{"id":20648,"date":"2011-12-30T22:00:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T03:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20648"},"modified":"2011-12-29T14:45:41","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T19:45:41","slug":"college-bowl-predictions-texas-am-aggies-vs-northwestern-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-bowl-predictions-texas-am-aggies-vs-northwestern-wildcats-20648\/","title":{"rendered":"College Bowl Predictions: Texas A&M Aggies vs. Northwestern Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas A&M Aggies vs. Northwestern Wildcats
\nSaturday, 12\/31\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Texas A&M -10
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Texas A&M -10
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 65
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 68.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Northwestern Wildcats have lost eight straight bowl games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Texas A&M and Northwestern will meet for the first time in the 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl on Saturday inside Reliant Stadium in Houston.\u00a0 The Aggies are 1-4 when matching up against Big Ten Conference schools in bowl games.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that interim head coach Tim DeRuyter will be in charge of the program in this particular contest, as the program dismissed Mike Sherman and hired former Houston Cougars front man Kevin Sumlin.\u00a0 Texas AUM will be searching for its first bowl victory since its last visit to Houston in beating TCU 28-9 in the 2001 Galleryfurniture.com Bowl.<\/p>\n

The Aggies are certainly hoping that running back Cyrus Gray can overcome a shoulder injury that he suffered during the month of November, especially since Christine Michael\u00a0 was lost for the season with a torn ACL.\u00a0 Texas A&M\u2019s strength offensively is definitely its offensive line, as the unit has allowed just eight regular season sacks, while not having a holding penalty since game two.\u00a0 Quarterback Ryan Tannehill is the benefactor of that protection, throwing for 3,415 yards and 28 touchdowns with 14 interceptions.<\/p>\n

Northwestern has been bowl eligible for a school-record fifth consecutive year and will face a Big 12 foe in a Texas-based bowl game for the third time in four years.\u00a0 The Wildcats boast the winningest five-year senior class in school history, as 25 members will play their final game for the program.\u00a0 Quarterback Dan Persa is the leader of the group and will look to snap the program\u2019s eight-game losing streak in bowl games.\u00a0 \u201cThis will be a great way to put an exclamation point to his career,\u201d commented Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald.\u00a0 Northwestern is 11-10 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats have enjoyed success against Big 12 opponents over the years, posting a combined 21-12 mark in such contests.\u00a0 Northwestern will certainly face a stiff challenge in trying to stop the nation\u2019s No. 7 offense that averaged 497 yards per game during the regular season.\u00a0 Persa has enjoyed another solid year when healthy under center, as he looks to break his Big Ten record for single-season completion percentage that he set a year ago.\u00a0 He has connected on 74.2 percent of his passes this year.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Wildcats due to their 4-0 ATS mark versus the Big 12, while the Aggies are 0-9 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":"

Texas A&M Aggies vs. Northwestern Wildcats Saturday, 12\/31\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Texas A&M -10 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Texas A&M -10 Opening Total:\u00a0 65 Current Total:\u00a0 68.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Texas A&M and Northwestern will meet for the first time in the 2011 Meineke Car Care Bowl on Saturday inside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":8368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[6263,3267,3442,5126,3445,3119,3711,1145],"class_list":["post-20648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-2011-meineke-car-care-bowl","tag-big-12-conference","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-cyrus-gray","tag-dan-persa","tag-northwestern-wildcats","tag-ryan-tannehill","tag-texas-am-aggies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20648","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=20648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20650,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20648\/revisions\/20650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}