Hawaii Bowl Betting Odds

Opening Line: Nevada -14.5 / SMU +14.5 O/U 73

Time: 8 PM EST Thursday December 24, 2009 on ESPN

In the Hawaii Bowl this season the Nevada Wolfpack and their dynamic offense take on the SMU Mustangs, who had the biggest turnaround this season in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Nevada had won 8 straight games before dropping their season finale to undefeated Boise State. SMU won 4 of their last 5 games and their 7-5 record this season was impressive since they only went 1-11 last year.

In their last games of the season SMU beat Tulane 26-21 while Nevada lost to Boise State 44-33.

Nevada has the nation's 2nd ranked offense and they have the top-ranked scoring offense averaging 40.6 points per game. They are led by QB Colin Kaepernick (1,895 yds 19 TD 5 INT), who is also Nevada's 2nd leading rusher (1,160 yds 16 TD). The Wolfpack big gun in the backfield is RB Vai Taua (1,345 yds 10 TD) and he and Kaepernick averaged 7.8 yards per carry this season. The Mustangs will have a hard time keeping the Wolfpack out of the end zone in this game. SMU's D ranks 92nd on defense and that is not good facing a Nevada team that averaged over 520 yards per game this season.

SMU has the nation's 61st ranked offense and while that ranking is not high they can move the chains through the air with QB Bo Levi Mitchell (1,725 yds 12 TD) and on the ground with RB Shawnbrey McNeal (1,125 yds 9 TD), who averaged 5 yards per carry this season. The Mustangs have a big play receiver in Emmanuel Sanders (91 rec 1,125 yds 6 TD), who averaged an impressive 13.4 yards per catch this season. He may have a big game, as the Nevada defense, which ranks 88th overall only ranks 2nd to last in the nation (119th) in pass defense. However, the Wolfpack are legit at defending the run ranked 26th on rushing defense. Since the secondary of Nevada has major concerns the SMU offensive line has to have a good game giving Mitchell time to find his targets.

Nevada is heavily favored in this game and it is not hard to see why. To pull off the upset the Mustangs will have to really step it up on defense and Mitchell has to have a huge game.

Our Selection : We think Nevada is the better team on both sides of the ball. This line opened at Nevada -14.5. The line has moved down to 11 we still like Nevada. Take Nevada -11


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