The final bowl game to be played before the College Football Playoff National Championship will take place at the same location as the title game, when No. 5 Texas A&M faces North Carolina’s No. 13 in the Orange Bowl on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
It is an outstanding opportunity for two programs making their debut in the sixth year in the age of college football. It is also a meeting of two of the six active top coaches who have won national championships, with both winning their titles at previous stops (Jimbo Fisher in the State of Florida in 2013 and Mack Brown in Texas in 2005). Brown has a lot of history against Texas A&M and is a well-known opponent for Aggie fans thanks to his 10-4 record against the school of his time in Texas, while Fisher remains unsuccessful against North Carolina (0-2) of your time in Florida State.
With large caliber coaches and successful seasons in 2020, both Texas A&M and North Carolina hope to use the Orange Bowl as a foundation to take the next step in 2021. Getting to New Year’s Six for the first time is great, but the Containment of the conference championship and the challenge of closing the gap with their respective conference sovereigns require another stage in the development of the program that could be in the cards on Saturday night.
Storylines
Texas A&M: After finishing the season with seven consecutive wins for the first time since 1998, Texas A&M ended the regular season feeling like one of the top four teams in the country. The Aggies’ only defeat came to Alabama and beat SEC champion Florida East, then when the selection committee kept Texas A&M in 5th position (position it occupied from the first ranking on November 24th to the final ranking on December 20 ) there were many complaints around College Station. Notre Dame had just lost to Clemson in the ACC Championship Game and Ohio State fought to win against Northwestern, so the argument was that the Aggies had a better defeat and a better finish than the Irish or were more deserving than the Buckeyes thanks to more wins against a harder and longer schedule.
Saturday night is the perfect stage for Texas A&M to win while maintaining control over the shoulder towards 2021. Instead of facing a rematch with Alabama, the Aggies have a more manageable opponent in North Carolina, a team that jumped ahead of the 11th. Indiana and No. 12 Coastal Carolina thanks to ACC’s tie with the Orange Bowl. There is a common opponent here with Notre Dame, so if Texas A&M defeats Tar Heels by more than Fighting Irish (14 points), there is a perfect off-season conversation point that they deserved more through the ever popular transitive property. Adding even more sauce to a potential program-building victory would make some history, as Kellen Mond is two touchdowns away from breaking Johnny Manziel’s school record for touchdown responsibility. Mond is already the all-time leader of Texas A&M in passing yards, passes, submissions and total attack, but his total of 92 touchdowns (71 passes, 21 runs) remains in second place for Manziel’s 93 (63 passes, 30 runs) going to the games bowl.
North Caroline: A landmark year for North Carolina football will end with a lineup, especially in the attack, which does not look much like the group that helped set offensive school records in 2020. Tar Heels will not have running back Javonte Williams (1,140 running yards, 305 receiving yards, 22 touchdowns in total), running back Michael Carter (1,245 receiving yards, 267 receiving yards, 11 total touchdowns) and wide receiver Dyami Brown (1,099 receiving yards, eight touchdowns) as all three, along with star linebacker Chazz Surratt, chose to leave the game to prepare for the next NFL Draft. Mack Brown tried to turn it into a development that will hurt the team in the short term against Texas A&M, but will help the program in the long term thanks to the opportunity it offers for Tar Heels backups, but when you lose 4,000 meters of offense it will be a significant setback. This is a program with very little experience in big bowl games that mostly hung its hat on the Gator Bowl and Peach Bowl wins for their best post-season performances. It looks like Brown hopes the process of giving younger players a taste of a great bowl game against an elite opponent will prepare them better for the next trip, but whether it will work that way will determine whether the Tar Heels are one of the best teams the ACC again in 2021 and after.
View information
Games: Orange bowl
Meeting: Saturday, January 2 | Time: 8 pm ET
Location: Hard Rock Stadium – Miami Gardens, Florida
TV: ESPN | Live broadcast: fuboTV (try for free)
Orange Bowl prediction, choices
Most recent odds:
Texas A&M Aggies -7.5
I understand that North Carolina is losing a ton here and its young defense will be busy with one of the best offensive lines in the country for Texas A&M, but the last time I checked, Sam Howell was still playing in this game and that means the backdoor will be absolutely open. I think the probability makers are also interested in that fact, considering how little the spread has changed with news from all the opt-outs, so give me Howell and the underdog Tar Heels to make it exciting in the fourth quarter. Choose: North Carolina +7.5 | Texas A&M 31, North Carolina 25
So, who wins Texas A&M against North Carolina? And what crucial factor X causes one side of the spread to be most affected? Visit SportsLine now to see which side you need to jump on, all from the expert who is 13-3 in his last 16 spread choices involving UNC.