Outback Bowl: Ole Miss Rebels vs Indiana Hoosiers Betting Odds, Picks & Lines
Indiana (6-1 SU, 7-0 ATS), one of the feel-good stories in college football betting this year, will look to crown a successful season with a first bowl win in almost 30 years as they travel to Tampa on Saturday to take on Ole Miss (4-5 SU, 4-5 ATS) in the Outback Bowl game. The Rebels, who won 11 times in their last 13 bowl games, will end the up-and-down season as an underdog in the last game of this campaign. The Outback has featured a Big Ten vs SEC matchup since 1996, with the SEC holding the 15-10 edge so far. However, in the last six bowl games, the two conferences are 3-3.
Outback Bowl: Ole Miss Rebels vs Indiana Hoosiers Betting Line Movement
The opening lines favored Indiana by -6.5, but after early bettors jumped on this NCAAF football betting spread, the line has moved to 9- or -8.5 depending on the sportsbook. The clash between two of the most fun teams in the country had oddsmakers set the total at 69.5 to open the week, but the line has dropped significantly since, and now stands at 65.5.
Notes On The Ole Miss Rebels
The first year under Lane Kiffin has gone as many expected, with Ole Miss sporting spectacular offense and atrocious defense. They were one of the most fun teams to watch this year and the last game of the season was a perfect example of this, as they lost to LSU in a 53-48 shootout. We can only hope that the Outback Bowl will bring a similar kind of excitement.
Adapting to Kiffin’s style of play has resulted in some extremely volatile stats for the sophomore QB Matt Collar. High passing volume led to him throwing for almost 3.000 yards and 27 touchdowns with six 300+ games, but Collar also threw for 14 interceptions including 5 in the last game of the campaign. The Rebels’ offense will have to find a way to limit turnovers as they can hardly count on getting anything from their defense. They are allowing 40.3 points per game which ranks them 103rd in the nation.
Notes On The Indiana Hoosiers
The Hoosiers certainly feel that they have deserved a place at New Year’s Six and that the committee made a mistake ranking them 11th after a great season, so they’ll enter Saturday’s matchup extremely motivated. The potential issue for them going to the bowl game may be the fact that they haven’t had a game since December 5th due to COVID-19-related cancellation of the game vs Purdue. Indiana had 28 members of the coaching and playing staff contracting a virus, but according to head coach Tom Allen, all of them are available for Saturday.
Still, they will be without their star quarterback Michael Penix Jr who was injured in the penultimate game of the season, meaning that Jack Tuttle is set for the second start of his career. In his first game starting under center against Wisconsin, Tuttle threw for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns. He’ll certainly have even more room to operate on Saturday as Ole Miss is truly terrible and ranks 127th against the pass. The QB situation will likely force Indiana defense to step up and they have shown this season that they’re up to the task. They rank second in the nation in forced turnovers with 2.9 per game and limit their opponents to just 19.4 points per game.
Outback Bowl Betting Pick: Indiana Hoosiers -8.5
Indiana has covered the spread in all seven games this year and going against a defense as bad as Ole Miss, they’re likely to do it again. The Ole Miss offense, which has been their main strength this season will be severely weakened due to the several key college football betting players opting out or being injured.
