Tag: Bowl Season

ESPN Bowl Projections: Texas to take on the ‘U’

After the win over Oklahoma State, where do the experts project the Texas Longhorns could be headed this bowl season?

Following the upset win over Oklahoma State, we checked in on the latest bowl game projections from ESPN. Despite the Texas Longhorns pulling off the win, their bowl outlook hasn’t seen them rise much in the hierarchy. Tom Herman and company are still looking at a lower tier bowl, but one matchup could pit two of the bigger names in college football against one another.

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Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando, Florida

A matchup of the Miami Hurricanes and Texas Longhorns would put two storied college programs head-to-head. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach is projecting they would meet. Both teams at one point this year were top-10 teams but losses dropped them down the pecking order. The Hurricanes are within the top 15, but the Longhorns find themselves on the outside looking in.

The schools have met four times dating to 1972. Texas won the initial matchup 23-10 in Austin. They met the following year in Miami with the Hurricanes coming out on top. They didn’t play again until 1981 in Austin once again. The Longhorns defended their home turf. The last matchup came in the Cotton Bowl during the 1991 season. Miami blasted Texas 46-3 in that game.

With the series tied 2-2, this could break the tie in this matchup of historic programs.

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AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee

Kyle Bonagura still has the Longhorns in the Liberty Bowl, but, unlike the previous projection of facing Tennessee, they would draw the Kentucky Wildcats. Their head coach Mark Stoops would probably sound familiar to many Longhorns fans. He is the brother of former Oklahoma Sooners head coach Bob Stoops.

These two schools have met one time in their history. That game happened in 1951 when the Longhorns won 7-6. Kentucky plays really good defense and it would definitely a challenge for the Longhorns offense.

Big 12 Bowl Projections

Team Bonagura Schlabach
Iowa State Alamo Bowl Texas Bowl
Kansas State Cheez-It Bowl Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Oklahoma Texas Bowl Cotton Bowl
Oklahoma State Cotton Bowl Alamo Bowl
Texas  Liberty Bowl Cheez-It Bowl

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2020-21 Bowl Games: Times and dates announced

The annual bowl games are one of the biggest draws for many networks in the annual postseason games. Their dates and times announced.

As the season moves on we edge ever so much closer to Bowl Season.

Continue reading “2020-21 Bowl Games: Times and dates announced”

Air Force Football: Top Five Moments from 2019

Moment #2 from 2019 Two Years is Two Too Many Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire Were still counting down the five most memorable moments of the Falcon’s 2019 football season. In case you missed our first three installments of this five part series, …

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Moment #2 from 2019

Two Years is Two Too Many

Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire

Were still counting down the five most memorable moments of the Falcon’s 2019 football season. In case you missed our first three installments of this five part series, check them out here  Part 1 , Part 2 and Part 3 .

COMING IN AT #2

November 2, 2019 Air Force 17 vs. Army 13

For any leg of the Military Academies Battle for the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, it can be expected to be hotly contested, regardless of team records. Coming into their 2019 clash with Army, Air Force had already lost to Navy earlier in the year, making the teams number one goal each season, a trip to the White House, already out of reach.

Army consequently was still searching for their footing when they traveled to Colorado Springs. They were one loss away from being eliminated from Bowl Consideration, but the ultimate prize was still within reach for Cadets from West Point; The Commander-In-Chief’s trophy. Army finishes the season against Navy, therefore a win at Air Force not only would have kept their Bowl aspirations alive, but a third consecutive trip to meet the President.

When you lay all that was at stake for Army out there, you could easily be fooled into attributing the motivation factor to their sideline. To borrow a phrase from Lee Corso “not so fast, my friend”. The Falcons had endured two consecutive losses to the Black Knights, and the Army team and fan base has been spewing reminders of it for the full 24 months.

Its almost as if the Army contingent had forgotten that Air Force had won 18 of their 20 meetings prior. Perhaps that’s more palatable than a friendly reminder of how Air Force has also captured the CIC Trophy 18 times, as compared to their eight. But who’s counting?

The beauty of this rivalry is that none of the aforementioned matters when Military Academies play. These are bitter rivalry games, and the play on the field reflects that. But there is something beautiful about these games, and as a football fan you have to appreciate that individuals that are ready and willing to die for one another can flip a switch to punish one another for a full four quarters, without batting an eye.

The 2019 meeting between Army and Air Force was certainly of that bruising variety, which it was apparent that neither team would leave an ounce of breath on the field.

Coming into the game, you would have thought that a slight offensive edge belonged to Air Force because of D.J. Hammond’s ability to throw the ball. That was not the case at all this day, as Hammond’s most critical contributions came in his decision making, and modest yet grueling rush yards, which the Falcon’s needed every one of.

