Today's Bowl Games

December 26, 2009

Today should be a great day for college football with three bowl games all on ESPN beginning at 1pm ET. The Little Caesars Bowl between Marshall and Ohio should actually be a good game. It's a decent matchup of two mid-level teams, North Carolina is back in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, and Boston College could pull off a huge upset of USC tonight in the Emerald Bowl if USC decides not to mentally show up. That said, my focus is on the Pitt-UNC game which I think is one of the best matchups of the postseason and by far the best bowl game to watch up to this point. Both teams have guys on defense that should be taken in the first or second round of the NFL Draft and are fun to watch. Offensively, North Carolina has playmakers at receiver, but TJ Yates hasn't been able to get them ball while Pitt has one of the best receivers in the nation with sophomore Jonathan Baldwin who I'm ready to declare as my #1 receiver prospect for the 2011 NFL Draft, and let's not forget the true freshman tailback Dion Lewis, he is fun to watch.

After that quick overview, here's some heavier insight from me to you about today's games.

Bowls Blog

Saturday, December 26
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, 1pm on ESPN
Marshall Thundering Herd (7-6) vs. Ohio Bobcats (9-5)
This might be an uninteresting matchup to some viewers, but both these teams are teams I rarely got see play over the course of the season. I saw Marshall play twice and Ohio three times. Marshall barely made the postseason while Ohio wants to get to a 10-win season after losing the MAC title game to Central Michigan. At the end of the regular season, Marshall head coach Mark Snyder resigned effective immediately, which shows how excited he was to play in this bowl game. Marshall only really has one guy to watch: runningback Darius Marshall, and Ohio has won four of its last five and have the best linebacking corps in the MAC led by Noah Keller. The Ohio defense leads the nation in turnover margin and look for them to secure some key turnovers in this game. Not many people are giving Marshall much of a chance in this game, but I think it’ll be closer than expected while Marshall tries to gain momentum heading into next season after the recent hiring of Doc Holliday from West Virginia as the new head coach.
Prediction: Ohio 23, Marshall 17
Result: Marshall 21, Ohio 17
Ohio has had four 4th quarter comebacks that they won at the very end this season and they tried to do it again today but it didn't work as Ohio quarterback Theo Scott tried to force a play as he rolled out of the pocket to his right and threw a pick to DeQuan Bembry with 40 seconds left and that was it; Ohio drops to 0-4 all-time in bowl games.
Marshall jumped out to a 21-0 lead before Ohio does what they do forcing turnovers as Shannon Ballard took a Darius Marshall fumble back for a 75 yard touchdown in the second quarter. From there, Ohio's defense stepped up as the offense came out in the second half and the Bobcats came up with 17 unanswered points, but 17 wasn't enough and Matt Weller's missed 29 yard field goal didn't help either.
Ohio seemed to have figured out the Marshall offense in the second half. Marshall was held to less than 20 yards of total offense in the third quarter, but were able to control the ball when it came down to it in the final frame.
My Player of the Game: Mario Harvey, Marshall Linebacker
Honorable Mention: Martin Ward, Marshall Running back
Honorable Mention: Noah Keller, Ohio Linebacker


Meineke Car Care Bowl, 4:30pm on ESPN
No. 17 Pittsburgh Panthers (10-3) vs. North Carolina Tar Heels (8-5)
North Carolina is back in the Meineke Car Care Bowl after last year's come-from-behind victory against them by West Virginia, and UNC is also coming off a final game upset by NC State. The coaching matchup is the story here as UNC coach Butch Davis and Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt were disciples of Jimmy Johnson at Miami.
Pitt is a better offensive team this year thanks to the reformation of quarterback Bill Stull, who almost quit football after last season. Pitt didn't score a single point in last year's 3-0 loss to Oregon State in the Sun Bowl where Stull got booed. This year, Stull was one of the best quarterbacks in the Big East and has three big weapons in freshman runningback Dion Lewis, sophomore receiver Jonathan Baldwin, and tight end Dorin Dickerson. Lewis may have been the nation's best runningback as he completely flew under the radar en route to leading the Big East in rushing and breaking the freshman rushing yards record and being second in the nation in rushing touchdowns. North Carolina, however, has a smothering defense. Carolina's front seven leads a top ten defense and it anchored by Marvin Austin in the middle of the defensive line, but offensively the Tar Heels rank 102nd in the country in passing despite having good threats like Greg Little and the true freshman Erik Highsmith.
Pittsburgh had played great defense all year long, but got exposed in the game against Cincinnati when they blew a 21 point lead as Cincinnati picked apart the Pitt secondary in the second half to win 45-44. Pitt was one game away from a BCS bowl, but instead hopes to just win another game for the Big East over the ACC.
Dion Lewis might be the difference in the game giving Pitt the advantage of a multidimensional offense. North Carolina has an early round NFL prospect in every layer of the defense with Marvin Austin on the D-Line, Bruce Carter and Quan Sturdivant at linebackers, and Deunta Williams at safety. Keep an eye on those guys, they are impact players on defense and worth watching. While the Big East isn’t known for its strong defensive play, West Virginia and South Florida have top 25 defenses and Rutgers and Connecticut play solid defense as well. Now look at what Dion Lewis did against the top defenses in the Big East: 111 yards vs. USF, 155 vs. WVU, 158 vs. UConn, and 180 vs. Rutgers, not to mention the 194 yards he posted on Cincinnati in the biggest game of the year. It’ll be exciting to see if Lewis can perform at this level against the UNC defense.
Prediction: Pittsburgh 27, North Carolina 21
Result: Pittsburgh 19, North Carolina 17
Pittsburgh gets to double digits wins for the first time since 1981. A Dan Hutchins 33 yard field goal with 54 seconds to go sealed the win after Pittsburgh's game-winning drive took a little over eight minutes as the Panthers used the ground game and Dion Lewis to run clock and methodically move down the field.
Pitt had a few nice drives in this game, they had a good one to open the game before Hutchins missed the 42 yard field goal. North Carolina got the ball and came out of the gates by running a reverse with Greg Little for 31 yards and capped the drive with a 7-0 lead after a Little touchdown reception.
After that, we saw a couple of true freshman makes mistakes, but then another made a big play. Pitt's true freshman Dion Lewis fumbled the ball at the one yard line and it went through the endzone making it a touchback for UNC. On UNC's next possession, freshman receiver Erik Highsmith fumbled the ball and gave it right back to Pitt and the Panthers got on the board with a field goal.
In the third quarter, the Tar Heels had a shot at a touchdown after moving down the field with the power running of Ryan Houston, but instead of giving to Houston at the goal line, they tried to throw and TJ Yates' pass intended for Little was picked by true freshman linebacker Dan Mason.
The Pitt defense stepped up then and was stout for the rest of the game and credit to the Pittsburgh coaching staff for not getting away from the run game when down 17-13 late in the game.
As I mentioned in my pregame post, Dion Lewis would be the difference in this game. His 159 yards on 28 carries was the difference. He posted another big statistical day against another great defense. UNC hadn't allowed a 100-yard rusher in a few weeks and Lewis got 101 yards in the first half.
Pitt quarterback Bill Stull did a good job of making good decisions and finished off his senior year with an emotional moment on the field after he kneeled down to end the game.
My Player of the Game: Dion Lewis, Pittsburgh Runningback
Honorable Mention: Greg Romeus, Pittsburgh Defensive End

