Saturday Bowls

[Smitty]

what a roller coaster these bowls have been so far for smitty (hey, i was a wide receiver in high school. i can refer to myself in the 3rd person.). started 7-0, then went 1-6, then the only thing that kept me from 4-0 yesterday was a moron punt returner fumbling the ball at the end of the first half. should be another day of exciting finishes in mediocre bowl games.

starting with the meineke car care bowl....

texas a&m (-9.5) 2 units. i'm seeing a little too much love for a mediocre team from the big 10. seems to me, this line was set a little higher than necessary for a battle of two 6-6 teams, even if one is playing in their home state. it's very difficult to lay this many points with an a&m team that specialized in blowing leads this year. maybe they'll stay focused today to honor the memory of joe villavisencio, who was killed in a car crash last week.

 

[Smitty]

Sun Bowl

Sun Bowl

the good ol' sun bowl. now we're getting into the traditional bowl games.

utah (+2) 2 units. this would be a bigger play, but it seems way too easy. utah has been excellent in bowl games, and they are familiar with the option.
interesting season for the utes. after having a game-tying fg blocked at usc in their first pac 12 game (like i really needed to be reminded of that play), utah struggled in the pac 12, losing their first 4 conference games. and they lost jordan wynn in the middle of that stretch. his replacement, hays, was terrible, throwing 7 INTs and only 3 TDs in his first 4 games. then it looks like he finally figured it out, as he threw 6 TDs and no INTs in their last 5 games, and utah finished 4-1, including an inexplicable home loss to colorado to finish the season. his biggest problem seems to be that he takes too many sacks. 26 in 9 games (in contrast, wynn only took 5 sacks in 4 games). but GT doesn't get many sacks (80th in the country), so hopefully that won't be an issue today.
GT's season was a lot more straightforward. great start to the year (6-0 and ranked #12) and a bad finish. they did bounce back with a big win over clemson, but then lost to VT, barely got by duke, and lost to georgia. in early october, there was no way they thought they'd end up playing in the sun bowl. big motivational edge to utah.

under (49.5) 2 units. utah was very good against the run this season. 7th in the country both in yards/per rush (2.92) and yards per game (97). granted, playing in the pac 12 may have helped those numbers. that excellent run defense, combined with the familiarity with the option attack (they played AF for years in the mountain west) should enable utah to shut down GT. on the other side of the ball, while hays has cut down his TO's, i don't think their offense is as efficient as they were with wynn.

 

[Unicorn]

you're right about the love for NW. every tout seems to be on them as well. coaching stability probably being the main reason, but Northwestern is Northwestern. Interesting point about A&M being in their home state...they certainly should be able to score. Good luck! :0008

 

[Smitty]

Fight Hunger Bowl

Fight Hunger Bowl

somebody please make me some pancakes. i'm really hungry.

what a shitfest this game promises to be. a team that needed a special petition just to be allowed to play in the game versus a team that lost its last 6 games. wow. and we degenerates are going to bet on it. good for us. :0074

ucla (+2.5) 1 unit. no, i can't really make a case for either team here. but i can make a solid case against illinois. short and simple. after starting 6-0 and being ranked #16 in the country, they have lost 6 straight games. 6 straight. and they're playing in a bowl game. the illini turn the ball over a lot (27 times in 12 games. granted, ucla wasn't much better, but at least their 24 TOs came in 13 games).
this is going to be a sloppy game, which will probably see a lot of TOs and penalties. my best advice is to stay off this game.

 

[Smitty]

thanks, unicorn! (2 words i never thought i'd use together)

 

[Unicorn]

:mj07:

 

[Smitty]

Give me a Liberty Bowl winner or give me death!*

Give me a Liberty Bowl winner or give me death!*

*slight paraphrasing of patrick henry

i flipped a coin to decide who to play in this game. it came up heads. but i didn't assign a team to either side. oh well.

cincinnati (+1.5) 1 unit. i honestly don't know what to do with this game. everything screams at me to play vanderbilt. just because it's so damn easy to take cincinnati. here's a list of the teams vandy beat this year:

elon
uconn
ole miss
army
kentucky
wake forest

collaros is back for cincinnati, although his mobility is a big part of his game, and i can't imagine he's at full speed 1 1/2 months after breaking his ankle.

so cincinnati looks very obvious, and yet i haven't seen one single person on them. that makes no sense to me whatsoever. somebody has to take the bearcats, and i guess it's gonna be smitty.

under (49.5) 1 unit. cincinnati's defense is underrated, especially their run defense. and vandy's qbs have thrown 14 INTs with only 13 TDs. i just don't see vandy moving the ball today. and with collaros coming back from the broken ankle, that should slow down cincinnati's offense also.

 

[Smitty]

Chick Fil-A Bowl

Chick Fil-A Bowl

once again, a&m left that back door wide open. that would have been another tough loss to swallow, after they dominated the game.

last bowl game of the year.

virginia (+3) 1 unit. another game i cannot love. the cavs finished the year fairly strongly, thanks to a decent defense. but that offense is so bad. rocco threw just as many INTs this year as TDs. but on the flip side, i just can't see auburn fired up to play this game, one year after winning the NC. so i think virginia will somehow be able to score just enough points to stay within the 3. probably by forcing some TOs.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, MADJACKERS!! here's to a prosperous 2012. :toast: