Poinsettia Bowl Preview: Aggies and Huskies a Pickem

The San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl has the longest name of any of the 35 bowl games. Also, somehow this bowl seems to get a team with a very good record record every year. If a team falls just a win short of being a BCS Buster, they seem to land here. This year, the Northern Illinois Huskies were a win away from playing in one of the BCS games, but lost in the MAC title game to the Bowling Green Falcons to finish the regular season at 12-1. But even with the disappointment of losing the MAC Championship and perhaps taking on the Baylor Bears in the Fiesta Bowl or the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl it was still a great season again for the Huskies.

UNI saw their fantastic quarterback Jordan Lynch go to New York City for the Heisman Trophy presentation. Lynch was outstanding again both running and throwing the football. He rushed for 1881 yards and 22 touchdowns and threw for 2676 and 23 touchdowns. That’s three and a half touchdowns per game by himself!

Their opponents, the Utah State Aggies, also lost a conference championship game when they went down to the Fresno State Bulldogs in the Mountain West Championship Game. The Aggies have two quarterbacks that have split time in Chuckie Keeton and Darell Garretson, both of who passed for over 1300 yards. Joey DeMartino ran for over 1000 yards and 12 touchdowns.

This is a school record third straight bowl appearance for the Aggies who come in at 8-5. They had wins over bowl bound teams such as the San Jose Spartans, Colorado State Rams and UNLV Runnin Rebels. The Huskies have wins over the Outback Bowl bound Iowa Hawkeyes and the GoDaddy.com Bowl bound Ball State Cardinals.

Bovada has odds on the game. They have it as a “Pickem” game. Sportsbook.com has the Aggies +1 -110 and the Huskies -1 -110 ATS. Moneyline is Utah State -105 and Northern Illinois -110.

We are going to go with Lynch and the Huskies in this game. He is the best player in this game and will make a big play or two that will be the difference in the ball game. Take the Huskies -1 -110.

Over/Under is 58.5 with over and under both -110. We like the over -110 with Lynch in this game.