Bowl Preview

And we’re not just talking about the holiday season. Of course, it’s great to get some time off from work and school and all that. It’s good to spend time with family and relaxing, don’t get us wrong.

But we run a football blog. Which obligates us, when we’re not making fart jokes, to write about football. The NFL season is winding down, with Indianapolis and New Orleans the first pair of 13-0 teams in NFL history. At the other end, St. Louis and Tampa Bay are battling it out in the Ndamukong Suh sweepstakes. The consolation prize is shut-down corner Eric Berry from Tennessee. Not too shabby.

If just watching the NFL on Thursday, Sunday, and Monday isn’t enough, College Football gives you the outlet. Over the course of the next two and a half weeks, there will be 34 bowls. Because of the front-loading garbage that is going on with the bowl system and the Democratic Primaries, there will be a lot more bowls after New Year’s Day this year. Honestly, this is BS. Playing after New Years is an honor for the top teams in the country. Why should Michigan State (6-6, 6th in the Big Ten) get to play later than 4 of the 5 teams that finished above them? There are a ton of garbage games after New Years, spoiling what used to be a plethora of great matchups.

Bowl Preview

December 19

New Mexico Bowl

Fresno State (8-4) v. Wyoming (6-6)

Chances are the only reason you’ll watch this game is because it’s the first one on. You’ll be treated to watching Ryan Matthews, the nation’s second leading rusher, run all over Wyoming’s terrible run defense. Wyoming is appearing in only their second bowl since 1994.

Ian’s Pick: Fresno State
John’s Pick: Fresno State

St. Petersburg Bowl

Rutgers (8-4) v. Central Florida (8-4)

In a snoozer, a mid-level Big East team takes on a mid-level Conference USA team. If this game wasn’t being played in St. Petersburg, I would say Central Florida had little chance. But as is the case with many bowls, you have a team from the north travelling a long distance to face a team from the south that gets to play closer to home.

Ian’s Pick: Rutgers
John’s Pick: UCF

December 20

New Orleans Bowl

Southern Miss (7-5) v. Middle Tennessee St (9-3)

Don’t kid yourself, you’re going to be watching the Cowboys and Saints on Sunday Night Football.

Ian’s Pick: Southern Miss
John’s Pick: Southern Miss

December 22

Maaco Bowl

#16 Oregon State (8-4) v. #15 BYU (10-2)

The first good matchup of the Bowl Season. BYU’s wide open offense with QB Max Hall in a showdown with Oregon State’s offense led by the Rodgers brothers should be a good show. Chances are, this game will be a shootout, but it’s also the first matchup of ranked teams in the bowl season and should provide good entertainment. One has to wonder how Oregon State will bounce back from their disappointing loss to Oregon.

Ian’s Pick: Oregon State
John’s Pick: BYU

December 23

Poinsettia Bowl

#23 Utah (9-3) v. California (8-4)

This game lost a little bit of its luster when Cal running back Jahvid Best (probably the fastest back in the country) was declared “doubtful” because of a concussion. Nevertheless, these are two decent teams. Utah’s is 0-3 against ranked teams this year and 9-0 against unranked teams. Cal had impressive late-season wins over Arizona and Stanford, but also lost to Washington and USC. Cal’s defense gave up almost 30 points a game in Pac 10 play, and Utah has scored over 21 in every game this year.

Ian’s Pick: Utah
John’s Pick: Utah

December 24

Hawaii Bowl

Nevada (8-4) v. Southern Methodist (7-5)

This is more of a storyline game than anything. SMU is playing in their first bowl game since 1984. Nevada had 3 running backs over 1,000 yards and runs the awesome Pistol formation. SMU will be happy to be here, but will they be able to play at Nevada’s level?

