The Duke’s Mayo Bowl might be my favorite bowl game of the year, outside of the Playoff and the Rose Bowl of course. The winning coach gets Mayo dumped on their head, that’s what bowl season is really all about, and because of this game I’ve converted from Hellman’s, I’m a Duke’s guy all the way now.
This year, it’ll either be Mike Locksley of Maryland or Dave Doeren over NC State bathing in mayo. The Terrapins lost three in a row before steamrolling Rutgers to end their season 7-5. Their reward is a reunion with a familiar foe from their time in the ACC, NC State. The Wolfpack finished the year 8-4 after looking like a CFP darkhorse back in August. The loss of Devin Leary was huge for this team, but they were able to battle back to No. 23 in the committee’s final rankings.
Let’s get into the odds for this one.
Maryland vs. NC State Odds, Spread and Total
Maryland and NC State Betting Trends
Maryland went 6-6 ATS
NC State went 4-8 ATS
Maryland is 6-1 ATS in last seven non-conference games
Over is 5-1 in Maryland’s last six bowl games
Over is 7-1 in NC State’s last eight bowl games
Teams are 33-33-4 all time, straight up.
Maryland vs. NC State Prediction and Pick
There are opt outs on both sides, as is the case with any bowl game nowadays, but Maryland is at least going to have their starting quarterback, Taulia Tagovailoa for this one. Devin Leary has departed NC State and was out with an injury before entering the transfer portal, so the Wolfpack have a decision to make. Ben Finley, who led them to a win over UNC in their final game of the year, or MJ Morris, who was injured after taking over for Leary. The freshman, Morris started three games this season, going 2-1.
With all the turnover at quarterback, the Wolfpack ended as the 78th ranked passing offense. Tagovailoa led Maryland to throw for 259.8 yards per game, 39th, and score nearly 30 points a game. He’ll need to air it out because NC State ranked 11th defending the run this season. They were much weaker at stopping passing offenses, but the last time we saw them, they held Drake Maye to 233 passing yards and just one touchdown on 49 pass attempts.
Maryland will be without two top receivers, Jacob Copeland and Dontay Demus Jr. who both opted out and that could slow their passing attack, but I still think they’ll be able to move the ball and that the over is the best play here.
The over has hit in five of Maryland’s last six bowl games and seven of NC State’s last eight. I’ll trust those trends and bet on a Mayo Bowl shootout.
Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
