Champs Sports Bowl, Insight Bowl

December 28, 2010

The days of just one bowl game being played per day are over. From this point on we've got 19 bowl games in the next five days as the week will conclude with six games on New Year's Day. Today figures to have two great games in the Champs Sports Bowl and Insight Bowl.


Champs Sports Bowl: West Virginia (9-3) vs. North Carolina State (8-4), 6:30pm on ESPN
12 Bowl Mania confidence points riding on this game
Matchup Advantage
West Virginia comes into this game happy to be here as the Champs Sports committee selected the Mountaineers over Notre Dame. West Virginia finished as one of the country’s hottest teams. North Carolina State, on the other hand, barely got by rival North Carolina and lost to Maryland to end the season. That loss to Maryland also took away NC State’s shot at an ACC Championship and BCS Bowl.
In bowl games, the motivation factor is always huge, and I’m not sure NC State’s happy to be here and Tom O’Brien does not have a great history of postseason success.
Speaking of coaches, we had a lot of controversy as to how West Virginia has handled its coaching situation as they hired Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen to come in as the Head Coach-In-Waiting and informed current WVU Bill Stewart that next year will be his last before Holgorsen takes over. Now normally, the current coach would have some say in a coach-in-waiting and give the school his own time table on when he will retire. No such deal was made with Stewart as West Virginia is essentially forcing him out and the athletic department threw him under the bus with their statements about the program.
All I know is that Stewart is one heck of a coach and a master motivator. This is also going to be the last game for offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen before Holgorsen takes over.
West Virginia’s only given up more than 20 points once all year. To guess who? Marshall. West Virginia boasts the nation’s No. 2 scoring defense behind TCU and they’ve got stars in the secondary with Brandon Hogan, Keith Tandy and Robert Sands. The unfortunate news is that Hogan is out with an injury and he’s West Virginia’s best cover corner. A guy for the Mountaineers not a lot of people know about is defensive end Bruce Irvin. I don’t have the full stat sheet on him but it’s something like this: 17 tackles, 11.5 sacks. The man is a sack machine and West Virginia throws him in their on 3rd downs and other obvious passing situations and he just gets to the quarterback. West Virginia is third in the nation in sacks while NC State is fourth and these aren’t two great offensive lines either. West Virginia’s line gives up 2.1 sacks per game and NC State gives up 2.8 sacks per game. Not good numbers.
Russell Wilson is an outstanding quarterback for NC State and this could be his last game as he can decide to leave for Pro Baseball. He was a second round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies, but Wilson has said he wants to play football in the NFL. Wilson’s about 5-foot-11; if he were 6-2, 6-3 he’d be a first round draft pick in the NFL.
NC State was picked to finish really low in the ACC but instead contended for the title. I had questions, there were a lot of questions about their run game but true freshman Mustafa Greene emerged as a bruising back while Wilson is the team’s second-leading rusher with just two less carries than Greene.
The NC State defense is solid, but I love West Virginia’s defense and I love their offense. Geno Smith has improved through the year and finished with 23 touchdowns to six interceptions, and I like West Virignia’s innovation on offense. I like the Jeff Mullen offense and the jet sweeps and reverses they’ll run with Jock Sanders and my man, Tavon Austin. Bradley Starks is a mismatch in the redzone for NC State and this is Noel Devine’s last game as a Mountaineers as he struggled through a toe injury. I don’t expect him to go out without a few big plays.
Prediction: West Virginia 30, NC State 21
Players to watch: WVU DE Bruce Irvin; NC State LB Nate Irving


