LendingTree Bowl Betting Odds: Rice Owls vs Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles

Familiar Name a Headliner for Southern Mississippi

Just being the son of one of the most productive running backs in NFL history was going to get Frank Gore Jr. plenty of attention when he arrived at Southern Mississippi. Gore has certainly carved out his own legacy with the Golden Eagles.

He recently topped the 1,000-yard mark this season and will look to add to his total of 1,053 yards when the Golden Eagles face Rice. He is one of the reasons why Southern Mississippi is favored according to the LendingTree Bowl betting odds.

Rice is 7-5 against the college football odds and Southern Mississippi is 9-3.

When looking at the college football injuries, both teams appear to be in good shape. Southern Miss reserve quarterback Ty Keyes hasn’t played since a late September game against Tulane and is out for the season.

Bounce Back Seasons

Southern Mississippi is playing in a bowl game for just the second time in the last five seasons while Rice is playing a bowl game for the first time since the 2014 season.

The teams were a combined 7-17 last season and were conference foes until this year when Southern Mississippi moved from Conference USA to the Sun Belt.

Rice has five freshmen from Alabama with Marcus Williams the most prominent name with 20 tackles and two tackles for loss. Defensive lineman Kristin Booth (33 tackles, three tackles for loss), safety Jay Jones (22 tackles) and receiver Tiaquelin Mims (23 catches, 361 yards) are among eight Alabama natives on the Southern Mississippi roster.

Rice has won its last two games against Southern Miss winning at home 24-19 as a one-point favorite and rolling to a 30-6 victory in 2020 as the one-point favorite on the road. The Golden Eagles won the previous five games. Just one of the last 10 games between the former conference rivals finished as one-score contests. That could factor into LendingTree Bowl predictions.

Rice is Happy to Be Bowling Again

The Rice Owls are not heading into the bowl game bursting with confidence as the Owls lost each of its last three games by an average of 24.3 points. The Owls are the only team with a losing record that will appear in a bowl game. Rice’s strong work academically resulted in the Owls getting a bowl bid based on their Academic Progress Report number.

The Owls did run for 186 yards, the second-highest total, in the regular-season finale with Juma Otoviano leading the way with 94 yards on 14 carries. Still, the LendingTree Bowl betting odds list the Owls as the underdog.

Rice is a much-improved team on defense, allowing 60 fewer yards per game than they did a season ago. Sophomore Josh Pearcy leads Rice with 5.5 sacks.

Never a Dull Moment

Southern Mississippi knows something about playing in tight games with six games during the regular college football season being decided by seven points or less. That is of note with the LendingTree betting odds favoring the Golden Eagles as a seven-point favorite.

The Golden Eagles went 3-3 in those contests with the highlight being a 20-14 win over Texas State when Zach Wilcke’s touchdown pass with 32 seconds giving the Golden Eagles the win. Texas State took the lead just 49 seconds earlier.

Southern Miss went into the regular-season finale needing to win to become bowl eligible and with Gore running for 199 yards, the Golden Eagles topped Louisiana-Monroe 20-10 in the fourth attempt for that elusive sixth win.

Defensive back Malik Shorts leads the Golden Eagles with 91 tackles and is second with three interceptions. He has 282 career tackles and nine interceptions.

Together Again

This bowl game will have a much different feel since the teams were conference opponents until this season. Each of the last three games between the teams went under the total. This game could head in that direction Rice is 10th out of 11th of Conference USA teams in total offense, while Southern Miss is 11th out of 14th of the Sun Belt squads in total offense.

The Golden Eagles have scored touchdowns on just 13 of 35 drives reaching the red zone with Rice reaching the end zone on 25 of 43 possessions reaching the red zone.

Southern Miss has covered in five of its last six games while Rice is just 2-4 against the spread in its six most recent contests.

The line opened with Southern Mississippi favored by six points and has moved to -7 with the early money being bet on the favored Golden Eagles.

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