The inaugural Frisco Bowl should be well attended considering the proximity of the two teams involved. The SMU Mustangs are happy to be bowling again. SMU was considered a dumpster fire after the way June Jones left the program a few seasons ago, but has rebounded quite nicely and finished 7-5. A bowl victory would be the cherry on top of a successful season. The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs will try to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Watch the Frisco Bowl live on Wednesday, December 20, 2017, at 8 p.m. ET at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. This game will be broadcast on ESPN.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
Louisiana Tech +5
SMU -5
Over/Under 70
Odds Analysis
It wasn’t a great year for Louisiana Tech record wise, but things could have been so much better for the Bulldogs with just a little luck. The school went just 6-6, but three of those losses came by just one point. Those losses came against South Carolina, UAB, and North Texas, and if those were instead wins they would have finished 9-3 and would have grabbed a share of the Conference USA West title. Additionally, the school lost in overtime to Southern Miss, making this one of the unluckiest teams this year.
SMU started the season red hot but fizzled down the stretch. The Mustangs covered their first five games and went 4-1 SU with wins over quality non-conference opponents like North Texas and Arkansas State. However, the program lost three of its last four and went 1-6 ATS over its last seven.
Coaching Angle
The big question coming into this game for the Mustangs is how the team will respond to interim head coach Jeff Traylor. Chad Morris had been SMU’s head coach for the last three seasons, but resigned to take the job at Arkansas earlier this week. Morris rebuilt this program from the ground up and made the Mustangs an offensive juggernaut once again with his up-tempo, quick-strike offense.
Traylor is the team’s running back coach and filling in while the university interviews candidates for the full-time gig. He only joined the program earlier this year after being the tight ends and special teams coach at Texas under former coach Charlie Strong, but is extremely popular with the players who have expressed their support for him. Traylor is not considered a legitimate candidate for the vacancy, so he and the players both know this very well could be his swan song.
Key Stats
Louisiana Tech was just about the perfect definition of mediocre this season. The Bulldogs finished ranked in the 50s or 60s in eight of the 10 major team stats. Bill Connelly’s S&P+ numbers weren’t nearly as high on the Bulldogs though, putting Louisiana Tech as the 80th best team in the country.
Skip Holtz’s offenses are never going to be bad. Although he had a new quarterback this season in J’Mar Smith, the Bulldogs still tallied at least 20 points in all but one game and averaged over 400 yards an outing. Smith proved to be quite the dual-threat quarterback later in the season too. He ran for 174 yards and four touchdowns over the last four games of the season and will use his legs often here. SMU’s defense was pretty bad against both the pass and the run and that will give Smith a variety of options.
Free ATS Pick
Expect this one to be a shootout. It’s snowing in Texas right now, but it will warm up by Wednesday and these two offenses should be able to move the ball well all game against the opposition.
Skip Holtz has led Louisiana Tech to three straight bowl game wins and will have his team prepared for this one. There are still a lot of things to be ironed out at SMU and with signing day going on while this game is happening as well, there will be lots of distractions for the Mustangs. This is a great opportunity to take the Bulldogs and I think they pull off the upset.
College Football Odds: Louisiana Tech 38, SMU 34
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