{"id":11917,"date":"2010-12-28T09:01:07","date_gmt":"2010-12-28T14:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11917"},"modified":"2010-12-28T09:01:07","modified_gmt":"2010-12-28T14:01:07","slug":"champs-sports-bowl-north-carolina-state-vs-west-virginia-free-picks-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/champs-sports-bowl-north-carolina-state-vs-west-virginia-free-picks-predictions-11917\/","title":{"rendered":"Champs Sports Bowl: North Carolina State vs West Virginia Free Picks & Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Carolina State Wolfpack vs West Virginia Mountaineers
\nTuesday, 12\/28\/10, 6:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 West Virginia -1
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 West Virginia -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 48.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 48.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart will have one more year in Morgantown before being replaced in 2012, as his Mountaineers get set for the 2010 Champs Sports Bowl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

North Carolina State has enjoyed a special 2010 season in becoming the first team in the program to capture eight wins since 2003 and be guaranteed to post the first winning season in five years.\u00a0 The trip to the 2010 Champs Sports Bowl marks the 10th time in the last 12 years that Wolfpack head coach Tom O\u2019Brien had led his team to postseason play.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity for us to finish things off on the right foot, because I don\u2019t think anybody on the team, especially the seniors, want to be remembered for the performance that we had against Maryland,\u201d said All-ACC first team linebacker Nate Irving.\u00a0 \u201cWe have an opportunity to play a great team and show how good we really are.\u201d\u00a0 The program needed to beat the Terrapins on November 27 to earn a spot in the ACC championship game, but lost 38-31 after building a 14-0 first-quarter lead.\u00a0 NC State was 8-3 ATS on the season and is currently a slight underdog on the college football lines page.<\/p>\n

The Wolfpack will be meeting the Mountaineers for a third time in a bowl game, but the first time in 35 years.\u00a0 NC State knocked off West Virginia 49-12 in the 1972 Peach Bowl and lost 13-10 in the 1975 Peach Bowl.\u00a0 Overall, the team is 12-11-1 in its 24 previous bowl trips, with the last one being a 29-23 loss to Rutgers in the 2008 Papa Johns Bowl.\u00a0 Quarterback Russell Wilson is one of the more dynamic players in college football, but will be tested tonight in going against one of the best defenses in the country.\u00a0 In order for the Wolfpack to come away with a victory, he will need to have a superb game through the air, as the Mountaineers possess the second-best rushing defense in the nation.<\/p>\n

West Virginia barely missed out on representing the Big East Conference in a BCS Bowl, but it wasn\u2019t enough to secure head coach Bill Stewart\u2019s job in Morgantown.\u00a0 He will be replaced by Oklahoma State\u2019s Dana Holgorsen for the 2012 season, which was a surprising move by athletic director Oliver Luck.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t believe we had an opportunity to win a national championship with the direction of the program,\u201d said Luck.\u00a0 \u201cAt the end of the day, results matter.\u00a0 And we weren\u2019t getting the results.\u201d\u00a0 The Mountaineers still recorded a 9-3 record and won their final four games to secure a bowl bid.\u00a0 The program is 96-96-3 against current members of the ACC and has gone 5-4 overall against tonight\u2019s opponent.\u00a0 West Virginia 20-16 ATS when the line is +3 to -3.<\/p>\n

The Mountaineers rank second nationally in scoring defense at 12.8 points allowed per game and third in total defense at 251.3 yards.\u00a0 West Virginia will face an NC State offense that was second in the ACC with 32.5 points per game and will need to stop Wilson, who threw for 3,288 passing yards and 26 touchdowns.\u00a0 The defensive unit is the only team in the nation that did not allow more than 21 points in a game this season.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in the Wolfpack being 3-0-1 ATS in bowl games, while the Mountaineers are 7-1 ATS versus winning teams.<\/p>\n

The college football handicappers at Maddux Sports are enjoying a fantastic postseason and can\u2019t wait for you to join them tonight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina State Wolfpack vs West Virginia Mountaineers Tuesday, 12\/28\/10, 6:30 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 West Virginia -1 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 West Virginia -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 48.5 Current Total:\u00a0 48.5 North Carolina State has enjoyed a special 2010 season in becoming the first team in the program to capture eight wins since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":6210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[387,448,3009,3630,4266,449],"class_list":["post-11917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-acc","tag-bill-stewart","tag-north-carolina-state-wolfpack","tag-russell-wilson","tag-tom-obrien","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11917","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=11917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11919,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11917\/revisions\/11919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}