December 17 New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, NM): Wyoming vs. Temple 2:00 (ESPN - Clay Matvick and Brian Griese, SR: Jessica Mendoza): Florida fans can't believe it, but Steve Addazzio did pretty damn good for himself in his first year at Temple. Meanwhile Wyoming finished with the identical record as Temple despite the fact their QB transferred right before the season started. I'm surprised neither Addazzio nor Dave Christensen names aren't apart of the silly season.
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Boise, ID): Utah State vs. Ohio 5:30 (ESPN - Dave Flemming and Mike Bellotti, SR: Heather Cox): Gary Andersen is another coach I'm surprised has received little buzz around these coaching searches. Utah State was terrible before Andersen arrived and now they're 7-5 and bowling just three years later. Utah State this season only lost one game by more than 10 points including a loss to Auburn.
New Orleans Bowl (New Orleans, LA): Louisiana-Lafayette vs. San Diego State 9:00 (ESPN - Carter Blackburn and Brock Huard, SR: Shelley Smith): The Ragin' Cajuns finished the season with a two-game losing streak while the Aztecs finished the season with a two-game winning streak. The Ragin' Cajuns have a balanced offense with Blaine Gautier leading the way. Also I just like saying the name Ragin' Cajuns. That's a great college nickname.
December 20
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl* (St. Petersburg, FL): Florida International vs. Marshall 8:00 (ESPN - Mike Patrick and Craig James, SR: Jeannine Edwards): I have no idea what to make of this game. I didn't watch a single game involving these teams so I have no idea what their strengths and weaknesses are. Looking at the stats it appears FIU likes to run while Marshall appears to be a more balanced offense. That's all I can tell you about this game.
*One of the biggest pet peeves is the insistence that these bowl sponsors names must be the actual name of the bowl game. I can't wait for the day when the Sugar Bowl is just the Nokia Bowl. That being said, if I was rich enough to sponsor a bowl game I would definitely sponsor the Keith Deaner Bowl in Anchorage, Alaska.
December 21
Poinsettia Bowl (San Diego, CA): TCU vs. Louisiana Tech 8:00 (ESPN - Joe Tessitore, Mark May, and Lou Holtz, SR: Samantha Steele): Now you see why teams like TCU and Boise State are leaving tread marks leaving the Mountain West. TCU won their conference and as a reward get to play in a game four days before Christmas. This is a game I suggest watching because both of these teams are fun to watch on offense. Should be a high scoring game.
December 22
Maaco Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas, NV): Boise State vs. Arizona State 8:00 (ESPN - Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, SR: Tom Rinaldi): Boise State coach Chris Petersen blasted the BCS a couple of days ago and with good reason. Boise State losses one game on a missed field goal and end up playing in a bowl game against a team that blew out their coach three days before Christmas. I would be pissed too if I was Chris Petersen.
December 24
Hawaii Bowl (Honolulu, HI): Southern Mississippi vs. Nevada 8:00 (ESPN - Mark Jones and Ed Cunningham, SR: Jessica Mendoza): After watching the Southern Miss defense stop Case Keenum, I can't but to wonder how pass-happy Nevada will do against the Golden Eagles. This should be another fun game to watch from a offensive standpoint. Too bad it's played on Christmas Eve when no one will be watching this game.
December 26
Independence Bowl (Shreveport, LA): Missouri vs. North Carolina 5:00 (ESPN2 - Rob Stone and Danny Kanell, SR: Allison Williams): Christmas in Shreveport. What could possibly be better than that? Jokes aside you know there's too many bowl games when teams like North Carolina and their losing in-conference record get bowl invites. I love college football as much as the next person, but I'm not preparing myself with snacks and food for UNC vs Missouri.
December 27
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (Detroit, MI): Purdue vs. Western Michigan 4:30 (ESPN - Beth Mowins and Mike Bellotti, SR: Eamon McAnaney): Here's another game that I'm not exactly dying to watch. It's a good thing this game was placed in Detroit for at least Western Michigan can bring fans to the game and Purdue is close enough to Detroit to bring fans. I would still bet that this game has less than 20,000 people in that huge dome.
Belk Bowl (Charlotte, NC): North Carolina State vs. Louisville 8:00 (ESPN - Bob Wischusen and Brian Griese, SR: Shannon Spake): Getting back to the ridiculousness of the names of these bowl games. I had no idea what a "Belk" was until I looked it up. Basically Belk is the southern version of JC Penny. Yes a clothing retail store is now sponsoring bowl games. We need more retail outfits to sponsor bowl games. We could have the Wal-Mart Bowl in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Sears Bowl in Chicago, Illinois and the Target Bowl in Minnesota. It's too bad Mervyns liquidated because we could have had the Mervyns Bowl at Hornet Stadium in Sacramento.
December 28
Military Bowl (Washington, D.C.): Air Force vs. Toledo 4:30 (ESPN - Pam Ward and Dan Hawkins, SR: Jeannine Edwards): Surprisingly Air Force is one of the more balanced schools on offense. Surprising because they're a service academy and the service academies like to run, run, run. Tim Jefferson leads the Air Force offense and he can hurt you through the air or ground. Meanwhile Toledo uses a two QB system to spread their offense around.
Holiday Bowl (San Diego, CA): Texas vs. California 8:00 (ESPN - Rece Davis, Craig James, and Jesse Palmer, SR: Jenn Brown): Cal has wanted revenge against Texas for a long time. When Aaron Rodgers was a Junior in 2004, Cal only lost one game and that was a close game to a great USC team. Cal and it's fans were prepared to go to their first Rose Bowl since 1959. Only it never happened. Texas coach Mack Brown politic Texas right into Rose Bowl despite being lower ranked than Cal. The Golden Bears ended up in the Holiday Bowl and Cal fans been pissed ever since. Now watch the Golden Bears lay an egg in this year's edition of the Holiday Bowl accompanied by Texas fans trolling us for not getting our revenge. Every Cal fan knows this is going to happen, but don't want to admit it.
Part 2 runs tomorrow
There's a Belk in the mall near where I live. It's much closer to Marshall's than JC Penny. It aspires to the JC Penny level of shopper.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Belk. I'm trying to think if there's any stores like it out here but I can't think of any that haven't closed like Mervyns.
ReplyDelete