Three Bowl Games before Christmas

December 22, 2009

Tuesday, December 22
MAACO Las Vegas Bowl, 8pm on ESPN
No. 18 Oregon State Beavers (8-5) vs. No. 14 Brigham Young Cougars (11-2)
In the first matchup of ranked teams in the Las Vegas Bowl, BYU is back for the fifth straight time and try to rebound after last year's upset to Arizona. Oregon State might come into this game a little deterred after they were one win away from the Rose Bowl, but the Beavers have won five straight bowl games. BYU quarterback Max Hall has become the spokesman for inconsistency and he might be due to have another bad game, while Oregon State QB Sean Canfield has emerged as a potential mid-round draft pick in the coming NFL Draft. Oregon State has more weapons on offense with Jacquizz Rodgers and James Rodgers, but BYU's defense has been pretty stout against the run all season. It's Oregon State that struggled to stop the run which cost them in the Oregon game for a shot at the Rose Bowl. BYU has a trio of backs led by 1,000 yard rusher Harvey Unga. To prevent Hall from getting into obvious passing situations, BYU will have to gain yards on the ground. Oregon State is 5-0 in bowl games under head coach Mike Riley, but BYU can put a blemish on that record with a good game from Hall.
Prediction: BYU 38, Oregon State 34
Result: BYU 44, Oregon State 20
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Boy is Oregon State happy about that. This was a performance the Beavers would like to forget. Through winds gusting up to 42 mph, Oregon State took a 7-0 lead on a Sean Canfield quarterback sneak after three-and-outs for both teams on their first possessions. The rest of the night wasn't so great for the senior Canfield. From that point on it was all BYU as they put up 37 unanswered points. In the second quarter going against the wind, Oregon State punter Johnny Hekker kicked the ball straight up and the wind brought it straight down for only a 6-yard punt. BYU took over deep in Oregon State territory and Max Hall hit Luke Ashworth 25 yards in the endzone (the extra point attempt was blocked though). Coming out in the third quarter, Hall found his All-American tight end and top receiver Dennis Pitta up the middle to expand the lead to 30-7. Hall had a great game, which was a key I pointed out for BYU to win Hall had to play well and he threw three touchdowns and did not turn the ball over.
Oregon State was playing purely for pride now. They were shut out in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, both quarters where they were playing into the wind. On a 4th down and 7 to go from the 25 yard line, Oregon State decided to go for it rather than trying a field goal into the wind and the pass was broken up by Brian Logan as the BYU defense kept playing hard.
Oregon State wasn't done in the 4th quarter when they switched sides and had the wind to their back. BYU had done a good job of shutting down the two explosive weapons in the Rodgers brothers of Oregon State. BYU Coach Bronco Mendenhall said they spent a lot of time in practice devoted to stopping the duo. James went the entire first half without a catch and BYU stuffed every fly sweep he attempted, while Quizz only broke one big 29-yard run all night, but for the most part was stopped in the backfield as BYU manhandled Oregon State's young offensive line that featured a true freshman at left tackle and a walk-on at right tackle. Quizz's only touchdown of the game was on a 1-yard run with 9:00 left after back-to-back pass interference calls in the endzone on BYU, but the extra point attempt by the Beavers would hit the left upright and bounce back into the field of play. Nothing was going right.
But then the Beavers recovered the onside kick, and seemingly made Hall anxious on the sidelines, you could tell the senior wanted to take the field again. Oregon State tried throwing down field and the wind propelled Canfield's throw higher and farther and it was picked off by BYU safety Scott Johnson; and, this was the play following Johnson being flagged for 30 yards for a personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct, but he made up for it with the interception. Hall came out and had one last thing to add to his highlight reel as he hit Manase Tonga on a screen pass for the touchdown to extend the BYU lead to 44-13. Sean Canfield, the Oregon State senior quarterback, walked off the field in tears after throwing the interception and wouldn't take the field again. The Beavers sent in freshman Ryan Katz who hit Damola Adeniji for his first career touchdown pass. The final score was 44-20. The 44 points allowed by Oregon State was the second most in the school's bowl history.
My Player of the Game: Max Hall, BYU Quarterback

