College football is back this weekend as bowl season kicks off! The first game off the postseason is Georgia Southern vs Ohio in the Myrtle Beach Bowl!
Bowl games are fun to watch, but are always hard to predict because they are between two teams who have played very few, if any, common opponents. This makes it difficult get a read on the game, but as always, we give it our best attempt!
Continue reading to see my prediction and best bets for this game! Also make sure you check out my page for every bowl game prediction this postseason!
Game Information:
Location:
Brooks Stadium (Home of Coastal Carolina)
Conway, South Carolina
Time:
12/16, 11am ET
Teams:
Georgia Southern (6-6) *7th ranked in Sun Belt East Division
Notable Wins: 40-3 win vs Ball State, 38-28 win vs Coastal
Ohio (9-3) *2nd in MAC East Division
Notable Wins: 10-7 win vs Iowa State, 38-7 win vs Bowling Green
Lines: (via Draftkings as of 12/14)
GASO -3
o/u: 48.5
OPT-OUTS:
Opt-outs are always a concern with these bowl games that don't really mean anything. Here are the notable opt-outs from each team:
GASO: nothing notable, bunch of back-ups and low output guys.
OHIO: Massive opt-outs on offense!!! Starting QB Rourke, leading rusher Bangura, 2nd leading rusher Allison, WR1 Cross, and WR3 Walton.
Predictions:
Despite being a .500 team, Georgia Southern is still the favorite in this game. This is most likely due to the Sun Belt conference having 12 TEAMS in bowl games this year (the most by any other conference),as well as almost all of Ohio's offenseive production is transfering and opting out, so don't get freaked out when you see that GASO is favorited.
Although Ohio didn't win the MAC this year, they still had an impressive 9-win season. They are normally a pretty heavy pass oriented team, but Rourke, their senior QB, has struggled this year to get going, and has decided to transfer.
This leaves a huge question mark for Ohio, who will also be without their top 2 runnings backs, and #1 and #2 wide recievers.
GASO doesn't have any notable opt-outs and have had a solid QB all year with Brin. Where GASO has really struggled is their defense. Hard to win games when your defense consistenly gives up 30 points.
Georgia Southern's offense will find sucess in this game, and luckily their defense really won't be tested by a bunch of back ups on Ohio.
This bet is pretty obvious and most likely very public, but I can't take Ohio with that many important opt-outs.
GASO -3
The total has dropped 5 points from 53.5 to 48.5, which means there is heavy movement on the under (most likely sharp money). I'll stay sharp!
GASO/OHIO u48.5
Good Luck as always if tailing!
Comments