Bowl Game Betting – WVU Faces Struggling Aggies in Liberty Bowl

Liberty Bowl: Memorial Stadium, Memphis (Dec. 29, 2:00 p.m. Eastern)

Texas A&M Aggies vs. West Virginia Mountaineers (-1.5, 65.5 o/u)

Going into the Liberty Bowl, the West Virginia Mountaineers (7-5) looked to be heavily favored against Texas A&M Aggies (7-5). That was before the Mountaineers learned quarterback Clint Trickett was retiring. The veteran signal caller, who had five concussions over the last year or so, finally put his long-term health first and said enough was enough.

“It would be dangerous for me to be out there,” said the senior pivot.

Now Skyler Howard will be under center for West Virginia this afternoon.  Howard. threw for 483 yards with five touchdowns in limited playing time this season. But the mobile backup adds an element that Trickett lacked – a threat to run.  The sophomore ran for over 100 yards on just 12 carries.

West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said, “The improvements that [Howard] made in the last two months, I’ve never seen it with a quarterback before, not as a true sophomore.”

Said Mountaineers receiver Kevin White, who has 102 receptions this year, “Skyler and I are starting to get on pace, and he has been doing a great job at practice. He has improved, and his knowledge of the offense has improved tremendously. We will make it work.”

The good news for Howard is that he will be facing a horrific Aggies defense, which is giving up nearly 450 yards a game and hasn’t showed signs of improving;  over the last three contests, the unit has given up an average of 553 yards.

In fact, the defense was so bad, Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin fired coordinator Mark Snyder.  While it may seem strange to fire the DC right before the biggest game of the year, coach Sumlin views today’s game as the first building block for 2015.

“For us, as I say every year, we look at bowl games the same way,” Sumlin said. “It’s a culmination of our year, and for our seniors it’s a way for them to leave a legacy of who they are. You like for them to go out on a winning note. We’ve always treated the bowl game as the beginning of next season.”

That could be a bumpy beginning of the next season for the Aggies. Even though Trickett isn’t playing, look for the Mountaineers to cover (-1.5).

(Photo credit: StuSeeger (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode].)