News Archive on Arizona University

How Will The Nebraska Cornhuskers Rebound In The Holiday Bowl?

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Tonights Holiday Bowl in San Diego features a match up of two teams that had devastating loses that could of had them in a BCS bowl. One in particular was one second away and saw elation turn into a nightmare.

Will Suh have the Cornhuskers morivated to play great defense to carry rhem to a victory tonight in the Holiday Bowl.

Will Ndamukong Suh have the Cornhuskers motivated to play defense to carry them to a victory tonight in the Holiday Bowl.

Nebraska is the team mentioned. The Cornhuskers (9-4) and 20th ranked held a 12-10 lead over second ranked Texas in the Big 12 Championship.Texas quarterback Colt McCoy threw the ball out of bounds ,and the Huskers thought they were Big 12 champs and headed to a BCS berth. But fate played a cruel joke on them as they even celebrated on the field for a brief moment. The officials put a mere one more second on the clock and Texas kicked a game wining field goal to escape with a 13-12 victory putting them in the BCS Championship Game. You talk about snatching the jaws of victory form a team, this is what happened.

Arizona (8-4) and 22nd ranked have a game on their resume’ that could of had them BCS bowling. They were within six seconds of being in position to win the Pac 10 title. They held a 31-24 lead over Oregon only to concede to that touchdown that tied the game ,and Oregon pulled it out in double overtime 44-41.Know they find themselves in the Holiday bowl instead of the Rose Bowl. Zona did rebound nicely to win their next two games. Nonetheless, they have to question, “What might of been?”

Both teams tonight have good defenses. Nebraska has the 9th rated defense, giving up only 11.2 points per game and held the vaunted Texas offense to a mere 202 yards in the Big 12 Championship game. They are lead by their sensational defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. Suh had a phenomenal year that had him finish 4th in the Heisman balloting.Arizona is 21st in total defense and has played good defense in their last couple of games.

I think that both teams still have nightmares of what could of been. Nebraska’s last game is what they remember most. I want to see how they rebound and motivate themselves to get up off of the carpet and have the fire to win. This game is a toss up. I have to think the Huskers will muster up the motivation to carry them to victory tonight in San Diego.

College Bowl Game Predictions

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

BSCThe college bowl schedule kicks off today with two opening games on the schedule as Wyoming meets Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl and Central Florida hooks up with Rutgers in the St. Petersburg Bowl.   College football fans will be treated to 34 games over 20 days culminating with Alabama and Texas deciding this year’s national champions.

This year’s matchups pair what appear to be some with three teams favored by double-digit spreads and twelve team favored by a touchdown or more.  While Vegas is seeing a lot of mismatches, there appears to be some great upsets brewing.   I am projecting right now seven underdogs achieving outright victories and sixteen underdogs covering the spread.

My biggest underdog covers include SMU, Boston College, Northwestern, East Carolina and Boise State.  My biggest underdog outright victories are Texas A&M and Stanford.

Bowl Matchup Spread Winner Cover
New Mexico Bowl Wyoming vs. Fresno State Fresno State by 11 Fresno State Fresno State
St. Petersburg Bowl Central Florida vs. Rutgers EVEN Central Florida Central Florida
New Orleans Bowl Middle Tenn St vs.Southern Miss Southern Miss by 4 Southern Miss Middle Tenn St
Las Vegas Bowl BYU vs. Oregon State Oregon State by 3 BYU BYU
Poinsettia Bowl Utah vs. California EVEN Utah Utah
Hawaii Bowl SMU vs. Nevada Nevada by 15 Nevada SMU
Little Caesars Bowl Ohio vs. Marshall Ohio by 3 Ohio Ohio
Meineke Care Bowl North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh Pittsburgh by 3 Pitt North Carolina
Emerald Bowl Boston College vs. USC USC by 9 USC BC
Music City Bowl Kentucky vs. Clemson Clemson by 7½ Clemson Clemson
Independence Bowl Texas A&M vs. Georgia Georgia by 7 Texas A&M Texas A&M
Eagle Bank Bowl UCLA vs. Temple EVEN Temple Temple
Champs Sports Bowl Wisconsin vs. Miami Miami by 3 Miami Miami
Humanitarian Bowl Bowling Green vs. Idaho Bowling Green by 2 Bowling Green Bowling Green
Holiday Bowl Nebraska vs. Arizona Arizona by 1½ Nebraska Nebraska
Armed Forces Bowl Air Force vs. Houston Houston by 4½ Air Force Air Force
Sun Bowl Stanford vs. Oklahoma Oklahoma by 8 Stanford Stanford
Texas Bowl Navy vs. Missouri EVEN Navy Navy
Insight Bowl Iowa State vs. Minnesota Minnesota by 3 Minnesota Minnesota
Chick Fil-A Bowl Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech Virginia Tech by 4½ Virginia Tech Tennessee
Outback Bowl Northwestern vs. Auburn Auburn by 7½ Auburn Northwestern
Capital One Bowl LSU vs. Penn St. Penn St. by 3 Penn State Penn State
Gator Bowl Florida State vs. West Virginia West Virginia by 3 West Virginia West Virginia
Rose Bowl Ohio State vs. Oregon Oregon by 3½ Oregon Oregon
Sugar Bowl Cincinnati vs. Florida Florida by 11 Florida Florida
International Bowl Northern Illinois vs. South Florida South Florida by 7 South Florida South Florida
Papa John’s Bowl Connecticut vs. South Carolina South Carolina by 4½ Connecticut Connecticut
Cotton Bowl Mississippi vs. Oklahoma State Mississippi by 3 Oklahoma State Oklahoma State
Liberty Bowl Arkansas vs. East Carolina Arkansas by 8 Arkansas East Carolina
Alamo Bowl Michigan State vs. Texas Tech Texas Tech by 8 Texas Tech Texas Tech
Fiesta Bowl Boise State vs. TCU TCU by 7 TCU Boise State
Orange Bowl Iowa vs. Georgia Tech Georgia Tech by 4 Georgia Tech Iowa
Gmac Bowl Troy vs. Central Michigan Central Michigan by 3 Central Michigan Central Michigan
BCS Championship Texas vs. Alabama Alabama by 5 Alabama Alabama

Looking at conference performance, here’s how I see it playing out:

Bowl Matchup
Atlantic Coast 4-3
Big East 4-2
Big Ten 2-4
Big 12 4-4
C-USA 2-4
Mountain West 4-1
Pac-10 3-4
Southeastern 4-6
Western Athletic 2-2

The SEC might be the power conference, but they got some unfavorable matchup.  I think the Big 12 and Big East are going to surprise some opponents.  The Mountain West is going to do some damage and really stoke the argument that they deserve an automatic BCS invite.

As for the National Championship game, I am seeing a major blowout.  Given Texas’ performance against ranked opponents and closing out its season on some very poor play, this just seems like a mismatch of grand proportion.  TCU and Cincinnati were much more deserving of a spot in the Championship Game and Alabama is going to apply a major smackdown that will likely drop Colt McCoy’s NFL stock drop tremendously when he loses the game single-handedly.

Overall, this bowl season looks to be exciting.  We have a lot of underdogs with solid shots at upsets which should make the next 20 days enjoyable for all to watch.