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Alamo Bowl
Michigan State vs Texas Tech
1/2/10
This bowl Game took an odd twist when the whole Mike Leach story broke a few days ago. Mike Leach led the Red Raiders to 10 straight bowl Games, but he will not be leading his football team onto the field for this bowl Game after he was fired. Its amazing how fast things can change in college football. Just last year Mike Leach led his Red Raiders to an 11 win season and was named Big 12 coach of the year, and now he is looking for a new job.
Texas Tech was having another solid year under Leach finishing the regular season 8-4, and if Texas Tech wants to end this season on a high note they have to be sure to put this Mike Leach fiasco behind them and be ready to play at a high level, because this is a much better Michigan State team then their record reflects.
If that’s not enough controversy, there’s more. Michigan State suspended 11 players that were involved in a dormitory brawl back in November.
Michigan State did not have the best year finishing 6-6 and they had to win 2 out of their last 3 to even make it to a bowl Game. Michigan State has not had the best luck during bowl season in the last several years. The Spartans are currently on a 3 Game bowl losing streak and have lost 7 out of their last 10, and with the Red Raiders on the opposite sideline they will need to be at their best if they want to break that losing streak.
PRIMETIME MATCHUP
There will not be a whole lot of defense being played in this Game, so if you are an old school football fan who likes to see low scoring defensive battles this Game is not for you. First off we have the Michigan State offense who is ranked 3rd in total offense averaging 407 yards per Game and is 1st in the Big 10 in pass offense averaging 271 yards through the air per Game.
Then you have the Texas Tech offense that is ranked 2nd in the Big 12 in total and scoring offense averaging 37 points per Game and 462 yards per Game and is 1st in pass offense averaging 381 yards per Game passing, so both teams will be throwing the ball all over the field in this years Alamo Bowl. Both QBs have put up very impressive numbers all season. Red Raider QB Taylor Potts has thrown for over 3,000 yards and 20 TDs while Michigan State QB Kirk Cousins has thrown for just shy of 2500 yards and 18 TDs.
The real question is which team will be able to get just a few defensive stops through the course of the Game? Neither team is known for their defense, but surprisingly enough it has been Texas Techs defense that has played best during the year and they are ranked 5th in pass defense allowing just 224 yards while the Spartans defense is ranked last in the Big 10 in pass defense.
THE FINAL VERDICT
If youre the type of fan that likes to see the football thrown all over the place and a lot of points then this is the Game for you. Both teams will put up a lot of points and the majority of their offense will come through the air. Where this Game is going to be won is the matchup between Texas Techs passing attack vs. Michigan States pass defense which is currently ranked last in the Big 10 in that category and they have not played a passing attack like the Red Raiders all season.
Let’s see……do we take the team without their coach or the team without 11 of it’s players? Well, Leach apparently wasn’t well liked by his players, so losing him may be a good thing. The players have banded together as a result of this iNCident. For Michigan State on the other hand, you can’t replace the talent with guys who haven’t played all year. We’ll take Texas Tech minus the spot here. Texas Tech -7.5
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