Oregon State -7 3.3% play
Utah State overachieved this year and won the Mountain West, but it came against a very short handed San Diego State team, and I feel like we may be getting a short line, because of that. Oregon State could win their first Bowl Game in more than a decade, and they’ll get a chance to do it on a very big stage. Jonathan Smith could have gotten the HC job at Washington where he was the OC for the Huskies when they go to the College Football Playoff, but he decided to stay at his alma matter, and this is a massive game on ABC Saturday night in LA. I think Smith is a better coach than Blake Anderson, who is 1-4 in bowl games. Oregon State’s biggest weakness was going on the road in PAC 12 play where they went 0-5, but this is a neutral site game here.
Oregon State beat some good teams this year by more than 7 points including Arizona State and Utah. When they rushed for more than 230 yards they went 6-1, and 5 of those 6 wins came by more than a TD. Utah State vs. a top 30 rushing offense was shredded going 1-2, giving up 44, 34, and 45 points, 10 rushing TD’s and 1,020 rushing yards in the 3 games. Their lone win over Air Force was a bit misleading. Air Force was just 2-4 in the red zone coming away with 17 points, while Utah State was 3-3. Air Force was also -1 TO margin and stopped on 4th down and still only lost by 4. It was the difference between Air Force playing for the Conference Championship. Oregon State is one of the best red zone offenses, and expect them to put up plenty of points in this one.
