Meineke Car Care Bowl, 1200 on Saturday December 31, Reliant Stadium
It’s noon on the last day of 2011! What are you doing? Watching a pair of 6-6 teams square off in preparation for a 3:30 game involving a pair of 6-7 teams. Woo!
Texas A&M’s final game in the Big 12 will be recorded as a loss to Colt McCoy’s younger brother on a slow-weaving QB scramble from midfield into field goal range in the game’s closing seconds. In the process of reaching bowl eligibility, the Aggies blew double digit halftime leads against Oklahoma State, Arkansas, and Missouri and blew a 10 point lead against Kansas State with just over 6 minutes left in the game. It’s been a kind of dream season for the Aggies, from Austin’s perspective.
Northwestern, the closest team geographically to Madison in the Big Ten Where’s Wisconsin division, somehow lost consecutive games to Army and Illinois, but don’t worry folks – Jim Delany made damn sure that 10 of the 12 Big Ten teams would be playing somewhere this Bowl Season. Yay!
The Wildcats run a pretty high-powered offense, with QB Dan Persa completing an impressive 74% of his passes in a system that calls plays quickly and focuses on short, high percentage throws. Receiver Kain Colter is an x-factor QB/WR here, averaging 49 ypg rushing and 38 ypg receiving. Jeremy Ebert has been the main target through the air though, at 71 total receptions for 93 ypg.
Texas A&M has also been explosive offensively. QB Ryan Tannehill is averaging just shy of 300 ypg, and two RBs are gaining over 95 ypg. Unfortunately, of those two backs, Christine Michael has been lost for the season and Cyrus Gray is questionable. So the offense will probably be a bit less balanced than usual, and you can expect Ryan Swope and Jeff Fuller to see a lot of balls thrown their way.
Overall, we’ve got two pretty good quarterbacks going up against two mediocre-to-bad defenses. My gut trusts the Aggie defense a little more than their NU counterparts, so I’ll go with A&M to win a high-scoring game.
Iowa may not have Mr America QB Ricky Stanzi anymore, but do have the nation’s first presidential caucuses in a few weeks and they were the subject of some pretty awesome “Rick PArry” ads run by the Colbert Super-PAC. They also have a legitimately impressive RB (Marcus Coker, 115 ypg) and receiver (Marvin McNutt, 106 ypg) so there is some balanced firepower on this squad. Sure, they may have gotten slightly out-gained in the season aggregates, and sure, they
finished in the bottom half of the Big 10′s Where’s Wisconsin division. But, other than Minnesota and Iowa State, this team didn’t have any bad
losses, and they made up for those with some impressive wins like, umm…
On to Oklahoma!
It’s weird for a Texas fan to say this, but OU caught some really bad breaks this season and if life was fair they’d be in a better bowl. Not based on their 9-3 record, but I mean if they hadn’t lost one of the best two WR in the country (Ryan Broyles) and their starting HB Dominique Whaley, they might have finished with another win or two and a top 10 ranking. Nevertheless, this is a very good team. Landry Jones throws for 358 ypg, even with Broyles out for 3 games, and Kenny Stills and Jaz Reynolds have both been very effective receivers. In three losses, the defense has given up 40+ points, but that’s only indicative of a really
poor effort against Texas Tech. Against Baylor and Oklahoma State, you kinda expect that unless the defense is really elite.
The bottom line is that Iowa is too outmatched at QB, WR depth, and probably on the lines to make this a competitive game.
Western Michigan brings a 7-5 record to Ford Field to take on the Purdue Boilermakers who finished the year at 6-6 but shocked many in the Big Ten with a 4-4 conference record. The Boilermakers won’t have an easy game though as they face the high scoring Broncos in this one. The Boilermakers finished the year third in the Big Ten Leaders division while the Broncos were third in the Mid American West.
Who has the edge? Let’s take a look at how these teams match up for this contest.
Purdue’s offense ranked sixth in the Big Ten rushing (174.7 yards) and passing (196.8). They ranked seventh in scoring with 26.1 points per game. The running game will be a concern with Ralph Bolden missing this game due to an injury but Akeem Hunt was able to rush for 100 yards against the Hoosiers in the season finale. The passing game has been shaky all year but has improved as the season progressed. Caleb TerBush averages 150.3 yards per game and has thrown 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. The receiving leaders for Purdue are Justin Siller (430 yards) and Antavian Edison (561 yards).
Western Michigan’ offense ranked eighth in rushing (127.4), first in passing (328.8) and third in scoring with 35.6 points per game. Their passing game is ranked eighth in the nation. Led by quarterback Alex Carder, the Broncos passing attack will certainly prove to be a challenge for Purdue. Carder’s shoulder should be healed and ready to add to his 3,434 passing yards this season. Carder also has thrown 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. The Broncos running game is rarely seen, but when it does make an appearance you will see Tevin Drake getting the carries. This year he has carried for 570 yards and 4 touchdowns. The big threat on the field is All-American Bronco receiver Jordan White. White leads the nation in total receiving yards with 1,646 and a few other categories. He ranks second in receiving touchdowns with 16 on the year.