Bowls Blog

Wednesday, December 23
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, 8pm on ESPN
No. 23 Utah Utes (9-3) vs. California Golden Bears (8-4)
This is a great chance for the Mountain West Conference to show their strength over a AQ conference. When this matchup was announced, I immediately thought Cal to win the game, but now I got to go with Utah, seeking a 10-win season. Most of Utah's team from a year ago that upset Alabama in the Sugar Bowl is gone, but a lot of young guys show the bright future for the Utes. Utah's only three losses were against: TCU, Oregon, and BYU, who are all ranked in the Top 14, and two are playing in BCS bowls. When Cal loses, they lose ugly, but I think they could keep this game close, but they will be without sensational runningback Jahvid Best who has missed the last few weeks with a concussion and will not play in this game. Sophomore Shane Vereen has filled in nicely for Best, but he's not the big play guy that Best was, who could score everytime he touched the ball. Utah's won eight straight bowl games and their freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn finished the season strong and has a lot of weapons to throw to, while Cal is still looking for offense.
Prediction: Utah 31, Cal 24
Result: Utah 37, California 27
In the eight games that Cal has won this year, they jumped out early and blew their opponents away. With a 14-0 lead after 36 yard run from Shane Vereen and a pick six made by Eddie Young, it looked like this one was getting out of hand early. All credit to Utah true freshman quarterback Jordan Wynn. After the interception he had a spectacular game and got a lot of help from his receivers racking up yards after the catch, too. After Wynn threw the pick six, Utah got a big return on the ensuing kickoff from Shaky Smithson setting up a 7 play 24 yard drive for a touchdown. Utah went on to score 27 unanswered points, two touchdown catches were made by tight end Kendrick Moeai for his first two touchdown grabs of the year.
A big play that helped Wynn settle in was the short screen shuffle pass to Eddie Wide that created a big play twice. With 43 seconds left in the first half, Cal dropped eight men into coverage and Jereme Brooks somehow still got wide open on a post pattern to make the score 24-14 going into halftime. Utah would kick a field goal in the third quarter after Mike Wright recovered a Kevin Riley fumble, but Riley would respond leading Cal on a 77 yard drive to cut the lead to 27-21.
But that was all she wrote for Cal as Utah's defensive line continued to manhandle Cal's offensive line and get pressure on Riley and stop Shane Vereen in the backfield. Utah boasts the 20th-ranked defense in the country and have a star in every layer of the defense. Safety Robert Johnson made his presence felt early in the game by putting two big hits on Cal receiver Verran Tucker and in the fourth quarter Johnson got his sixth interception of the season minutes after tipping a pass for Stevenson Sylvester to intercept and the senior took it all the way to the endzone to seal the deal.
My Player of the Game: Robert Johnson, Utah Safety
Honorable Mention: Utah's Defensive Line
Honorable Mention: Jordan Wynn, Utah Quarterback

Thursday, December 24
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, 8pm on ESPN
Nevada Wolfpack (8-4) vs. Southern Methodist Mustangs (7-5)
What a job that SMU head coach June Jones has done with the Mustangs taking them to their first bowl game since 1984. Jones also returns to the islands of Hawaii where he coached and led Hawaii to a BCS bowl game with Colt Brennan. Jones wants to instill the same system he had at Hawaii but doesn't have the athletes to do it yet in his first year, but he's got a great young quarterback in Bo Levi Mitchell and also freshman Kyle Padron who took over at midseason after Mitchell suffered an injury. The thing to watch in this game will be whether Jones tries to go to his pass happy offense, because Nevada has the second worst pass defense in America, but on the other hand, Nevada has the number one rushing offense averaging 362 yards per game on the ground and has three 1,000 yard rushers (Vai Taua, Luke Lippincott, Colin Kaepernick), while SMU can't stop the run at all. SMU is an up-and-coming team, but Nevada has the experience and one of my favorite guys in quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
***Update: 1,000 yard rushers Vai Taua and Luke Lippincott are both out for this game
Prediction: Nevada 41, SMU 30
Result: SMU 45, Nevada 10
Congratulations to June Jones, SMU is back. What a job Jones has done in reviving the program after its 1984 death penalty handed down by the NCAA. Nevada came into this game as a heavy, I mean heavy, favorite. Some experts thought it would be closer than expected, but let's say that they got the margin of victory right, just not the victor. SMU jumped out early all over the Nevada defense, the nation's worst at defending the pass. It was all SMU as they took a 31-0 lead into halftime. The topic of conversation at halftime was what's more surprising: the fact that SMU scored 31 on Nevada in the first half or that SMU's defense had shut out Nevada in the first half? Both were equally surprising and equally impressive.
Granted, Nevada played this game without both their 1,000 yard rushers and without their starting safety Duke Williams and linebacker Andre Davis. If Nevada at Taua and Lippincott, would they have had more offense? Of course, but I don't think now it would've made a difference the way the defense was playing. But if Nevada at Williams and Davis, would the defense done better? It's possible considering that Williams' replacement got burned a few times for big plays and touchdowns, but there's no where else to put the blame other than the Nevada coaching staff. When your team fails to show up, it's on the coaches even when you have Hall of Famer Chris Ault on the sidelines.
SMU freshman quarterback Kyle Padron threw for 301 yards in the first half alone. SMU scored 38 straight points before a Richard Drake 21 yard field goal finally got Nevada on the board, but Ault's unwillingness to go for it on fourth down showed that Nevada had all but given up. June Jones would not slow it down though as SMU's offense never let off the gas pedal. Padron kept perfectly placing deep balls to speedy receiver Aldrick Robinson and then kept hitting Emmanuel Sanders underneath, the Mustangs kept throwing. Padron finished with an SMU single-game record of 460 yards. I was very, very impressed with the young quarterback.
My Player of the Game: Kyle Padron, SMU Quarterback
Honorable Mention: Chase Kennemer, SMU Linebacker