7-5 (4-4), 4th Big 12 - South Division
vs
6-6 (3-5), 6th Big Ten
Texas Tech comes into the Insight bowl with 7 wins and it is their 7th straight bowl appearance. While Minnesota won their final game against Iowa to get the magic number of 6 wins and now they are going to their 5th straight bowl game.
Minnesota began the season losing 5 of their first 7 games. They turned things around against North Dakota State with a 10-9 victory and finished the season on a 3 game winning streak. In those 3 games the Gophers found their offensive stride averaging 42 ppg in those games. They are lead by Senior QB Bryan Cupito who threw for 2556 yards with 19 touchdowns and only 8 interceptions.
The person on the Gophers that causes the biggest match up problems is their TE Matt Spaeth and his 564 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns. The Gophers like to flex him out to get him on linebackers. At running back Amir Pinnix had a 1000 yard season with 9 touchdowns. Defensively the Gophers have not fared well giving up 253.5 ypg passing and 163.4 ypg rushing.
Texas Tech once again used a high flying air attack to run its offense. This year they were lead by QB Graham Harrell and his 4100 yards passing. He also threw 36 touchdown passes while only turning it over 10 times through the air. At wide receiver Joel Filani had a 1100 yard season with 14 touchdowns. The Red Raiders did have a running back by the name of Shannon Woods who ran for over 800 yards.
Comparing these two teams, it is hard to go against Texas Tech, but I am going to pick Minnesota. The Red Raiders give up almost 150 yards per game on the ground and I think that suits Glen Mason's team. The Gophers will give Texas Tech a steady diet of Pinnix and then cap it off with Cupito through the air. I think the Gophers will be able to use Texas Tech's one dimensional offense against them. I think this is a high scoring game with the Gophers coming out on top. The only jinx is that every time I have picked Minnesota on the blog they go out and lose, BIG.
Minnesota 40-31
Brian -
Minnesota
Husker Mike -
Texas Tech
Ron -
Texas Tech
Mountain Lair -
Texas Tech
Mr. Cornnation -
Texas Tech
Brian from CFR-
Texas Tech
Charlie -
Texas Tech
Chris -
Otto-
Texas Tech
Mrs. Cornnation -
Minnesota
