Simulated Gameday Experience

In retrospect, it’s my own fault I saved the Papa John’s bowl for last; of course I’m having issues with motivation when a bowl is pitting a couple of 7-5 teams against each other. The most notable on-field incident between South Carolina and UConn is UConn’s triple-OT win over Notre Dame, made famous because of a) the name of the team they beat and b) the significance of their first win following the tragic death of Jasper Howard. Aside from that, it’s a long way down; (more…)

The Liberty Bowl has fallen off a bit from its 2004 Louisville – Boise State clash-of-the-mid-majors tilt; sure, it reeked of an undercard, but for a bowl who’s typically sitting around second-level status, it counts as glory days. Since then, Conference USA got raided by the Big East and the Mountain West backed out of the picture; the Liberty Bowl capitalized on that by bringing in some essentially random mediocre SEC West team (note: capitalized is only used in the highest irony possible). Under this scenario, it’d make East Carolina and Arkansas squaring off wholly unexciting. (more…)

One of the last games of the year, the Sun Bowl has had its share of good games and good stories in recent history – Oregon rebounding from the devastating loss of Dennis Dixon to win big in 2007, Oregon State making a huge 4th quarter comeback against Missouri and memorably going for two rather than sending the game to overtime… in fact, no game in the last eleven years has been decided by more than 12 points, and only two had double digit margins. Of course, close isn’t always good, as last year’s 3-0 win by Oregon State over Pitt was a complete disaster of a game, all the way down to the 1/4 FG line, but hey that shouldn’t happen this year, right? I mean, it’s not like one team has a great defense but at the same time has been completely decimated by injuries on the offensive… oh wait. But nah, this’ll be a good game! We promise! (more…)

2007 was a noteworthy year for the Texas Bowl, as it was the only year a team from Texas has participated in this Houston classic with a deep history spanning four years. That year, TCU defeated Houston 20-13 in the only game (of the three so far) that wasn’t a complete blowout. So yeah, Texas Bowl. Good times. Let’s meet the 2009 participants. (more…)

I can’t shake the feeling that the Capital One Bowl is a generally vague disappointment this season. Both Penn State and LSU opened the season as fringe BCS contenders who needed a bit of help to make the national title game; they finished the season 1-3 against teams in the Top 25 when they played them and more importantly 0-5 against teams that are currently in the top 25. Somehow these teams are ranked 11th and 13th in the BCS for reasons that quite frankly pass understanding to me, although they’re somewhat similar. (more…)

So this was supposed to be yet another preview article about both teams, their seasons (including their one combined loss) and, well, who’d have a shot to win this. There’s one heck of a stylistic matchup between Florida’s defense and Cincinnati’s offense that’s probably worth blowing 1,000 words on in its own right. Then again, that was also before the coaches decided they were going to up and leave town – since the end of the season, we’ve had both head coaches and both the coordinators in the main matchup bail for either various other head coaching gigs or for personal reasons. For clarity’s sake: Urban Meyer is going on vacation, Brian Kelly is at Notre Dame, Charlie Strong (Florida’s DC) is at Louisville, and Jeff Quinn (Cincinnati’s OC) is at Buffalo. Of the four, Meyer and Quinn will be acting head coaches for their respective sides and Strong will be a DC for one final game before moving on- only Brian Kelly won’t be around for this one. (Incidentally, incoming HC Butch Jones won’t be on the sidelines for either Cincinnati or his former Central Michigan outfit. Apparently there’s a pipeline between CMU and UC, who knew?)

It’s a complete shame that all the coaching activity ended up drastically overshadowing the storylines on the field, since as far as matchups go this is pretty solid. (more…)

The Holiday Bowl has had a lot of interesting matchups and shocking upsets during the BCS years. When neither conference gets a BCS invite, it matches up the #2 team in the Pac 10 against the #3 team in the Big 12. Often times this has been a team on the cusp of playing in a BCS game, perhaps a loss away from the championship game, and we’ve seen some teams like 03 Texas, 04 Cal, and 05 Oregon come into this game perhaps focused on that a little too much, only to leave San Diego with their tail between their legs. Since 1998, only twice has either conference claimed this game in back-to-back years, and just three games have been settled by 14 or more points. Many times this has ended up being arguably the best December bowl game of the season, perhaps most notably Major Applewhite’s classic comeback performance in 2001. (read more…)

Look, I don’t care: this is the Peach Bowl. This is not the Chik-Fil-A Bowl, although they do make one heck of a sandwich. This is one of the comparatively few bowls out there that actually has some kind of history, and if it’s good enough for the Rose Bowl to stubbornly cling to an outdated tradition and be mocked roundly, well, it’s pretty easy for me to do the same.

This year’s incarnation pairs a couple of teams who are strikingly similar; both rely on power running games and excellent defensive play (typified in part by a safety operating up in run support a large percentage of the time). The difference lies in – go figure, knowing the teams – special teams: Virginia Tech has them, while Tennessee hasn’t had them in a while, up to and including this season. (more…)

Honestly, not a bowl I find particularly interesting. A very quick overview… (read more)