the offense might be, the defense has really hurt this team, as they are not only giving up nearly 400 yards a game (395.6), they are allowing opposing teams to score 31.5 points a game. This team really struggled to stop the other team from throwing the football, as teams passed for 321 yards a game. A couple good things going for this unit is they have forced 22 turnovers and recorded 34 sacks, thanks in large part to the play of Kevin Basped and Dontay Moch. Basped had 18.5 tackles for loss and 10 sacks, while Moch was close behind with 15.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks. If the team can’t stop the pass they have to get big plays from these guys or this one could wind up being a shootout. Bet Nevada Wolf Pack -1.5 at BetUS.com.

Lowry’s Lean on the Game: Maryland +1.5
I really like Maryland in this one, as Nevada just plays in a much weaker conference so there numbers look much better than they actually would had they played in a division like the ACC. Also with Boise State’s loss to TCU it just shows how weak this conference really was. I like the Terrapins to take complete control of this game early and never look back.

Predicted Score: Maryland 31 Nevada 24

Check out these NCAA football picks from our experts and grab the best college football odds from Betfirms.

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