Bowl Game CFB FINNsider Picks

FINNsider picks finished the regular season with a 22-8 record (73%).

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North Carolina has been a pleasant surprise for the lackluster ACC this year. Their offense, in particular, has really looked the part with freshman QB Sam Howell setting ACC records. Dyami Brown also had a breakout season for the Tar Heels, the sophomore wideout will be looking to eclipse 1000 yards on the season in this game and has really solidified himself as one of the best wideouts in the ACC. This is a UNC team that is coming off of a 2 win season in 2018, improving to 6 this year and as a young team overall they should look to finish the year strong and head into 2020 with momentum.

Matchup wise, Temple has been known as a very defensive team. However, they did manage to give up 45 and 63 points in consecutive weeks against SMU and UCF respectively. This UNC can compare to the likes of SMU and possibly UCF so a performance similar to theirs could easily happen. Sam Howell and this passing attack has been explosive over the past 7 games and should continue.

Unfortunately, UNC does not provide must resistance defensively, so the mediocre Temple offense may run into some points. The over (53.0) is an intriguing play as well.

Pittsburgh has had an up and down season, and their offense has really begun to struggle a bit without their two explosive wideouts in Ffrench and Mack. Mack is expected to play and Ffrench is still questionable with a broken jaw. Eastern Michigan has gone from one of the better defensive teams among the Group of 5 conferences to an average at best unit. They lost a considerable amount of players and it really showed this year. In particular, they have surrendered over 200 yards on the ground this year which will make things much easier for Pittsburgh is Mack and Ffrench do not play. Essentially Pitt is the much more talented team and their defense should have no problem with Eastern Michigan.

USC has been a mess off the field in the last month, however, when all the dust settled nothing really changed. Kedon Slovis has been on full air raid mode for over a month now, which is something a team like Iowa rarely sees. Iowa's offense has been pretty poor all year, comparing them to Stanford offensively would not be too much of a stretch at all and USC held them to 20 points early on in the year. USC's defense is full of young talent who will also be playing to continue the momentum into 2020.

Kentucky has been running through everyone recently with their rush heavy offense. With WR Lynn Bowden at QB they have become tremendously one dimensional, yet it has worked thus far. However, most of the teams they have faced with this offense have not really brought anything to the table defensively. Virginia Tech has been rather solid against the run all year, especially during the second half. Their momentum has completely changed since the change to Hooker at quarterback. Their offense is performing lightyears better and when that happens it tends to put their defense in better situations as well.

Boston College just flat out did not have a good year. Addazio was finally fired and Jeff Hafley has taken over. To make things worse, elite running back AJ Dillon has decided to skip the bowl game and head to the draft. Their offense played pretty well against teams that it should but was a completely different story against solid teams. Boston College also normally throws a top-end defensive unit at you, but this year they were just bad. Averaging almost 500 yards against a game and boasting a defensive game score of just 53 which ranks 218th in the country (keep in mind there are only about 130 FBS schools). Cincinnati has had a great year and they've beat some solid teams including UCF and UCLA. They are a run-heavy team and they could easily be up over 200 yards rushing in this game.