Insight Bowl: Missouri (10-2) vs. Iowa (7-5), 10:00pm on ESPN
13 Bowl Mania Confidence points in this game.
Matchup Advantage 
It’s been a rough past month and a half for Iowa as they lost their last three games and then lost star receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, who was arrest for keeping a drug house. I was shocked, absolutely shocked by that news. DJK was one of my favorite players in the country and he will never play again. Iowa’s also without tailback Adam Robinson who is in eligible and they had already lost Jewel Hampton so they’re down to true freshman Marcus Coker as really, they’re only running back with experience.
I had high hopes for Iowa by having them in my preseason top ten and picking them to go win the Big Ten. Instead, the Big Ten ended in a three-way tie between Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State. Iowa hammered Michigan State 37-6 but then lost by very narrow margins to Wisconsin and Ohio State.
But the Iowa team is still much better than the 7-5 record indicates, especially on defense and they should be able to play toe-to-toe with 10-2 Missouri.
Without Robinson and DJK, there are still weapons on the Iowa offense led by Ricky Stanzi with Marvin McNutt and tight end Allen Reisner, but the explosiveness for big plays isn’t there anymore.
On the offensive side of the ball for Missouri, I love quarterback Blaine Gabbert, one of my favorite guys and has pro potential. I think he’s the third best quarterback if he enters the 2011 NFL Draft, but Gabbert’s numbers don’t match from last year after he sputtered down the stretch. Missouri opened the season struggling with Missouri and San Diego State before really turning it on against Texas A&M and Oklahoma on both sides of the ball but then sputtered against Nebraska and Texas Tech. Gabbert finished the year throwing two interceptions against Kansas in the Border War.
Speaking of Border War, these two teams are in bordering states.
These are two great defenses, this is the best defense Missouri’s ever had and that’s hard to believe considering they lost Sean Weatherspoon. Missouri ranks No. 6 in total defense with Iowa right behind them at No. 7.
Missouri sure has a lot more weapons on offense if the O-Line can protect Gabbert against Iowa’s star-studded defense line (Adrian Clayborn, Mike Daniels, Karl Klug, Christian Ballard) but TJ Moe, Jerrell Jackson, Wes Kemp and sure-handed tight end Michael Egnew is a great group to throw too. Missouri’s offense got a lot of balance this year too to help Gabbert; they’ve run 433 pass plays and 410 running plays. But the rest of Iowa’s defense is great too with Tyler Sash, Micah Hyde and Shaun Prater in the secondary.
It’ll be a low scoring game and I remember highlighting Missouri defensive end Aldon Smith for the Oklahoma game because that was his first game back from injury. I said he’d wreak havoc on Landry Jones and all he did was pick up two sacks and an interception. Keep an eye on Aldon Smith in this one, too.
It should be a low scoring game and if it comes down to the kicking game, I’ll bank on Missouri’s Grant Ressel instead of Iowa true freshman Michael Meyer. And with special teams always being a factor in close games, Iowa will miss Derrell Johnson-Koulianos in the kick return game, too.
Prediction: Missouri 20, Iowa 17
Players to watch: Missouri DE Aldon Smith; Iowa CB Micah Hyde


Recap
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl, Dec. 27
Prediction: Air Force 35, Georgia Tech 27
I said in my prediction that Air Force’s defense and passing game would be the difference in this one. Little did I know that those two factors would dominate the game. Air Force was able to convert a lot of key third and fourth downs through the passing games and the defense against Georgia Tech was phenomenal.
I expected to see a lot of big plays. I thought the passing plays would be for big yardage, maybe touchdowns. I thought the triple-option offenses from both teams would create some big plays and maybe three or four long touchdown runs. That didn’t happen.
Georgia Tech played with Tevin Washington at quarterback and I don’t know why but for a lot of the game it looked like Tech was playing outside their comfort zone and Washington carried the ball 28 times. Anthony Allen had 23 carries for 91 yards, but Orwin Smith and Roddy Jones weren’t very much involved in the game and Georgia Tech rarely pitched the ball.
Georgia Tech lost three fumbles, two of them were muffed punts that set Air Force up with great field position and they took advantage. Air Force also had a beautifully executed fake punt reverse that ended up being their biggest gain of the game I think.
Georgia Tech had a chance to tie it at the end before Tevin Washington was intercepted by Jon Davis to end the game.
Result: Air Force 14, Georgia Tech 7
My MVP: Tim Jefferson, QB, Air Force