Gator Bowl Mark's Free Pick College Football Florida State-West Virginia: 1/1/10

Written by Mark | 31 December 2009

Gator Bowl-College Football 1/01/10

Florida State Seminoles (6-6) (ACC)-West Virginia Mountaineers (9-3) (Big East)

By Mark • Friday January 1st, 2009 1 PM EST
Line-West Virginia -2.5

Win or lose, this will be an emotional day for Florida State football and legendary coach Bobby Bowden. If the Noles expect to send him out a winner, they’ll probably need to score which happens to be their specialty. FSU has some nice looking offensive numbers possessing the #28 offense in total yards, buoyed by a strong passing game that accounts for almost 280 yards. Christian Ponder was responsible for the vast majority of that production before his season was cut short because of an injury. EJ Manuel is now in control of the air game with just three starts to his credit. Manuel’s inexperience at quarterback is probably not at the forefront in this one, as I think the Florida State defense has that honor. This unit has been run and passed on in almost nonchalant fashion as opposing offense’s have lit up their maligned defense to the tune of 444 yards and 31 points. Needless to say, the Seminoles have been in their share of shoot outs this season and have won and lost a few.

The top three teams in the Big East were as good as could be found in most conference’s and a Gator Bowl victory by the Mountaineers means each team will have reached double figures in wins. Jarrett Brown will not make people forget about Pat White any time soon as I don’t consider him a guy that can drop back and throw 25 times, but I do think he can extend plays with his running which causes headaches for many a defense. Noel Devine doesn’t pass or try to extend plays, he just plowed ahead for almost 1,400 rushing yards and is the main reason the Mountaineers were #32 ranked running team in football. West Virginia’s notoriety may be their ground attack but Mountaineers holds their own defensively, allowing just 330 total yards. This unit was not easy to run on although teams did have success through the air at times. The important thing is that they gave up just 21 points per game and kept the team competitive when the offense was struggling for points over the last five games.

WVU is 2-5 against the spread in their past 7 Bowl games and 1-4 against the number in their last 5 as a favorite. Florida State is 4-0-1 against the spread in their past 5 Bowl games and 1-4 in the last 5 overall.

Obviously the Seminoles are the sentimental favorite in the eyes of many but I guarantee the Mountaineers could care less and want to win this game as much as Florida State. When I look at the match ups I think FSU can and will move and score but the deficiency’s of the FSU defense are difficult for me to ignore.

The Mountaineers should be able to push the Seminoles defense around and score as well even more so than their counterparts. Emotion aside, Bobby goes out on the wrong end of this one…