Birmingham Bowl 2017: Texas Tech vs. USF TV Schedule, Time and Odds
If you like to start your Saturday afternoon by watching a shootout between a mediocre Big 12 program and one of the best Group of Five teams, the Birmingham Bowl is for you.
South Florida is familiar with Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, as it won the 2016 Birmingham Bowl in overtime over South Carolina. The Bulls also won the 2006 edition of the game when it was called the PapaJohns.com Bowl.
Texas Tech stumbled into bowl eligibility as it had to knock off Texas on November 24 to get to .500. The Red Raiders won two of their last three games after suffering through a four-game losing streak.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
The Birmingham Bowl is usually a destination for an SEC team, but the Red Raiders were slotted into the position since the SEC didn't have enough teams to fill all of its bowl commitments.
Date: Saturday, December 23
Time: Noon ET
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: Watch ESPN
Odds: South Florida (-2.5)
How Texas Tech Will Win
The allure of Kliff Kingsbury as Texas Tech head coach has dwindled so much that the former Red Raiders quarterback could be on the hot seat entering next season.
The Red Raiders need a victory to head into the offseason with momentum while avoiding a second consecutive losing season.
To the surprise of no one, the air raid offense has produced spectacular numbers for Nic Shimonek, who has 3,547 passing yards and 30 touchdowns.
The quarterback completed 296 passes, with 82 of them going to leading receiver Keke Coutee, who enters the Birmingham Bowl with 1,242 receiving yards, a total that ranks him ninth overall in the FBS.
What we're saying here is Texas Tech's offense is going to score points, and a lot of them, especially with the FBS' 58th-best passing defense lining up across the field.
As long as Shimonek can get into a rhythm in the first half, the Red Raiders will have a chance to return to Lubbock, Texas, with their seventh win.
The concern for the Red Raiders comes on the defensive side of the ball since they conceded 279.8 passing yards and 154.3 rushing yards per game. Those numbers don't bode well for them as they go up against dual-threat quarterback Quinton Flowers.
The best way for Texas Tech to get a stop on defense may be through a turnover. The Red Raiders intercepted 14 passes in the regular season, with Jake Parker leading the way with four.
If the Red Raiders can create a turnover or two in the first half and turn them into points through Shimonek, they will have the upper hand on the Bulls.
How South Florida Will Win
Unleashing Flowers on an average defense at best seems like an easy strategy to follow for head coach Charlie Strong's Bulls.
The senior quarterback, who won the 2016 Birmingham Bowl MVP with 261 passing yards and an additional 105 on the ground, is one of the most dynamic threats at the position that the Red Raiders have seen all season.
Flowers is also coming off one of the best individual performances of the season, as he threw for 503 yards and four touchdowns while earning 102 yards and a touchdown in the rushing game in a loss to UCF.
While Flowers could probably win the game on his own for the Bulls, but he has plenty of weapons alongside him to wear down the Texas Tech defense.
Darius Tice is 122 yards away from 1,000, and he's scored 11 touchdowns on the ground, which is one more than Flowers.
Flowers, Tice and D'Ernest Johnson have accounted for 88.9 percent of USF's 586 carries and have combined for 2,595 rushing yards with 28 touchdowns.
The Bulls could conceivably challenge the Red Raiders to stop their run game, and if that happens, they will just open up the passing game through Flowers.
South Florida's defense isn't the best in the nation by any stretch of the imagination, but it's done enough in the Bulls' victories to get them to 9-2.
There's no way South Florida will halt the Red Raiders on every possession, but second-half stops will be vital. In their last two wins, the Bulls have given up 16 second-half points and only gave up three to Tulsa on November 16.
Prediction
Neither defense seems dependable enough to hold the opposing offense to under 20 or 30 points so expect a duel between Flowers and Shimonek in a game that has the potential to reach 1,000 combined total yards.
South Florida's defense has had better performances of late than Texas Tech's unit, so we're giving the edge to the Bulls thinking they will have a better chance to produce stops.
South Florida 55, Texas Tech 41
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.
All statistics obtained from ESPN.com.
Odds obtained via OddsShark.com.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
