Best Prop Bets for Northwestern vs. Utah in Las Vegas Bowl

The Utah Utes and Northwestern Wildcats meet in the Las Vegas Bowl, headlining a loaded Saturday of college football bowl action.

You can head over to the BetSided Bowl Bash tab to find our full betting preview for the Las Vegas bowl, but this article is going to focus on both Utah running back Ja'Quinden Jackson and Northwestern running back Cam Porter as well as the Utes signal caller Bryson Barnes.

Keep reading for our player prop betting breakdown for the Utes and the Wildcats from Las Vegas on Saturday. If you plan on betting player props during bowl season, the best place to do it is Caesars Sportsbook, and get this, if you sign up with the link below, they are going to match your first bet up to $1,000! Get started now:

Best Prop Bets for Northwestern vs. Utah

• Bryson Barnes UNDER 177.5 Passing Yards
• Ja'Quinden Jackson OVER 68.5 Rushing Yards
• Cam Porter UNDER 57.5 Rushing Yards

Bryson Barnes UNDER 177.5 Passing Yards

Barnes is in the transfer portal, but vowed to play in this one after coming on strong as the season went on for the Utes, finishing with 1,517 passing yards and 12 touchdowns in nine appearances.

However, I believe that this game is going to be played on the ground given the losses to the Utes offense around Barnes, including leading wide receiver Devuaghn Vele. I believe that the Utes would prefer to try and bully a Northwestern defense that struggles far more against the run than the pass.

The Utes passing offense checked in 100th in EPA/Play this season, and I don't envision a pass-heavy script without the team's best catcher. I'll go under on Barnes passing yards.

Ja'Quinden Jackson OVER 68.5 Rushing Yards

As I noted above, the NW defense is far better against the pass than the run, and I expect a big outing from Jackson, who battled injuries all season, but was still effective, rushing for nearly five yards a carry and clearing 100 yards three times.

The Wildcats are 75th in yards per carry allowed and 77th in EPA/Rush allowed.

Utah has been comfortable to pound away on the ground behind an effective run blocking unit, top third in the nation in both run blocking great and rush offense according to Pro Football Focus.

Given that the Utes are favored by nearly a touchdown, the team is likely going to be ahead and should have even more incentive to feed Jackson, who can clear this total.

Cam Porter UNDER 57.5 Rushing Yards

There's a chance Utah's defense is being underrated after playing a host of elite PAC-12 offenses, which makes me bullish the team can suffocate a middling Northwestern offense.

The Wildcats are 110th in EPA/Play and tied for 84th in success rate on the ground and outside the top 80 in terms of run blocking per PFF, making for a poor set up against the Utes, who is 13th in yards per carry allowed this season.

The vulnerable part of the Utah defense is in the secondary, who is set to be down two of its starting safeties and two cornerbacks on the depth chart, so the point of attack might be threw Northwestern's passing game as Porter struggles to find traction in a low scoring affair.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

Track Reed's bets here!