Jabari Laws on the other hand came out slinging and had a career day throwing the ball for over 200 yards. So while the Falcon defense kept the Army run game well below its average, the passing game became the real wild card.

In the end, multiple fourth down stops by the Air Force defense were the difference. A theme as the season went on, as we saw. This was a showing of fortitude by both teams, but in the end, the Falcons did what they have done more often than not against Army; Air Force Sang Second.

Next Time We Reveal Air Force’s Top Moment from 2019!

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Air Force Football: Top Five Moments from 2019 (Part 3)

Moment #3 from 2019 The Kings of Colorado Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire Were still counting down the five most memorable moments of the Falcon’s 2019 football season. In case you missed our first two installments of this five part series, check …

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Moment #3 from 2019

The Kings of Colorado

Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire

Were still counting down the five most memorable moments of the Falcon’s 2019 football season. In case you missed our first two installments of this five part series, check them out here  Part 1 or Part 2 .

COMING IN AT #3

The Claim to Colorado: Air Force 30 at Colorado 23 | Air Force 38 at Colorado State 21

During the off-season if you looked ahead at the Air Force schedule, it appeared a daunting one. On top of the Mountain Division regulars, which includes rival Colorado State and the Commander-In-Chief series opponents, the Falcons landed in state foes, in the Colorado Buffaloes for 2019.

During the Mountain West’s media days, Troy Calhoun was as quick to remark on just how difficult their schedule looked. Going as far as to say its the toughest he’s seen at the Academy.

Hyperbole? Not necessarily.

The Falcons already had difficult games against Boise State, Wyoming and Utah State built into the calendar, along with the Rams at CSU. You can always count on two prize-fights against Army and Navy each year as well. Pair all of that up with a trip to Boulder to face an NFL potential talent at quarterback, defensive line, linebacker and an elite receiver, and the schedule quickly becomes legit.

The caveat of interest built into this schedule was the Battle for Colorado though. Air Force plays Colorado State every year. The Rams play the Buffaloes each season. But with the odds of Haley’s comet, the stars aligned, and the Falcons completed the Colorado trinity by facing the Buff’s for the first time since Nixon was in office.

The Falcons season couldn’t have gotten off to a more thrilling start, trading blows with an opponent from the PAC12. They could have viewed this game as a confidence builder to stay within a score, coming off of back to back 5-7 seasons. But instead, Air Force began their validation process to show just how special this team was in 2019.

After four quarters of back and forth lead changes, the Buff’s wrestled away a 10 point lead late in the game to send it into overtime. From there, the defense did their part, fending off a talented Colorado offense, and the offense did what they did a lot of this season; score touchdowns. Like a dagger to the heart, Kade Remsberg projects across the goal line, securing victory in the first leg of the battle for Colorado.

It wasn’t until mid November that Air Force would have the opportunity to complete their sweep of the state. Between their games in Boulder and Fort Collins, the Falcons stacked up another 5  wins before lining up against the Rams. As fate would have it, that would exceed the win total for the Rams for the entire 2019 season.

Air Force entered the contest with Colorado State full of confidence, and the end result reflected it. After going down 14-0 in the first quarter, the Falcons didn’t flinch. Completely dominating the balance of the game, and outscoring the Rams 38-7 from that point on.

Make no mistake, this was not the Commander-In-Chief’s trophy. However, these are in state rivals, and all three of these teams wanted this series. Its a shame this can’t be a more regularly played trilogy, but maybe it will find a way to land on the schedule more frequently in the future.

Reflective of the season that was for Air Force, the battle for Colorado went to the best team. And in nearly every game they played this year, a similar result would yield. All Hail the Kings of Colorado, the United States Air Force Academy!

Next We Will the second most epic moment of the 2019 season

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Air Force Football: Top Five Moments from 2019

Moment #4 from 2019 Bugg says Aloha for 92 yards and the score Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire Were counting down the top five moments of the Falcon’s 2019 football season. If you missed our initial post on the 5th ranked moment, you can check it …

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Moment #4 from 2019

Bugg says Aloha for 92 yards and the score

Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire

Were counting down the top five moments of the Falcon’s 2019 football season. If you missed our initial post on the 5th ranked moment, you can check it out here.

COMING IN AT #4

October 19, 2019: Air Force 56 at Hawai’i 26

Before Nick Rolovich’s Warriors from Hawai’i cemented themselves as the darlings of the West Division, they had a less than memorable meeting with the Cadets from Colorado Springs.

