{"id":868,"date":"2008-12-20T12:50:50","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T17:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=868"},"modified":"2008-12-19T21:56:03","modified_gmt":"2008-12-20T02:56:03","slug":"gut-feelings-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/gut-feelings-part-ii-868\/","title":{"rendered":"Gut Feelings, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Same qualifier as last time &#8211; these are my picks, not official Maddux picks. They are also, as the name says, gut feelings, not carefully researched opinions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Independence Bowl<\/strong> &#8211; Louisiana Tech (even). Northern Illinois comes in winning just one of four. Louisiana Tech won four of five. They are just the better team, so picking them when you don&#8217;t have to give up any points is a good thing.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nPapa John&#8217;s Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Rutgers -7. Both teams closed out hot, but Rutgers was better. They won their last six, and they finished off with a blowout of Louisville.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alamo Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Missouri -12. I don&#8217;t trust the Tigers, but I don&#8217;t feel like there is a choice. Northwestern came a long way this year, but they were really outclassed by Ohio State, and just aren&#8217;t ready for elite competition. This one will be a shootout, and I don&#8217;t think Northwestern can keep up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Humanitarian Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Nevada -2. Nevada finished out with three wins, and they stayed close to Boise State. Maryland lost three of four, and looked largely disinterested. I don&#8217;t always like picking the non-BCS team over the BCS one, but I feel okay with it here at this price.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Texas Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Rice -2.5. This one&#8217;s going to be a shootout &#8211; I&#8217;d take the over. I could see it going either way, but ultimately I like Chase Clement better as QB than Tim Hiller, and I love watching Jarett Dillard catch the ball.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Holiday Bowl<\/strong> &#8211; Oklahoma State -3. This one seems fairly easy. If Oregon was in the Big 12 it wouldn&#8217;t have near the same record it does, and if Oklahoma State was in the Pac-10 it wouldn&#8217;t have three losses. One or two at the most. This one seems like a bot of a bargain at this price.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Armed Forces Bowl<\/strong> &#8211; Houston -3. There couldn&#8217;t possibly be two more contrasting styles. Pass is a dirty word to Air Force, yet it is all Houston can do. Houston can&#8217;t stop the pass, but in the end I&#8217;m not convinced that a decent but not overwhelming run offense can keep up with a very explosive, effective pass offense.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sun Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Pitt +2.5. I don&#8217;t leave either of these teams, but Pitt comes in playing better, and I think that they have been tested more this year &#8211; I don&#8217;t love the Big East, but I really hate the Pac-10 this season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Music City Bowl<\/strong> &#8211; Vanderbilt +3.5. Two teams that aren&#8217;t very impressive, so I&#8217;ll take the home team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Insight Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Kansas -8.5. I would love to pick Minnesota &#8211; they are my wife&#8217;s favorite team. I just can&#8217;t trust a team that lost 55-0 to Iowa in their last game. Kansas isn&#8217;t great, but they are better than their record because thy had to play a truly brutal schedule.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nChick-fil-A Bowl <\/strong>&#8211; Georgia Tech -4. This will be a good test of whether the Yellow Jackets offense is for real. I just keep thinking back to what they did to Georgia, and I can&#8217;t believe that LSU is motivated enough after a lousy season to chase Georgia Tech around all night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Same qualifier as last time &#8211; these are my picks, not official Maddux picks. They are also, as the name says, gut feelings, not carefully researched opinions. Independence Bowl &#8211; Louisiana Tech (even). Northern Illinois comes in winning just one of four. Louisiana Tech won four of five. They are just the better team, so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[587,9531,372],"class_list":["post-868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-football","tag-bowl-games","tag-college-football","tag-ncaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868\/revisions\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}