Northwestern vastly overachieved on their way to a 9-4 season last year. Especially when considering longtime head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired just before the season began due to a controversial team hazing incident. The ball certainly bounced the Wildcats way last year. They were a +13 turnover margin which ranked 4th nationally. Additionally, they went a noteworthy 7-2 in one score games. I'll go out on a limb and say one or neither of those performance line will come close to replicating itself this upcoming season. Northwestern does return 14 starters. Yet they rank 80th nationally in returning rate production. Quite simply, the 8 starters they lost were a major contributing factor to last year's success.

Speaking of coming off a successful season. The Miami-Ohio Redhawks went 11-3 and were crowned MAC champions. It's important to note, they return 6th year quarterback Brett Gabbert. All Gabbert has done is make 38 career starts while throwing for 7714 yards and 49 touchdowns. With his being an anticipated close game, I look for Gabbert to be a big reason Miami will cover this contest.

Give me the Miami-Ohio Redhawks plus points.