Cotton Bowl Preview

January 7, 2011

Tonight there are two big ballgames going down in the state of Texas with the AT&T Cotton Bowl and the FCS National Championship Game. Technically, the winner between Delaware and Eastern Washington is the NCAA's National Champion in Football. Ya know, because the FBS doesn't have a playoff system..or a true national champion...just a BCS champion...I guess the AP Poll National Champion is as close as you get to a national champion in Division I Football, unless you want to call Delaware the national champion over Auburn or Oregon.

Let's start with a little segment on the FCS Championship.
FCS National Championship: Eastern Washington (12-2) vs. Delaware (12-2)
This game is otherwise known as the FCS National Championship: Pat Devlin vs. Bo Levi Mitchell. Both are transfers, Devlin from Penn State and Mitchell from SMU. Devlin couldn't beat out Daryll Clark and Mitchell lost his job due to injury and never got it back so decided to leave.

Both of these guys dreamed of playing in the national championship. Now here they are. To get here, Delaware rolled over Georgia Southern while Eastern Washington took care of Villanova (after Matt Sczur was hurt). Villanova is the only common opponent between these two teams as Eastern Washington comes from the Big Sky and Delaware from the CAA. Delaware lost to Villanova 28-21 in overtime. Delaware's other loss came by one point to William & Mary and Eastern Washington's two losses were to Nevada of the FBS and Montana State.

Pat Devlin has thrown only two interceptions all year, and shouldn't have thrown even that many. The guy is great and may be the best senior quarterback in the upcoming NFL Draft. His two interceptions were both on tipped passes.

Bo Levi Mitchell is coming off a four touchdown game against Villanova but that was almost a month ago. We'll see Mitchell goes back to his habits of throwing crucial interceptions.

Eastern Washington is without their top running back Taiwan Jones again but they do have JC Sherritt, the FCS's Defensive Player of the Year equivalent to the FBS's Bednarik Award.

Watch out for Delaware's freshman running back Andrew Pierce who they'll have to establish and another guy to watch is Delaware receiver Nihja White, only a sophomore, at 6'2" 205, he's a down field threat.

The next most interesting thing in this game might be Delaware's kicker Mike Perry. He wears #21. I haven't seen any other kicker where a # in the 20's. Just sayin'

I'll take Delaware in this game. Pat Devlin is my hero.


On a more serious occasion, back to the FBS, where bowl games matter.


AT&T Cotton Bowl: Texas A&M (9-3) vs. LSU (10-2), 8:00pm on FOX
The Cotton Bowl is being played in the Dallas Cowboys Stadium while the TicketCity Bowl (otherwise known as the Dallas Football Classic) was played in the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day. Make sense to you?
Last Meeting: Texas A&M 33 - LSU 17, 1995 Regular Season
Texas A&M
*Last Bowl Game: 2009 Independence Bowl, Lost 44-20 to Georgia
This past summer when we almost had a monumental shift in the college landscape, Texas A&M almost left the Big 12 Conference to join the SEC West where they would have been pitted with LSU. That didn't happen, but these two teams meet nonetheless.
Texas A&M enters this game on a six game winning streak sparked by the change at quarterback to Ryan Tannehill, who was a starting receiver. Jerrod Johnson entered the season as a dark-horse Heisman candidate (I never bought into it) and had his most disappointing season with turnovers.
The Texas A&M defense is priming under new coordinator Tim DeRuyter (from Air Force) in his 3-4 scheme that better utilizes All-American Von Miller. A secondary that was terrible for the last two year's is now above average led by Terrence Frederick as their best corner.
On offense, A&M is one of the most balanced with Cyrus Gray running and then having an array of receivers to throw to led by Jeff Fuller and Uzoma Nwachuku and Ryan Swope.
LSU
*Last Bowl Game: 2010 Capital One Bowl, Lost 19-17 to Penn State
LSU gets running back Stevan Ridley back after he was initially ruled academically ineligible. But will it matter? It better. If LSU can't run the ball against Texas A&M, then there's no shot to win. They've been shuffling quarterbacks between Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee all year and finally stuck with Jefferson at the end. He's got so much upside, who knows what the coaching staff is doing with him down there.
The two dynamic recruits from two years ago, Reuben Randle and Russel Shepard are finally making an impact but they have to find ways to get the ball to them.
Defensively, LSU will likely match Patrick Peterson on A&M's Jeff Fuller and we'll see if A&M tries to force the ball that way. It's great to have a guy like Peterson that shut down an entire side of the field. Love Peterson.
The rest of LSU's defense isn't too shabby either. Texas A&M need their defense to play spectacular in their upset over Nebraska as the A&M offense mustered only 9 points against the Huskers' defense. LSU's defense is just as good.
What to watch:
Which defense will make a play. Texas A&M has not turned the ball over much since Tannehill took over and LSU is turnover prone. Both are outstanding defenses, and Patrick Peterson is on the LSU side. He leads the nation in interception return yards.On the A&M side, they have Von Miller who is among the nation's best in forcing fumbles.
Motivation Factor: Texas A&M is definitely the more motivated team. LSU knows they had a chance to play in the Sugar Bowl and blew it against Arkansas. There were too many distractions throughout the team as to whether Patrick Peterson was entering the NFL Draft or if they'd have Ridley eligible for this game and Les Miles' name being thrown around in other coaching searches. Texas A&M could have been relegated to a lesser bowl but instead was chosen by the Cotton Bowl despite their three-game losing streak and loss to Oklahoma State. No one has paid much attention to the Aggies while Texas with a 5-7 record still garnered more attention than them. They'll catch the nation's attention tonight.
Summary
It’s an artificial turf in the Cotton Bowl so Les Miles can’t eat grass for good luck. Without that luck, his team might not be able to pull it out. These two teams are really a lot more evenly matched than people expect and I think the motivation factor might be the key in this game. We'll see if Les Miles has his guys fired up or if they're still shaking their heads about the Arkansas game. I haven't heard much reaction from the LSU side while I hear Texas A&M is excited as could be. Watch out for special teams in this game. It should be a defensive battle and a low-scoring game but one special teams touchdown could be the defense. Two of the nation's best kick returners are in this game with Patrick Peterson for LSU and Coryell Judie for Texas A&M.
Players to watch: Texas A&M LB Von Miller; LSU CB Patrick Peterson
Potential Impact Player: Texas A&M WR Uzoma Nwachuku; LSU DT Drake Nevis
Prediction: Texas A&M 24, LSU 17