{"id":20541,"date":"2011-12-25T23:30:11","date_gmt":"2011-12-26T04:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20541"},"modified":"2011-12-26T00:17:10","modified_gmt":"2011-12-26T05:17:10","slug":"independence-bowl-preview-north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-missouri-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/independence-bowl-preview-north-carolina-tar-heels-vs-missouri-tigers-20541\/","title":{"rendered":"Independence Bowl Preview: North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Missouri Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Missouri Tigers
\nMonday, 12\/26\/11, 5:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Missouri -3.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Missouri -5.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 53.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 52.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The North Carolina Tar Heels are a dangerous underdog Monday in the Independence Bowl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

North Carolina will make its fourth consecutive bowl appearance and first in the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl.\u00a0 The Tar Heels will be playing in the postseason for the fourth straight year, which is the school\u2019s longest since going to seven straight bowl games from 1992-98.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m excited for our players, especially this group of seniors,\u201d commented Tar Heels interim coach Everett Withers.\u00a0 He will give way to Larry Fedora who was hired out of Southern Mississippi.\u00a0 North Carolina is 2-3 ATS as an underdog of 3.5 to 10 points the last two-plus years, dropping all of those contests in straight-up fashion.<\/p>\n

The Tar Heels will want to get the ball in the hands of freshman tailback Giovani Bernard, who comes in with 1,222 rushing yards this season.\u00a0 Senior wide receiver Dwight Jones is also a legitimate threat on the outside, coming in with 1,119 receiving yards.\u00a0 The duo is the first in school history to post 1,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards in the same season.\u00a0 Quarterback Bryn Renner is the pilot of a balanced offensive attack, throwing for 2,769 yards and will look to become just the second player in program history to hit the 3,000-yard mark.<\/p>\n

Missouri will be making its third appearance in this particular contest since the 2003 season, splitting a pair of games against Southeastern Conference foes, beating South Carolina in 2005 (38-31) and dropping a 2003 contest to Arkansas (27-14).\u00a0 \u201cI think heading to the Independence Bowl is a plus,\u201d stated Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel.\u00a0 \u201cThis is much better for us, and much more fan-friendly.\u201d\u00a0 The team comes into the season having won its last three games.\u00a0 Missouri is 1-3 ATS when playing with two weeks or more of rest the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are making their seventh consecutive bowl game outing, which has shattered their old school record of four straight.\u00a0 Missouri comes in sporting an all-time bowl record of 12-16, which is the 27th-most in FBS history.\u00a0 Pinkel has built the program into one of the nation\u2019s best, posting the 10th-most wins in the nation since the 2007 season.\u00a0 Sophomore quarterback James Franklin is the leader offensively, passing for 2,733 yards and gaining 839 on the ground.\u00a0 Missouri has the 12th-best offense in terms of total yards in the nation, but will be going against a defensive unit that allows just 106.2 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Tar Heels due to their 19-9 ATS mark as an underdog, while the Tigers are 3-8 ATS when playing on a neutral field.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Missouri Tigers Monday, 12\/26\/11, 5:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN2 Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Missouri -3.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Missouri -5.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 53.5 Current Total:\u00a0 52.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker North Carolina will make its fourth consecutive bowl appearance and first in the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl.\u00a0 The Tar Heels will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":16561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[5743,6237,6236,1258,5406,433,32],"class_list":["post-20541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-bryn-renner","tag-dwight-jones","tag-giovani-bernard","tag-independence-bowl","tag-james-franklin","tag-missouri-tigers","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20541","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=20541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20543,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20541\/revisions\/20543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}