St. Petersburg Bowl: Central Florida vs. Rutgers

Two teams with different expectations meet in the St. Petersburg Bowl on Saturday night as Central Florida faces Rutgers (8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Central Florida is thrilled to be playing in any bowl while Rutgers would really rather be in a higher profile bowl game. Rutgers has had a lot of success in bowl games recently though, winning their last three.

Rutgers is a 2.5 point favorite and the total for the game is set at 44.5 at SBG Global.

The expectation level at Rutgers has put a little heat on head coach Greg Schiano even though Rutgers did next to nothing before he arrived.

“I think people need to take a deep breath and realize that,” Schiano said. “There’s a lot of football teams in this country that would like to go to five straight bowl games. Some would call it not at the level they expect and I apologize for that, but the reality is five straight bowls is five straight bowls.”

Rutgers won seven of eight games at one point this season to get into the Top 25 but they lost two of their last three games. Rutgers went 3-4 overall in the Big East this season.

“Right now, we are who we are,” Schiano said. “I’m not ashamed of who we are…We’re going to become great, but right now we’re not great.”

Rutgers has a freshman at quarterback and that is part of their problem. Tom Savage threw 12 TDs this season but also had six interceptions and his completion percentage was the worst in the conference.

The running game is led by Joe Martinek but he slumped down the stretch. He is not likely to find much room against a Central Florida defense that was fourth in the country against the run.

Central Florida should have the home crowd edge since they are playing the game only a couple hours from campus. They come into the game having won five of their last six including an upset of Houston.

Central Florida has the edge at quarterback as Brett Hodges threw for 705 yards with five touchdowns and four interceptions in his last three games.

Here are some key college football betting stats for Saturday’s game:

The Knights are 4-0 ATS in their last four games overall. The Knights are 6-1 ATS in their last seven games as an underdog. The Knights are 2-10-1 ATS in their last 13 vs. the Big East.

The Scarlet Knights are 3-0-1 ATS in their last four bowl games. The Scarlet Knights are 4-1 ATS in their last five vs. Conference USA.

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