The Texas Bowl pits the Big 12 against the SEC. The Oklahoma State Cowboys will take on the Texas A&M Aggies at 6:45pm ET on 12/27 in Houston, TX. We’ll evaluate the teams here.
Mike Gundy’s Cowboys enter bowl season under somewhat of a hot streak. The final game of the season ended in a 34-16 thumping by rival Oklahoma. However the four games before saw OSU string together four consecutive impressive wins.
Oklahoma State finished third in the Big12. They won two games against the AP Top 25 over the course of the season, though both of those teams are now unranked. They come in with a fairly balanced offensively and defensively as both are middle of the pack in the conference.
Chuba Hubbard has ran for over 200 yards in four games this season. Photo by cowboysrideforfree.com).
One thing to watch for on the Cowboy’s side is redshirt sophomore runningback Chuba Hubbard. The second year runningback out of Canada finished 8th in the Heisman voting. He recently announced he would play in the Cowboy’s final game of the season.
He will likely announce his intentions to enter the NFL Draft and depart Stillwater early. He leads the nation in rushing yards at 1,936 and is second in rushing touchdowns at 21.
Texas A&M has had to face one of the hardest schedules in the country this season. They have played 3 teams that were either ranked No.1 at the time or finished the season at No.1. They have faced 5 different teams that were ranked in the top 10. 3 of those 5 games were on the road.
Unfortunately for the Aggies they lost each of those games. 27-57, with 3 of those opponents not Power 5 teams. They have yet to defeat a team with a winning record. Only one of their wins was against a team playing a bowl game this postseason.
One major thing working in the Aggies favor is a strong rush defense. They rank 29th nationally and 5th in the SEC against the run.
Linebackers Buddy Johnson and Anthony Hines III lead the team in tackles and will have their hands full against Hubbard. Johnson has a team leading 71 tackles to go along with 9 TFL’s. Hines III is right behind him at 70 tackles and 10.5 TFL’s.
Jimbo Fisher is 6-2 in bowl games in his coaching career. (Photo by basketballrecruiting.rivals.com).
The fact that Texas A&M doesn’t have a good win on the schedule is concerning. Even in those wins they struggled mightily against the likes of a bad Arkansas and Ole Miss team.
On the other side they played respectably against Clemson, were competitive against Alabama, and nearly edged a win out against Georgia. The Aggies absolutely laid down for LSU in the season finale however which is not encouraging going into the bowl game.
Oklahoma State has the obvious advantage on their side by the name of Chuba Hubbard. If he can get going and get near 80 yards by the end of the first half, he’ll have the Aggie defense exhausted by the end of the game giving the Cowboys a situation they can run away with the win.
Texas A&M: 24, Oklahoma State: 34
Make sure to check out our college football page for more updates and rankings.
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