{"id":11746,"date":"2010-12-22T20:00:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T01:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11746"},"modified":"2010-12-21T16:11:51","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T21:11:51","slug":"poinsettia-bowl-preview-navy-midshipmen-vs-san-diego-state-aztecs-ncaa-football-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/poinsettia-bowl-preview-navy-midshipmen-vs-san-diego-state-aztecs-ncaa-football-picks-11746\/","title":{"rendered":"Poinsettia Bowl Preview: Navy Midshipmen vs San Diego State Aztecs NCAA Football Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Navy Midshipmen vs San Diego State Aztecs
\nThursday, 12\/23\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 San Diego State -6
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 San Diego State -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 60.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 60.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Navy<\/a>
Navy QB Ricky Dobbs is the main focus of San Diego State's defense in the Poinsettia Bowl on Thursday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Navy will be facing off for the third time overall and first time in postseason against San Diego State in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.\u00a0 The Midshipmen will be playing their third bowl game in San Diego in six years, returning to the city with the largest naval base on the West Coast.\u00a0 The team enters the contest ranked No. 1 in the country in fewest penalty yards per game and fifth in rushing by gaining 288.9 yards a contest.\u00a0 Navy closed out the regular season with a 31-17 win over Army on December 11 despite miscues by starting quarterback Ricky Dobbs.\u00a0 \u201cThose turnovers drive you crazy,\u201d said coach Ken Niumatalolo.\u00a0 \u201cBut that\u2019s Ricky.\u201d\u00a0 The team is 2-0 ATS as an underdog of 3.5 to 10 points and the college football lines page has them currently listed in getting points.<\/p>\n

The Midshipmen are undoubtedly led on offense by Dobbs, who has recorded 48 career rushing touchdowns, which is the fifth-most by a quarterback in NCAA history.\u00a0 He also needs 140 yards rushing to become just the seventh quarterback in college football history to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 1,000 yards in a season twice in his career.\u00a0 The Poinsettia Bowl marks Navy\u2019s 17th bowl appearance, including a school-record eight straight.\u00a0 In its postseason history, the team has compiled a 7-8-1 bowl record, dropping the last three by a combined 14 points.<\/p>\n

San Diego enters as one of the most improved teams in the country and will be playing in a bowl game for the first time since 1998, ending the nation\u2019s ninth-longest active bowl drought in the process.\u00a0 \u201cI feel great,\u201d said senior wide receiver Vincent Jackson.\u00a0 \u201cWe had a lot of downs and ups and I say downs and ups because we know how this program was when we got here.\u00a0 It\u2019s on the other side now.\u201d\u00a0 The Aztecs posted an 8-4 overall record and their four losses came by a total of 15 points.\u00a0 Among those four losses are three that occurred on the road, with all three opponents currently ranked 20th or higher by the Associated Press.\u00a0 San Diego State is 6-4 ATS on the season and 3-3 ATS when favored.<\/p>\n

The Aztecs defense will have had a good amount of time to prepare for the Midshipmen\u2019s option attack and they allowed the third-fewest rushing yards in the Mountain West.\u00a0 \u201cYou have to stop the fullback,\u201d said coach Brady Hoke.\u00a0 \u201cEither after the fake or when he has it, he\u2019s the one getting down the field cutting linebackers and alley players.\u00a0 You have to stop him.\u201d\u00a0 This will mark Hoke\u2019s third encounter with the Midshipmen after sweeping a home-and-home series in his final two seasons at Ball State.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in the Midshipmen being 7-0 ATS versus teams with a winning record, while the Aztecs are 1-3 ATS as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points.<\/p>\n

The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports are off to a flying start in the bowl games and can\u2019t wait for you to join them all the way up to the BCS Championship Game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Navy Midshipmen vs San Diego State Aztecs Thursday, 12\/23\/10, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 San Diego State -6 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 San Diego State -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 60.5 Current Total:\u00a0 60.5 Navy will be facing off for the third time overall and first time in postseason against San Diego State in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":7099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[4217,2835,1252,4070,2491],"class_list":["post-11746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-brady-hoke","tag-navy-midshipmen","tag-poinsettia-bowl","tag-ricky-dobbs","tag-san-diego-state-aztecs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11746"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11748,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11746\/revisions\/11748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}