Ian’s Pick: Nevada
John’s Pick: Nevada

December 26

Little Caesars Bowl

Ohio (9-4) v. Marshall (6-6)

In college, there was a Little Caesars within walking distance of campus. At night, they would throw out all of their extra pizzas into the dumpster. This prompted all the drunk kids to go down there and get free “dumpster pizza” after partying. Our illustrious campus newspaper picked up on it and wrote a story about how dumpster pizza wasn’t sanitary and going into a dumpster after pizza was a bad idea. This is the dumpster pizza of Bowls.

Ian’s Pick: Ohio
John’s Pick: Ohio

Meineke Car Care Bowl

#17 Pittsburgh (9-3) v. North Carolina (8-4)

Because Bobby Bowden screwed things up, Pitt got screwed out of a New Years Day Bowl. Dion Lewis was the #3 rusher in the nation, and don’t expect North Carolina’s defense to stop him. The Tar Heels have a balanced attack, but Pitt’s defense has been strong all year and North Carolina doesn’t have the weapons to exploit it like Cincinnati did.

Ian’s Pick: Pittsburgh
John’s Pick: Pittsburgh

Emerald Bowl

Boston College (8-4) v. USC (8-4)

Odds are that Pete Caroll uses this opportunity to find some all-star high school kid in the San Francisco/Oakland area and convince him to come to USC. Besides that, USC gets to wrap up their season in a baseball stadium. Boston College was terrible and still finished 8-4. That tells you how bad the ACC was.

Ian’s Pick: USC
John’s Pick: USC

December 27

Music City Bowl

Clemson (8-5) v. Kentucky (7-4)

CJ Spiller is the most exciting player in the nation and will try to do his best Chris Johnson impression in the city that now hopes Johnson will break the single-season rushing record. The Titans have a home game on this field on Friday night, which means there will probably be a sloppy surface by Sunday night. This game is up against the Cowboys-Redskins Sunday Night game.

Ian’s Pick: Clemson
John’s Pick: Clemson

December 28

Independence Bowl

Texas A&M (6-6) v. Georgia (7-5)

If the Texas A&M team that gave Texas a run for their money and the Georgia team that beat Georgia Tech show up, this will be a heck of a game. Chances are that A&M and Georgia, two teams laden with young talent, will play a sloppy game that turns into a shootout in the 4th quarter.

Ian’s Pick: Georgia
John’s Pick: Georgia

December 29

Eagle Bank Bowl

UCLA (6-6) v. Temple (9-3)

Temple is in their first bowl game since Carter was president. UCLA was terrible this year and managed to sneak their way into a bowl by winning 3 of their last 4.

Ian’s Pick: Temple
John’s Pick: UCLA

Champs Sports Bowl

#14 Miami (9-3) v. #24 Wisconsin (9-3)

Behind quarterback Jacory Harris, Miami has had a solid season. The program has seen some struggles recently but has rebounded from their “bad boy” image and is starting to put together a good team. There’s no secret about what Wisconsin is going to do. They’re going to run the ball, then run again, then run some more. Their team is not built to get into shootouts, but they are 9-1 when scoring over 30 points this season. This will be a good game that will come down to the last drive.

Ian’s Pick: Miami
John’s Pick: Miami

December 30

Humanitarian Bowl

Bowling Green (7-5) v. Idaho (7-5)

Idaho is in their first bowl game in 11 years. This is somewhat of a home game for them as they will be playing on the blue turf in Boise. Bowling Green has a lot farther to travel, but a much more potent offense. The Falcons have the nations 4th leading passer in Tyler Sheehan and one of the top receivers in Freddy Barnes who led the nation in receiving TDs (16) and was 3rd in recieving yards (1551).

Ian’s Pick: Bowling Green
John’s Pick: Bowling Green

Holiday Bowl

#20 Nebraska (9-4) v. #22 Arizona (8-4)

Both of these teams could have been playing in BCS bowls. Nebraska was “1 second” away from upsetting Texas in the Big XII Championship. Arizona was ready to storm the field against Oregon, before Masoli led the Ducks down the field for the game-tying score to send the game to OT. How will these teams fare in the consolation bowl? The Holiday Bowl has had some great matchups before. Nebraska’s offense couldn’t find the end zone with a GPS, and Arizona has some questions on defense. Ndamukong Suh may dominate Arizona’s offensive line, but 14 points may be enough to win this game.

