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NCAA Football

Trojans vs. Golden Eagles Preview/Pick: New Orleans Bowl

The Trojans of Troy University get the automatic bid to the New Orleans Bowl where they will be opposed by the Southern Miss Golden Eagles set to get underway Sunday at 8:15 PM ET at the Louisiana Superdome. We preview and pick this bowl game…

New Orleans Bowl Troy vs Southern Miss

The Trojans of Troy University (8-4 SU, 7-4 ATS), champions of the Sun Belt Conference, get the automatic bid to the New Orleans Bowl where they will be opposed by the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (6-6 SU, 7-5 ATS), who put on a furious finish to qualify for their bowl bid in NCAA college football sports betting action that is set to get underway Sunday at 8:15 PM ET at the Louisiana Superdome (artificial turf) in New Orleans, LA.  

BetUS NCAA Football Betting Odds: TROY -4.5, Total 54.5

Here are some of the NCAA college football betting trends as they relate to this matchup:

* TROY has covered four of its last six games
* TROY has won six of its last eight games SU
* TROY has played four of its last six games UNDER the total
* USM has won and covered its last four games

There was a lot of doubt around the Southern Miss campus as Jeff Bower, who had brought the football program to eleven bowl games in his 17 seasons and spent 29 seasons overall at the university, was ushered out. Larry Fedora, whose background was at Florida and Oklahoma State, took over as head coach and USM won early games against Louisiana-Lafayette and Arkansas State, but lost in disappointing fashion to the likes of Auburn, Marshall, UTEP, Boise State, Rice and Memphis, and looked like it was out of the bowl picture.

USM obviously pulled it together and pieced together four consecutive victories, defeating lesser lights UAB, UCF and SMU, and East Carolina, the eventual Conference USA champion. In this world, 6-6 qualifies for a bowl. Playing a spread they were efficient on offense, scoring 49 touchdowns with a +13 turnover ratio. Freshman quarterback Austin Davis was capable of big games as he demonstrated against Rice on October 18 with 461 yards in a defeat. Down the stretch, as the Eagles made their bid for a bowl berth, he threw six TD passes with just one interception in the last four games.

Damion Fletcher, who had five 100-yard games, including efforts of 222 yards against Louisiana-Lafayette and 260 against UTEP, and gained six yards a carry, will be the most explosive back on the field. And 6’6″ wide receiver DeAndre Brown, a freshman who averaged 16.8 yards a catch, was a definite standout.

But the defense allowed 24 passing TD’s and 4.4 yards per carry, and even with that string at the end where they yielded only 35 points in the last four games, there are questions about the stop unit.

Troy has the kind of attack that is liable to test that stop unit to its limits. There is no doubt that good players can come out of this Sun Belt Conference entry; you’ve seen Osi Umenyiora in the Pro Bowl, you’ll see DaMarcus Ware for the third time in this year’s Pro Bowl, and no doubt you’ll see Leodis McKelvin in Pro Bowls in the future. At quarterback is Levi Brown, who minimized mistakes (just three INT’s) a lot better than his predecessor at the position, Jamie Hampton, who went down after five games.

Troy has its own 1000-yard rusher in DuJuan Harris and a number of capable receivers for Brown to throw to. There is some residue from the offense installed by Tony Franklin, who went on to take over the reins as offensive coordinator at Auburn. Troy played good teams very tight this year; they trailed Ohio State 14-10 going into the fourth quarter of a 28-10 defeat, and led LSU by a 31-10 margin before collapsing in the fourth quarter as the Tigers scored 30 points in a 4th quarter comeback win.

I don’t know if that’s a positive or a negative. Southern Miss has enough balance to move the football, and Fletcher could be a real key. Fedora is a creative offensive mind who can benefit from extra practice time with his squad. His club has seen a lot of what Troy does already because they faced Franklin’s Auburn offense earlier. With momentum and confidence, there is enough justification to grab the points here with Southern Miss, the 4.5-point underdog in the BetUS NCAA college football sports betting odds.

Our PLAY: SOUTHERN MISS +4.5 **