I like BYU here in this game for a vareity of reasons. First of all only 1 guy on Memphis team has bowl experience. BYU looked worse than they did down the stretch and they will be as healthy as they have been all year int his game with the exception of Taysom Hill obviously, but this team did not seem to miss a beat without Hill. Justin Fuente is the new hot thing for coaching given what he did with Memphis this year, but he did it in one of the worst conferences. In fact his last 6 opponents offenses ranked no better than 94th in yards per play. That will make any defense look elite. Bronco Mendenhall quietly leads a team of men who will be focused and experienced in this game and certainly not distracted by Miami Beach. Mendenhall is 4-1 in his last 5 bowl games and 3-0 against non-major conference teams.

BYU's defense is every bit as good as Memphis and they did it in a better conference facing teams like Boise State and in non conference they went up against Cal and Texas. When Memphis stepped up in competition facing UCLA they allowed 42 points. BYU as I mentioned before did not skip a beat with Christian Stewart taking over at QB. In fact he finished with 22 TD's and 6 interceptions. In adjusted opponent efficiency BYU's offense ranked 33rd to Memphis at 84th. Memphis offense needs to run the ball to win. They have 24 TD's and 4.61 yards per carry in wins, but 2.81 and 4 TD's in losses. BYU is one of the best teams in run defense year in and year out and Memphis does not pose quite the threat through the air. When BYU can concentrate on stopping the run the defense has great success and I think it will here again. Another thing that would scare me about Memphis is the fact that they relied heavily on turnover to win games. BYU only turned the ball over 5 times in their last 4 games.

Where to find Freddy?