This year, both Head Coach Jeff Tedford and Head Coach Mack Brown were under the gun to get their respective teams back to bowl games this year after missing out on the postseason party a year ago. Neither had the year that they were hoping for, but both have at least made it to the Bridgepoint Holiday Bowl. The Texas Longhorns and California Golden Bears meet up in college football betting action on December 28th.
Cal certainly didn't have a heck of a lot of wins of note this year, as it scheduled a paper thin out of conference slate. However, it took care of business against the teams that it had to, though only the Utah Utes and Arizona State Sun Devils are bowling, and neither are in an illustrious bowl game.
QB Zach Maynard, once the starter for the Buffalo Bulls, has taken over as the team's starting signal callers, and he has never looked back. He threw for 2,802 yards and 17 TDs this year, and he showed some tremendous signs of improvement as the season wore on.
RB Isi Sofele was a beast this year as well. He carried the ball a whopping 231 times for a healthy 1,261 yards and eight TDs. Watch out for WR Keenan Allen as well. He was one of the top receivers in the Pac-12, catching 88 passes for 1,254 yards and six TDs. Tedford makes sure that he gets the ball in the hands of his most electrifying player on a regular basis, whether it be as a runner, a receiver, or as a return man, and he has the ability to break one for a TD every time that he touches the ball.
Texas only went 7-5 this year, and its losses were almost all of the brutal variety. The team was smacked by the Oklahoma Sooners in the Red River Rivalry, and it also was beaten three times at home on the campaign. A 17-5 loss at the Missouri Tigers was a dismal performance for an offense that really got worse as the season wore on.
The ground game has to stay balanced, or Texas doesn't stand a chance. There are a slew of regular ball carriers on this team, including RBs Malcolm Brown (707 yards), Joe Bergeron (454 yards), Fozzie Whittaker (386 yards), DJ Monroe (326 yards), Marquise Goodwin (187 yards), Cody Johnson (179 yards), and Jeremy Hills (162 yards).
The Longhorns have almost 65 percent of the betting action at 5Dimes Sportsbook in the Holiday Bowl, yet the spread has come down from Texas by 3.5 to the Horns by just three. The 'total' has also dropped a shade from the open of 48 down to 47.5.
