Bowl preview, part 2

Before I get into the second part of the series, please note that I have cleaned up my links on the right side of the page. I removed a lot of blogs that have not been updated in a long time, and I added a few new Big Ten blogs. If you have any recommendations, please let me know!

Florida Atlantic vs. Memphis
New Orleans Bowl
Friday, December 21st – 8pm

I’ll be honest…I don’t know much about either of these teams, so I took a long look at what each team has accomplished this season, mainly how they fared against good teams vs. their fate when they challenged poor teams.

That was enough for me. I’m going to call this game for Howard Schnellenberger and Florida Atlantic. Here’s what I saw inside the schedules that gave me this call;

Memphis has not played a single team that was ranked at any time this season. The two best teams on their schedule were Mississippi and Central Florida. Both teams are below average (in the grand scheme) at best. Meanwhile, FAU played Oklahoma State, Kentucky, South Florida, and Florida.

Both teams finished at 7-5 on the year, but FAU earned their five losses against teams that SHOULD have sent them to defeat. How Memphis made a bowl game losing to five bad teams, I’ll never know.

One last point – Memphis lost to Middle Tennessee and Arkansas State. Both those teams show up on FAU’s schedule too….but FAU beat them both.

Florida Atlantic 38
Memphis 28

Actual score
FAU 44
Memphis 27
The BBC – 2-0

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Cincinnati vs. Southern Miss
PapaJohns.com Bowl
Saturday, December 22nd – 1pm

I think this game might be a big mismatch. Cincinnati has a powerful offense when they are on, and their schedule has prepared them enough to play a MUCH better challenge than the one Southern Miss will pose.

The Bearcats played four ranked teams this year, and went 3-1 in those games. They also were only 5 points away from knocking off West Virginia. And now that Michigan has found their head coach, Cincinnati can relax a little more and focus on their bowl game. Brian Kelly will end up coaching somewhere more prestigious someday soon, but it’s not today.

Check out the Conference-USA standings, by the way. Southern Miss finished below Memphis, and you just read what I think about them. Yeah, I think I’m done talking about this game.

Cincinnati 33
Southern Miss 14

Actual score
Cincinnati 31
Southern Miss 21
The BBC – 3-0