Ian’s Pick: Arizona
John’s Pick: Arizona

December 31

Armed Forces Bowl

Houston (10-3) v. Air Force (7-5)

Houston quarterback Case Keenum needs 434 yards passing to break B.J. Symons single-season passing record. With the way Air Force’s defense defends (or should I say can’t defend) the pass, you had better believe Case will be gunslinging it all over the field. Keenum is completing over 70% of his passes and is averaging 51 attempts per game. In the Conference USA championship game, he attempted 75 passes and had 527 yards in a losing effort. The shocking fact? Neither of these were season highs. He had 76 attempts against UTEP and threw for 559 yards against Southern Miss.

Ian’s Pick: Houston
John’s Pick: Houston

Sun Bowl

#19 Stanford (8-4) v. Oklahoma (7-5)

Toby Gerhart finished second in the Heisman race and now will shoulder the load against Oklahoma. Both teams will be without their #1 quarterbacks as Sam Bradford has missed most of the year for the Sooners and Cardinal QB Andrew Luck is likely out for the game. Stanford exceeded their expectations and Oklahoma fell well short of theirs this season, but without Luck in the game, this could turn into a low-scoring grinder.

Ian’s Pick: Stanford
John’s Pick: Oklahoma

Texas Bowl

Navy (9-4) v. Missouri (8-4)

After a second half surge to beat Army, Navy brings their triple-option attack against the Tigers who have one of the most wide open attacks in college football. The nations leading receiver, Danario Alexander of Mizzou, will tear through Navy’s secondary. Navy isn’t a team that is built to score quickly, but if they can control the clock with their rushing attack, they’ll be able to stay in the game. They’ll need to create a few turnovers on defense to have a chance.

Ian’s Pick: Missouri
John’s Pick: Missouri

Insight Bowl

Minnesota (6-6) v. Iowa State (6-6)

There are lots of things you could do that would be more exciting than watching this game. There are 121 FBS teams. Both of these were in the bottom 20 in scoring offense. If someone is going to win this game, it might be on a defensive score.

Ian’s Pick: Minnesota
John’s Pick: Minnesota

Chick-Fil-A Bowl

#12 Virginia Tech (9-3) v. Tennessee (7-5)

The decade ends with two teams that ended the last decade as powerhouses wrapping up disappointing seasons. Coming off an Orange Bowl victory over Cincinnati last year, Virginia Tech started the season in the top 5 and fell after disappointing losses to Alabama, Georgia Tech and North Carolina. Lane Kiffin came in in his first year and gave both Florida and Alabama a run for their money. UT fans couldn’t have asked for much more out of Kiffin. Tech fans expected a better season out of dual-threat QB Tyrod Taylor. Both of these teams are built on a strong defense and running the ball. The game features the two of the nation’s top 20 rushers in Tech’s Ryan Williams and UT’s Montario Hardesty.

Ian’s Pick: Virginia Tech
John’s Pick: Virginia Tech

January 1

Outback Bowl

Northwestern (8-4) v. Auburn (7-5)

2010 starts with Northwestern, a team in search of its first Bowl victory since Ghandi was alive, and Auburn who has rebounded under coach Gene Chizik. If there was any Northwestern team that could break their drought, it’s this one. The offense has undergone a metamorphasis with Mike Kafka at the helm. They are the most dangerous passing offense in the Big Ten. While being their strength, Kafka is also their weakness as they completely imploded against Penn State after he got hurt.

Ian’s Pick: Northwestern
John’s Pick: Auburn

Gator Bowl

#18 West Virginia (9-3) v. Florida State (6-6)

If you want to talk about what’s wrong with the Bowl System, look no further than this game. The Gator Bowl had to jump through a few hoops to get the matchup they wanted, and denied a good team (Miami) that beat FSU head-to-head the shot at a New Year’s Day Bowl. Instead, we get Bobby Bowden’s final game against his old school. Watch Penn State-LSU instead.

