Will our troops be proud of the game that honors them?
San Jose State Spartans (10-2, 5-1 WAC) vs Bowling Green Falcons (8-4, 6-2 MAC)
December 27th, 3:00pm EST, ESPN television
Old rusty and ratchet RFK Stadium gets to shine for its yearly hosting of the Military Bowl sponsored by something called Northrop Grumman. What the fine people at “NG” do is beyond me, but I’m sure they do their job well. (editor’s note- Northrop Grumman makes amazing military technology, some of which could quite possibly be aimed at us. We thank them for their service.)
Bowling Green heads to DC with an 8-4 record in 2012, a season that started with a near upset in Gainesville falling to the Florida Gators 27-14 despite leading late in the third quarter. BG head coach Dave Clawson said “This is a great reward for our players and staff who have put in so much work and effort to build our program back to bowl eligibility. It will be exciting to be able to spend the holiday season with the Falcon family in the Nation’s Capital.” Clawson clearly doesn’t get out much… The Falcons are led on defense by Chris Jones, the Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year. Offensively, the Falcons are led by third-year starting quarterback (started 34 games) Matt Schilz, throwing for 7,673 yards and 50 touchdowns.
The Buckeyes don’t lose to MAC teams and a meeting with BG would be no different. The last time the Bucks and Falcons met was in 2006, a 35-7 win for Ohio State.
San Jose State comes across the country to Washington with a 10-2 record on the season. The Spartans nearly clipped Stanford in their season opener, falling 20-17 in Palo Alto. They went on to go 10-1 the remainder of the way, good enough for second in the WAC. They will not be accompanied to DC by their head coach Mike MacIntyre, as he loved San Jose State Spartan football so much that he left for the head coaching slot at Colorado when it was offered. The Spartans are also in their last season as members of the WAC and will join the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2013. So they’ve got a lot going in in northern California at little old SJSU!
The Spartans and Buckeyes have only met one time, a 50-7 thrashing in Ohio Stadium during the 2002 national title run. A meeting ten years later would likely have brought the same results.
The BBC staff picks are as follows: Eric, Gary, Myself and Wva selected BGSU, while Mali and Janelle are going with San Jose State. I chose Bowling Green simply because they are from Ohio. Honest.
The game will be televised by ESPN… what else are you going to watch? It is “Bowl Week”, isn’t it?
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