College Football Bowl Preview, Picks: BYU, Fresno State, Troy To Win Saturday?
The 2010-2011 college football bowl season kicks off this weekend with Northern Illinois facing Fresno State in the uDrove Humanitarian Bowl, BYU taking on UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl and Ohio squaring off with Troy in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
There's no Auburn-Oregon Cam Newton-LaMichael James marquee BCS game here, but watching the Huskies and Bulldogs play on Boise State's infamous blue turf should be worthwhile.
Saturday's matchups feature a host of underrated teams and players, and you won't want to miss the opening act to the bowl game season.
That being said, here's a breakdown of all of this weekend's action, starting off with the Huskies and Bulldogs' showdown.
Humanitarian Bowl: Matchup
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Northern Illinois Huskies vs. Fresno State Bulldogs
Fresno State (8-4 overall, 5-3 WAC) is an interesting team, one which is a distant fourth in the WAC behind Boise State, Nevada and Hawaii.
Despite losing to all three (including a 51-point loss to Boise), the Bulldogs played a couple of impressive games this year. They lost to Nevada by a mere point and took out an underrated Illinois squad to finish off the regular season.
Also, beating Cincinnati in the season opener seemed like a marquee win at the time, even though it's not all that impressive now.
As for Northern Illinois (10-3 overall, 8-0 MAC), the Huskies cruised to an 8-0 regular season MAC record but were stunned by Ohio in the league championship game.
They ended the regular season in the Top 25 but failed in their "toughest" non-conference games, losing to Iowa State and Illinois.
A win over Minnesota is not all that impressive, but going undefeated in any conference, even the MAC, is nothing to scoff at.
Who has the edge?
Fresno is merely average in every aspect of the game, but it does average a pretty impressive 30 points per game and plays in a much tougher conference (at least at the top).
Northern Illinois is more impressive statistically, ranking seventh in the nation in rushing (264.8 ypg), 13th in points scored (37.8 ppg) and 16th in points allowed (19.1). For all you non-math majors out there, that's a pretty impressive average margin of victory of 28.7 points.
Humanitarian Bowl: Players to Watch
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For Fresno State, keep an eye on senior quarterback Ryan Colburn.
It's the last game of his career, and he'll certainly want to go out with a bang.
Colburn has an impressive 21:9 TD:INT ratio and threw for 304 yards, three TD and 0 INT against Illinois' pretty solid defense.
As for Northern Illinois, look out for senior running back Chad Spann.
Spann leads NIU's impressive rushing attack with 1,293 yards and 20 TD.
He's scored in all but two games this season and has six 100-plus-yard games, including a 223-yard outburst against Big Ten bottom-dweller Minnesota.
Humanitarian Bowl: Pick
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Both teams have struggled in big games this year, playing hard and coming close but not coming out on top.
Fresno is the historically better team, but Northern Illinois will be extra motivated to finish with one of the school's most impressive seasons in its history.
The difference will likely come down to Fresno State's (in)ability to stop the run.
Even in its win over Illinois, the Illini steamrolled the Bulldogs to the tune of 300-plus yards on the ground.
With NIU averaging over 250 yards per game rushing, that will be the deciding factor.
Northern Illinois 34, Fresno State 31
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New Orleans Bowl: Matchup
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Ohio Bobcats vs. Troy Trojans
Ohio (8-4 overall, 6-2 MAC) doesn't bring anything eye-opening to the table but does boast the nation's 39th-ranked rushing attack at 168.8 yards per game.
It also has a pretty stout defense, allowing just 21.8 points per game, good for 34th in the country.
Troy (7-5 overall, 6-2 Sun Belt) is just the opposite, putting up passing yards (289.8, 12th in the country) and points (32.9, 27th) in bunches.
But it struggles on defense, giving up 31 points per contest.
Basically, this is grind-it-out Ohio versus spread-'em-out Troy.
Finally, you should know a couple more things.
Ohio struggled out of the MAC but did finish 6-2 in its underrated conference.
And while Troy had five losses this year, one was by just a point to a decent UAB team, one came against SEC power South Carolina and one was an impressive three-point loss to Oklahoma State.
New Orleans Bowl: Players to Watch
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For Ohio, watch out for junior "quarterback" Phil Bates.
Bates isn't the team's primary passer with just 22 throws on the season, but he is a veritable dual threat, just one yard away from being the team's leading rusher.
He's also far and away its most effective player running the ball, averaging a whopping 7.0 yards per carry over 73 attempts.
But for Troy, look out for freshman quarterback Corey Robinson.
Despite his diaper-dandy status, Robinson has thrown for 3,339 yards and 24 TD, albeit with 15 INT.
He has topped 200 yards passing in all but two games this season, including four 300-plus-yard games and one 404-yard explosion against UAB.
New Orleans Bowl: Pick
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Ohio comes in with the better record, but Troy is the one with the most impressive performance, coming when it nearly knocked off Oklahoma State.
I see Ohio's defense getting exposed outside of the run-dominant MAC by Troy's spread offense, and that will be the difference.
Troy 31, Ohio 20
New Mexico Bowl: Matchup
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BYU Cougars vs. UTEP Miners
BYU (6-6 overall, 5-3 MWC) started out the season 2-5 but won four of its last five to become bowl-eligible.
The Cougars had high expectations entering the year, but their early-season blues were their downfall.
They scored an impressive season-opening win over Washington, took out underrated San Diego State in the middle of the season and lost to No. 19 Utah by just one point.
UTEP hasn't beaten anyone outside of Southern Methodist and comes into the game as losers of five out of six.
Ouch.
New Mexico Bowl: Players to Watch
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For BYU, look out for 5'9", 190-lb. junior running back J.J. Di Luigi, who has tallied 819 yards and seven TD on the ground.
He only has two 100-yard games, but that's more because of his moderate workload (158 carries) that is split amongst a host of other backs.
For UTEP, keep an eye on senior wide receiver Kris Adams. He's a tall pass catcher who is just under 1,000 yards receiving on the year with an impressive 11 TD.
New Mexico Bowl: Pick
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If you were listening to anything I said, you'll see that it's pretty clear these teams are headed in different directions.
Should be a blowout.
BYU 28, UTEP 10
Comments
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What do you think about this week's matchups?
Will you be watching?
Voice your opinion in the comments.
Matt Rudnitsky is a student at the University of Michigan and a Featured Columnist/writing intern at Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Mattrud.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
