The Cal Golden Bears were one of the biggest disappointments of the 2009 CFB season. HC Jeff Tedford’s kids came in highly regarded, and many pundits expected them to overcome their woes against USC and take the P10 honors. Neither of those hypotheses came to fruition as Cal ended up 8-4 SU and just 6-6 ATS on the year. They closed their letdown of a 2009 regular season schedule with a clunker at Washington that saw them lose 42-10 as 6.5-point road favorites.
Utah finished up third in the Mt. West behind both BYU and TCU. They cruised against the rest of the conference competition they took on, and enter tonight’s battle winners ATS in 3 of their L/4. HC Kyle Whittingham’s club is a much lesser version than a year ago, but there’s no doubting the Utes will be ready for this one knowing they carry 7-0 SU and 6-1 ATS tallies with them each of their L/7 bowl games.
The Poinsettia Bowl is by no means the game the Golden Bears expected to be playing in at the onset of the season, while Utah should come into this one psyched after losing so many contributors from last year’s 13-0 SU team. Cal certainly has the talent at hand to beat the tar out of this Utes club, but bowl season always brings about the best of the underdogs. Tedford’s kids have also failed mightily as chalks going 4-5 ATS with three outright defeats this season. The Utes are 27-7-1 ATS the L/34 times they were dogged, and teams that went undefeated a year ago that finds themselves as dogs the next bowl season went 8-4 ATS the L/12 times. Look for an inspired effort from Utah to keep it within the spread if not win outright!
Alex Smart - 12/23
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