Bowl Movement

Ok, it's all done but one. (yes, I know that there are two other games this week. January games with MAC schools are not "Bowls", no matter their title. Unless, of course, it's my dad's favorite- "Toilet Bowl").

Like I was saying- it's all done but one. AND (no surprise to anyone), I watched parts of most of these. Well, except the ones on the Not For Long Network.

So, in the spirit of the New Year (and as a way to keep myself from an ulcer thinking about the game on the 8th), here are my quick thoughts about all of the games. And, because I'm that type of guy, I'll even include pre-game thoughts for the participants of the two Toilet Bowl games.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia: TCU 37, Northern Illinois 7
Both of these schools resolve to work to go to a bowl that has less than six names in its title. Sure makes tOSU’s efforts against NIU look suspect, don’t it?

Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas: BYU 38, Oregon 8
Nothing says Vegas for the holidays like crowds of Mormons. Oh, and for 2007 Oregon resolves to shoot Phil Knight next time he recommends a uniform change.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Troy 41, Rice 17
We learned that R+L equals 8 letters total for the names of the Universities playing. And only twice as many fans.

Papajohns.com Bowl: South Florida 24, East Carolina 7
Both teams vow to go to a game where the sponsor can actually provide gifts.
South Florida now gets to play the winner of the Central Michigan/Middle Tennessee game for the NCAA Directional Schools Trophy

New Mexico: San Jose State 20, New Mexico 12
Did you know that this bowl doesn’t have a sponsor? Yup, just an ESPN created game for more air time.
And the home team still lost… Maybe it could be the Ron Mexico bowl next year.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces: Utah 25, Tulsa 13
You would think that one of the teams from the Service Academies would be in this, wouldn’t you? Nope.

Sheraton Hawaii: Hawaii 41, Arizona State 24
Just once, I’d love to see Hawaii in a bowl not in their home stadium.
Nevertheless, Hawaii’s QB is amazing… more amazing, though, is to see the former coaching staff of the Houston Oilers and Atlanta Falcons on the Hawaii sidelines.

Motor City: Central Michigan 31, Middle Tennessee 14
More directional football. For me, the directions were “turn off the TV, we’re going shopping”.

Emerald: Florida State 44, UCLA 27
Lots of issues here: UCLA couldn’t replicate their magic from the USC game and couldn’t win a game in California; Florida State is in the Emerald bowl (Oh, how the mighty have fallen, part 1), and (held in a baseball stadium) one team had no fans/stands behind them. Odd.

PetroSun Independence: Oklahoma State 34, Alabama 31
Highlight of the game? The backward pass to the offensive tackle for a TD. Lineman unite!

Pacific Life Holiday: Cal 45, Texas A&M 10
Wow. For all of my Aggie friends, I can only say, “I’m sorry”. Felt like being at San Diego's Sea World, didn’t it?

Texas:Rutgers 37, Kansas State 10
On the NFL Network, so nothing really to say here. Still chopping wood, I imagine.

Gaylord Hotels Music City: Kentucky 28, Clemson 20
Hee hee… “Gay Lord”…
Sorry, I was just so surprised that Kentucky won that I reverted to being a third grader. Wow, Kentucky made a bowl game? AND beat a Bowden?

Brut Sun: Oregon State 39, Missouri 38
One of many games with fantastic finishes, this one highlighted by a 2 point conversion with time running out. Who could have guessed that it would be the second greatest 2 point conversion of the bowl season?

Brought to you by Faberge

AutoZone Liberty: South Carolina 44, Houston 36
Refused to watch this, for Spurrier purposes. Just sayin'

Insight: Texas Tech 44, Minnesota 41 (OT)
Those of us who know and love Glenn Mason are not surprised that he allowed his team to choke away a 31 point lead. We are surprised that he was fired- mostly because it should have happened a long time ago. Speaking for the rest of the Big T1e1n- how did the Gophers make a bowl game?

Champs Sports: Maryland 24, Purdue 7
Remember what I said about the Gophers? Double that for Purdue…

Meineke Car Care: Boston College 25, Navy 24
Another big comeback and fantastic finish- kid kicks a game winning field goal; he had never even played football prior to this season. I guess there is a purpose for soccer after all.

