TCU vs Louisiana Tech 2011 Poinsettia Bowl Predictions

This year’s Poinsettia Bowl will consist of the Mountain West champion (10-2, Conf: 7-0) TCU Horned Frogs taking on the best in the Western Atlantic Conference, the (8-4, Conf: 6-1) Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. The 2011 Poinsettia Bowl is slated to kickoff tonight at 8 PM ET, live from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, CA, on ESPN.

It’s worth noting that Texas Christian will enter this game as the odds favorites to defeat LA-Tech by a minimum of 10 points. According to 2011 Poinsettia Bowl Predictions specialists, these teams will combine to score an OVER/UNDER total of 40½ points tonight.

For the Bulldogs, they come into this game playing extremely well and with nothing to lose. After a dreadful 1-4 start, Sonny Dykes & Co. went on a tear, finishing the regular season on a 7-game win streak and earning a postseason invite. With only a handful of returning starters and a 17-year-old freshman under center, no one could have predicted what this team accomplished this season.

This will be only the second time in school history that a Bulldogs team has reached two bowls in a 4-year period. The first time they accomplish this feat came in back-to-back seasons, when they reached the Independence Bowl in 1977-78. Over the last 10 years, Louisiana Tech has only been to two bowls, with this one being the third. Their overall record in postseason play is currently 2-2-1. Louisiana Tech did however win the 2008 Independence Bowl, defeating Northern Illinois 17-10.

“We’re all proud of what we’ve done but we know and expect to do better. We have to continue to improve in every way, coaches and players,” Dykes said. “This is a place where we can win multiple conference championships and make an impact nationally. That’s something we all know we can accomplish and will continue working hard to do so.”

For TCU, this team would love nothing more than to merge on to the Big 12 Conference with a convincing win tonight over the Bulldogs. With confidence of knowing they handed Boise State its only loss this season, the Horned Frogs will try and finish off the year with an 8-game win streak.

After winning the Rose Bowl last year and following the success of this season, the Horned Frogs certainly expected and deserved to be playing their third consecutive BCS Bowl. However, one loss and all the flaws in the current BCS system didn’t make it possible. Nonetheless, TCU coach Gary Patterson has to feel very satisfied with the way this young, inexperienced group of guys responded, especially after a less-than ideal start. I expect TCU to come out and crush Louisiana State tonight and win the 2011 Poinsettia Bowl in dominant fashion!

“We started slow in the beginning of the season and I told people if we could get through the early part that we’d become a better football team, and that’s kind of what we’ve become,” Patterson said. “This is one of the games that’s important for us for the simple reason that the seniors can win 47 ballgames, we have a chance to go into next season with an eight-game winning streak going into the Big 12, so there’s a lot of positives for us in this ballgame.”