It's going to be odd to watch a Hawaii Bowl without the Hawaii Warriors playing in the game, but you can bet that on Christmas Eve, there is going to be no shortage of excellent football when the Nevada Wolf Pack and Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles square off.
Normally speaking, teams have a long time to figure out how to stop the Pistol offense for Nevada, and that causes some problems for the team's offense. Last year, the offense struggled in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against the Boston College Eagles, but it still got the job done and picked up the big time win. That being said, we are concerned that this is no longer QB Colin Kaepernick's team. In all likelihood, it will be QB Cody Fajardo starting, though we could also see some of QB Tyler Lantrip in this game as well.
As always, the offensive numbers were there for the Wolf Pack this year. They ranked No. 5 in the land in total offense at 522.8 yards per game and No. 31 in scoring at 32.9 yards per game.
The key was the ground game. RBs Mark Lampford and Mike Ball both had both 700 yards on the ground, while Fajardo had 680 yards and 11 scores as well. The redshirt freshman Fajardo is clearly looking to become the next quarterback in Reno to play for all four years as a starter, and he has a very similar look and style of play to that of Kaepernick.
Southern Miss definitely isn't a team to mess with, though. Head Coach Larry Fedora built a fantastic team, but now, he is headed to Tobacco Road to be with the North Carolina Tar Heels. That being said, this is still a squad that is going to have a shot to finish out the year ranked in the Top 25 with a win, something that would be a great complement to the Conference USA title that they picked up a few weeks ago against the Houston Cougars.
Though most know the Golden Eagles for their defense, they definitely aren't slacking offensively either. They scored at least 27 points in their final 11 games of the season, and they scored at least 44 five times on the year.
5Dimes Sportsbook has the C-USA champs lined at -6 after opening at -6.5. The 'total' on the Hawaii Bowl odds has stayed relatively consistent at 61.
