The Miami Hurricanes take on the Louisville Cardinals in the Russell Athletic Bowl later today. The game is scheduled for a 6:45 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on ESPN. Currently the odds for the game have Louisville favored by a field goal in this bowl matchup.
Louisville is probably a field goal loss to Central Florida away from playing in the BCS Championship game. Sounds crazy, but they were ranked eighth in the country prior to that loss. But here they are, still ranked in the mid-teens and now taking on a Miami team that also had some aspirations of a major bowl game just a few weeks ago.
There will be a lot of talent on the field for this one and Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater is probably the best player. The Cardinals finished the season with 11 wins, but covered the number in only four of their games this season. The oddsmakers were off quite a bit with the Cardinals this season, expecting them to be a top-flight team, but Louisville played down to their competition nearly the entire season.
Miami survived NCAA sanctions and even made it to the Top 10 this season. They were boat-raced by Florida State, Virginia Tech and Duke in three straight weeks. The Canes fell hard but managed to regain their footing in victories over Virginia and Pittsburgh.
Louisville has some big-game bowl experience, picking up a Sugar Bowl win over Florida last season. This year's team is better but because of an extremely weak schedule could never recover from their loss to UCF. The Cardinal defense gave up only 17 touchdowns this year in 12 games and they surrender only 12.4 points per game.
Miami's defense allowed 500 or more yards in five of their last seven games overall. Three of those were their losses. Louisville has several players from the city of Miami, including Bridgewater. The NFL prospect had just four interceptions this season of his 282 attempts
Stephen Morris, Miami QB, is very skilled and has a cannon arm. However, he threw 12 interceptions this year and 30 the last few years. He'll be on the move quite a bit in this contest. Louisville has a very strong defense and an especially strong defensive line, who will look to pressure Morris all night.
We like Louisville to win this game. They're the better overall team and the defense should make the difference in this game.
Free Pick: Louisville 31, Miami 24
College Football Free Picks: Miami vs Louisville Betting
What college football bettors need to know about Miami Hurricanes vs Louisville Cardinals in the Russell Athletic Bowl on Saturday (12/28/13) - a free pick from Pregame.com's Ken Thomson with Bryan Leonard.
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