The New Orleans Bowl

DeAndre Brown broke his leg in the first quarter of a game the schawb that was a route over the golden eagles to start with. So short handed and an All-American down, Southern Miss. Came back 10 points down to win in OT. Not just a win but a edge of your seat win, it came to a field goal in overtime when Micheal McGee blocked the tying 3 point try for Troy. I picked Troy because they play very good for an unknown and non-BCS school and knowing little about this Southern Mississippi school I gave them little to no chance to beat a tough Troy team.

Well after my 31-7 prediction, Southern Miss. slammed they're dramatic win down my throat. QB Austin Davis completed 20 of his 34 pass attempts for 276 yards and 2 TDs. Davis also had 18 rushes for 37 yards. Damion Fletcher lead the game with 78 yards on 14 carries for 1 TD. Gerald Baptiste had 5 receptions for 88 yards and 1 TD, Jonathan Massey had 61 yards receiving on 4 catches and 1 TD. The Golden Eagles totaled 94 yards, with 21 passing yards and 69 rushing yards more than the Trojans. Trojans QB Levi Brown completed 60.5 percent of his passes for 1 TD while matching Austin Davis with 4 sacks. Jerrel Jernigan had 9 receptions for 65 yards, along with his 6 carries for 22 yards with a rushing TD. Kennard Burton had 3 catches for 30 yards with 1 TD. Britt Barefoot was perfect in field goals going 3 for 3 while knocking down a 38, 39 and a 46 yarders.

*The positives for Southern Mississippi: 1st year coach Larry Fedora got his first bowl game and win in his first season with the golden eagles. Although star wide out DeAndre Brown broke his leg in the first quarter, Southern Miss. showed that even without him they can still win in a important game. Austin Davis, another freshman starter showed real promise and looks poised to have a great career throwing for 3,128 yards. 23 TDs, 8 INTs. While rushing for 508 yards on 155 carries.

*The positives for Troy: Losing to southern miss. Hurt the win loss record, but can help in the long run. The players get national exposuer and show the nation that they can play at a higher level. The Trojans showed heart and grit, yet they fittingly lost they game by a blocked field goal in OT.

The Las Vegas Bowl

So hell froze over...well metaphorically at least. With an odd David Hasselhof national anthem...Arizona beat (17)BYU, and so far the schwab is 3-1 on his picks. I picked Arizona to beat (17)BYU simply due to the fact that (17)BYU barely beat Washington, and by the way the Huskies are 0-12 for the season. Senior QB Willie Tuitama was efficient for the game completing 24 of 35 for 325 yards. Although Tuitama had -4 yards rushing he had a 6 yard touchdown rush. (17)BYU QB Max Hall was 30 of 46 for 328 yards 1 touchdown and 1 INT. Hall also had a rushing TD and had 16 yards on the ground. (17)BYU had a total of 28 yards more than the Wildcats but gave up 76 yards on 10 penalties. The cougars had 116 yards total rushing to the Wildcats' 91 total yards. Although Max Hall gained more yards than his opponent, Tuitama threw for a higher completion percentage, more TD's, high yards per attempt and was sacked 1 less time than hall. WR Austin Callie (119) and Micheal Reed (117) lead the Cougars in receiving, and Terrell Turner lead the wildcats with 111 yards receiving.

When this game came up most thought this would be a hard nosed, bang it out or smash mouth football game. With both teams letting it go to the air the leading rusher did not break a 100 yards for the game. (17)BYU's Harvey Unga had 71 rushing yards on just 17 attempts and averaging only 4.2 yards per Cary with 1 TD. Arizona RB Nic Grigsby had a game high 87 yards on a solid 20 rushing attempts with 1 TD and a 4.4 yards per attempt.

* The positives for Arizona: this is the wildcats first bowl game in a decade and they came out with an upset win against a ranked team. Coach Mike Stoops has finally gave this a chance to get on a national stage and play well in the postseason. Although the loss of 3 year stater Willie Tuitama will hurt the Cats', Arizona fans will still have high hopes for a team that did so well this season.*The positives for (17)BYU: QB Max Hall looks like he will be back next season and with that gives him a chance to break 10,00+ passing yards. The Cougars season ended less than favorably, yet this can still be looked as a positive. (17)BYU gets a strong arm back and junior wide out Austin Callie might stay for his senior year as well. max hall and his cougars may have another shot at a BCS bowl or even a national championship if they can get back on the right page for the 2009 season.

