Tag: Bowl Season

Packers fans Viewer’s Guide to Bowl Season 1.0

Previewing 2022 NFL draft prospects for the Packers during bowl games on Friday, December 17.

I feel it in my fingers. I feel it in my toes. Bowl season is all around me, so let the prospects glow. (Yes that’s a Love Actually reference).

It’s bowl season and throughout the bowl season, I’ll be bringing Green Bay Packers’ fans a viewer’s guide for each bowl game. We will start with the Friday, Dec. 17 slate of games.

Throughout these guides, we will be taking a look at one prospect per team that Packers fans should be watching. So, get your favorite holiday drink and let’s take a look at the four prospects Green Bay fans should be watching.

The degenerate’s guide to betting the outer fringes of bowl season

There are 43 dang bowl games so let’s talk about them.

There are several high profile bowl games that serve as our reward for making it through another season of college football. These are the games that will crown a national champion and add new names to a prestigious history of winners. They will take place at hallowed venues and stadiums reserved for the highest level of the sport, in major cities and known tourist destinations (as well as Indianapolis).

This article is not about those bowl games.

This article is about Shreveport and Mobile and El Paso. About sponsors like Duke’s Mayonnaise and RoofClaim.com and the Idaho Potato Commission. About the Sun Belt, the MAC, and the tattered remnants of Conference-USA.

This is about the lesser bowl games. These are the distraction you leave in a muted browser window as you play out the chain of work days before Christmas vacation. They are the release valve that comes with a full week of family holiday obligations. They are the answer to the question “why are you drinking at noon on a Tuesday?”

A true football degenerate doesn’t need any skin in the action to watch all 42 of this year’s bowl games. A true degenerate also wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to squeeze every drop of value from a showdown between Kent State and Wyoming.

In that spirit, allow me to be your sherpa through the truest expression of college football: the outer limits of bowl season.

All odds via Tipico Sportsbook. Just want the lines for all 42 games? We’ve got you covered here.

Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees discusses Fiesta Bowl

What is your favorite college bowl game and why (non-CFP)?

Marcus Freeman had the recruiting itch so was out and about trying to make the future of the Notre Dame football program better Sunday evening.  As a result, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees met the media instead of the head coach in advance of the Fiesta Bowl which the Irish had been announced to be playing in earlier in the day.

Below is everything Rees had to say about Notre Dame’s invitation to the Fiesta Bowl, his initial thoughts on Oklahoma State, and everything else in regards to the health of players and the crazy week that was for the Fighting Irish football team.

BEAKING: Florida to take on UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl

The Gators’ bowl game will have a lot of in-state intrigue.

After a relatively long wait, the Gators finally know their bowl destination.

Florida will be traveling to Tampa to take on the UCF Knights in the Gasparilla Bowl at Raymond James Stadium on Dec. 23, per Brett McMurphy of the Action Network.

The Gators reached bowl eligibility with a win over Florida State in the final game of the regular season, and the reward is a matchup against a Knights team that Florida is scheduled to play in Gainesville in 2024 and 2033, while it will travel to the Bounce House in Orlando in 2030. There was a bit of controversy in scheduling that series, to say the least, and a neutral site bowl game matchup certainly presents a lot of intrigue.

It’s been a solid if slightly disappointing first year at UCF for coach Gus Malzahn, whose squad went 8-4, and the Knights finished in a three-way tie for third in the American Athletic Conference Standings. Its best win was a comeback 36-31 victory over Boise State in Week 1.

The Gators have only faced Central Florida twice since the program joined the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1996 — a 58-27 win in 1999 and a 42-0 victory in 2006 en route to a national title.

Interim coach Greg Knox will look for one more win at the helm before new coach Billy Napier takes over following the bowl game.

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Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Our hopes for a mayo bath might be coming true at this year’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl

Ten thousand dollars for charity, and a gooey head coach. What’s not to love?

Before the 2020 college football season, the Belk Bowl — a bowl game based in Charlotte that features an ACC team against either a Big Ten or SEC opponent — changed title sponsors to become the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The inaugural game under the new branding featured Wisconsin against Wake Forest.

