2011 Gildan New Mexico Bowl Odds

Written by Steve Janus

The 2011 college football bowl season will kickoff Saturday December, 7 with the Temple Owls taking on the Wyoming Cowboys in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl. The game will be played at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico with kickoff scheduled for 2:00 ET.

Taking a look at the college football bowl lines, oddsmakers currently have Temple favored by 6.5-points over Wyoming with the total set at 47.5 points.

Temple:

The Owls finished up the regular season with an 8-4 overall record. They came into the season with the expectation of winning the MAC East, but would end up finishing a game back of Ohio at 5-3 in conference play. Temple could have very easily finished with a better record, as they suffered three losses by a combined 11-points. The Owls come into their game against Wyoming off three straight wins, including an impressive 34-16 win over Kent State in the season finale.

Offensively the Owls do their damage behind one of the best rushing attacks in the country. Temple finished 7th in the country with an average of 256.7 rushing yards a game. Bernard Pierce led the way with 1,381 yards and 25 touchdowns, while backup Matt Brown added 867 yards and five scores.

Don’t expect to see much passing from Temple against Wyoming. The Owls average just 123.3 ypg through the air, which was the 117th worst total of any division 1 team. Three different quarterbacks have taken snaps for the Owls this season. Sophomore Chris Coyer emerged as the starter late in the year, but was forced to sit out the final game with a shoulder injury and is listed as questionable for the bowl game. If Coyer can’t go, look for senior Chester Stewart to start in his place.

Not being able to throw the ball doesn’t figure to be a problem against Wyoming. The Cowboys are 110th in the country against the run, allowing just over 230 ypg on the ground.

Wyoming:

The Cowboys concluded their season with a 22-19 win at Colorado State, improving their overall record to 8-4 and 5-2 in the Mountain West Conference. Wyoming only two conference losses came at the hands of No. 18 TCU and No. 7 Boise State. It was a pretty impressive turnaround for the Cowboys, who went just 3-9 last season. Their only loss against a non-ranked opponent, while it was a bad one, was a 19-63 beating at Utah State.

Wyoming strength offensively is running the ball, as they average 185.1 ypg behind the talented duo of junior running back Alvester Alexander and freshman quarterback Brett Smith. The two combined for 1,323 yards and 16 touchdowns. Smith not only helped the Cowboys on the ground, but he drastically improved their passing game. Smith completed 60.5% of his attempts for 2,495 yards with 18 touchdowns to just eight interceptions. He had his best performance of the season in a 30-27 win at San Diego State, throwing for 341 yards and two scores.

With a suspect defense that figures to be in trouble against the Temple rushing attack, the Cowboys are going to need a big game offensively from Smith and Alexander. However, moving the ball against Temple figures to be a challenge. The Owls come in allowing just 13.8 points and 315.5 yards of total offense per game, ranking 25th against the run (122.6 ypg) and 19th against the pass (192.9 ypg).

Betting Trends:

Temple is 10-1 ATS in their last 11 non-conference games.

Wyoming is 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog of 3.5-10.0.

Predicted Score: Temple 27, Wyoming 20

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win this college football bowl season.

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