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Posted 12/28/2006 at 03:47 PM
Bowl Notebook Part II
Quick thoughts on what we have seen so far:
Poinsettia Bowl: TCU 37 - Northern Illinois 7 Trust me, Northern Illinois is not as bad a team as TCU made them look and Garrett Wolfe is better than the 28 rushing yards he posted. You have to be impressed by the consistency of the Horned Frogs. Every year it seems when all is said and done that Gary Patterson's squad ends up with double-digit wins.
Las Vegas Bowl: BYU 38 - Oregon 8 Where was the offense? I mean, I knew BYU could easily win this game but I didn't think the Ducks would lay an egg out in Vegas like they did. Only eight points from a top 10 offensive team? Lame.
By the way, anyone else think it's weird that the first bowl game of the season was 37-7 and then the second was 38-8? If the New Orleans Bowl had been 39-9 then we would have had a certified handicapping angle for the pizza bowl!
New Orleans Bowl: Troy State 41 - Rice 17 Wow, did anyone see this coming? Maybe there is something to this whole "bowl experience" angle because Rice sure did play like they were making their first bowl appearance since 1961. Sun Belt player of the year Omar Haugabook really put himself on the national radar with his performance.
PapaJohns.com Bowl: South Florida 24 - East Carolina 7 If there was ever a sign that there were too many bowls it was this. A game named after a pizza company's website? Lame part II. As for the game. Look out for South Florida. This is a young team with a lot of talent that could make some big waves in the Big East over the next couple of years.
New Mexico Bowl: San Jose State 20 - New Mexico 12 I really felt the Spartans could win this game but I have to admit that the Lobos were their own worst enemies. Multiple penalties and three second-half fumbles will ruin any team's chances.
Armed Forces Bowl: Utah 25 - Tulsa 13 The Utah offense really showed me something in this game. If QB Brian Johnson can come back healthy next season this squad could easily challenge for the MWC crown. All that said - so much for the vaunted Tulsa defense.
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii 41 - Arizona State 24 I have to be honest, I really thought the Sun Devils would win this game and for a half it looked like they might. But then Warriors QB Colt Brennan found his grove - in a big way - and ran away with this one. I was still hoping for a backdoor cover at the end but too many big plays doomed my ticket.
Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan 31 - Middle Tennessee 14 I tried to warn everyone that the Chippewas offense was for real but by the looks of the late line movement, no one listened. This number hung at -10.5 but in the days leading up to kickoff it dropped all the way down to 7.5. Maybe it was the fact that the underdog was due or maybe players got confidence from Troy State's (another Sun Belt team) thrashing of Rice. Whatever the case, Central Michigan took care of business.
Emerald Bowl: Florida State 44 - UCLA 27 Ok, raise your hand if you saw this coming. That's what I thought - absolutely no one could have predicted this. And I'm not talking about FSU winning - I didn't think it would happen but I wasn't shocked to see them win. But 71 points total? Granted, there were some crazy plays that boosted the scoring but where was that Bruins defense that held Southern Cal to nine points?
Tidbits
UNDER City: Maybe all those points last night in the FSU/UCLA game should have been expected. After all, the under had come in seven of the first eight bowl games with the lone over coming in the Troy State / Rice game (41-17 score with a total of 55).
BLOWOUT Bowls: The first nine bowl games have produced some excitement but very little in the way of actual drama as to who will win the game. In fact, only one of the first nine games has been decided by single digits and that game, San Jose State 20 - New Mexico 12, wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. In total, the average margin of victory in the first nine games has been a whopping 19 points per game.
Pacific FLOP: The Pac-10 is really doing a lot to erase their reputation as a soft conference this bowl season. Let's see, Oregon gets smoked by 30 by a Mountain West team, Arizona State gets beat by 17 by a WAC team and UCLA laid down against a 6-6 FSU squad from a very average ACC this season. The question now is can Cal stop the bleeding tonight against Texas A&M?
LINE Movers: I've yet to put in my plays on several bowl games because I'm waiting to see how the lines move. I'm very interested to see if Notre Dame will eventually be a double-digit underdog, if Wisconsin can get to +3 against Arkansas and if Oklahoma can drop to -7 against Boise State. I see all those being very possible except for the Sooners. They are such a public team that I can only see that line going up.
Latest News
Bad news for Razorbacks fans as coach Houston Nutt announced that Arkansas fullback Peyton Hillis will miss the Capital One Bowl against Wisconsin with a bruised thigh. How important has Hillis been to the Hogs? Well, consider that he missed last three games of the season for the No. 12 team in the nation and two of those ended up in the loss column. Among various chores, Hillis is a key blocker for 1,000-yard rushers Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.
More than 20 Missouri players are dealing with flu-like symptoms as they prepare to battle Oregon State in the Sun Bowl. Thankfully for Tigers fans none of the affected players are major starters for the team.
Michigan RB Mike Hart announced he will return to school for his senior season. Hart, who finished fifth in this year's Heisman Trophy, will be back with QB Chad Henne to give the Wolverines quite a powerful offense in 2007.
Finally - a little humor...
If you haven't seen it by now, take a look at this video from ESPN's bowl coverage.
In this clip, ESPN's gaggle of "experts" are asked for their opinion on the most intriguing bowl matchup. As you can see, former Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard was obviously excited to tell America all about the Holiday Bowl between Cal and Texas.
As many of you with a keen eye for detail have already noticed, there is only one problem with that game. In a nutshell: it doesn't exist.
One minor thing Desmond overlooked while doing his research is that Texas is playing Iowa in the Alamo Bowl while it is Texas A&M that is facing Cal in the Holiday Bowl.
I know it may sound as if I'm being picky but minor details like breaking down games that will actually be played has to be considered pretty important on an ESPN experts checklist - even if you have a Heisman in your closet.
Desmond later apologized for his gaffe - well, he kind of did. See that here.
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