The Badgers dominated the Demon Deacons, cruising to a 42-28 victory in front of a sparse crowd due to COVID-19 limitations. As the seconds ticked down, the internet began wondering what would be in the gatorade bucket to douse head coach Paul Chryst. Sadly, it was just energy drink, disappointing hordes of extremely online fans that hoped to see a grown man covered in a viscous condiment.

If you don’t believe me, just Twitter search “Wisconsin mayo bath.” Or don’t, it is also a little upsetting.

This year, our mayonnaise hopes and dreams are alive and well thanks to a video from Duke’s Mayo Bowl executive director Danny Morrison. In the 23-second message, Morrison apologizes for getting everyone invested in last year’s gooey celebration, and says that it’s a go this year…with one twist.

Ten thousand dollars for charity AND a slimy head coach? YES PLEASE. The Duke’s Mayo Bowl is scheduled for December 30th, and the teams will be announced on December 5.

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Initial Bowl Season projections have Vols slated for New Year’s Day game

Initial Bowl Season projections have Vols slated for New Year’s Day game in Florida.

Tennessee (4-4, 2-3 SEC) will play at Kentucky (6-2, 4-2 SEC) Saturday in Week 10.

Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. EDT and will be televised by ESPN2.

Ahead of Week 10 contests, BowlSeason.com has Tennessee projected to play Iowa in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2022. The Outback Bowl is played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Bowl Season’s entire projections can be viewed here.

2021 Tennessee Vols’ football schedule

  • Sept. 2 Bowling Green (W, 38-6)
  • Sept. 11 Pittsburgh (L, 41-34)
  • Sept. 18 Tennessee Tech (W, 56-0)
  • Sept. 25 at Florida (L, 38-14)
  • Oct. 2 at Missouri (W, 62-24)
  • Oct. 9 South Carolina (W, 45-20)
  • Oct. 16 Ole Miss (L, 31-26)
  • Oct. 23 at Alabama (L, 52-24)
  • Nov. 6 at Kentucky
  • Nov. 13 Georgia
  • Nov. 20 South Alabama
  • Nov. 27 Vanderbilt

Follow us at @VolsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of University of Tennessee athletics.

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Latest bowl projections put LSU outside of the New Years Six

The latest bowl projections have LSU taking on one of two Big Ten foes on New Year’s Day.

It is that time again, a weekly check-in on the latest bowl projections. This time it comes from ESPN. As is the tradition each week, Kyle Monagura and Mark Schlabach put out their latest bowl projections. Others have picked the LSU Tigers to return to the New Years Six after declining a bowl invitation in 2020.

Both analysts have the Tigers playing in the Outback Bowl for the first time since 2014. That season they played the Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference. In that game LSU running back Jeremy Hill sealed the victory for the Bayou Bengals with a 37-yard scoring run with just over three minutes left in the game. The Tigers held on for the 21-14 victory over the unranked Hawkeyes.

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As for this year, Bonagura has LSU and Iowa going at it again, seven years after the first matchup in this bowl game. Over their history, these teams have met twice. Both games came in bowl contests, Iowa won 30-25 in the Capital One Bowl and LSU won 21-14 in the Outback Bowl. Both games were played on New Years Day in the state of Florida.

Schlabach has the Tigers matching up with the Penn State Nittany Lions. LSU would be in search of their first-ever victory over the team that hails from Happy Vally. Much like Iowa, both games in the series have come in the state of Florida. Penn State won the 1974 Orange Bowl 16-9 and again in the 2010 Captial One Bowl 19-17. Both games were played on Jan. 1.

Either way, it would be an interesting matchup against a Big Ten foe.

Bowl Rankings: How Good Were All 25 Bowl Games?

How good were the games in the 2020-2021 bowl season? Ranking all the bowl games from the worst to the best.

How good were the games in the 2020-2021 bowl season? Ranking all the bowl games from the worst to the best.

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This was a miserable bowl season, but there were different levels of pain and suffering.

Out of the 25 bowl games played – with one big one still to go – 16 of them were double-digit blowouts, most of the close games were ugly-bad, and there wasn’t any classic that hasn’t already been memory dumped by anyone outside of the winning fan base.

But it was a bowl season – the fact that we got as many games as we did is incredible.

There’s still one little game to go with this turning into a ranking of the 26 best bowl games after Monday night.

