Who: Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-6) vs Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-5)
Where: Houston
When: Saturday, December 28th, 9 PM EST
TV: ESPN
Line: Texas Tech by 13
Texas Tech is one of the biggest point spread favorites left in the bowl games. This is a difficult match-up for Minnesota because they simply haven't played a team that likes to throw the rock around like the Red Raiders do. Minnesota only played two teams this year who threw the ball 40 times against them. The Red Raiders threw the ball more than 40 times in every game they played and they do it better than the teams Minnesota played against.
Offensively, Minnesota doesn't really do anything particularly well. They had 17 TDs versus 14 INTs through the air (0 TDs vs 6 INTs in their last 3 games) and averaged 3.79 ypc (9th in the B1G). The Gophers best wins this year were against Syracuse, Purdue and Illinois. They are a much better team than they've been but they don't really feel like they are ready to win a bowl game just yet.
The Red Raiders biggest obstacle might be their motivation as they were left high and dry by Tommy Tuberville as he took off for the Cincy job. The Red Raiders also must face their end of the season demise as they lost four of their last five but it's not like the Gophers come into this game on a win streak as they lost six of their last eight.
Look for the Red Raiders to be able to move the ball through the air and my expectation is that Minnesota will struggle to keep up with them on the scoreboard.
TEXAS TECH 35 MINNESOTA 16
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