Monday

[Smitty]

Liberty Bowl

as patrick henry once said... "GIVE ME THE LIBERTY BOWL, OR GIVE ME MEDIOCRE FOOTBALL!!" well, thanks to the 2014-2015 bowl season, he can have both. what a deal.

wvu (-2.5) 3 units. so... let me get this straight... wvu is playing with their backup qb and the line is creeping up? hmmm... it's almost like he's going up against a poor defense. oh yeah. guess i'm backing a qb named skyler. i never thought i'd see the day.
after going 4-8 last year, I think the mountaineers will be excited to be back in a bowl game. another key - wvu's defense should be able to get off the field. they only allow 31% conversions on 3rd down, which is 9th in the country. I was pretty shocked when I saw that. for comparison, a&m's defense gives up 42% conversions, which is 81st in the country (tied with umass!!!).
also, a&m has a new defensive coordinator for this game. sure, they probably can't get any worse, but we can't expect too much improvement in 4 weeks.
biggest concern that I see... wvu lost 18 fumbles this year, which was 2nd most in the country. if they can hang on to the damn ball, they should get a nice win today.

 

[Smitty]

Russell Athletic Bowl

Russell Athletic Bowl

Clemson (+5) 1 unit. obviously I don't love the tigers here. a ranked team getting points from an unranked team, and the line is climbing. and I doubt that Oklahoma considers this a "big" game, so you can't count on stoops choking this one away. but Oklahoma hasn't seen a defense this good all year, and I think the sooners will have some trouble moving the ball. of course, I'm counting on stoudt not to turn the ball over 6 times, at which point the defense will just stop caring. anyway, I think the best bet in this game is....

under (49) 3 units. as I mentioned above, this will be the best defense Oklahoma has seen all year. as long as they don't get a short field to work with all game, they will struggle to move the ball. and Clemson? ugh. stoudt has been pretty bad. they absolutely are not going to be able to move the ball with any consistency whatsoever.

oh, one more note on this game... I'm pretty sure Clemson is eager to avenge their loss to Oklahoma in the 1989 citrus bowl. yeah, you just don't forget games like that.

 

[Smitty]

Texas Bowl

Texas Bowl

ah, the classic southwest conference rivalry game.

Arkansas (-7) 2 units. I really like the hogs today, but it's tough laying a td with this team. neither team can throw the ball, but Arkansas is better at both running the ball and stopping the run. and I think there is a big motivational edge for the hogs. they finally turned the corner late in the season. after 22 straight sec losses, they beat #17 lsu & #8 ole miss in back-to-back weeks. they're going to be fired up for their first bowl game in 3 years and, for a little extra motivation, they're going to play texas in texas. I'm hoping the hogs can pull away late in what should be a real grinder of a game.

under (43) 1 unit. almost feels too easy. but not only should both teams be grinding out what little offense they can, but both defenses have been very good in the red zone this year. texas is 26th in red zone defense, allowing teams to score 77% of the time (56% tds) and Arkansas is #3, allowing teams to score only 69% of the time (59% tds). it's just really hard to see either team scoring many points today.

 

[taker02000]

Hey Smitty,

From a Clemson alum and season ticket holder here...

Clemson beat Oklahoma 13-6 in 1989...just FYI...GO TIGERS!! ...It could be a long day for the Clemson offense. Cole Stoudt is a marginal ACC player at best...When Deshaun went down, our offense struggled...Hopefully our defense will force a few turnovers and keep us in the game.. Good Luck!

 

[Smitty]

thank you for the correction, sir. I normally fact-check those things, but got lazy and figured I could trust an article on espn.

yeah, I'm really trusting that defense to keep the tigers in this game. if they fall behind early, they're fucked.

a repeat of that '89 citrus bowl would be just fine by me. GL to you! :toast:

 

[ejthree]

Liberty Bowl

as patrick henry once said... "GIVE ME THE LIBERTY BOWL, OR GIVE ME MEDIOCRE FOOTBALL!!" well, thanks to the 2014-2015 bowl season, he can have both. what a deal.

wvu (-2.5) 3 units. so... let me get this straight... wvu is playing with their backup qb and the line is creeping up? hmmm... it's almost like he's going up against a poor defense. oh yeah. guess i'm backing a qb named skyler. i never thought i'd see the day.
after going 4-8 last year, I think the mountaineers will be excited to be back in a bowl game. another key - wvu's defense should be able to get off the field. they only allow 31% conversions on 3rd down, which is 9th in the country. I was pretty shocked when I saw that. for comparison, a&m's defense gives up 42% conversions, which is 81st in the country (tied with umass!!!).
also, a&m has a new defensive coordinator for this game. sure, they probably can't get any worse, but we can't expect too much improvement in 4 weeks.
biggest concern that I see... wvu lost 18 fumbles this year, which was 2nd most in the country. if they can hang on to the damn ball, they should get a nice win today.

Afraid we got out coached in this game Smitty....

 

[Smitty]

Afraid we got out coached in this game Smitty....

my dear god, no doubt about it. wvu really outplayed a&m in the first half. settling for a couple fgs hurt. but to only score 10 points in the 2nd half against that terrible defense... wow. and skyler (seriously, why the hell did I bet on a qb named skyler?) really sucked after he started talking shit. what a dumbass.

 

[Smitty]

Clemson beat Oklahoma 13-6 in 1989...

apparently Oklahoma just can't score more than 6 points against Clemson. nice to get a comfortable win. :toast:

 

[taker02000]

Cole came to play last night and our defense was hellacious! I don't think Oklahoma knew what hit them from the start...Next year we will be even more loaded on offense with two 5-star WR's coming in along with a healthy Watson back. Only receiver we lose is Adam Humphries...Defense will take a hit with graduation but they'll be solid too...We'll be Pre-season Top 10 for sure...Good Luck the rest of the way in the bowls!