American football | Tuesday, December 20, 2022 9:38 AM

Toledo Rockets vs Liberty Flames Best Bet: Boca Raton Bowl Betting

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US Sports Expert

TOLEDO ROCKETS VS LIBERTY FLAMES BEST BET: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20th

The Toledo Rockets and Liberty Flames will be squaring off on Tuesday night to play in the Boca Raton Bowl.. The game will be played at FAU Stadium, and keep an eye on the weather because this might be a wet one!

Our resident NCAA Football pundit Ej Garr will be looking to make up for the loss in his first bowl game post, and we have confidence that he will bounce back with a winning tip for the Boca Raton Bowl.

In this article:

Toledo Rockets vs Liberty Flames Preview

December 21, 00:30 (UK time)

The Liberty Flames will be playing this game without their former Head coach Hugh Freeze, who decided to move on to greener pastures as all coaches tend to do after building up programs. Freeze jumped right into the fire going to the SEC, and now he will have to prove that what he did with Liberty can carry over to a Power-5 Conference. This will be his second tenure in the SEC having coached at Ole Miss for 5 years from 2012 to 2016.

So, without their head coach, Liberty will be underdogs for this contest, as the line setters are showing a -3.5 favouritism to Toledo and we have a 53 showing on the total. Liberty was a perfect 3 – 0 with Freeze holding the whistle for their last 3 bowl games, as those are the only 3 bowl appearances the Flames have made. Keep in mind that next year Liberty will be part of Conference USA, and they’ll do it with Jamey Chadwell as their next head coach. Chadwell jumped ship after 3 years with Coastal Carolina to take the job, and after the way their season tanked I get why he left.

Jason Candle isn’t going anywhere, as he loves being in the MAAC and he constantly has the Rockets competing for conference championships and bowl games. However, winning bowl games has eluded him, as he is 1 – 4 with that only win coming in his first campaign in 2015.

Anyway, let’s get to the game, right?

Speaking of falling apart, Liberty did just that to end the regular season. After an 8 – 1 start, Liberty lost their last 3 games as heavy favourites each time. The loss to UConn threw up the first red flag, but then the losses to Virginia Tech and New Mexico State have me quite concerned about their attitude to play in this game.

Of course, no head coach playing on an interim basis wants to see his team continue to fold like a lawn chair, but that is the assignment Josh Aldridge has to deal with. Can I say how stupid is that the NCAA has coaches change their jobs before their bowl games are played? So dumb! Whoever set that system up should be tarred and feathered for stupidity! Hell, throw some stones at ‘em too for all I care, HA!

Toledo has zero injuries to report and everyone, including their coach, will be on the sidelines and available to play. The strength of this program is certainly the defence, as their passing defence only allows 185.5 YPG through the air ranking them 15th in the Nation. The 331.9 yards allowed per contest is good enough to rank 24th in that category, and they showed it off in the MAAC title game on December 3.

Toledo held Ohio to only 7 points, and QB DeQuan Finn held his own with a touchdown pass to go along with 86 rushing yards. Finn can cause havoc with his legs as well as his arm, and he went into that MAAC title banged up with a sore ankle, and still made no mistakes.