Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl point spread: Picking Miami (OH) RedHawks vs. Appalachian State Mountaineers
College football bowl season officially kicks off this weekend with 14 teams squaring off on Saturday in seven bowl games. One of those matchups is the Avocados from Mexico Cure Bowl, as Miami of Ohio will take on Appalachian State in Orlando with both teams coming off of appearances in their respective conference championship games.
How to watch Miami (OH) vs. Appalachian State
Time: December 16 — 3:30 p.m. ET
Channel: ABC, FuboTV (streaming)
Location: Orlando, FL
The Mountaineers enter the matchup as 6.5-point favorites, and with that in mind, On3’s Andy Staples and The Athletic’s Chris Vannini discussed the matchup and made their picks against the spread.
“I don’t think enough people paid attention to the job that Chuck Martin did this year at Miami of Ohio,” Vannini said. “They beat Cincinnati in the non-conference, they had a pretty good year in the MAC, and then their starting quarterback, Brett Gabert, gets hurt at the very end of a loss to Toledo and you think their season is over, Ohio’s gonna win the MAC East. No, they went 5-0 the rest of the way, beat Toledo in the MAC Championship game with their backup quarterback.”
Dual-threat backup quarterback Aveon Smith was able to lead the Red Hawks to an undefeated record and a conference title win to close out the season, but he surely got a lot of help from Miami’s defense, which is one of the best units in the nation holding opponents to just 16.2 points per game (sixth in the nation).
Sustained success was the name of the game for the RedHawks this season, but not for App State, who turned some close early season losses into five straight wins to end the regular season and secure a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Championship.
“Appalachian State, good turnaround job by Shawn Clark. They were like 3-4 to start the year and it looked like he might get fired and then he basically just changed their strategy to get a lot more aggressive on both sides of the ball. They’ve been racking up a ton of tackles for loss ever since then, Joey Aguilar the quarterback really emerged in the second half of the year, more than 3,500 passing yards.”
Staples’ concerns following App State’s 49-23 loss to Troy in the conference title game have him picking Miami to cover in this matchup, with Vannini following suit due to his concerns regarding the Mountaineers’ star running back Nate Noel entering the transfer portal.
Saturday will mark Miami’s third consecutive bowl appearance under Martin, while the Mountaineers return to a bowl game after missing out last season, breaking a streak of seven consecutive bowl appearances. This will be the first time the two programs have ever faced off in what should be an exciting Group of Five showdown.