Frisco Bowl – San Diego State vs. UTSA Spread, Line, Odds, Predictions, Picks, and Betting Preview

Anybody feel like a smoothie? The Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl gets under way Tuesday, December 21, between the UTSA Roadrunners (12-1) and the San Diego State Aztecs (11-2).

This is one of the more highly-anticipated Group of 5 matchups of bowl season, as the teams enter with a combined record of 23-3. It was a magical season for Jeff Traylor and the Roadrunners, who held on for a 49-41 win over Western Kentucky in a thrilling C-USA Championship game to capture the conference crown. San Diego State fell mightily short in the Mountain West Championship game, falling 46-13 in a devastating upset loss to Utah State.

UTSA will be highly motivated to put a cherry on top of what’s been a huge season for the program. Their resume is hard to poke holes in, as they finished with a 6-1 record against Bowl teams and are solid on both sides of the football (37.8 PPG offensively, 23.6 PPG defensively). 

One key for UTSA will be shutting down San Diego State’s rushing attack. The Aztecs are very one-dimensional offensively: if they can’t run the ball, they aren’t going to score many points. The Roadrunners allowed only 111.2 rushing yards per game and 3.2 yards per carry, so they’ll need those numbers to carry over to this matchup.

This is the Frisco Bowl, and UTSA will have significantly less travel from San Antonio to Frisco than San Diego State will have from Southern California. 

A case can be made that UTSA is the better team (certainly more balanced, anyway), is more motivated, and has a traveling advantage. While some of those factors are easier to justify than others, enough signs are pointing UTSA’s direction that it’s Roadrunners or pass for this bettor.