{"id":20751,"date":"2012-01-01T20:15:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T01:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20751"},"modified":"2012-01-01T20:15:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T01:15:59","slug":"bowl-predictions-penn-state-nittany-lions-vs-houston-cougars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/bowl-predictions-penn-state-nittany-lions-vs-houston-cougars-20751\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowl Predictions: Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Houston Cougars"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 22 Penn State Nittany Lions vs. No. 19 Houston Cougars
\nMonday, 1\/2\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPNU
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -7
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -7
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 57.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 56.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"UTEP<\/a>
Houston Cougars QB Case Keenum hasn't had much success in three previous bowl appearances<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Penn State is set to meet up with Houston in one of the most intriguing match-ups of the postseason due to happenings off the field more than on it.\u00a0 The Nittany Lions will be participating in their 44th bowl game in the TicketCity Bowl in historic Cotton Bowl Stadium.\u00a0 All the talk around this program since November has been centered around the scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky that led to the firing of longtime head coach Joe Paterno.\u00a0 Penn State is 9-6 ATS in bowl games since the 1993 season.<\/p>\n

The Nittany Lions were co-champions of the Big Ten Leaders Division with a 6-2 record, but didn\u2019t earn a trip to the Rose Bowl due to a straight-up loss to the Wisconsin Badgers.\u00a0 Penn State will likely be without starting quarterback Matt McGloin, who\u2019s listed as doubtful with a head injury, which was actually suffered in a locker room fight.\u00a0 Running back Silas Redd will need to win this game on the offensive end, but he wore down at the tail end of the season, averaging just 11.7 carries over the final three games.<\/p>\n

Houston lost out on its chance of reaching a potential BCS bowl in dropping a 49-28 decision to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles as 12-point home favorites in the Conference USA championship.\u00a0 \u201cIt was in our grasp,\u201d commented Cougars quarterback\u00a0 Case Keenum.\u00a0 He will definitely be the most talked about player in this contest, setting basically every career passing mark in major college football.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that Kevin Sumlin will not be on the sidelines Monday afternoon due to accepting Texas A&M\u2019s coaching job.\u00a0 Houston is 4-9 ATS when playing against a team with a winning record.<\/p>\n

The Cougars have been preparing for their final game of the 2011-12 season under interim head coach Tony Levine.\u00a0 Keenum will definitely need to up his performance in his final bowl game, throwing three touchdown passes and seven interceptions in this first three postseason appearances.\u00a0 He\u2019ll also be facing a strong Nittany Lions secondary, ranking fifth nationally in giving up just 162.2 passing yards per game.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Cougars due to their 7-1 ATS mark as a favorite, while the Nittany Lions are 0-5 ATS versus non-conference opponents.<\/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":"

No. 22 Penn State Nittany Lions vs. No. 19 Houston Cougars Monday, 1\/2\/11, 12:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ESPNU Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -7 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -7 Opening Total:\u00a0 57.5 Current Total:\u00a0 56.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Penn State is set to meet up with Houston in one of the most intriguing match-ups of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3442,587,2043,2558,2915,584,497],"class_list":["post-20751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-big-ten-conference","tag-bowl-games","tag-case-keenum","tag-conference-usa","tag-houston-cougars","tag-joe-paterno","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20751","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=20751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20752,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20751\/revisions\/20752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}