The ST.Petersburgh Bowl

Before this game started I gave Memphis a good chance to win this game, but after I kept thinking about south Florida and they're recent past. Although they were not ranked high or even considered for a better bowl, it still had me wondering if they could play like USF of old. For Memphis I was very optimistic, with wonders of how the recruits have coped with head coach Tommy West. After the first two games this one seemed poised to have an upset. Yet that never happened.
On the way to the Bulls' 41-14 quarterback Matt Grothe thew for 236 yards, 3 TD and ran for another 83. although he was sacked 3 times, Grothe never got down on himself by not throwing an int. 3 Bulls had a receiving touchdown and 2 others had a rushing touchdown. QB Arkelon Hall showed why he was a first year starter, completing less than 50 percent of his passes on 154 yards. Hall was not sacked, did not throw and int and threw a TD as long as rushing for one as well. the bulls had 258 yards more than the tigers. USF had 2 times as many rushing yards (66-232) and 92 yards more than Memphis. Grothe's 32 yard run was the longest of the night and his 83 rushing yards lead not only his team but the game.
* The positives for South Florida: QB Matt Grothe looks like he will come back for another season and he is set to have another great season. this game will definitely put the bulls back on the recruiting map and even with George Selvie more than likely leaving for the NFL, the bulls look like they can bounce back after losing they're top defensive player.
*The positives for Memphis: the good news, this game put the tigers on a national TV and following the first two games it looked to be a classic. The bad news, they got blown out by USF and QB Arkelon Hall played sub par at best. None the less, coach Tommy West has lead the tigers to play they're first postseason game against a BCS conference team.

The New Mexico Bowl

Colorado State vs. Fresno State showed us why bowl season can be exciting, Fresno State was a favorite to when this game and no one gave the rams a chance to win. I gave them some what of a chance, my prediction was 24-10 Fresno State. knowing little about the Rams I overlooked them as did the rest of the nation, well after we figured who the teams star is we had to pick ourselves off the ground and take a good look around to find him. He is big senior RB Gartell Johnson, this kid tore up the Bulldogs and there sisters. The Bulldogs had 4 more rushes and 53 less yards than Johnson...again the Bulldogs as a team were out shined by a single rusher. On top of that Gartell also had 8 yards more than Fresno's leading receiver, this was complimented by a average passing game by QB Billy Farris.
Fresno played a tough game and kept it close despite this monster Colorado State RB. Fresno had two rushers over 110 yards and 2TD each. Junior RB Anthony Harding had a 21 yard rush and junior Lonaye Miller had a 69 yard rush. Senior QB tom Brandstater had a sub par game,but showed his strong arm and another reason he is a ligament NFL prospect. Along with a 186 yards a TD and an INT he looked like he seemed to be flustered.
*The positives for Colorado State: This was a big game for first year coach Steve Fairchild and his up and coming Rams. Although losing the star player who racks up only 60 yards less than the opposing teams total hurts but this will bring more recruits to this unknown Colorado school.
*The positives for Fresno State: Losing to a team who was irrelevant for a few years can be quiet the stinger, yet this team won't be hit too hard. They are getting they're head coach back (who was in the running for the Washington job) and its likely the two before mentioned RB will be back for they're senior year.

The Eagle Bank Bowl.

Navy vs. Wake Forest, when I first saw this game come up i thought that wake was going to trample the Mid-Shipmen. Yet I got to thinking about the run defense for wake and how navy can make you get frustrated and make you miss a tackle. well this on came out to be a good way to start of bowl season. I predicted that wake forest would win 21-11...well the final score was 29-19 in favor of Wake Forest, so my prediction came out alright.

Wake out rushed out passed navy but still let it get interesting, the Demon Deccan's were 6-11 on third down and close to that number navy went 7-14. based off that stat that tells you this game a tough one, but look at the yards it looks as if navy got blown out. Wake Forest had a total of 404 yards to navy's 248, 166 passing yards to navy's 32 and finally 238 rushing yards to navy's 216 yards on the ground.

*The positives for navy: place kicker Matt Harmon kicked to field goals, one at 40 yards and one at 47 yards. Corner back Rashawn King returned a 50 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. Senior Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada quarterback finishes his career at navy with 1609 passing yards and 16 TD, 1553 rushing yards and 25 rushing TD.

