Cure Bowl Picks and Odds | Coastal Carolina vs Northern Illinois

Cure Bowl Betting Preview

WagerTalk college football handicapper Tony Finn offers his Coastal Carolina vs Northern Illinois Cure Bowl betting preview. At the time of posting, the Chanticleers from the Sun Belt have climbed to a 10.5-point favorite over the Huskies from the MAC, with the total holding steady at 63.5 points.

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Cure Bowl	Betting Notes
Point Spread:	Coastal Carolina Chanticleers -10.5 vs Northern Illinois Huskies
Total:	63.5 Points
Game Time:	6:00pm ET / 3:00pm PT on Friday, December 17
Stadium:	Camping World Stadium in Orlando
TV:	ESPN2

Cure Bowl Analysis

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (10-2, 6-2 Sun Belt) is set to take on Northern Illinois Huskies (9-4, 6-2 MAC) in the Cure Bowl on Dec. 17 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The Chanticleers are 11-4 ATS across their last 15 non-conference games as a member of the FBS, while the Huskies are perfect 0-6 ATS across their previous six bowl games as an underdog.

Coastal’s field general, Grayson McCall, heads to Florida with his teammates, having found the end zone a total of 27 times this season. NIU is led by quarterback Rocky Lombardi, a transfer from Michigan State who has found a warm and comfortable spot inside the Group of Five level.

McCall was awarded the Sun Belt Player of the Year for a second-straight season. McCall threw for 2,558 yards and recorded 23 passing touchdowns. Lombardi played catch with his receiving corps for 2,416 yards this season. Lombardi is one of just five Huskies players to rush for more than 400 yards on the season.

The Chanticleers closed a game short of the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the Sun Belt East. The second-place finish in the East division resulted in Coastal missing out for a spot in the conference championship. Lombardi’s Huskies were born to be the underdog and orchestrate upsets. NIU registered victories over Georgia Tech (+19) in the 2021 season-opener and took down the Toledo Rockets this season as 13-point underdogs.

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

Coastal earned the program’s second invitation to a bowl as a member of the FBS. The two bowls have come back-to-back as this year’s holiday contest is the program’s second-straight Cure Bowl.
The Chanticleers made their postseason debut last season in a Top 25 matchup against Liberty.
McCall’s favorite target is Jaivon Heiligh, who has 1,034 yards and seven touchdown catches. No. 2 wideout Isaiah Likely has captured 816 receiving yards this season and caught ten touchdown passes for the Chanticleers.
McCall has directed the Chanticleers to a No. 2 national ranking in yards per play against FBS opponents and assisted the Coastal offense in scoring at least 35 points eight times this season.
The Chanticleers operate a prolific offense. Coastal led the FBS in team passing efficiency (190.63) and third-down conversion percentage (.541). McCall has engineered an elite slash line, but outside the surface stats and the program’s success, the offense is top-10 with a completion percentage (4th/.702), the efficiency of their run game (6th/231), and overall. Coastals offense ranks seventh in the FBS with nearly 500 yards of total offense per game.
The Chanticleers gave up 325 total yards per game and were involved in four one-score games in their final six contests.

Northern Illinois Huskies

NIU is making the school’s 14th bowl appearance. They received the invite after earning their sixth MAC Championship with a 41-23 victory over Kent State.
Northern Illinois is run-heavy, with 62 percent of the offensive plays rushing attempts. The 62 percent run-first Huskies rate is one of the top-25 rushing teams in the FBS. RB Jay Ducker was the Huskies’ top ground gainer with 1,038 rushing yards.
The 9-4 Huskies average 234.3 rushing yards per game, which is three yards better than the Chanticleers out of the Sun Belt.
The Huskies are ranked fifth nationally in rushing offense (234.2), ninth in red zone offense (.920), and 10th in a time of possession (33:03).
The defense relies on the talents of freshman C.J. Brown who recorded 105 tackles this season. Senior Lance Deveaux’ eight tackles for loss was the top tackler behind the line of scrimmage.
Northern Illinois has been soft defending the run. The Huskies surrender 215.7 rushing yards per game.
The Huskies won seven games by one score or less, four by two points or less, and another in overtime in 2021, including a 22-21 win over Georgia Tech to open the season.

Cure Bowl Prediction

Coastal was a perfect 12-0 in the regular season last year. However, the program opened the season with seven-straight wins this season, resulting in the team climbing to No. 14 in the AP Poll. The ranking was at its highest points following wins against The Citadel, Kansas, Buffalo, UMass, ULM, and Arkansas State. CCU’s two losses came by a combined five points at Appalachian State (30-27) and vs. Georgia State (42-40).

Lombardi and Co. should keep the Huskies close with their ability to control the tempo and run the football. Both of these two teams have holes on the defensive side of the ball. The Huskies rank among the worst in college football in their opponents’ yards per play.

Coastal closed as a favorite in every game this season. And in those 12 games, they covered only four. Both schools have the offensive skillset to post points to the scoreboard. However, the pair of bowl earners have significant holes on the defensive side of the trench. The holiday bowl picks to click in the Cure Bowl is a play over the total.

After a really impressive 10-2 season, how motivated with BYU be for a trip to Shreveport, Louisiana to face a Conference USA team? Join Drew, Ralph and Adam for the Best Damn College Football Show. https://t.co/bn9ncBOJrR

— WagerTalk (@WagerTalk) December 15, 2021

Cure Bowl Preview from The GoldSheet

After tapping out last season at 0-6 during the Covid-plagued 2020 campaign, Thomas Hammock guided Northern Illinois to a 9-4 campaign culminating in a 41-23 victory in the MAC Championship game. The Huskies won eight of their last ten games with an effective rushing attack that ranked No. 5 in the nation. Coastal Carolina is 21-3 SU the past two seasons led by RS soph QB Grayson McCall, who has thrown for an impressive 5,071 yds., completed 71-percent of his passes and has 50 TD passes against only 6 interceptions in his career with the Chanticleers.

There are reasons Coastal is a heavy favorite in the Cure Bowl. They are better offensively in both phases of the game than NIU. The Huskies’ defense left a lot to be desired this year, and it’s not just the results early against Wyoming and Michigan (yielded 50 and 63 pts.) that skewed the numbers. NIU gave 31 ppg and 5.8 ypc against MAC competition this year. Hammock’s stop unit yielded more than 310 yards passing to four conference opponents this season and had a four-game stretch to end the regular season when they allowed 6.3 yards per carry and 282 rushing yards per game.

Cure Bowl Video Breakdown

Coastal Carolina was favored by double-digits in 11 of their 12 games this season, but failed to cover in five of their last six. Can the Chanticleers pick up a convincing win on Friday night in Orlando? WagerTalk college football handicappers Dave Cokin, Bryan Leonard and Tony Mejia offer their Cure Bowl betting preview.

Cure Bowl Stats

College football handicappers Ralph Michaels and JM Sports have put together a 66-page Bowl Betting Guide featuring everything from first quarter scoring to yards per point to plays per minute. Don’t place a bet on the Cure Bowl before diving into this FREE download.

WagerTalk Live Odds Screen

WagerTalk’s live odds screen features up-to-the-minute lines from a variety of offshore and domestic sports books. Track the moneylines, point spreads, first half lines and betting percentages for all of the college football bowl games, including this Cure Bowl showdown between Coastal Carolina and Northern Illinois, from your desktop or phone.

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