Remember that all the college football bowl games are de facto exhibition games – that should not dampen your enthusiasm, in fact it is not every year that you get a matchup like the 2012 Fiesta Bowl.
Elite WR Justin Blackmon leads the high-scoring Oklahoma State attack (Icon SMI)
Glendale AZ hosts the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Stanford Cardinal on Monday January 2 at 8pm ET, and in any other year this would be a fantastic BCSMNC (BCS Mythical National Championship).
Heck, one could well argue that the Cowboys deserved to be in the title game but that nasty loss at Iowa State “left it to the judges”.
Nonetheless, a great consolation prize and a true 3-4 matchup for bragging rights. Two respected coaches leading their alma mater to heights previously not known for the programs. Two of the best quarterbacks in the sport. And fans can enjoy the football for football sake.
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.
As a Red Sox fan, I have to admit that I’m a little amused that Iowa State and Rutgers will be allowed to stage an exhibition at Yankee Stadium. Who says people don’t get what they deserve?
Iowa State started the 2011 season 3-0 before losing 4 straight conference games. They responded by decimating Texas Tech, squeaking by Kansas (2-10, 0-9 in conference), then beating Oklahoma State in a game I feel had more to do with hangover from the recent school tragedy than anything else, then promptly lost out to finish 6-6. These days that’s totally good for a late December bowl.
Since Jared Barnett took over the QB position, ISU has played more competitively in conference. Nevertheless, this is an offense that tries to run the ball a lot (with limited success) and throws short passes. Defensively, the run game has been the weakness (207 ypg). That improved a little over the course of the season, but ISU also plays in a pass happy conference so the Baylor and A&M games might be more indicative of what can happen to this defense if the opposition is dedicated to running the football.
Rutgers won an impressive 8 games on the back of a non-conference schedule that included NC Central (college, not high school, we presume), Ohio, Navy, and Army. WR Mohamed Sanu is the only player on this team putting up good offensive numbers, so I guess you should watch him.
Alternatively, you should watch the replay of Baylor-Washington on ESPN3, because that game was awesome. That’s what I’ll be doing.
The Holiday Bowl has been a graveyard for disappointed teams from both the Big 12 and the Pac 10 for years, and now Cal and Texas get to settle their differences in San Diego.
Texas. Cal. Holiday Bowl. It’s tough to read those four words without thinking of the 2004 season, when Texas and Cal both finished with 1 loss apiece (to unbeaten Oklahoma/USC) and it was Texas chosen by the narrowest of margins to play in the BCS. (Keep in mind that these kids were in middle school back in 2004…)
Vince Young and the Horns went on to win one of the best Rose Bowls ever played (until, you know, their win the following year) while Aaron Rodgers and Cal were embarassed by Mike Leach’s Red Raiders in… the Holiday Bowl!
This year, both teams limp into this game at 7-5 with 4-5 records in their respective conferences. Texas has struggled mightily down the stretch, winning just one of their last 4 games, while Cal finished with a boom (3-1) with only a narrow loss to highly-ranked Stanford. But that may be a matter of schedule ordering – neither team won a game in conference against a team with more than 6 wins. Read the rest of this entry →
