include(“CBB/includes/base_url.php”); ?>
2006 Insight Bowl Preview and Pick: Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders ]]> include($base_url . “/includes/header.htm”); ?>
| Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-6) +6.5, o/u 66 vs. Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-5) on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on NFL Network by Ultimatecapper.com Staff The Minnesota Golden Gophers come into this game on a 3 game winning streak. The Golden Gophers got off to a rocky start at 2-4 but ended the season playing much better. The Texas Tech Red Raiders have won 2 of their last 3 games by averaging over 33 points a game in those 3 games. The Golden Gophers, 6th in the Big Ten Conference, have been a regular in bowl games and has won 3 out of their last 4 bowls games. The Red Raiders, 4th in the Big 12 South Division, will be making their 7th straight bowl appearance. Last year they were defeated by Alabama by a score of 13-10. These two teams have no recent matchups and did not face any common opponents this season. Minnesota was 5-5-1 against the spread this season. Texas Tech was 5-6 against the number this year. The Golden Gophers are led by Senior QB Bryan Cupito. He is completing 59.1% of his passes and has thrown for 2,556 yards this season. He has thrown for 19 touchdowns and has 8 interceptions this season. The Red Raiders are led by Sophomore QB Graham Harrell who has a 66.9% completion rate and has thrown for 4,110 yards this season. He has 36 touchdowns and has thrown 10 interceptions. Minnesota averages 151 yards rushing per game and their defense allows 163 yards rushing per game. Texas Tech is also being outrushed by their opponents by a margin of 77-147. The Golden Gophers rank 36th in scoring offense in Division 1 (out of 119 teams) by averaging 27.9 points per game. Texas Tech is ranked 16th in scoring offense by averaging 31.5 points per game. Minnesota is ranked 39th in total yards per game with 370.4 yards per game. Texas Tech is ranked 6th with an average of 440.5 yards per game. The Golden Gophers defense is ranked 73rd giving up an average 24.5 points per game. The Red Raiders’ defense is ranked 69th giving up an average 23.8 points per game. Minnesota’s defense is ranked 112th in total yards by giving up an average of 417.3 yards per game. Texas Tech is ranked 49th giving up 323.1 yards per game. Minnesota averages 5.8 yards per play while giving up an average of 5.9 yards per play. Texas Tech averages 6.6 YPP while giving up 4.9 YPP. The Over/Under is 6-5 in Minnesota games this season, 7-4 in Texas Tech games. The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank the Golden Gophers #37 at 77.52. Texas Tech ranks #44 at 75.41. The opening line on this game was Texas Tech -7 with a total of 66.5. The line has moved down to Texas Tech -6.5 while the total has moved down to 66. At the time of this writing the betting public was backing Texas Tech by a margin of 79%-21%. The Ultimatecapper Prediction: We look for this to game to not be quite as high scoring as the experts think and suggest a play on under the total of 66. Texas Tech 31 Minnesota 27 |
include($base_url . “/includes/footer.htm”); ?> ]]>
