With 34 bowl games, it would be very cumbersome to predict them all at once. So instead I will just predict the games as they arise. Today features the first two bowl games.....the New Mexico Bowl and the St. Petersburg Bowl.
First up, out west in the Land Of Enchantment, it is the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque. This game features the hard-nosed Fresno State Bulldogs, who played such an aggressive schedule that they ended up with more road games than home games. They will face the 6-6 Wyoming Cowboys. I have seen Fresno play several times this year, and they have a very potent offense that featers the nations' leader in rushing yards per game, Ryan Mathews. Their 8-4 record should be taken with a grain of salt about who the losses were against four bowl teams: Cincinnati, Wisconsin, Boise State and Nevada. Cinci and Boise are undefeated, Wisconsin is a Big Ten foe, and Nevada had THREE 1,000 yard rushers this year. None of those losses are anything to be ashamed of. Fresno is making its 10th bowl appearance in the last 11 years, with only 2006 being a season they were home for bowl season. They lost to arch-rival Colorado State in this very game last year. Overall they have won 4 of their last 6 bowl appearances.
The Bulldogs will meet the Wyoming Cowboys, who are playing in their first bowl game since winning the 2004 Las Vegas Bowl over UCLA, and only their 11th bowl appearance ever. The Cowboys losses all came at the hands of tough foes, too. Losing to Texas, Colorado, Utah, BYU, Air Force and TCU. TCU and Texas are undefeated. Wyoming has, however, been shut out 3 times this year.
All signs point to Fresno putting up some points and winning this game by 10 or more.
My pick: Fresno State 38 Wyoming 21
The other game today is the St. Petersburg Bowl in Tropicana Field down in Florida. Rutgers makes its 4th consecutive bowl appearance here and they will face Central Florida. The battle of the Scarlet Knights and the Golden Knights. A so-so rebuilding year for RU, they played a much-maligned soft schedule that featured not one, but TWO division I-AA(FCS) teams. They also fell to a bad Syracuse team 31-13. The 8-4 Scarlet Knights also fell to Cincinnati(undefeated), West Virginia and Pitt in Big East play.
Rutgers is a very young team and will surely improve with experience, they are up against a UCF team that just missed making it to the C-USA title game. Two of UCFs 4 losses came against Texas and Miami...no shame in those defeats, but they did drop 2 conference games early on against Southern Miss and East Carolina. UCF is also 8-4 and hopes to take advantage of playing in their home state, even though RU travels well and has some ties to the Sunshine State. This should be a very good game.
After going back and forth on this, I went with the Golden Knights of UCF in a tight one.
My pick: UCF 28 Rutgers 24
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment