2010 International Bowl South Florida Vs. Northern Illinois

VS.

While Northern Illinois is focused on averting a third straight bowl loss, South Florida’s biggest concern heading into its fifth straight postseason game is to avoid being consumed by an off-field distraction. The Huskies and Bulls face each other for the third time when they meet in the International Bowl at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on Jan. 2.

12:00 PM ET, January 2, 2010
Rogers Centre , TORONTO, ON
ESPN

South Florida Bulls finished their season with a record of 7-5 and at 6th place on the Big East Conference. South Florida lost five of its last seven for the second straight year, dropping its final two against then-No.19 Miami and Connecticut. Still, the Bulls’ run of five bowl appearances in five years of BCS membership puts them in elite company. Texas, Florida, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Georgia and Georgia Tech are the only other teams to reach a bowl in each year as a member of a BCS conference. The Bulls weapon will be freshman QB B.J. Daniels who has done a solid job since senior QB Matt Grothe suffered a season-ending knee injury in the third game. Daniels has thrown for 1,766 yards with 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions, while rushing for 798 yards and nine scores. Also Junior WR Carlton Mitchell is the school’s all-time leader with 1,554 receiving yards. He has 612 yards this year and needs 50 more to set the South Florida single-season record and he is the most valuable asset the Bulls have. Other players involved in offense are RB Moise Plancher and WR
A.J. Love. On defense players like DL Jason Pierre-Paul and DL George Selvie have combined for nine sacks and 24 tackles for loss, leading a defense that ranked third in the Big East at 328.7 yards allowed per contest. They will need to really apply themselves on offense and wait for the defense to do their job.

Northern Illinois Huskies are going to their second straight bowl and their fourth in six seasons.The Huskies finished with a record of 7-5 feeling confident despite losing its final two games to Ohio and Central Michigan, the Mid-American Conference title game representatives. The Huskies, however, have dropped two straight bowl games since winning the 2004 Silicon Valley Classic. The Huskies have their hopes on Junior RB Chad Spann, that ran for a team-leading 945 yards and scored 20 touchdowns, while backup RB Me’co Brown added 645 yards and four TDs for the Huskies. Basically the whole strategy will be running the ball as many times as possible while Junior DL Jake Coffman will help with his huge numbers. He had 7 1/2 sacks and 12 1/2 tackles for loss as the leader of a defense that was second in the MAC at 21.2 points allowed per game. Other players involved in offense are QB Chandler Harnish, QB DeMarcus Grady, WR Landon Cox and WR Marcus Lewis.

GAME ODDS

SOUTH FLORIDA -7 -105
NORTHERN ILLINOIS 49

THE GAME WILL BE A BRUTAL DEFENSIVE GAME IN WHICH NORTHERN ILLINOIS COULD HAVE THE UPPER HAND IF THEY GET THEIR RUNNING GAME GOING. SOUTH FLORIDA HAS A SOLID QB THAT CAN TAKE THEM OUT OF TROUBLE IF THEY ARE EVER IN ONE SO IT COULD BE A BACK AND FORWARD GAME. MY PICK WILL BE SOUTH FLORIDA BULLS -7 -105.

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