th<\/sup>, 19.0 per game). In short, although Northern Illinois plays in the inferior MAC conference, head coach Dave Doeren \u2013 who rode this success to a promotion with the NC State job \u2013 has motivated his players to a season for the ages.<\/p>\nYet, the Huskies don\u2019t often take the field against an opponent of Florida State\u2019s caliber. The Seminoles were bona fide National Title contenders to start the season, and had to persevere through a season-ending injury to starting RB Chris Thompson. Regardless, the \u2019Noles have used gnarly defense and a veteran offensive leader in QB E.J. Manuel to garner an ACC title and a #12 ranking. Florida State has depth and athleticism that the Huskies haven\u2019t encountered this season, even in their narrow one-point loss to Iowa to open the season. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
The \u2019Noles also had a narrow defeat, on Oct. 6 at Doeren\u2019s new team, the NC State Wolfpack. That disappointment in Tallahassee really derailed a season that could have been flawless. Granted, FSU came up short against bitter rival Florida, but who knows how that game would have turned out had the \u2019Noles remained unblemished.<\/p>\n
In order to pull the upset, the Huskies must summon enough fury on the defensive side of the ball to thwart Manuel, RB Devonta Freeman and beastly sophomore RB James Wilder Jr. Wide receiver Rashad Greene is also a genuine threat when Manuel is airing the ball out. Conversely, when Lynch is under center, he must contend with the demonic pass-rush duo of Bjoern Werner and Tank Carradine. Best case scenario, it will be an extremely difficult task. In a worst-case scenario, the beating will justify why the BCS system is being revamped starting next year.<\/p>\n
I expect Lynch to make some heads turn in Miami on New Year\u2019s Day, even against a stacked FSU squad. However, I think the Seminoles are just too well-rounded for Northern Illinois to steal a victory. Florida State\u2019s speed should expose a Huskies \u201cD\u201d that, while effective, is still fundamentally a MAC defense.<\/p>\n
Score Prediction: Florida State 38, Northern Illinois 16<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Huskies vs Seminoles NCAA Football Spread\/Handicapping This year\u2019s Orange Bowl is certain to be a fascinating game because it features our resident BCS-buster for 2012, with the Northern Illinois Huskies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":31498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[39626,53103,324,327,57575,766,769,57576,57577,5634,7768],"class_list":["post-58811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-39626","tag-53103","tag-college-football-odds","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-huskies-vs-seminoles","tag-ncaa-football-lines","tag-ncaa-football-picks","tag-northern-illinois-huskies-vs-florida-st-seminoles","tag-northern-illinois-vs-florida-st","tag-orange-bowl","tag-orange-bowl-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58811"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58843,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58811\/revisions\/58843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}