Now that the 2015-16 NCAA Football Bowl Season moves on towards the College Football Playoff Bowls, we still have some exciting Bowl Games on the schedule with this Birmingham Bowl played on Wednesday the 30th of December with the 6-6 Auburn Tigers (SEC-West) playing the 9-3 Memphis Tigers (AAC-West) with the game being played at the Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama with the kick-off scheduled for 2:05 PM ET and seen on CBS TV.
If you Bet on College football at SBG Global the early odds for the game have the Auburn Tigers the favorites at -3, -115 with the Over/under for the game at 63 and -160 on the Money Line, while the Memphis Tigers are at +3, +105 and +140 on the ML. Yes, this should be a Tiger taking on another Tiger in this Birmingham Bowl.
The Auburn Tigers had hopes of playing a Bowl Game on New Year’s Eve, but will play a day early as their season was somewhat disappointing. While the Memphis Tiger had a great season behind their NFL hopeful P. Lynch! Which group of Tigers do you think will win this Birmingham Bowl Game?
For the fans of the 6-6 Auburn Tigers who surely are disappointed with the Tigers record for this 2015 as the team had been projected as a CFP possibility, but with poor play from their QB and a defense that struggled as the team finished the season in the SEC at 6-6 and last in the West Division of the SEC this 2015.
Their QB J. Johnson a junior was benched early on and replaced by freshman QB S. White, but then the coach reverted back to QB Johnson when QB White suffered a knee injury. QB White had good games against Idaho and Texas A&M winning those games, but struggled and lost play the strong defensive teams of Alabama and Georgia.
Now as this game draws closer, the coach will decide if he reverts to QB White who may return for this game, or whether he stays with QB Johnson. But it really matters not who starts at QB as the strong point of the Auburn offense which came to life at the end of their season as in their ultimate 4 games they averaged rushing for 230 yards and scored some 7 touchdowns in those games.
Therefore the Auburn Tigers will seek to make forward progress with their running game against a struggling defense of the Memphis Tigers, one that led to their 3 losses to Temple, Houston and Navy in which they allowed those opponents over 200 yards in those games.
If you’re a fan of the 9-3 Memphis Tigers your team made a lot of noise this season since they had 1 of the more potent offenses in the FBS. That all came about through their QB P. Lynch who led the team to scoring an average of 43 points each game which ranks them 7th in the FBS in 2015.
The Memphis Tigers were looking at the ACC Title until they confronted three losses to Navy, Houston and Temple which brought that expectation to a halt. Then they lost their head Coach J. Fuente who is leaving to take the helm at Virginia Tech.
Their QB Lynch will likely be going to the NFL, but has one more game to impress the scouts for the upcoming draft even though he’s just a junior. This season he passed for some 28 touchdowns with only 3 intercepts and accumulated 3,672 yards in his passing game. Perhaps his best game was against the SEC Ole Miss where he completed 74% of his passing attempts for 3 touchdowns and 385 yards in their victory 37-24 over the Rebels of Ole Miss.
It would not surprise fans if QB Lynch in this game with Auburn would surpass his performance in their win over Ole Miss or even improve on same, since the Auburn defense has struggled and they will be playing without the defensive Coach Muschamp whom is also leaving to join the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The sportsbook prediction for this Bowl game between the 2 Tigers is that the Memphis Tigers will have enough offensive plays to lead their team to a victory 38-35 over the Auburn Tigers.