*The positives for Wake Forest: quarterback Riley Skinner was a perfect 11-11 with 166 yards and 1 TD. Junior Kevin Harris had 135 yards on 24 carries and had 4 carries of 10 yards or more (two 20+ rushes). the Demon Deccan's sacked QB Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada twice and had one INT.

Well here are my finalized picks...

As of last tuseday my picks became final...here is the list for 12/20/08

Navy (11) vs. Wake Forest (21)
Fresno State (24) vs. Colorado State (10)
Memphis (17) vs. USF (20)/OT
BYU (20) vs. Arizona (23)

Houston made the right pick by far...way far...

Mario Williams or Reggie Bush? Now it seems like the best pick out of the draft...Bush is always hurt and super Mario is on a tear, for his career he has: 152 total tackles and 116 solo tackles, 29.5 sacks and 172 yards lost and finally 1 TD and 7 forced fumbles. compared to Reggie, the Texans must have seen into the future on this one.

but the thing that has me wondering is, did the Texans have another motive than just the 2006 season? Yes the Texans got a freak in Mario but also in Amboi Okoye, but you start to wonder if there offense would be steady. Reggie would have brought an exciting game to Houston and wouldn't one defensive freak be better than none? well not for the Texans, they played they're cards well, they have drafted 3 of the premiere defensive players (Mario Williams, Amboi Okoye and DeMeco Ryans) in the NFL, they have matured a wide out into a special teams nightmare (Jacboy Jones) and turned a 4Th round tight-end into an every down blocker and receiver. But lost in all this is the 3rd round pick in the 08' draft...well he isn't "lost" you just can't see him due to his blinding speed and insane power for a back that was "too small to be an every down back in the NFL" (ESPN's Todd McShay).

Yes Steve Slanton...he is running wild on the NFL for a .500 team. also this is a team that has been a draft and sign defense first. well with they're small and smart signings, getting Matt Schaub pays out very other game, re-signing Brandon Frye, getting Chris Myers from the Boncos and re-singing Andre Davis have started to put a hop in the Texans step. now by drafting Salton the Texans invested into the future, now having played the drafts and free-agent signings the Texans look like geniuses.

I'm sure you saying to yourself "Reggie won the Heisman and he played for USC" well USC is overrated on players being good NFL players, Carson Palmer, troy Polamalu, Sammy knight, Junior Seau and willie McGinest. Just think of it this way, just cause you play for the power house in college, doesn't mean you are an all pro in the NFL.

At the end of the day Steve Salton is 426 yards, 188 carries, 4 tds and 10 less fumbles in one season compared to Reggie's three full seasons...and hows Reggie doing as an every down back? oh hes hurt...

Do analysts make good judgement calls on players making the transiton to the NFL?

Every football analyst in the sports nation has said repetitively that now junior and Heisman winner Tim Tebow cannot be an NFL quarterback. Really? The reason this arose in my head was based off the Heisman ceremony, how everyone was in awe of the Oklahoma QB by the name of Sam Bradford. I'm not knocking the guy, but in relation to his: 1. team he plays for 2. the division he plays for and the lack of the defense against the pass and 3. the worst term ever for a college football team wining big "sexy".
1. Oklahoma is very well known for having not just the best pass offenses but also the overall balance in domination on offenses in the last few years. Every player coming from that program is great, Just look at Adrian Peterson. One of his "flaws" was he could not catch...so much for a flaw in his two seasons with the Vikes he has 38 receptions with 377 yards, a 60 yard long and averages 9.9 yards per reception...
2. 339.9 and 3,196...was the top yards per game and the total passing yards by the top defense in the big 12...Texas was number 1...in the SEC only one team was worse than UT (and the rest are better) Arkansas. Yes Bobby Petrino's new team was worse in the yards per game...375.2 and total passing yards for the season...2,435
3. That word is only acceptable in terms of females...not growing men beating the hell out of each other for 60+ minutes.
Now before the loss to Ole Miss I really resented Tim Tebow, but after watching how Mr. Tebow cared more for his team, his school and his program i finally respected the guy. Sure Tebow won't throw 48 TDs but he'll motivate his team not only on offense but on defense. Yes in my eyes Sam Bradford is a legit #1 overall pick. Yet, Tim Tebow is a "big discussion"...what the hell? a long delivery...have you seen Philip Rivers? he starts in mini camps and releases the ball around the AFC championship. Mr. Todd McShay is a smart guy...but on this subject just leave it to superman...cause at the end of the day...Tim Tebow will blow us all away.