Here’s how good the bowl games were this season.

Bowl Rankings
Total Duds | Bowls: No More, No Less
Decent Bowls | Good Bowls | Best Bowls

Bowl Rankings: Total Duds

These weren’t just the worst games of this bowl season. These made people question the world and their reason for living in it. None of them were 2018 Cheez-It Bowl-level awful, but …

25. Offerpad Arizona Bowl

Ball State 34, San Jose State 13
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 11
– 10 Thoughts on the Arizona Bowl

This one wasn’t fair.

Ball State will more than happily take the first bowl win in the program’s history, but San Jose State was walloped by COVID issues announced just before the game, the Mountain West champ was a shadow of its regular season self, and it got ugly immediately.

Ball State got up 27-0 in the first quarter starting with a pick-six, and were up 34-0 in the third before the Spartans finally got on the board with a kickoff return for a touchdown.

24. R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Georgia Southern 38, Louisiana Tech 3
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 22
– 10 Things To Know from the New Orleans Bowl

Would Shai Werts play or not?

The Georgia Southern quarterback played through a shoulder problem, he was awesome, and this game was a disaster. The Eagles took a 21-0 first half lead, only allowed one measly Louisiana Tech field goal, and totally dominated.

Louisiana Tech was -4 in turnover margin, never had the ball, and generated 232 yards of total offense whether it needed them or not.

Werts? 71 rushing yards and three touchdowns, and 7-of-12 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown for the option attack.

23. The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One

Alabama 31, Notre Dame 14
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 9
– 5 Thoughts Reaction, Analysis: Rose Bowl

Start with the Rose Bowl being played in Arlington instead of Pasadena, and it goes downhill from there.

No one thought Notre Dame had a prayer, the game was supposed to be a light scrimmage, and that’s exactly what happened. It was 7-0 Crimson Tide five minutes in, and that was about it.

There was the slightest fraction of a moment in the second quarter when it looked like this might be interesting after a 15-play Irish touchdown drive to make it 14-7, but that only seemed to make Alabama mad.

DeVonta Smith caught a 34-yard touchdown pass just over two minutes later, and that was that.

22. LendingTree Bowl

Georgia State 39, WKU 21
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 23
– 10 Things To Know from the LendingTree Bowl

WKU was up 7-0 on a strong first quarter drive, the defense was doing okay, and …

Ugh.

Georgia State rolled for 27 straight points on three second quarter touchdown passes from Cornelious Brown, the defense forced three takeaways, and the team was in total control throughout. Even after WKU came up with a third quarter touchdown, it was all Panther O from there with scoring drive after scoring drive to go up 39-14 until the final moments.

21. GoodYear Cotton Bowl Classic

Oklahoma 55, Florida 20
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 3
– 10 Thoughts on the Cotton Bowl

The ONLY reason why this isn’t even lower is because Oklahoma was so much fun to watch.

It was over the moment most of Florida’s receiving corps opted out, there were more key players out, and Oklahoma put it away with a 17-0 lead – ended on a Tre Norwood pick six of Kyle Trask – in the first seven minutes.

Emory Jones and the Gators made it interesting for a little bit in the second quarter to pull within 17-13, but the Sooners ended the fun four plays later with a quick touchdown drive as part of a 38-point run to turn this into an embarrassment.

Bowl Rankings
Bowls: No More, No Less
Decent Bowls | Good Bowls | Best Bowls

NEXT: Bowl Rankings: Bowl Games. No More, No Less

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The Big Ten is off to a hot start to Bowl Season, though some continue to say it was a down year for the conference

With the Ohio State Buckeyes, Wisconsin Badgers and Northwestern Wildcats all winners in their bowl games, the Big Ten sits at 3-0 thus far

After the Ohio State Buckeyes avenged last season’s CFP Semifinal loss last night by beating Clemson 49-28, the Big Ten moved to 3-0 during Bowl Season.

Badger fans know about Wisconsin’s 42-28 victory over Wake Forest to start off the conference’s Bowl run, but the Northwestern Wildcats followed them up yesterday afternoon by handily defeating Auburn 35-19.

Related: Final game grades, report card for Wisconsin vs. Wake Forest

All year analysts have been calling 2020 a down year for the Big Ten because Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Michigan struggled. But as managing editor at Saturday Tradition Dustin Schutte rightly noted: Watch the teams, not the names.”