Alamo: Texas 26, Iowa 24
The “We both got hammered by Ohio State” consolation game. Much closer than I imagined, but the reality is that Iowa scored most of their points in the first part of the game and then went into coast mode. Pity, that.

Chick-fil-A: Georgia 31, Virginia Tech 24
Surprising that Georgia won (They’ve had that type of season), but I need to be honest in confessing that I didn’t watch much of this… It makes me bitter that we don’t have a Chick-fil-A near here.

MPC Computers: Miami 21, Nevada 20
Smurf Turf!!! And Miami (Oh, how the mighty have fallen, part 2) at the end of the Coker era. There are lots of "Coker" and "snow" jokes I could make, but they're too easy. Let's just say that no one deserved to be in Boise on New Year's Eve than the Hurricanes... I'm surprised Idaho hasn't seceded from the Union and surrendered to Canadia.

JANUARY 1

After much reflection, I've decided that the New Year's Day games before the Rose Bowl were absolutely perfect. If you 'celebrated' a bit much, and were hung over, these would be just boring enough to make the transition back to reality a gentle landing.

Note- these reviews would be a lot more interesting, but FOX and ESPN are scrubbing YouTube of the highlights. Oh well, we've lived without Napster.

AT&T Cotton: Auburn 17, Nebraska 14
Well, it was interesting until halftime. If, by 'interesting', you mean "Nebraska moving the ball at will to the tune of 28 points (14 for Auburn)". After the "inspiring" halftime speech, we had three total points. Yup, that's pretty much a summary of both team's entire seasons. I wonder if there will be another apology...

Outback: Penn State 20, Tennessee 10
Jo Pa in the booth, Big T1e1n over the "superior" SEC. Not that anyone at all would be proud to claim either of these two teams.

Capital One: Wisconsin 17, Arkansas 14
This is what happens when a team with no quarterback plays a team with no personality. After the first series, the Wisco defense shut down McFadden... but Felix Jones averaged 10.7 yards per carry. Yet another Big T1e1n victory, this time with our #3 beating the SEC runner up.

Toyota Gator: West Virginia 38, Georgia Tech 35
FINALLY a game worth watching. Calvin Johnson finally made his selection as the nation's best wide receiver make sense. Oh, and it showed just how overrated Reggie Ball is... he should have stopped going to class a couple of years ago. West Virginia mounted a great comeback, and proved that it's possible to win a game with coaching and preparation, even if you don't have the greatest athletes on the field. We'll revisit this thought later.

Rose Bowl presented by Citi: USC 32, Michigan 18
Look, I'm really torn about this. It was yet another "I hope the ground opens up and swallows both teams" game for me, but I was ultimately pulling for the Big T1e1n team. I never would have guessed in a bajillion years that Michigan would be unable to run the ball. They looked as good as advertised on defense (great against the run, atrocious against the pass), but I was confident that they would have more success with Hart. Shows what I know.

A friend of mine from Battle Creek said, "If there is ever an opportunity for Llllloyd Carr to be out-coached, it will happen." With no half time adjustments at all, looks like it happened again. To be fair, this proves something about Michigan as an educational institution- they recognize that mistakes happen, and don't just demand changes; choosing instead to allow for learning to hopefully take place. Other colleges, well, let's just say that they see things differently.

USC looked great, and should easily be a preseason favorite next year. Are they superior to the teams playing on Monday? Probably, with the exception that they weren't disciplined enough to play to win in all of their games.

Two frustrations: 1) There is already talk of a quarterback controversy at USC next year. Yup, the guy who just passed for 500 yards in the Rose Bowl may lose his job to a freshman (if he can stay out of jail). This is why USC has great recruiting classes every year- Carroll has no loyalty, and tells incoming students (correctly) "yup, you'll play". As a former football player (note that I did not say "athlete"), this frustrates me... There has got to be a sense of loyalty to the guys who have sacrificed for the team over the course of several seasons. Nope, it's the American way- we'll push aside the old if the new seems to be better, as long as it helps us meet our purpose.

Sermon aside, it's time for trivia! Who was the first college athlete penalized under rule 9-2 for taunting when it was first strengthened in 1995? Answer: Terry Glenn of Ohio State on August 27 against Boston College. His transgression? He signaled "first down" after a great catch. Fast forward to today, where the entire bowl season has seen so much post play celebration that it looks like a Broadway afterparty (zing!). However (frustration #2), USC brought it to an art only previously exhibited by Miami in the Cotton Bowl.

