2009 EagleBank Bowl Picks: UCLA v. Temple Football Odds & Predictions

The 6-6 UCLA Bruins take on the 9-3 Temple Owls Tuesday, December 29th at 4:30 PM EST on ESPN in the 2009 edition of the EagleBank Bowl at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. NCAA football odds makers have listed UCLA as the 4-point favorite with the total set at 45.

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Temple head coach Al Golden has the Owls in their first bowl game in 30 years and that feat was good enough to earn him Mid-American Conference coach of the year honors. A bowl game is big news for a Temple program which has only had four winning seasons in the past 30 years. Because of Temple’s turnaround, Golden is being targeted by many teams in search of new coaches, but he insists that he hasn’t lined up any interviews. Whether that is the case, he is handling it the right way, not causing the distraction to his team that we have seen from other coaches moving to new jobs.

Temple came up just a little bit short of the MAC title game as Ohio snapped the Owls’ nine-game winning streak in their last game. Temple was still able to rack up over 200 yards on the ground in that contest even without MAC freshman of the year Bernard Pierce. The good news is that Pierce is expected to be back for Tuesday’s contest. He led the MAC with 1,308 rushing yards and finished second with 15 touchdowns. The Owls also get a nice boost from fellow freshman Matt Brown, who rushed for 455 yards, with 328 of those coming in Temple’s last two games. The Owls boast the nation’s 23rd-ranked rushing offense, averaging 192.4 yards per game.

Defensively, Temple has been extremely tough in defending the run, ranking 19th in the country with a 108.8 yards per game allowed average. This unit is led by sophomore Adrian Robinson, who earned MAC defensive player of the year honors after recording 12 sacks. It is worth noting that the Owls are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog of 3.5-10.0 points. If you like the Owls in the underdog role Tuesday, bet Temple at +4 at Bodog.

Coach Rick Neuheisel was able to take his Bruins from 4-8 last season to 6-6 and a bowl game, but it wasn’t as much improvement as the program had hoped for. Despite a pretty talented team with four All-Americans, UCLA was not able to find much consistency. The Bruins opened the season with three straight wins before losing their next five. They then won three in a row again before getting crushed 28-7 by USC in their regular season finale.

The Bruins are hoping to fare better than they did in their last bowl appearance when they fell 17-16 to BYU in the 2007 Las Vegas Bowl.

Second-team All-American safety Rahim Moore, Third-team All-American defensive tackle Brian Price, and Third-team All-American cornerback Alterraun Verner lead a pretty good defensive unit. Moore leads the country with nine interceptions and Verner has five picks on the season. Price has 34.5 tackles for loss in his last 21 games.

While the offense often struggled to put points or the board, the team could always rely on Second-team All-American kicker Kai Forbath to deliver. Forbath won the Lou Groza Award as the nation’s best kicker after connecting on 26 of 29 field goals.

While I expect the defense to play well and for the kicking game to be sound, QB Kevin Prince and the offense must show up to give the Bruins their best shot at winning. The Bruins have been held under the 20-point mark six times this season and Prince’s struggles are a big reason why. Prince completed just 56.7 percent of his passes for 1,829 yards and six touchdowns with seven interceptions. It is worth noting that the Bruins are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as a favorite. If you like the Bruins in the small chalk Tuesday, bet UCLA at -4 at Bodog.

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