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2006 Gator Bowl Preview and Pick ]]> include($base_url . “/includes/header.htm”); ?>
| Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-4) +11, o/u 47 vs. West Virginia Mountaineers (10-2) on Monday, January 1, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern on CBS by Ultimatecapper.com Staff The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets come into this on a 2 game losing streak. They were defeated 6-9 by Wake Forest in the ACC championship game. The West Virginia Mountaineers have won 3 of their last 4 games. They have averaged 43 points a game in those 3 wins. The Yellow Jackets, 1st place in the ACC Coastal Division, will be making their 10th straight bowl appearance. The Mountaineers, tied for 2nd in the Big East, will be making their 5th straight bowl appearance. They have are 1-3 in their 4 previous bowl games. The last time these teams met was in the 1997 Carquest Bowl when Georgia Tech defeated West Virginia 35-30. They had no common opponents this year. Georgia Tech was 6-5-1 against the spread this season. West Virginia was 5-5-1 against the number this year. The Yellow Jackets will be without staring QB Reggie Ball who is out for academic reasons. He will be replaced by Taylor Bennett who has seen limited action this year. The Mountaineers are led by Sophomore QB Patrick White who is a dual running/passing threat. He has 66.5% completion rate and has thrown for 1,524 yards this season. He has 11 touchdowns and has thrown 7 interceptions. He has also rushed for 1,074 yards and 17 touchdowns. Georgia Tech averages 163 yards rushing per game and their defense allows 89 yards rushing per game. West Virginia is outrushing their opponents by a margin of 302-88. The Yellow Jackets rank 57th in scoring offense in Division 1 (out of 119 teams) by averaging 24.2 points per game. West Virginia is ranked 4th in scoring offense by averaging 38.9 points per game. Georgia Tech is ranked 78th in total yards per game with 320.2 yards per game. West Virginia is ranked 4th with an average of 463.0 yards per game. The Yellow Jackets defense is ranked 20th giving up an average 16.8 points per game. The Mountaineers’ defense is ranked 48th giving up an average 20.6 points per game. Georgia Tech’s defense is ranked 20th in total yards by giving up an average of 289.3 yards per game. West Virginia is ranked 52nd giving up 324.2 yards per game. Georgia Tech averages 5.0 yards per play while giving up an average of 4.4 yards per play. West Virginia averages 7.3 YPP while giving up 5.0 YPP. The Over/Under is 6-6 in Georgia Tech games this season, 8-3 in West Virginia games. The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank the Yellow Jackets #35 at 78.33. West Virginia ranks #8 at 87.15. The opening line on this game was West Virginia -7 with a total 48.5. The line has skyrocketed up to West Virginia -11 with the announcement of QB Ball’s suspension. The total dropped to 47. At the time of this writing the betting public was backing West Virginia by a margin of 83%-17%. The Ultimatecapper Prediction: It is hard to predict what will happen with the Georgia Tech offense due to the erratic Ball not being able to play. We still think that there will be a lot of points scored and suggest a wager on over the total of 47. West Virginia 31 Georgia Tech 21 |
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