Oklahoma State vs. Wisconsin Guaranteed Rate Bowl Preview and Pick
The Guaranteed Rate Bowl will ‘feature’ the 6-6 Wisconsin Badgers taking on the 7-5 Oklahoma State Cowboys in Phoenix, AZ late on Tuesday night. We’ve got you covered with a preview and a pick. These two teams have never met before and both have storied bowl histories, with Oklahoma State going 11-5 under coach Mike Gundy, and Wisconsin winning seven of their last eight bowl appearances. Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell will be making his debut with the Badgers in preparation for next year and will attempt to become the fourth coach at Wisconsin to win a bowl game in his first attempt.
The starting quarterbacks for both schools have entered the transfer portal and can’t play tonight so the Cowboys will start a freshman, Garrett Rangel, who threw three interceptions in two losses this season. The Cowboys also lost tailback Dominic Robinson, OL Eli Russ, and wide receivers Langston Anderson and Braylin Presley to the transfer portal. And on the defensive side of things, where they weren’t great to begin with, they lost seven more players to the portal, including Mason Cobb, their leading tackler.
We don’t even know who will start at QB for the Badgers but it will come down to senior Chase Wolf or freshman Myles Burkett. Obviously, these teams are not going to look like they did during the regular season. In fact, the list of players out because they’re entering the NFL Draft, transferring or injured is too long to even list here, but includes 17 players for Wisconsin. Let’s just say we’re likely to see a lot of sloppiness and inexperience on the field tonight, along with a lot of up-and-coming young talent.
Oklahoma State’s pass defense was awful this season, giving up 269 yards per game through the air. And even when Wisconsin had a starting quarterback they had a sub-par air attack. But Phil Longo is now in Wisconsin to run the offense and there’s a chance that the Badgers will be able to take advantage of OK State’s below-average secondary. Wisconsin inside linebacker Maema Njongmeta has had a sack in four straight games and safety John Torchio had five interceptions this season, two more things working in Wisconsin’s favor.
The bottom line is that this game is going to be a real crapshoot. But, Wisconsin’s bowl history and a streak of 21-straight bowl appearances (the third-longest active streak in the nation), should give them another possible edge and they’ll be trying to win for their new coach. Yes, Oklahoma State is playing in its 17th straight bowl appearance, but with all the unknowns out there, I like the fact Wisconsin has won seven of their last eight bowl games and has an average margin of victory of 10.9 points in the last seven games.
Top Oddscrowd performer Kaikennedy locked into the Cowboys at +3.5 but I’m going the other way. You probably have to be a diehard fan of either team to be throwing money at this one, but it should be entertaining to watch a pair of depleted and storied programs going at it head-to-head for the first time ever. Sign up for a free Oddscrowd account and get free tools to help you make decisions and play along with other bettors to see how you stack up!
Pick: Wisconsin -4.5