Prior to playing either of the Mountain Division powers, Hawai’i had begun to string together a nice season. They started the year off by knocking off two of their three power five opponents from the PAC 12. They then proceeded to dismantle their division rivals, Nevada by 51 points, all before the calendar turned to October.

After a 22 point loss on the Blue Turf to Boise, Hawai’i headed back to the island to prepare for Air Force. Things did not get any easier.

A prolific run-and-shoot passing offense that the Bows’ deployed, looked poise to feast on a Falcon defense that was coming off of a lackluster 2018, by their own admission. To make things even bleaker, the Falcons lost their starting quarterback, D.J. Hammond early in this game, and backup Isaiah Sanders was unavailable due to injury.

Enter, super senior Michael Schmidt. Under Schmidt, the offense didn’t miss a beat. In fact, the Air Force attack thrived under his control. Not only did the Falcons ground game have its way with Hawai’i, seeing Timothy Jackson and Schmidt clear 100 yards, with Kadin Remsberg not far behind, but the passing attack was humming as well.

The Air Force offense was operating at such a high level, it wouldn’t of mattered really how effective the Cole McDonald led pass attack was this day. The Falcons seemingly scored at will, but to make things worse for Hawai’i fans, we learned this day that the Air Force defense had completely turned the page from last year. Not only had they improved, but the defense was a force as we learned by seasons end.

Once the dust settled, Air Force handed Hawai’i a 30 point beat down. This was made possible by a relentless defensive effort that was topped off with a 92 yard interception return for a touchdown by Tre Bugg, sure to earn play of the year considerations this year.

And offensively, you couldn’t help but to appreciate what Mike Schmidt was able to do with his opportunity. Having less than a handful of snaps in his four years with the team prior, he cashed in with 120 yards on the ground and three touchdowns, to go along with 147 through the air and another score.

Next We Will Unveil Moment #3

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Air Force Football: Top Five Moments from 2019

Falcon Arial Assault Waters, Sanders and Hammond have Game for the Ages Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire When you put together a historical season as Air Force just did, the ride is usually composed of a lot of thrills. With the 2019 season in the …

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Falcon Arial Assault

Waters, Sanders and Hammond have Game for the Ages

Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire

When you put together a historical season as Air Force just did, the ride is usually composed of a lot of thrills. With the 2019 season in the books, lets take some time to reflect on some of the most memorable moments of the Falcons season.

COMING IN AT #5

November 23, 2019 Air Force 44 at New Mexico 22

Remember the Air Force game against New Mexico back in November, where D.J. Hammond missed that one pass? You know, the one where he literally threw a single incomplete pass!

If you missed this performance, or somehow forgot, allow me to reminisce. The Falcon ground game wasn’t their normal selves, chewing up a little more than 200 yards on the ground. Normally you might ask, what happened to their other 1/3 of rushing production?

The reality is, the firm of ‘Waters, Sanders and Hammond’ were so dominant, the normal workhorse backfield of Air Force was adjourned early. Even though Ben Waters and Geraud Sanders were the only players to catch passes this day, they tuned up the Lobo defense to the tune of 327 yards and four tuddies.

These guys along with quarterback, D.J. Hammond put up video game like numbers. Waters hauled in four passes that accounted for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Sanders on the other-hand was only able to grind out 156 yards on his five catches while matching his counterpart in touchdowns.

These two averaged 42 and 31 yards per catch respectively. If that number seems off-the-charts, it is. And much like the end of season stats supported, Sanders led the country in yards per catch. While Waters would have led the country if he had enough catches to qualify. In case your wondering, that was 700 yards and seven touchdowns on the season, which did not qualify.

Anytime you throw more touchdowns than incomplete passes, you have had a pretty special game. When you say that you threw three more touchdowns than incomplete passes, you are a liar.

Or, you were D.J. Hammond on this night. The Falcons trigger-man amassed 327 yards passing, while completing 9 out of 10 passes for four touchdowns. This was garnished well with another trip to paydirt on 41 rush yards, for a five total touchdown performance.

The numbers this offense compiled that night were impressive. But to truly appreciate this accomplishment, you have to understand that this is conventionally a run-heavy triple option offense. And even at that, the efficiency which these guys were able to surgically dismember their opponent was nothing short of spectacular.

Next We Revisit Moment #4

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Texas carries the Big 12 during bowl season

Going 1-5 in bowl season, the only Big 12 bowl win was Texas over Utah in the Alamo Bowl. The conference finishes 1-5 in all of their bowls.

In the final opportunity for the Big 12 to pick up a win this season, Baylor lost to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. That brought the conference’s overall record to 1-5, with Texas’ win over Utah being the only win.

