TaxAct Texas Bowl point spread: Picking Texas A&M Aggies vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys
The 2023 college football bowl season is underway and has been filled with plenty of surprises, drama, and upsets. On3’s Andy Staples has used his intellect and knowledge of the game to make his picks for matchups earlier in the season.
And recently, with the help of Ralph Russo on the Andy Staples On3 Podcasts, the college football expert gave his prediction on this year’s TaxAct Texas Bowl between the Texas A&M Aggies and Oklahoma State Cowboys.
How to watch Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State
Time: Dec. 27 – 8 p.m. CT
Channel: ESPN or ESPN+, FuboTV (streaming)
Location: NRG Stadium (Houston, Texas)
While Staples has been confident in many of his selections this bowl season, this matchup between former Big 12 rivals has him scratching his head.
“Alright. I have no idea what’s gonna happen to this game, but Oklahoma State is the more ‘like itself’ team,” opened Staples.
His difficulty in making a confident pick for this game is primarily due to the movement both programs have experienced courtesy of the transfer portal and, in Texas A&M’s case, the installation of an entirely new coaching staff. However, Russo has a formula that has helped him make picks that will aid him with the TaxAct Bowl, as he explains.
“Yeah, what I found with some of this is, first off, it’s semi-impossible, but in picking some of the earlier season bowl games, I found myself just thinking, ‘I don’t know. Like Vegas kind of knows what they’re talking about here.’ That doesn’t mean I picked the favorite, but [I] sort of weighed that in. Who is the better team throughout the season? And if I had to pick the team intact, who would I pick? So it’s been a little bit of a blend of that,” said Russo.
“I know one thing: Ollie Gordon [is] showing up to this game. So they have their best player, their quarterback, and their coach, Oklahoma State. That seems like a good blend. And if I’m going with, like, who’s motivated to be here, I gotta think that there’s more of that on the Oklahoma State side than the Texas A&M side. There’s no knock at Elijah Robinson. But who knows what is going on at A&M right now, right? It’s also a guy who’s doing another job; he’s going to Syracuse.”
Robinson is still acting as the interim head coach for Texas A&M despite accepting the defensive coordinator position for the Syracuse Orange shortly after the end of the regular season. That, along with several other factors surrounding the Aggies coaching staff makes the picture too muddy for Russo to pick them. And Staples agrees with everything his guest had to say. However, that’s not going to stop him from riding with Texas A&M to pick up the win on Wednesday.
“Mike Gundy is a gameday coach I still trust completely. I agree with everything you said, but because it’s bowl season, I’m picking against you. I’m going with Texas A&M to cover. I have no idea. They have very good players still. I think that’s something we will learn about Texas A&M as the Mike Elko era dawns next season is they have very good players still.”