Alright ladies and gentleman of hometown sport bar/pub, please put your hands together for tonight’s BCS National Championship opening act…The GMAC Bowl!
[crickets]
Ah yes, there’s nothing like a good MAC vs. Sun Belt game to get everyone warmed up for the much anticipated Alabama-Texas BCS National Championship game. And while I don’t think many sports bars outside of Mt. Pleasant and Troy will be at maximum capacity for the Central Michigan-Troy game, it is still an intriguing match-up.
Central Michigan and Troy are eerily similar, both winning their non-BCS conferences outright and having prolific offenses featuring talented senior quarterbacks.
Troy comes into the GMAC Bowl winning 9 of their last 10 games, only losing the Arkansas. They feature an offense that ranks 16 in the nation in scoring at 33.1 point/game and quarterback Levi Brown leads the fourth best aerial attack in the nation with 330 yards/game. He has racked up 3,868 yards and 22 touchdowns on the season. However, the Trojan defense ranks a dismal 87 in total scoring defense and 117 in total defense, which is troubling considering they will be facing the most decorated quarterback in MAC history. See below: Dan Lefevour. [via collegesportsfans.com]
Central Michigan will be playing the final game in the Butch Jones regime, who is pulling a Brian Kelly…literally, and taking the Cincinnati job after the GMAC Bowl. It’s not quite a “win one for the gipper,” but the players have a tremendous amount of respect for him. The Chippewas also have an underrated defense, ranking 14 in scoring defense, 29 against the run and 48 against the pass. Oh, and they also have that one guy, Dan Lefevour. He is the NCAA Bowl Subdivision all-time leader in total touchdowns with 148 (101 passing, 46 rushing, 1 receiving), ranks third in NCAA Bowl Subdivision history with 15,446 yards of total offense, and is the only player in NCAA history with 12,000 career passing yards and 2,500 career rushing yards.
Prediction: The Central Michigan Chippewas are going to win a Humanitarian Bowl-esque shootout 38-34, giving the MAC Conference their first and only win the the 2009-2010 bowl season.
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