2011 Bowl Predictions: Picking Winners for the Opening Day Bowl Games

It's reaching the most exciting part of the year as the bowl games are less than a week away from kicking off. When you think of bowl season, you normally think of the bigger bowl games that feature some of college football's elite.

Although before you get to the premier bowl games, there are smaller teams that have to play, that you may not be that familiar with. A few of these teams are talented and may provide a surprisingly good game.

Here are the predictions for the opening day bowl games that take place this Saturday.

Temple vs. Wyoming

You read the breakdown to this game here.

Coming into this game, both teams are going to want to run the ball. Although Temple does it better than almost any team in the country, Wyoming does average 185 yards on the ground themselves. The problem is that Wyoming can't stop the run in this game at all, as they give up 230 rushing yards a game. Not good news going up against a Temple team that averages 256 rushing yards a game.

Temple on the other hand only allows 122 rushing yards which is 22nd best in the country.

The Cowboys are also banged up as they will not have their leading rusher or leading receiver playing in this game.

Dave Christensen and Wyoming were able to pull off the upset in the New Mexico Bowl a couple of seasons ago, but I don't see that happening again this year.

Temple wins 34-17

Ohio vs. Utah State

This is another game that will feature two teams that will like to run the ball. Utah State is sixth in the country averaging 277 yards on the ground and Ohio is ranked 25th. But they both do a good job at stopping the run as both defenses allow less than 130 rushing yards.

The Bobcats can also throw the ball with Tyler Tettleton, which is something the Aggies can not do.

Utah State has played three different quarterbacks this year and neither of them have provided any concrete answer on who the legitimate starter is.

The Aggies defense is also pretty brutal as they are ranked 73rd in the country allowing 28.3 points per game.

Utah State may have played better teams this season but it's hard not to take the more balanced team on offense and the team that has the better defense. The winner of Famous Idaho Potato Bowl has scored over 40 points the last four seasons. Utah State isn't capable of that with their one-dimensional offense.

Ohio wins 41-23

San Diego State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

This is probably the lock of the day, as I really see no way the Ragin' Cajuns can win this game. This is really a matchup with a very talented San Diego State team against a Sun Belt team that overachieved this season.

Louisiana-Lafayette plays almost no defense, allowing nearly 30 points a game. That's not good news going up against talented players like Ryan Lindley and running back Ronnie Hillman. Both will eventually be playing on Sundays and should have a field day in this game.

Although Louisiana-Lafayette does have a solid passing game themselves with Blaine Gautier, who's thrown for early 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns. That's really what's kept them in games this season but that is against other Sun Belt teams for what's worth.

San Diego State has played tough against Michigan, TCU and Boise State this season. They should have no problem at all in this game.

San Diego State wins 38-21

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]