College Football Odds: Papajohns.com Bowl

College sports fans love bowl season! (AP Images)

Saturday’s Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., features possibly the most hard-luck team in college football, Connecticut, against South Carolina, with the Gamecocks are 4.5-point favorites on Bodog’s college football odds in the first-ever meeting between the schools.

The Huskies’ record (7-5, national leading 10-2 ATS) looks average but their five losses came by a total of just 15 points. Yet the team managed to overcome the murder of one of its players to finish the regular season with a three-game winning streak. It also was able to keep coach Randy Edsall, as he was drawing interest from Notre Dame.

South Carolina (7-5, 7-5 ATS) was wildly inconsistent has it had an early-season four-game winning streak but closed the year losing four of six – although the Gamecocks did surprise Clemson in the regular season finale. Only 12 bowl games this postseason feature teams coming off a win and this is one of them.

The Gamecocks aren’t a great offensive team, as they ranked last in the SEC in rushing for the third consecutive season. And they allowed 34 sacks. But they are one of the better defensive units in the country – ranking No. 15 in total defense.

UConn is a good rushing team behind the tandem of Jordan Todman and Andre Dixon, who combined for nearly 2,200 yards and 27 rushing TDs. Quarterback Zach Frazer has been inconsistent. On defense, the Huskies are terrible at defending the pass, ranking last in the Big East by allowing 244.8 ypg and seeing opposing QBs hit better than 67 percent of their throws.

South Carolina’s rushing game looked as good as it has all season in the win over Clemson, and QB Stephen Garcia had the second-most passing yards in the SEC and should fare well against a suspect UConn pass defense. Those two factors seem to make the Gamecocks the smart college football bet on Bodog.

Bowl season continues...
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