Welcome back sports fans. Last night in the Boca Raton Bowl, the GCR had what has to be the biggest miss of the season. Syracuse (6-7/83) was favored by 3 over South Florida (7-6/100) who has one of the worst passing defenses in the country. The GCR actually calculated for Syracuse to win by 5 so the prediction was to win and cover. The Bulls had none of this, blowing out the Orange 45-0 while allowing just 159 yards of offense, just 20 yards on 40 rushes and 139 yards on 24 pass attempts. Syracuse was 1-17 on 3rd downs and 1-3 on 4th. They mustered just 9 first downs and committed 4 turnovers. On top of all of that, their 10 punts only averaged 34.6 yards which gave good field position to the high-powered South Florida team. It was ugly. Congratulation to the Bulls who were ready to play and dominated.
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Tonight at 6:30 another ACC team, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (6-6/43) take on first-year Big 12 team, UCF Knights (6-6/67) in the Gasparilla Bowl played in Tampa. It’s a pirate bowl played in a stadium with a pirate ship. Arrrr matey. As a reminder, OER means Offensive Efficiency Rating and DER means Defensive Efficiency Rating. Here’s the tale of the tape:
| Team | OER/PPG | DER/PPG | Opp’s Record – Rank | Vs Bowl Teams | Best Win | Worst Loss |
| GT | 128 (37th) – 31.2 | 94 (157th) – 30.5 | 86-60 (.589) – 15th | 3-6 (.333) | Miami FL (7-5/30) | Boston College (6-6/79) |
| UCF | 120 (56th) – 32.5 | 116 (71st) – 25.4 | 79-70 (.530) – 52nd | 2-5 (.286) | Oklahoma St (9-4/28) | Baylor (3-9/95) |
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This one is tough. UCF has been inconsistent against good teams. Georgia Tech has stepped up to beat better teams (MIAF, NCAR). Vegas likes UCF in something very close to a home game -6.0. The GCR thinks the Knights are going to win, but it’s going to be a field goal type game. UCF wins, GT covers.
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That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow when we have 7 games to predict. Thanks for reading and sharing and enjoy bowl day #5, G
