Lending Tree Bowl Predictions and Odds | Liberty vs Eastern Michigan

Lending Tree Bowl Betting Preview

WagerTalk college football handicapper Tony Finn offers his Liberty vs Eastern Michigan Lending Tree Bowl betting preview. At the time of posting, the Flames have climbed to a 9.5-point favorite over the Eagles from the MAC, with the total sitting at 59 points.

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Lending Tree Bowl	Betting Notes
Point Spread:	Liberty Flames -9.5 vs Eastern Michigan Eagles
Total:	59 Points
Game Time:	5:45pm ET / 2:45pm PT on Saturday, December 18
Stadium:	Ladd-Peeble Stadium in Mobile, Alabama
TV:	ESPN

Lending Tree Bowl Analysis

Hugh Freeze and his Liberty Flames (7-5, FBS Independent) are in Mobile, Alabama, for a holiday bowl event against Eastern Michigan Eagles (7-5, MAC). Unfortunately, the 23rd annual LendingTree Bowl event doesn’t present itself as an evenly matched contest. Still, all bowl indicators point to this Saturday night football event played close from start to finish.

Both programs are experienced in traveling during the holiday season. This year’s LendingTree is the third consecutive bowl for the Flames. The MAC attack of Eastern Michigan is taking part in their fourth-holiday affair in the last six seasons.

These two programs won’t attempt to be creative, nor will they spin themselves as something they are not. Both offenses are pass-heavy with capable offensive lines that are adept at pass blocking instead of attempting a pancake attack on a running play.

Freeze’s Liberty offense averages 176.4 yards rushing per game, which trumps Eastern Michigan’s and their 117.3 yards. The Flames average 251 yards through the air while the Eagles average 263.3. Pundits will attempt to tell you, and anyone that will listen the pair of LendingTree participants needs to run to create the pass. Do not listen to such gibberish.

It will be a surprise if these two offenses rush for 100-plus yards unless one of the two garners a significant lead on the other before the fourth stanza.

Liberty Flames

The Flames score 31.8 points per game, ranking them 42nd in the FBS. They pass for 252.1 yards (ranked 48th) and rush for 176.4 yards per game (ranked 53rd).
Quarterback Malik Willis, a junior from nearby Atlanta, isn’t NFL-ready, but he is a lock to be playing at the next level with any success as a senior. In addition, his strong arm makes his current dual-threat ability a future prototypical pocket passer.
Willis has 24 passing touchdowns and 11 rushing touchdowns on the season.
Demario Douglas leads the team with 49 catches for 679 yards and five touchdowns. CJ Daniels gives Douglas and the Flames’ passing attack offering qualified assistance that has resulted in 36 receptions for 590 yards and seven touchdowns.
The Flame’s defense is a gambling unit. They create more turnovers than the offense surrenders, and it has and will be a large percentage of the winning or losing equation in this Saturday night holiday contest.

Eastern Michigan Eagles

Cincinnati-transfer Ben Bryant leads the Eagles at quarterback. The former Bearcat passed for 2,921 yards, 14 touchdowns, and six interceptions on 68.8 percent completion.
The Eagles have five receivers with at least 200 yards receiving.
Hassan Beydoun is the stud wideout that is Bryant’s No. 1 target. Dylan Drummond adds 58 receptions for 653 yards and six touchdowns as a secondary target.
The offense has produced 31 points per game, which ranks in the FBS collective’s top half. In addition, the Eagles have a trio of running backs who have all contributed 250 yards or more to the offense’s success.
Tailback Jawon Hamilton leads in rushing yards with 631 and four touchdowns.
Darius Boone has rushed for 400 yards and six touchdowns on the season.
Samson Evans is the thunder of the trio of backs. He is the running option when the offense is in the opposition’s red zone and has recorded 12 rushing touchdowns this season.
The Eagles defense has surrendered 27.8 points per game and has been soft in the trenches allowing nearly 200 yards of ground and pound per game.

Lending Tree Bowl Prediction

Liberty earned a holiday bowl invite for the second straight season by grabbing and taking seven wins in the regular season. Of the Flames, seven wins, four have come against bowl-eligible teams; North Texas, Middle Tennessee, UAB, and Old Dominion.

Of the five losses that the Flames suffered this 2021 campaign, two came against bowl-eligible squads in Syracuse and Louisiana-Monroe.

Eastern Michigan defeated three bowl-eligible teams losing to Miami (OH), Toledo, and Western Michigan. Of the Eagles’ five losses, only one was not bowl eligible, that being Ohio.

You will hear that the Liberty offense, led by Willis, will be too much for the Eagles secondary to handle for four quarters. In addition, it has been said that Liberty is a four-star recruit group while Eastern Michigan is a group of blue-collar athletes that were birthed by hard work.

All things equal, Liberty has more talent in terms of depth, but the Eagles front-line are not just hard workers; they are smart, as well. So the pick to click is a play on the Eastern Michigan Eagles and the points.

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Lending Tree Bowl Preview from The GoldSheet

Eastern Michigan HC Chris Creighton has built a nice program in Ypsilanti, and the Eagles are playing in their 4th bowl in the past 6 years. Not a super accomplishment if you’re Alabama or Notre Dame, but considering EMU had a 29-year drought between the 1987 California Bowl and Creighton’s first guiding the team to the 2016 Bahamas Bowl, this is next level stuff for the Eagles. EMU isn’t spectacular but is efficient and doesn’t hurt itself. The defense was definitely a bend, but try not to break unit. Despite returning all 11 starters from last season, the Eagle D ranked 101st overall and 110th against the run, but gave up a fairly respectable 28 ppg (82nd). The run D gave up 230 ypg and 5.4 ypc on the road this season.

Liberty has been all about ex-Auburn QB Malik Willis since his transfer from Auburn for the 2020 season. Willis will turn pro and has accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl, also played in Mobile, which is the site of this Lending Tree Bowl. The Liberty defense ranked 11th in yards allowed and 5th against the pass, but the opposition was of the cupcake variety as only 1 of the Flames’ first 9 foes ended the season with a winning record. In the losing streak they were outscored 100-44 and Willis was sacked 21 times. In total Liberty gave up 51 sacks. Eastern has been an excellent underdog the last few years, logging a 27-9-1 spread mark in that role since 2016, including a 3-0 record as the short in the past 3 bowl games.

Lending Tree Bowl Video Breakdown

Liberty lost its last three regular season games by double digits. Can the Flames cap their season with a win over Eastern Michigan? WagerTalk college football handicappers Ralph Michaels, Drew Martin and Adam Trigger offer their Lending Tree Bowl betting preview.

Lending Tree 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 Lending Tree 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 Lending Tree Bowl showdown between Liberty and Eastern Michigan, from your desktop or phone.

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