American football | Sunday, January 1, 2023 11:47 AM (Revised at: Monday, January 2, 2023 11:55 AM)

USC Trojans vs Tulane Green Wave Best Bet: Cotton Bowl Betting

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US Sports Expert

USC Trojans vs Tulane Green Wave Best Bet: Monday, January 2nd

The #10 ranked USC Trojans arrive at AT&T Stadium as slight favourites to lift the Cotton Bowl trophy on Monday when they take on #16 Tulane Green Wave in Arlington, Texas. After slamming out a perfect 3 – 0 on Saturday with his Bowl game selections, our resident college football expert Ej Garr has a pair of articles on the site today.

Be sure to check back for the National Championship game prediction from Ej as well, because Bowl Season is simply the most wonderful time of the year.

In this article:

USC Trojans vs Tulane Green Wave Preview

January 2, 18:00 (UK time)

We had quite a Saturday around here as all three of my bowl game articles featured winning predictions including both of the playoff semifinal matches. I will have this game and the ReliaQuest Bowl previews posted today, and I will be smashing out the big prediction for the title game on the 9th when TCU and Georgia square off.

Until we get there, we have four bowl games on the schedule for today, and I wanted to make sure I grabbed at least two of those to hammer out more winners for everyone. I can almost guarantee that everyone in Southern California is all over USC because of the low line of -2 on the Trojans against what Pac-12 fans would all consider a weaker Tulane opponent. USC couldn’t possibly be upset by Tulane, right?

My goodness, that is music to my ears when anyone blindly assumes that Tulane plays in a weak conference and USC was beating some quality teams to get here. Let’s just call it what it is. If USC didn’t have to play Utah this season, they would be undefeated. Both of the Trojans’ losses have come at the hands of the Utes, and no other program could slow down Caleb Williams and the USC offense.

All Williams has done this campaign is tossed the rock for over 4,000 passing yards, and as your peruse the top 5 of almost every category a QB keeps, Williams is on the list. With 37 TD passes, Williams has dropped considerably in the rankings… to 6th! HA! Got ya! His QB rating at 85.6% ranks him 5th in the country, and those 4,075 passing yards are also good enough to land in the top 5 of the national rankings.

As a team, USC appears in the top 5 of just about every offensive category there is, and the 41.1 PPG is good enough to be ranked 3rd in the country. News of a twinged hamstring has had everyone concerned about Williams’s status for this game, but I am hearing he is good to go.

On the other side of the field, Tulane puts up 35.2 points a game as well, and that’s good enough to be ranked 21st in the country. Michael Pratt has tossed 25 TD passes to only 5 interceptions this campaign, and luckily, he has Tyjae Spears in his backfield to hand the ball to. Spears has accumulated 1,373 rushing yards with 15 trips to the end zone, and Pratt will likely be seen doing plenty of toting the rock himself.

Pratt is second on the team with just under 400 rushing yards, and he has added 10 TD on the ground to his stat sheet on top of the 25 TD passes.