The X’s and O’s of the Orange Bowl predictions aren’t shared by many expert handicappers, but here at Bankroll Sports, we are giving up all of our insight and telling you all of the keys to the game for the Northern Illinois Huskies vs. Florida State Seminoles. The Orange Bowl picks are some of the hardest to make this year of all of the bowl games, so don’t miss out on all of our Northern Illinois vs. Florida State predictions!

2013 Orange Bowl: Northern Illinois Huskies vs. Florida State Seminoles
2013 Orange Bowl Location: Sun Life Stadium, Miami Gardens, FL
2013 Orange Bowl Date/Time: Tuesday, January 1st, 8:30 p.m. (ET)
2013 Orange Bowl On TV: ESPN

Click Here For The Rest Of The 2012-13 Bowl Game Schedule And Other Bowl Game Previews

Key #1: The Seminoles have to want to win this game
It’s tough to question whether a team wants to show up and play in a BCS bowl game, but even here, at the highest level of bowl games, you get teams that just fail to show up from time to time. The truth of the matter is that this is the only way that FSU is even getting remotely challenged. Yes, the team is banged up on defense, but we have seen the Noles sleepwalk through the season. NC State picked them off. Florida did, too. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech came close. And why did that happen? It’s either because the Seminoles were severely overrated, or they just had a hard time getting motivated for games. Remember that the garnet and gold were the only team in America favored by at least a touchdown in each and every one of their games this year. If Head Coach Jimbo Fisher can’t get his boys up for this one though, it could end up being an embarrassing day for Florida State.

Orange Bowl Odds at BetRevolution Sportsbook
Northern Illinois Huskies +13.5
Florida State Seminoles -13.5
Over/Under 58.5
Click Here to Bet Your Orange Bowl Picks!

Key #2: Jordan Lynch has to figure out how to get something going offensively
This really is the key for the Huskies in this one. For as inconsistent as Florida State’s offense has been this year, the defense has really consistently been pretty darn good. This is going to be the biggest challenge that the Huskies have ever seen defensively, and it is the biggest game of Lynch’s career. His stats speak for themselves; we don’t care what the level of competition is. If you throw for nearly 3,000 yards and rush for nearly 2,000 yards, even if it is in the MAC, you’ve still done something pretty remarkable. The question that we have for Lynch and the Huskies, though? Can you do it against an FBS team? Remember that the two worst offensive performances of the year for NIU came against the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Kansas Jayhawks. The argument could be made that that was all because it was early in the year, but the argument could also be made that the MAC really is just an overrated conference that has to right to stack up with the big boys. We’ll see the answer to that on New Year’s night.

Key #3: EJ Manuel has to go out with a bang
QB EJ Manuel is going to go down as one of the most efficient quarterbacks that Florida State has ever seen, but few are likely to ever remember him for all that much, aside from the fact that every loss the team suffers is considered to be on his back. Statistically speaking, this was the best year that Manuel has ever had, as he threw for 3,101 yards and 22 TDs against 10 picks and rushed for 284 yards and three more scores. More importantly, he stayed healthy all season long, which really helped matters as well. That being said, the senior is playing in his final game, and he doesn’t want to be remembered in Tallahassee as the man that lost to Florida and then lost the only BCS bowl game that the team has been at in quite some time. Manuel has thrown at least one pick in four straight games, and that just doesn’t cut it for a team that has such a remarkable defense. The offense has to at least do something for the Noles, and with RB Chris Thompson out of the fold and a running back by committee approach not always being the most effective, it could be up to Manuel’s arm to make the few big throws to win this game.

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The BCS has already played two of its four games before the BCS Championship Game coming in another week’s time, but this one might be the most highly anticipated duel of the bunch. The Stanford Cardinal will take on the Virginia Tech Hokies, and making your Orange Bowl picks in this game couldn’t be any more difficult. In order to get through the brutal selection in this game between these two very evenly matched squads, take a look at the three keys to the game in the Orange Bowl.

Key #1: The Hokies just need to continue to ride the wave of momentum
You’ll be hard pressed to find a team in the country that is hotter than Virginia Tech is right now. The Hokies have just been dominating since the middle of September, and it is clear that if the season started in Week 3, they would be playing in the BCS National Championship Game right now and not in the Orange Bowl. Yes, V-Tech’s season was effectively over after a bad loss to the James Madison Dukes, but Head Coach Frank Beamer arguably did the best job of any coach in the country this year, motivating his team to win 11 straight games and to go 10-1 ATS in the interim. It’s not as though this has been a lousy schedule either. The only games against teams that aren’t in bowl games this year included those against the Central Michigan Chippewas and three games against conference foes that could not have been avoided. Aside from that though, they were all in bowl games, and all finished the season in fine form. We also know that this team is every bit as good as the best in the land, as was proven in the 33-30 loss to the Boise State Broncos right at the outset of the season.

Key #2: Andrew Luck needs to prove that he is worthy of being the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft
You know that the Carolina Panthers are going to be watching this game intently on Monday night. Luck has only started for the Cardinal for two years, but he has already shown that he has what it takes to play at the next level. The question is still there though, whether he was a product of tearing apart the Pac-10, or whether he really is that good and is ready to lead a franchise the same way the QB Matt Ryan did in Atlanta or how QB Sam Bradford has with the Rams. This is a tremendous game that could be worth literally millions of dollars to Luck. The Stanford QB threw for 3,045 yards and 28 TDs on the season, and he had one of the highest completion percentages in the country at 70.4 percent. This time though, instead of going against a Pac-10 team, Luck has to go against a Virginia Tech defense that was lights out for the majority of the year. The Hokies only surrendered 199.3 yards per game through the air this year, one of the top marks in the ACC. When push came to shove, VT only allowed 19.1 points per game.

Key #3: The Stanford defense needs to shut down the Hokies’ rushing attack
We know that RB Darren Evans is going to be suspended for the first quarter of the Orange Bowl this week, but we also know that there are a number of different players that have the ability of stepping up and carrying the ball if need be. Evans rushed for 813 yards and 11 TDs this year, while RB David Wilson had 616 yards and five scores on the ground as well. There is always last year’s ACC Freshman of the Year to remember in RB Ryan Williams, who had 477 yards and nine trips to the end zone. When all else fails though, QB Tyrod Taylor can just take off on his own. Taylor might have thrown for 2,521 yards this year, but he had a huge contribution to the rushing game as well with 637 yards and five TDs. Stanford only allowed 123.1 yards per game this year on the ground, but what we have to remember is that this was a team that did allow 626 total yards, 388 of which came in the rushing game, against the Oregon Ducks. V-Tech’s offense isn’t what that of Oregon’s is by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the closest comparison that we have to work with.