Ian’s Pick: West Virginia
John’s Pick: FSU

Capital One Bowl

#11 Penn State (10-2) v. #13 LSU (9-3)

Two teams with early-season aspirations of BCS bowls match up in Florida. Both teams bring physical, dominating defenses and offenses that have struggled to score at times this year. This will be a low-scoring but highly entertaining affair. For the football purists, this is a game that is guaranteed not to be a shootout but will be dominated by defense. Penn State is appearing in their 4th New Year’s Day Bowl in the last 5 years. The game also features the greatest coach of all time against one of the best recruiters in the game right now. This is, without a doubt, the best non-BCS game this season.

Ian’s Pick: Penn State
John’s Pick: LSU

Rose Bowl

#7 Oregon (10-2) v. #8 Ohio State (10-2)

The granddaddy of them all has a fantastic matchup this year. Jim Tressel makes his first visit to Pasedena since he came to Columbus. The Ducks make their first return to Pasedena since being clobbered by Penn State and running back Ki-Jana Carter in 1995. The real question for this game might not be who wins, but which uniform combination the Ducks will run out with. Leave it to Nike, there are over 500 combinations of pants, jerseys, socks, and helmets that the Ducks could sport. This site has been tracking their threads this year. As for the game, if OSU’s defense can hold off Oregon’s rushing attack, which might be the best in the nation, they’ll have a chance. A few turnovers wouldn’t hurt either.

Ian’s Pick: Ohio State
John’s Pick: Oregon

Sugar Bowl

#4 Cincinnati (12-0) v. #5 Florida (12-1)

Tim Tebow will end his college career playing against Cincinnati. At least Tyler Hansbrough went out against Michigan State in the national title game. Unlike Hansbrough, Tebow might not win his season finale. After their comeback against Pittsburgh, Cincinnati has to believe they can beat anyone anywhere. Florida looked very shaky in their loss to Alabama. Don’t be surprised if the Big East comes out and shocks the world, like they have been known to do in BCS Games (see: WVU over Oklahoma in 2007 and WVU over Georgia in 2006). Cincinnati did lose their coach to Notre Dame, but that doesn’t mean their new coach won’t have his team ready to go against Florida.

Ian’s Pick: Cincinnati
John’s Pick: Florida

January 2

International Bowl

South Florida (7-5) v. Northern Illinois (7-5)

And now we get into the blasphemy of having terrible teams play after New Years. I like the idea of having a Bowl Game in Canada. It helps spread American football and is building a good fan base in Toronto for when the Bills finally move there. But there’s no reason this game shouldn’t be on Boxing Day to entertain all the Canadians.

Ian’s Pick: Northern Illinois
John’s Pick: South Florida

Cotton Bowl

#21 Oklahoma State (9-3) v. Ole Miss (8-4)

This is a decent matchup for the Cotton Bowl, but it lacks a lot of luster with Oklahoma State receiver Dez Bryant being suspended for the season. The Cowboys haven’t been the same since he left and barely beat some bad Big XII teams to finish second in the conference. Ole Miss had a disappointing season but is looking for their second Cotton Bowl win in a row.

Ian’s Pick: Ole Miss
John’s Pick: Ole Miss

PapaJohns.com Bowl

South Carolina (7-5) v. Connecticut (7-5)

Can anyone give me a good reason, other than money, that these two teams are playing on January 2nd? Didn’t think so.

Ian’s Pick: South Carolina
John’s Pick: Connecticut

Liberty Bowl

East Carolina (9-4) v. Arkansas (7-5)

East Carolina won Conference USA for the second year in a row. Besides having one of the coolest uniforms in the NCAA (gotta respect anyone that will wear purple), the Pirates have actually put together the beginnings of a decent program. That being said, Ryan Mallet and Arkansas should shred their secondary. But ECU survived a shredding by Houston’s Case Keenum and still won the Conference USA title game.