The Purdue defense features a defensive unit that ranked eighth in the Big Ten against the pass. The pass rush is led by Kawann Short who finished the regular season with 6.5 sacks and 53 tackles. He will need to put lots of pressure on Carder to give the Boilermakers a chance to compete in this one. Ricardo Allen will be called upon to stop White. Allen is the best one-on-one pass defender the Boilermakers have and he will probably spend the game being White’s shadow.
The Broncos defense looks pretty questionable on paper. Eighth against the pass and eleventh against the run in the MAC. Don’t let the numbers fool you though, the Broncos are an offensive minded team that will outscore you. They don’t plan on stopping you on defense, they plan on beating you with their passing attack. They do feature the MAC defensive player of the year in Drew Nowak ranks fifth in FBS in tackles per loss per game. The big defensive tackle will get after you and makes life rough on offensive linemen. The Broncos had 26 sacks this season, tied for second in the MAC. Freddie Bishop is another player that gets in there as he posted 5.5 sacks this year.
Overall, Western Michigan looks to have the advantage going into this one. They average more points per game, throw for a lot more yards per game and should be able to stretch the Purdue defense to keep the passing attack going for this one.
The Broncos rank among the national leaders in scoring (35.6 ppg) and passing (328.8 ypg).
Western Michigan has lost each of its previous four bowl appearances, most recently in 2008 to Rice in the Texas Bowl.
The Broncos are led by All-American receiver Jordan White, who leads the nation with 127 receptions for 1,646 yards. The senior has 16 touchdown catches, including nine over the last four games while averaging 163.5 yards; with 3,922 career receiving yards, White is 110 shy of becoming the MAC’s all-time leader.
QB Alex Carder will be back throwing to White after missing the Broncos’ 68-19 victory over Akron in their regular season finale with a separated shoulder. Despite missing that game, Carder ranked among the top 20 quarterbacks nationally in yards (3,434), touchdowns (28) and completion percentage (67.2).
Western ranked second-to-last in the MAC in total defense giving up 434.1 yards per game, tackle Drew Nowak was named the league’s defensive player of the year after recording 20 tackles for loss.
Purdue
The Boilermakers totaled 80 points in the final three contests, converting 52.7 percent of their third downs, after scoring 70 in the previous four while making 27.5 percent on third down.
Defensively, the Boilermakers boast one of the best interior defenders in the nation in Kawann Short. The junior ranked 13th nationally with 17 tackles for loss and was tied for fourth in the Big Ten with 6 1/2 sacks.
Purdue did give up 26.4 points per game to rank near the bottom of the Big Ten.
The Boilermakers, 8-7 in bowl games, are making their first postseason appearance since beating Central Michigan 51-48 in the 2007 Motor City Bowl at Ford Field.
Western lost at Michigan and Illinois this season and have dropped six straight to Big Ten opponents since a 23-17 win over the Illini at Ford Field on Nov. 8, 2008; Purdue and Western Michigan will match up for the third time ever; the Boilermakers won 28-24 at home in the most recent meeting in 2002.
Nick’s Pick: Purdue 41 – Western 37
Comment: Expect an offensive showdown in Detroit was the Broncos can score points; unfortunately they also give up a ton. Western can win this game but they have yet to win a bowl game in their long football history.
The highest individual honor in American sports will be awarded to the most outstanding player in college football Saturday Night. If I had a vote, it would go a little something like this…
1. Montee Ball, RB Wisconsin
Wisconsin RB Montee Ball deserves the Heisman Trophy - 38 TDs should do it, and the pose above is further proof (Icon SMI)
If Wisky is 13-0 he seems like a shoe-in for the award, 38 total TDs? and he was at his best against the toughest teams on the schedule. 4 TDs against such vaunted defenses as Nebraska and Penn State. 4 TDs in the Big Ten Title game. He even had 2 TDs in each of the losses. Montee Ball did his part to earn the award.
The Badgers were thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to staying perfect this season, on a last second bobbled richochet hail mary loss to Sparty and another last second loss to Ohio State on a busted coverage deep after a long QB scramble. Hell, even with only one of those wins the Badgers might have gotten in over Alabama. one thing is for sure, those losses cannot be pinned on Montee Ball in any way, shape, or form.
Ball has never averaged less than 5.0 YPC in any game this season and has scored at least twice every week. He is also so versatile, registering a catch in 11 games and a receiving TD in 6 games, leading all RBs (with atleast 75 carries) in TD grabs.