Let's take a lookie, shall we? Here's the rule (page122/123):

ARTICLE 1. There shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct or any act that interferes with orderly game administration on the part of players, substitutes, coaches, authorized attendants or any other persons subject to the rules, before the game, during the game or between periods.

a. Specifically prohibited acts and conduct include:
1. No player, substitute, coach or other person subject to the rules shall use abusive, threatening or obscene language or gestures, or engage in such acts that provoke ill will or are demeaning to an opponent, to game officials or to the image of the game, including but not limited to:
(a) Pointing the finger(s), hand(s), arm(s) or ball at an opponent, or imitating the slashing of the throat.
(b) Taunting, baiting or ridiculing an opponent verbally.
(c) Inciting an opponent or spectators in any other way, such as simulating the firing of a weapon or placing a hand by the ear to request recognition.
(d) Any delayed, excessive, prolonged or choreographed act by which a player (or players) attempts to focus attention upon himself (or themselves).
(e) Obviously altering stride as an unopposed runner approaches the opponent’s goal line, or diving into the end zone when unopposed.
(f) Removal of a player’s helmet before he is in the team area
(g) Punching one’s own chest or crossing one’s arms in front of the chest while standing over a prone player.
(h) Going into the stands to interact with spectators, or bowing at the waist after a good play.

And here's what happened:

Unfortunately, this video doesn't fully capture the whole thing- the dancing and flexing after a sack, the taunting in the third and fourth quarters... Jarrett needs to wait until next year when he's a pro to start doing the "jump shot" thing with the ball or pointing at a DB on the way to the endzone. Yup, no penalties. I guess the NCAA loves them some USC- who else sells TV revenue on the west coast?

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42 OT
Words cannot even begin to describe how amazing the end of this game was. So, onto the video:

After Peterson's 25 yard run on OU's OT posession, the folks that I was watching with said "BSU will go for 2- they know that they can't stop Peterson all night...". And, sure enough- Next thing you know, Bob Stoops is scouting out backyard football games for ideas for his offense.

Yet another great example of fantastic coaching overcoming 'inferior' talent. (more later)

People keep talking about how this "proves" that there should be a playoff... Nope. Not going to happen until someone figures out a way for all 64 (!) teams and major conferences to not loose any revenue. This has never been about having a "champion"- only about having great games that sell tickets and advertising. Why else would we have...

FedEx Orange: Louisville 24, Wake Forest 13
And the scary thing? Louisville didn't have their preseason Heisman candidate running back. If Bush and Brohm both come back, UofL will be a top 5 team. If not? Well, their stadium was built by the Papa John's guy... so they got that going for them.

Oh, and Big East is 4-0 in the bowls. Of course, they collectively beat the worst ACC Champion in history, a 7-6 C-USA team, a Georgia Tech team with no defense and a back up QB, and the third team from the Big 12 north. Oh, and they have one more game to play, against the #3 MAC team. Yup, reasons to be proud.

Allstate Sugar: Notre Dame vs. LSU
Remember earlier when we were talking about great coaching overcoming inferior talent? Charlie "no offensive first downs in the second half" is not a great coach. It was sad to read ND blogs today... they know, that with Quinn and Smaredgjanfwna leaving, their window has closed. Boo fricking hoo.

LSU, on the other hand, was amazing... Solid on defense, with an unbelievable QB. Look, you know how I feel about Troy- There is no way that Demarcus Russell should not be the #1 pick over all. If for no other reason, you do not want him to feel "dissed" when his team comes to play you.

International: Western Michigan vs. Cincinnati (in Toronto)
Just about the only thing interesting to watch here is that Cincy's new coach used to be at Central Michigan; so he's familiar with Western's team. It may also be fascinating to see if they play by American or Canadian rules, and if there are enough television viewers to tell the difference.

GMAC: Ohio vs. Southern Miss
We have a Solich sighting! And, I'm guessing that we'll have a Favre one as well. Wonder if the folks in Lincoln will send Coach game tapes from when the Huskers played Southern Miss the year after he was canned...

Tostitos BCS Championship Game: Florida vs. Ohio State

Not thinking about it...