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Las Vegas Bowl Odds – Arizona vs BYU Football Picks & Predictions

Written by Steve Janus

las-vegas-bowl-121808 The 17th annual Las Vegas Bowl features the 10-2 17th-ranked BYU Cougars against the 7-5 Arizona Wildcats. This is familiar territory for BYU, who is back in the Vegas Bowl for the 4th straight season. The Cougars have enjoyed success against the Pac-10 in this bowl, beating Oregon two years ago and UCLA last season. Arizona hasn’t seen post-season action since 1998. The most recent meeting between these two teams came at Provo, Utah last year with the home BYU squad walking away with a 20-7 victory. Arizona is favored by 3 over BYU and the total for the game has been set at 61.5 points.

BYU had all of the tool for success on offense this season, posting 35 points per game on 444 yards of total offense. The Cougars love to throw the ball, and why shouldn’t they? As a team the Cougars are completing almost 69% of their passes for 309 yards per game, hitting 8.3 yards per attempt. Starting QB Max Hall has been the biggest producer in the offense, accounting for 3,629 passing yards and 34 touchdowns this year on 69.6% completions. Hall’s great season, as well as BYU’s performance, were eventually overshadowed by Utah and their QB, Brian Johnson, who finished ahead of Hall in the Mountain West All-Conference awards, as well as finishing ahead of Hall by earning Conference Player of the Year honors.

Defensively, BYU didn’t have the best numbers, but because the offense was so productive, the defense was more than good enough to help the Cougars earn their 10 wins this season. As a unit BYU is giving up 21 points per game and 351 yards of total offense. Their defensive front has allowed 143 rushing yards per game, while the secondary is yielding 207 yards per game. The one concerning thing for the defensive backfield is that they are allowing opposing QBs to throw for over 60 percent against them, something they’ll need to improve on if they want to get past a very potent Arizona pass attack. The Cougars are 3 point underdogs in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Arizona mustered up 37 points per game on 401 total yards this year. Those numbers are even more impressive when you consider that they’ve done well both rushing and passing this year. Their running game averages 164 yards per game while they are passing for 237 yards per game. This balanced attack kept Arizona in almost every game this year, but in the offense-heavy Pac-10, they were only able to earn a 5-4 conference record despite the impressive output.

The Defense for the Wildcats, particularly the secondary showed a lot of improvement this season. Arizona allowed just 21 points per game, playing in a conference notorious for putting up a lot of points. They did allow 132 rushing yards per game, but they held opponents to 170 passing yards per game, in a pass-heavy conference. Opposing teams only gained 302 total yards per game against the ‘Cats, but they’ll have a hard time keeping Max Hall and the BYU Cougars offense under that number. If they can, however, they’ll be well on their way to a Las Vegas Bowl victory. Arizona is favored by 3 on Saturday.

BYU has had several letdowns this year. They set out to win the MWC this year, but fell to 3rd behind both Utah and TCU. They also had aspirations for a BCS bowl bid, but 2 losses in a non-BCS conference pretty much guaranteed they’d miss out on that goal as well. Arizona is lucky to have made this bowl. The Wildcat defense has played well against good offenses this season and they’ll get one of the better ones in the country this weekend. The question will be whether or not BYU can put their disappointments behind them and focus on winning the game they are playing, instead of worrying about goals not met.

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Written by Steve Janus on December 18, 2008 · Filed Under College Football Betting Articles, News & Previews

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