UCLA and Baylor square off in the 2012 Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The Bruins are coming off a loss in the Pac-12 title game to Stanford. UCLA is actually coming off two straight losses, both to Stanford. The Bruins head into the Holiday Bowl with a 9-4 overall record.
Baylor had an up and down season. The Bears won their first three, lost four straight, and then won four out of their last five. Baylor’s big win came on November 17th when they knocked off Kansas State, the number one team in the country at the time. Baylor enters the bowl game with an overall record of 7-5 this season.
When Baylor is on Offense
The Baylor Bears have one of the most prolific offenses in college football. Baylor ranks 5th in scoring at 44.1 points per game and are 1st in total offense averaging 578.8 yards per game. Quarterback Nick Florence is 3rd in the nation with 4121 passing yards and has 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Wide receiver Terrance Williams was Florence’s favorite target this season hauling in 95 catches for 1764 yards this season. Florence will also throw to Tevin Reese and Lanear Sampson who each had over 50 catches and 600 yards for Baylor. The Bears ran the ball more towards the end of the season and their offense benefitted. Lache Seastrunk started to get more carries the last five weeks and was outstanding averaging 7.6 yards per carry this season.
UCLA ranks 55th in the nation in scoring defense allowing an average of 25.9 points per game. Linebacker Anthony Barr leads the nation with 13.5 sacks and the Bruins rank 4th in the nation with 44 sacks as a team. Baylor quarterback Nick Florence was only sacked 16 times all season. UCLA will have its hands full trying to slow Baylor’s explosive offense.
The Bruins’ offense ranks 29th in the nation in scoring at 35.1 points per game. Freshman quarterback Brett Hundley played well this season completing 68% of his passes for 3411 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. The biggest concern for Hundley is his inability to get rid of the football quickly. Hundley was sacked 46 times this season, more than any other quarterback in the country. The star for UCLA this season was running back Jonathan Franklin. The senior averaged 6.3 yards per carry on his way to 1700 yards and 13 touchdowns. Franklin had a huge game against a very good Stanford run defense with 194 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Pac-12 championship game.
Baylor’s defense was terrible this season. The Bears rank 117th in scoring defense allowing 38.2 points per game. Baylor only held one opponent below 20 points all season long. That team was Kansas, the 118th ranked scoring team in the country at 18.3 points per game. Baylor will have a tough time stopping Jonathan Franklin and the Bruins.
2012 Holiday Bowl Pick Against the Spread
UCLA is currently a 1-point favorite over Baylor in the 2012 Holiday Bowl. The Bruins had a great season and are certainly a talented football team. UCLA’s offense has a nice balance and will be successful against a horrible Baylor defense. However, Baylor played its best football of the season down the stretch picking up wins against Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State, all bowl teams. Baylor has been successful throwing the ball all season and became dangerous on the ground as well when they started giving the ball to Lache Seastrunk. This is going to be a high-scoring game and I think Baylor will pull out the victory, so I’ll take the Bears with the 1-point.
