Boise State vs North Texas prediction, game preview, odds, how to watch. Frisco Bowl, Saturday, December 17
Boise State vs North Texas Frisco Bowl Prediction Game Preview
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Boise State vs North Texas How To Watch
Date: Saturday, December 17
Game Time: 9:15 ET
Venue: Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX
How To Watch: ESPN
Record: Boise State (9-4), North Texas (7-6)
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Boise State vs North Texas Frisco Bowl 5 Things To Know
Frisco Bowl Prediction, What’s Going To Happen, History
– Boise State probably deserved a bigger spotlight – not to bowl shame – but the Mountain West tie-ins weren’t anything amazing. It might have missed out on the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl with the Mountain West Championship loss to Fresno State, but there’s a shot at the first ten-win season since 2019 – that’s a long drought for this program.
After a midseason change of quarterbacks and offensive coordinators, the running game became dominant, the defense was among the best in the nation, and this is a chance to show off in the late night game at the end of a LONG day of football.
– North Texas also lost its conference championship game – dropping the Conference USA title to UTSA 48-27 – but even with a relatively successful year and a bowl appearance, the program sacked head coach Seth Littrell. Veteran head man Phil Bennett will take over for this, and then Washington State receivers coach Eric Morris will step in. Part of the problem for Littrell was …
– North Texas has been awful in bowl games. It lost its last five and seven of eight since 2002. Not only have the Mean Green lost in the recent post-season, they got trucked in four straight blowouts. The program is just 2-10 all-time in bowls starting with a loss to Nevada in your 1947 Salad Bowl. But …
– Boise State hasn’t exactly been a killer in this things lately. The first bowl appearance was in 1999 under head coach and now offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter. After winning four straight and getting out to an 11-5 bowl start up until 2016, the Broncos have lost two of their last three, weren’t able to play in the 2018 First Responder, and last year got hosed when UCLA had to back out of the Holiday at the last second. This is the team’s first bowl game since 2019. They haven’t won one since 2017.
– The Frisco Bowl has been a tad rocky so far, to be nice about it. This is the fifth time the game has been played with the 2020 version canceled, and the other four … they weren’t anything great. Kent State’s 51-41 win over Utah State in 2019 was a fun shootout, but that’s as close a game as there out of the four.
CFN Bowl Expert Picks: Dec 16-19 | Dec 20-27
Why Boise State Will Win The Frisco Bowl
Defense. Yeah … North Texas doesn’t really do that.
It’s 124th in the nation in total D, it has a hard time getting off the field, and worst of all in this, it struggles against the run. There isn’t enough pressure delivered into the backfield to generate enough big plays.
It played one Mountain West team this year, and got run over by UNLV for 365 yards in a 58-27 loss.
Boise State picked up the running game with 316 yards in a late September win over San Diego State, ran for 316 more yards in the win over Fresno State the following week, and everything kept on rolling from there. On the year the team is 7-0 when running for 148 yards or more.
North Texas allows 188 rushing yards per game. However …
Why North Texas Will Win The Frisco Bowl
North Texas has enough of an offense to be a problem for the Broncos.
The run defense isn’t going to slow down George Holani and company from getting their yards, but the Mean Green ground game needs to rip off big runs of their own.
They have a veteran in quarterback Austin Aune who can keep things moving with his midrange passes, but it needs to be the rotation of several good young running backs that has to keep grinding. Boise State doesn’t allow a slew of big, gashing runs, but it’s just 3-3 this season when giving up 150 yards or more.
North Texas hit that mark in every game but three, and lost all of them. In the other ten games it’s 7-3 when it’s able to control things a bit.
Boise State has had its breakdowns at times, and it suffered a power outage in the Mountain West Championship with just 321 yards of total offense. The team is 1-4 when failing to get to 325 yards, but …
Frisco Bowl Prediction, What’s Going To Happen, History