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Champs Sports Bowl
Wisconsin vs Miami Fla
Bet Jamaica Line - Miami -4.5 O/U 57
12/29/09
Before the season started Coach Randy Shannon said he thought his Hurricanes
were a Top 10 team, and with a win over Wisconsin his Hurricanes might find
themselves in the Top 10 to finish the year. No one started the year off hotter
then Miami. They opened the year with a win over instate rival Florida State and
then followed that up with a dominant win over Georgia Tech. After losing a
tough game to Virginia Tech they knocked off the Oklahoma Sooners.
Miami lost two more games to Clemson and North Carolina to finish the year 9-4.
They could have had a very good season if some breaks would have fallen their
way, but they still had a very good year. This Hurricane football team is very
young, so the best is yet to come and they would love to finish this year off
with a win over Wisconsin to finish the year with 10 wins.
Wisconsin once again had their solid year flying under the radar to finish 9-3
with their only bad loss coming to Northwestern. They are a team that rarely
gets national recognition, but they are always a force in the Big 10. Miami is
going to have to come to play, because this is a very good Wisconsin team they
are taking on.
PRIMETIME MATCHUP
This is not the Wisconsin team we are use to seeing where they win with tough
defense. The Badgers have a high powered offense this year. Wisconsin is ranked
1st in the Big 10 in total and scoring offense averaging 33 points and 416 yards
per game. Miami’s defense is going to have their hands full with RB John Clay.
Clay leads the Big 10 in every rushing category from rushing TD’s (16) to
rushing yards per game (116). At 6’2 247 he is a load that is tough to bring
down, so this Miami front seven is going to have to be ready to play or he will
run all over them all game. Clay is the key to this Badger offensive attack. In
2 out of their 3 losses he was held to under 100 yards and in the one game they
didn’t he had 100 yards on the dot. Clay is able to open up the passing game by
making the opponent’s safeties cheat up to help in run support, so if Miami is
unable to slow down Clay the Badger offense will have the Hurricanes on their
heels all game long. Miami is ranked 3rd in the ACC in rush defense allowing 118
yards per game, so they have a strong front seven. Whoever is able to get the
upper hand in this matchup will have the advantage in this game.
THE FINAL VERDICT
After the way the Hurricanes started their season they had much higher post
season expectations then the Champ Sports Bowl, but they were unable to catch
some breaks against Clemson and North Carolina. Miami has got to be careful not
underestimate this Wisconsin football team, because they are a very underrated
football team and their RB John Clay is a very underrated RB.
We expect Wisconsin to attack Miami with the running game early and often with
Clay to try and wear their defense down, but they can’t run the ball every play,
and this Miami defense is very talented and are full of speed.
This Wisconsin offense has not seen speed on defense like they will see with the
Hurricanes, so we expect Badger QB Scott Tolzien to turn the ball over a few
times which should be all QB Jacory Harris and the Hurricanes will need to put
this game away.
Miami played a schedule that was about 10 points better than that of Wisconsin's. Doesn't say much for the Wisconsin defense which had a yards per point number on the road of under 13. That being the case, Miami should have no problem finding the end zone tonight. We'll take the Hurricanes here Miami -3.5
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