It wasn’t a down year for the Big Ten—with Indiana breaking out to a 6-1 record and losing to Ohio State by only seven points, Northwestern shocking the world week after week and giving the Buckeyes a run for their money in the conference championship game and Iowa rounding into form as the season progressed—finishing at 6-2.

Related: Studs and duds from the Wisconsin Badgers’ 2020 football season

People will look at the conference’s bowl record and say most of the teams aren’t playing the nation’s best. That’s true, but the only measuring stick people should need is Ohio State’s blowout win over Clemson last night.

Indiana fell by only 7 to that Buckeye team thanks to an unbelievable day from QB Michael Penix Jr. and the Northwestern defense held Fields to 114 yards and 2 interceptions.

But this is what College Football is year after year, the SEC (and ACC) somehow gets a pass no matter what happens during the postseason because Alabama (or Clemson) is always the nation’s best team. Then, when the Big Ten comes into Bowl Season and succeeds, it’s because the other Power Five conferences don’t care as much about the postseason or already played their best hand weeks before.

I’m not here to say the Big Ten is the best conference in College Football, but the narrative that it was a “down year” is a lazy one that clearly didn’t include watching the conference’s best teams (Ohio State, Indiana, Iowa and Northwestern) play football.

I’m purposely avoiding the topic of 6-1 Indiana playing a 4-5 Ole Miss team on January 2, but for those out there that see broadcasters and analysts call 2020 a bad year for the Big Ten: call them on it, and pray the evaluation of the conference’s success in future years goes beyond just that of the brand-name schools.

Northwestern vs Auburn: Vrbo Citrus Bowl 10 Thoughts On NU 35-19 Win

Northwestern 35 Auburn 19. The 10 ten things you need to know about the Northwestern win over Auburn in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl.

Northwestern 35 Auburn 19. The 10 ten things you need to know about the Northwestern win over Auburn in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl.

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Northwestern vs Auburn: Vrbo Citrus Bowl

10. Really, Auburn defense?

Auburn didn’t get the memo that the Northwestern offense just doesn’t do a whole lot.

It failed to hit 300 yards of total O in four of its eight games before this and only hit 400 yards against Maryland and Illinois. The 457 yards against Auburn were the third-most this season, with everything clicking early to take control of the game, and then hammering to take over late.

Auburn struggled to get a third down stop, didn’t generate enough pressure, and couldn’t hold up as the game went on. The Wildcat passing game had time to operate, and the offensive line was able to blast away on a run defense that had big, big problems against teams that were able to control things on the ground. The 51 carries by Northwestern tied Ole Miss for the most against the Tiger D. And with that …

9. Cam Porter is going to be really, really good

The 5-10, 220-pound freshman didn’t do much of most of the season, and then he tore up Illinois for 142 yards on 24 carries and ran for 61 yards in the Big Ten Championship. This was his day to be the hammer, running 33 times for a tough 98 yards and a late touchdown.

Auburn didn’t give up a ton of big runs, but it got nickeled-and-dimed to death.

8. The Northwestern coaching staff

Is that it for Pat Fitzgerald? He’s being rumored to have a whole lot of interest from the NFL types, but he was supposedly in the mix for the next level a few years ago, too. For a program that couldn’t win bowl games and struggled to come up with any sort of success, that’s four bowl wins in four tries – five in the last six bowl appearances – to go with two Big Ten West championships in three years.

 

Fitzgerald might still stick around, but defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz is calling it a career after being a part of the success since 2008. The 73-year-old was tremendous during Colorado’s heyday, was a big part of great defenses at Arizona and Wisconsin, and then with the Cats. His D allowed some late yards, but it dominated.

7. Northwestern went Northwestern

You want to pitch a near-perfect game if you’re Northwestern? Control the clock for almost 36 minutes, don’t turn the ball over, dominate on third downs, and most of all, get up fast.

The 14-0 in the first quarter meant the world. This isn’t necessarily a come-from-behind team – even though it was able to do it at times – and it works a whole lot better when it got to rely on its defense and ball control style.

NEXT: Top Six Thoughts From The Vrbo Citrus Bowl

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