There was a solid mix of close games, but a couple of blowouts that were not competitive from the beginning. Here are the final results from the Big 12 during bowl season:

Texas Bowl

Oklahoma State loses to Texas A&M, 24-21

Camping World Bowl

Iowa State loses to Notre Dame, 33-9

Peach Bowl

Oklahoma loses to LSU, 63-28

Alamo Bowl

Texas defeats Utah, 38-10

Liberty Bowl

Kansas State loses to Navy, 20-17

Sugar Bowl

Baylor loses to Georgia, 26-14

2019 was a massive let down from last season, where the Big 12 went 4-3, including a New Year’s Six Bowl win via Texas in the Sugar Bowl over Georgia. This is the conferences fewest amount of bowl wins in the College Football Playoff era.

With Oklahoma’s loss to LSU, the Big 12 now falls to 0-4 in the playoff, all of the losses coming at the expense of the Sooners. As for the New Year’s Six Bowl games, the conference has a poor 3-7 record in those games.

To make matters worse, the SEC won all three matchups against Big 12 teams. Including former member Texas A&M, who beat Oklahoma State in the Texas Bowl. Kansas State was the only team to play a Group of 5 opponent but lost to a very good Navy squad.

Texas is the only Big 12 team currently on a bowl winning streak, winning three straight. While most Texas fans are not cheering for a bunch of success from the conference, a better showing from the Big 12 was expected.

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Bowl Season: Mountain West Conference Simulated Results

A simulation run using updated rosters for the EA Sports NCAA 14 Football game was done to see how the Mountain West did this Bowl Year.

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How did the MWC fair this Bowl Season?

Thanks to the NCAA 14 Football Game- We have all the Bowl Insights!

Contact/Follow @Sean or @MWCWire

Earlier this fall, we covered how the NCAA Football Game Dynasty by EA Sports was still alive and well, even after production of the game stopped in 2014. If you missed it, take a look here.

Using the newly updated rosters for every team on the game, we were able to create real simulation results based on these 2019 teams. We matched-up every team in the Mountain West with their 2019/2020 Bowl Opponent, using the actual locations and players. The games were completely simulated with no user interaction.

Let’s go Bowl by Bowl and see how things shook out!

FRISCO BOWL, DEC. 20: UTAH STATE VS. KENT STATE

If the simulation is any indicator, folks who take in the Frisco Bowl are in for a treat. Jordan Love pulls a George Costanza, and leaves the Aggies on a high note (both puns intended) racking up over 300 yards passing to edge Kent State by three, with a 31-28 victory.

The Utah State defense also came up big holding the Golden Flash to 40% in the Red Zone and forcing two turnovers.

NEW MEXICO BOWL, DEC. 21: SAN DIEGO STATE VS. CENTRAL MICHIGAN

Next up is the New Mexico Bowl which every Aztec fan would be thrilled to have the simulated results. The folks from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan may take umbrage with the notion of San Diego State racking up 41 points though.

I don’t question the Aztecs ability to pound the ball on the ground like the results reflect, behind a strong performance from Juwan Washington. But I do have to wonder what happened to ignite a 41 – 10 drubbing.

LAS VEGAS BOWL, DEC. 21: BOISE STATE VS. WASHINGTON

The kings of the (Mountain) West got reacquainted with their old coach, in most inhospitable fashion. Despite featuring the games most highly rated player in the MWC, Curtis Weaver, it wasn’t enough to knock off the Huskies.

I’m sure Jacob Eason of Washington would be very happy to showcase a near 400 yard passing performance in front of the scouts to increase his draft stock. Mountain West Wire’s resident Bronco, Raj may want to protest the results of this 13 point defeat.

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Notre Dame/Iowa State: Camping World Bowl Watchability Rankings

You can go over recruiting rankings all you want and look at records but I really do buy into Iowa State’s coaching staff.  It’s not a mistake that Matt Campbell gets linked to NFL jobs an incredible amount despite his record being far from outstanding.

Pretty much no Notre Dame fans are excited that a 10-2 season ends in Orlando for the Camping World Bowl against an unranked 7-5 Iowa State team, but it’s a Notre Dame game at the end of the day and the last one we’ll have until they open the 2020 season against Navy in Ireland.

We’ll all soak it up, even if commenters here and on the message boards are full of those complaining and claiming they’ll protest it by not watching.

The rest of the nation has been weighing in on all bowl games though and ranking them from worst matchup or the least-watchable to the best match-up and most-watchable.

Where does Notre Dame’s contest against the pass-happy Cyclones rank?

Here’s what everyone else says and remember, the ranking is out of the 39 total bowl games this season:

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