Ian’s Pick: East Carolina
John’s Pick: East Carolina

Alamo Bowl

Texas Tech (8-4) v. Michigan State (6-6)

This would have been a great Bowl game if it had stayed on it’s usual mid-week between Christmas and New Years date. But on January 2nd, do we really need to see these two teams play? Another terrible bowl matchup for the Big Ten as they get over-matched again. Tech finished 4th in the Big XII and MSU finished 6th in the Big Ten, and people will rail about how the Big Ten sucks in Bowl games. Maybe if there were a) Bowl Games played in the north in real football weather and/or b) the Big Ten didn’t always get over-matched, things would be different. Texas Tech will score, and score a lot. Does anyone think Michigan State can score with them? Sparty doesn’t have the defense to contain the Red Raiders.

Ian’s Pick: Texas Tech
John’s Pick: Texas Tech

January 4

Fiesta Bowl

#3 TCU (12-0) v. #6 Boise State (13-0)

This is a great matchup, but I would have liked to see these two teams play major conference opponents in the BCS. Nothing gets proven that the system needs to change to allow mid-majors more entry unless they actually prove that they belong. They’re not going to prove that by just playing each other some more. Also, I’ll once again make my case for a mid-major championship game. How awesome would it have been to see these two teams play on Championship Weekend for the right to go to the BCS? It would have been awesome. Go Horned Frogs!

Ian’s Pick: TCU
John’s Pick: Boise State

January 5

Orange Bowl

#9 Georgia Tech (11-2) v. #10 Iowa (10-2)

Will Ricky Stanzi play? If he does, Iowa has a legitimate chance to win. Their base defense has proven strong against the run and Georgia Tech doesn’t pass all that well. Paul Johnson brought in the triple-option from Navy and has the Jackets playing to a high level. But as we saw against Georgia, this team isn’t built to get into shootouts. This game won’t be a shootout, and if the game comes down to a field goal, you have to like Iowa, given all the close games they have played this year. If you like running games, this will be the Bowl for you, as both teams are going to run, run, and run some more.

Ian’s Pick: Iowa
John’s Pick: Georgia Tech

January 6

GMAC Bowl

#25 Central Michigan (11-2) v. Troy (9-3)

Honestly, these two teams playing the night before the Championship game is a disgrace. Boycott this one on principle.

Ian’s Pick: Central Michigan
John’s Pick: Central Michigan

January 7

BCS National Championship

#1 Alabama (13-0) v. #2 Texas (13-0)

Texas returns to the Rose Bowl, the site where Vince Young destroyed Michigan and USC on scrambles for touchdowns in back-to-back seasons. There are a bunch of streaks coming into this game. There is the “Heisman Curse,” which we already heard about, that the Heisman winner has only won a BCS national championship once. There is the SEC streak. The SEC is 6-0 in BCS Championship games. Alabama is playing in their biggest bowl game since the 1993 Sugar Bowl when they came in as 13.5 point underdogs to the Miami Hurricanes. That game featured one of my favorite highlights in college football history.

That never gets old.
LaMarr Thomas went on to be an announcer for the U and became famous for commentating on the Miami-Florida International brawl, “That’s what I’m talkin’ about. You come into our house you should get your behind kicked. You don’t come into the OB and playin that stuff! I was about to go down the elevator and get in that thing!”
Thomas got fired the next day.
Back to this year, we can only hope to see many, many replays of George Teague owning Miami. We can also hope to see all the schmucks that think Texas and the spread offense is the greatest thing since sliced bread eat crow. Alabama showed Florida in the SEC Championship game that the spread offense doesn’t solve all your problems. Florida had a much better defense than Texas does, and Alabama has the best defense in the nation. ROLL TIDE.
Ian’s Pick: Alabama
John’s Pick: Alabama