Emerald Bowl, 8pm on ESPN
Boston College Eagles (8-5) vs. Southern Cal Trojans (9-4)
Here's another game that the average guy probably wouldn't watch, but this is me we're talking about, watched 215 college football games and counting, so I'll have an eye on this one. This is probably the worst possible bowl matchup as we have the Trojans of Southern Cal who built a dynasty vs. the lowly Boston College Eagles. Despite the identical records, these two teams are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
USC had built a dynasty in the Pac-10 Conference that finally ended this year as the Trojans try to rebuild their defense after losing 9 starters from a year ago, 7 of which were drafted in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft, and also replacing quarterback Mark Sanchez with true freshman Matt Barkley. Offensively, the Trojans haven't missed a beat with Barkley and all his weapons at receiver and in the backfield. Damian Williams and Ronald Johnson form one of the top receiving duos in the nation the Trojans have a stable of great backs from star junior Joe McKnight to senior glueguy CJ Gable and Allen Bradford should get the start. Anthony McCoy is one of the top tightends, and has been a big weapon for Barkley when healthy, but on Dec. 21 was ruled academically ineligible. On the other side of the ball, USC defense has struggled all season. Boston College has some playmakers on defense like linebacker Luke Keuchly, who just might be the best player on the field come game time, but the Eagles don't have much of an offense with 25-year old freshman quarterback Dave Shinskie. The only guy to watch on the BC offense is tailback Montel Harris who set a school record for rushing yards in a single game earlier this season. Not only did Toby Gerhart of Stanford run over the USC defense, the Trojans have struggled with small shifty backs like Harris as they got picked apart by Oregon State’s Jacquizz Rodgers and Oregon’s LaMichael James.
And there’s always the motivation factor. USC is not used to these Emerald Bowl types, they’re used to the big-time BCS bowls. The Rose Bowl needed a break from USC anyway, but how do the Trojans feel about that? Are they going to come out with something to prove after a 5th place finish in the Pac-10 this year, or do they already want to get the game over with, pack it in, and go home?
Nobody picked Boston College to go anywhere in the preseason but they finished second in the ACC Atlantic Division. Believe me, they are happy to be in San Francisco today and if the Trojans aren’t motivated and care less about San Francisco, Boston College will win this game.
Prediction: USC 34, Boston College 10
Result: USC 24, Boston College 13
USC was motivated all right. The Trojans showed up in San Francisco and got the Pac-10's first win of the postseason. They jumped out to an early 14-0 lead as USC's true freshman quarterback Matt Barkley found fullback Stanley Havili for big passing plays that led to the two touchdowns. Then the second quarter belonged to the Boston College Eagles as they got two touchdowns of their own, but missed the first extra point as Steve Aponavicious slipped as he went to kick the ball and Jordan Congdon of USC missed a 35 yard field goal after slipping also.
The second quarter was where BC used up all its offense. Montel Harris did cause some problems for the USC defense has smaller shifty backs have done all year but he suffered an injury in the second half and wasn't the same for the rest of the game.
USC receiver Damian Williams had a huge game in what is expected to be his last in college. I fully expect Williams to declare for the NFL Draft. Boston College had no answer for Williams' 12 catches for 189 yards including the big 48 yard catch in the fourth quarter down to the one yard line. Barkley then got the ball into the endzone on the QB sneak for the game's final score.
USC brings back a lot of the team for next year and this should be a good stepping stone for them to get back to the elite status they're accustomed to. Barkley ended with an excellent performance throwing for 350 yards after moving on from his two interceptions. Both of Barkley's picks thrown were freshmen mistakes when he eyeballed his receivers and telegraphed his throws. Barkley threw a pick to begin the second half, but the Trojans got the ball right back on a Harris fumble and Boston College had nothing left to offer after that.
My Player of the Game: Damian Williams, USC Receiver
Honorable Mention: Shareece Wright, USC cornerback