These are two contrasting styles in two contrasting conferences, but I like the Big Ten a little bit better. They went 5-3 against the PAC 12 last year and 3-1 this year so far. Minnesota is getting extra points here because of the suspensions and the fact that they are in the secondary, but I believe that has just given us value in the line. This secondary still has 2 future NFL players in Damarius Travis and Jalen Myrick and I have to believe that MInnesota has some depth and the young players will be more excited to play and showcase their talent.
Minnesota will have to stop or slow down the air raid offense and I think they have the ingredients to do so. Minnesota is 30th in sack %, and 14th in front 7 havoc rate. They had +32 tackles for loss on the season compared with their offense and they are +19 in sacks while Washington State is -9 in sacks. Washington State only faced 3 teams in the top 50 in sack % and they went 1-2 against those teams. I believe Minnesota should be able to shorten this game as well with their offense.
Washington State did a good job against the run all year and they will have another chance against Minnesota who is going to run the ball 60% of the time, but if they aren't careful I think they could get burned here for being over aggressive early in this game by stacking the box. Mitch Leidner did not have a good season at QB for Minnesota, but he's a senior who has played in 3 bowl games and has played well in each of those games with 4 passing TD's to 1 interception. I think Leidner will give his team a shot to win. The running game should be able to control the offense with their size. It's not every day that Washington State sees an offense like this and I think both defenses will struggle at times. In the end I'll back Minnesota I think their head coach has done a fantastic job and the distractions of the suspensions have given us some extra line value here.
