College Football Picks

The Myrtle Beach Bowl will have an early kickoff time on the East Coast. The competitors in this year’s bowl game will be the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers out of the Sun Belt and the UTSA Roadrunners out of the American Conference. UTSA was an impressive 6-0 on their home turf, but struggled when they played away from San Antonio, sporting a record of 0-6. Unfortunately for the Roadrunners, the Myrtle Beach Bowl is played at Brooks Stadium, Coastal Carolina’s home field. This game will essentially be a home game for Coastal Carolina. Coastal Carolina just became bowl eligible with their sixth win coming in the final week over Georgia State. Before that win, the Chanticleers had lost 6 of 8 games played.

The first question for bowl games is who will be missing due to the transfer portal. Coastal Carolina will be without both quarterbacks that they used this season, Noah Kim and Ethan Vasko. Likely to start for Coastal Carolina will be freshman quarterback Tad Hudson. Monday will be the first snaps Hudson takes at the college level. The Chanticleers will also be without their top cornerback, Matthew McDoom, their starting OLB Clev Lubin, and their starting tight end Kendall Karr. UTSA will only have 4 players entering the transfer portal. The main two players this team will be without are DE Ronald Triplette and DL Joseph Evans who is declaring for the NFL Draft. With both quarterbacks out for Coastal Carolina, they will need to lean on their starting running back Braydon Bennet. More unfortunate news for Coastal Carolina is their offensive line will be missing some key pieces due to injury. Starting RT Zovon Lindsay and LG Anthony Walton will both miss action in this game. Even with the home field advantage, Coastal Carolina has too many missing players and unknowns for this game. UTSA will be led by their 3000-yard passing quarterback, Owen McCown, and I expect them to cover in this contest.

UTSA +10 available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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Northern Illinois and Fresno State hook up at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. For Boise standards this time of year, the weather will be quite pleasant. We’ve seen disastrous conditions in this field in the past, during Boise State games, or in this bowl. However, the forecast calls for partly cloudy conditions with temperatures in the mid-40’s with winds of just 5-7 MPH. While the weather isn’t expected to affect the outcome, the transfer portal news will affect things considerably.

We have a very low total for this bowl game. In this day and age of college football, we could see 40 points scored in a half. However, portal news is why we’ll see both of these units struggle. Fresno State starting QB Mikey Keene, and starting WRs Jalen Moss and Raylen Sharpe are not expected to play. WR Tim Grear is also out, and RB Malik Sherrod is not expected to return from injury, either. For NIU, QB Ethan Hampton has hit the portal and already signed with Wake Forest, while star WR Trayvon Randolph is not expected to play. The team has several defensive players in the portal, and none are listed on the bowl depth chart, too. We’re going to see a lot of sloppy football, choppy offense and points should be at a premium.

Under 40 (-110) at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

The South Florida Bulls head to the islands with a couple of missing pieces on defense. Two starting cornerbacks, Michael Dansby and DJ Harvey, hit the transfer portal, with Harvey already landing with USC. However, San Jose State start WR Nick Nash has elected to opt out. He was good for 104 receptions, 1,382 yards and 16 touchdowns, so his missing from the lineup is a giant absence for the Spartans. The good news for the Spartans is that QB Walker Eget is going to be under center. He finished the season in tremendous fashion after replacing QB Emmett Brown midway through the campaign. Still, without Nash, the Spartans are going to have trouble scoring points.

The Bulls of USF have played without QB Byrum Brown since Week 5, as he contends with a lower-body injury. However, the offense has QB Bryce Archie, and he threw for 1,679 yards and nine touchdowns, while running for two more. RB Kelley Joiner is in the lineup, too, going for 766 yards and 11 scores. This is a Bulls team which can run the football and roll up some big-time points. The Spartans allow 156.3 yards per game on the ground, so that could be the difference maker in this bowl game.

South Florida +3.5 (-110) at time of publishing. Playable to +3.