EagleBank Bowl Betting

UCLA Bruins (6-6) vs. Temple Owls (9-3)
Opening Line: Bruins -6 / Owls +6 O/U 45
Time: 4:30 PM EST Tuesday December 29, 2009 on ESPN

In the EagleBank Bowl the .500 UCLA Bruins face the Temple Owls, who are making their first bowl appearance in 30 years. Oh yeah, this season was only Temple's 4th winning season in the past 30 years. This is a match of two totally different teams on both side of the ball.

This season UCLA was 2-9-1 ATS and Temple was 8-3 ATS.

In their last game UCLA lost to USC 28-7 and Temple lost to Ohio 38-17.

UCLA was only 6-6 this season, but they did win 3 of their last 4 games and they have a legit passing attack. The Bruins were 0-3 against teams ranked in the top 25 this season. Temple had won 9 straight games until they lost their season finale. The Owls only played one ranked team this season and in that game they were crushed by Penn State 31-6. The Bruins play in a much tougher conference than the Owls, but Temple will be more than fired up, so this should be a good game.

UCLA only has the nation's 88th ranked offense, but they have a solid passing game led by QB Kevin Prince (1,829 yds 6 TD). The Bruins offense is a good one, but they have been held to under 20 points 6 times this season. Prince is a freshman and he needs to have a good game and keep his composure. It will really help if the Bruins can run the ball, but they only rank 98th in the nation on rushing offense. If Johnathan Franklin (560 yds 5 TD) has a good game it will give them a great chance to win this game. Prince is the key though, as the Owls' defense, which ranks 37th, is great against the run, ranked 20th, but not great defending the pass (ranked 74th).

The Owls are all abut the running game on offense, as they have the nation's 23rd ranked rushing offense as opposed to the pass offense, which is only ranked 113th. Temple RB Bernard Pierce (1,308 yds 15 TD) is the big gun for the Owls and if he has a good game Temple has a chance to win. However, if the Bruins can contain him on the ground they should have no problem winning this game. UCLA only has the nation's 60th ranked rushing defense, so Pierce may have a big game.

Temple is not a football school and they may be a little in awe playing in a bowl game against UCLA. However, the Owls ranked 38th this season in scoring per game while the Bruins only ranked 103rd (21.3 ppg). Temple has to run the ball and they have to play good defense to win this game, which would give them some respect in the college football world.

The Bruins are 3-6 ATS in their last 9 games and the Owls are 8-3 ATS this season.