CAPITAL ONE BOWL PICKS AND ANALYSIS: PENN STATE VS. LSU

With Bobby Bowden retiring at the end of this season, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno is now the undisputed elder statesman among college football coaches.  He’s earned an impressive 23 bowl victories in 44 seasons of college coaching, and will try to add to that figure as the Nittany Lions face SEC entrant LSU in the Gator Bowl in Orlando, Florida.  Penn State finished 10-2, while LSU compiled a 9-3 record this season.  The college football betting line for the game has Penn State installed as -2’ point favorites with the total set at 43’.

Penn State had an outside chance to make a BCS bowl, but in reality their 10-2 record was as much a function of scheduling as it was any intrinsic talent on this team.  The Nittany Lions started the season with three victories over vastly overmatched foes—Penn State was a -29’ favorite against Akron, Syracuse and Temple in those contests.  All told, Penn State’s wins came against opponents who finished with a combined record of 56-64.

LSU, meanwhile, brings a team with a sputtering offense and a defense that may be down a notch from its usual status as one of the best in college football.  Les Miles’ team opened the season with a 7-1 mark, but split their final four games to finish 9-3.  In all fairness, the losses during that late season stretch weren’t exactly against substandard competition as the Tigers lost at home to Alabama and on the road at Ole Miss.

Joe Paterno is likely nearing the end of his run at Penn State, and he’s vastly overmatched here in the coaching department against Les Miles.  Nittany Lions played a very weak non-conference schedule, and performed poorly whenever they stepped up in class against the elite within their own conference.   LSU still doesn’t have the best offense in the game, but they do have an aggressive defense with a frontline that will give Penn State’s OL all sorts of problems.  Miles has become one of the best bowl coaches in college football, going 4-0 in his bowl games beating the pointspread by well over 100 points.  LSU wins outright by a TD+ in a low scoring game that should manage to stay UNDER the total.

Bet the Capital One Bowl LSU vs. Penn State at Sports-1.