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2006 Texas Bowl Preview and Pick: Kansas State Wildcats vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights ]]> include($base_url . “/includes/header.htm”); ?>
| Kansas State Wildcats (7-5) +7, o/u 45 vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (10-2) on Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on NFL Network by Ultimatecapper.com Staff The Kansas State Wildcats come into this game winners of 3 of their last 4 games but they did lose their season finale to in state rival Kansas by a score of 20-39. That followed an emotional upset of Texas by a score of 45-42. Kansas State is led by new Head Coach Ron Prince who is in his first year for the Wildcats. The Rutgers Scarlet Knights started out the season with 9 straight wins before losing 2 of their last 3 games. In the season finale they lost to West Virginia to miss out on a share of the Big East title and a BCS Bowl bid. Rutgers is led by Head Coach Greg Schiano who has turned down a chance to coach at Miami next year. The Wildcats, tied for 2nd in the Big 12 North, will be returning to the bowl season after a couple of disappointing seasons in 2004 and 2005 left them home for the holidays. The Scarlet Knights, tied for 2nd in the Big East, will be making their 2nd straight bowl appearance. Last year they lost to Arizona State 45-40 in the Insight.com bowl. These two teams have no recent meetings and had 1 common opponent. Kansas State lost to Louisville by a score of 6-24 and Rutgers defeated Louisville 28-25. Kansas State was 6-5 against the spread this season. Rutgers was 7-3-1 against the number this year. The Wildcats are led by Freshman QB Josh Freeman who took over at mid-season. He is completing 52.2% of his passes and has thrown for 1,651 yards this season. He has thrown for 6 touchdowns and 13 interceptions this season. The Scarlet Knights are led by Sophomore QB Mike Teel who has a 55.2% completion rate and has thrown for 1,867 yards this season. He has 10 touchdowns and has thrown 13 interceptions. Kansas State averages 122 yards rushing per game and their defense allows 143 yards rushing per game. Rutgers is outrushing their opponents by a margin of 178-107. The Wildcats rank 59th in scoring offense in Division 1 (out of 119 teams) by averaging 23.8 points per game. Rutgers is ranked 29th in scoring offense by averaging 29.2 points per game. Kansas State is ranked 70th in total yards per game with 328.0 yards per game. Rutgers is ranked 67th with an average of 333.9 yards per game. The Wildcats defense is ranked 60th giving up an average 22.7 points per game. The Scarlet Knights’ defense is ranked 9th giving up an average 14.7 points per game. Kansas State’s defense is ranked 63rd in total yards by giving up an average of 334.5 yards per game. Rutgers is ranked 7th giving up 259.8 yards per game. Kansas State averages 5.3 yards per play while giving up an average of 5.1 yards per play. Rutgers averages 5.5 YPP while giving up 4.4 YPP. The Over/Under is 6-5 in Kansas State games this season, 5-6 in Rutgers games. The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com rank the Wildcats #57 at 72.77. Rutgers ranks #16 at 85.34. The opening line on this game was Rutgers -7 with a total of 45. The line has not moved on the side or total. At the time of this writing the betting public was backing Rutgers by a margin of 61%-39%. The Ultimatecapper Prediction: We look for the Rutgers defense to shutdown the Kansas State rushing game and force the freshman QB to throw which should create turnovers. We suggest a wager Rutgers minus the points in this game. Rutgers 30 Kansas State 14 |
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