2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl Preview: West Virginia vs. Minnesota

The Guaranteed Rate Bowl, formerly the Cactus Bowl, comes back to Phoenix after not being played last year. West Virginia and Minnesota are hungry for a win after very uneven 2021 regular seasons.

West Virginia Mountaineers vs. Minnesota Golden Gophers
Date: Tuesday, December 28th, 10:15 PM ET

Location: Chase Field, Phoenix, AZ

CFB Odds: Minnesota -4.5

West Virginia Mountaineers

Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown has been a relative disappointment in his time at West Virginia. Brown will be trying to avoid a losing record for the second time in his three-year tenure in Morgantown. Brown has yet to win more than six games since he’s been there and Minnesota is an extremely well-coached football team. WVU faces a stiff challenge here. 

The Mountaineers will need a big performance from quarterback Jarret Doege and possibly from Garrett Greene, who seems to get snaps almost every game. Doege is approaching 3,000 yards on the year and will likely eclipse that in the bowl game barring something unforeseen. He only needs 92 yards. If Leddie Brown has an enormous game on the ground, it would take the pressure off Doege and allow him to manage the offense without having to overextend or try to be a hero. Leddie Brown has 1,065 yards on the ground this year to go with 13 touchdowns. He has also notched 217 receiving yards on 36 receptions out of the backfield. The Mountaineers are a fairly balanced team on offense; they just need to put together all the components of their attack in this game, which has been missing for much of the season. West Virginia has the No. 41 total defense in the country, so they have the tools to win this game. The offense, though, needs to step up.

Minnesota Golden Gophers

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck had been associated with several Power Five job openings, including Florida State and USC. But he decided to finish his build at Minnesota where he’s 34-23 overall with an 11-win season in 2019. He has a chance to finish this season with nine wins if he can find a way to topple Neal Brown and West Virginia. 

The Golden Gophers will be relying upon quarterback Tanner Morgan, who hasn’t lit the world on fire with his play this year as a senior with four years under his belt. He’s hovering just below a 60% completion rate and has just 1,935 yards passing with 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. With stats like that, you’d think he was a dual-threat quarterback, but that’s not true. He has just 53 rushing yards on the year. Ky Thomas, the Gophers’ best running back, has 680 yards on the season on 145 rushing attempts.

Outlook

Both teams are wildly inconsistent, and have quarterbacks who have failed to thrive. The sense here is that Minnesota’s defense was not challenged by the offenses in the Big Ten West. West Virginia will find enough success to win this game. Doege will outplay Morgan in this contest.

Mountaineers vs. Golden Gophers Prediction:

Mountaineers 30, Golden Gophers 23