Birmingham Bowl
wake forest (ML) 4 units to win 5.2
wake forest First Half(+0.5) 3 units. love the demon deacons here. i think they are simply the better team, and this is one of the rare times when the team from a power 5 conference is probably more motivated than the team from the "group of 5." after a very good year last year, memphis was 8-5 this year and only beat one bowl team all season. and that was houston with a backup qb and they didn't pull away until after ed oliver left the game with an injury.
wake finished the year well to get bowl eligible, winning at nc st and duke in their last 3 games. and both of those wins were with jamie newman, the backup qb who is starting today.
against a very porous memphis defense, wake is going to put up points today. i also love greg dortch to have a huge day. he and nelson really clicked in their last game at duke, as he caught 10 passes for 124 yards.
ok, on to the other side of the ball. i don't know that the loss of henderson is all that big. taylor jr also had 1,000 yards this season, and wake's run defense isn't anything to write home about (in fact, it's pretty bad). HOWEVER, i looked at what wake did against pitt, another offense that relies on the ground game. and even though pitt won by 21, they struggled to run the ball, only gaining 154 yards on 47 carries, an average of 3.3 yards/carry.
wake has made a bowl game the last 2 seasons, winning both. memphis, meanwhile, has lost bowl games the last 3 years.
over (72) 3 units. hard to imagine either team getting a lot of stops.
wake forest (ML) 4 units to win 5.2
wake forest First Half(+0.5) 3 units. love the demon deacons here. i think they are simply the better team, and this is one of the rare times when the team from a power 5 conference is probably more motivated than the team from the "group of 5." after a very good year last year, memphis was 8-5 this year and only beat one bowl team all season. and that was houston with a backup qb and they didn't pull away until after ed oliver left the game with an injury.
wake finished the year well to get bowl eligible, winning at nc st and duke in their last 3 games. and both of those wins were with jamie newman, the backup qb who is starting today.
against a very porous memphis defense, wake is going to put up points today. i also love greg dortch to have a huge day. he and nelson really clicked in their last game at duke, as he caught 10 passes for 124 yards.
ok, on to the other side of the ball. i don't know that the loss of henderson is all that big. taylor jr also had 1,000 yards this season, and wake's run defense isn't anything to write home about (in fact, it's pretty bad). HOWEVER, i looked at what wake did against pitt, another offense that relies on the ground game. and even though pitt won by 21, they struggled to run the ball, only gaining 154 yards on 47 carries, an average of 3.3 yards/carry.
wake has made a bowl game the last 2 seasons, winning both. memphis, meanwhile, has lost bowl games the last 3 years.
over (72) 3 units. hard to imagine either team getting a lot of stops.
