Picking Every Bowl: Frisco Bowl, UTSA vs. San Diego State

Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl
UTSA (12-1) vs. San Diego State (11-2), Toyota Stadium, Frisco, Texas, 7:30 p.m., ESPN
San Diego State -3 – O/U 49

Some bowl games aren’t worthy of the matchup. The Frisco Bowl, for example, lacks anything in the way of prestige or even in per-team bowl payout. The runner-up to UTSA in Conference USA’s West Division, UAB, played in the more established and more lucrative Independence Bowl. San Diego State’s divisional runner-up, Fresno State, cashed in at the New Mexico Bowl. But somehow the Frisco Bowl, with a lowly $650,000 payout, landed one of the more competitive and intriguing matchups between two teams that have a combined three losses. And they get an interesting wrinkle, too — UTSA’s best player (with one of the best names) — RB Sincere McCormick — has declared for the NFL draft and will skip today’s game. That leaves the rushing burden to backup running back Brenden Brady, who is certainly capable of putting up decent numbers. The Aztecs, on the other hand, are capable of shutting down any running back. The Roadrunners’ best roadmap is what they did against UAB, which boasts Conference USA’s best rushing defense. In that game, UTSA mostly abandoned the run and had QB Frank Harris throw a barrage of passes en route to a 34-31 win. That’s also the way that Utah State beat San Diego State in the Mountain West championship game. Don’t expect either team to have a ton of offensive success, but UTSA’s ability to run just enough and to move the ball downfield through the air should make the difference in the game.
Prediction: UTSA 24-21
Result: San Diego State 38-24
Note to self: If one team has a truly superior defense, pick that team. UTSA played fairly even with San Diego State through the first half, but the Aztecs appeared to solve the Roadrunners’ defense at halftime. Going into the locker room, San Diego State led 17-14 after a last-second field goal. The Aztecs scored on their opening second-half possession and stayed a step ahead of UTSA for the rest of the game, outscoring the Roadrunners 21-10 in the second half. WR Jesse Matthews was a human highlight reel, hoovering in 11 receptions for 175 yards and two touchdowns.

Record:
Bowl season: SU – 6-6; ATS – 3-9-0; O/U – 5-7-0
Overall: SU – 600-188; ATS – 372-330-6; O/U – 338-358-12

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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