Friday, December 18, 2009

MWC Bowl Predictions


"Surely, the NCAA and Division I-A football can join the other 23 intercollegiate sports and devise a system that determines a true champion, preserves the integrity of the game and levels the playing field.”— Retired Brigham Young football coach LaVell Edwards, to the Senate Judiciary Committee October 2003

“To be frank with you, I don’t know what the reasons are not to have a playoff, You can talk about missing class and all that kind of stuff, [yet] you see basketball go on forever. You have a lot of bogus excuses, but obviously the majority of people who have the say don’t want it.” Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno

I'll just let those quotes be my BCS "rant" for the day, so here are my predictions:

NEW MEXICO BOWL SATURDAY DEC 19, 2:30 pm MT
Fresno St. vs Wyoming: Fresno St. is another one of those Jekyll and Hide teams. They got cut up by Nevada like boarding house pie, but they also beat a descent Illinois team on the road their last time out. This is a tough draw for Wyoming and one of a few tough match ups for the MWC. Congrats to UW on their first bowl game in a while but I don't think they'll be able to pull off the upset. I've got Fresno St. 28 Wyoming 21

MAACO BOWL LAS VEGAS (aka Las Vegas Bowl or the Cougar Bowl, not to be confused with Cougar Town) TUESDAY DEC 22, 6:00 pm MT
18 Oregon St. vs 14 BYU
This is by far one of the best bowl games of the season, it pits two ranked teams from two very good conferences. Both teams have very good offenses. Myth: Both teams have a suspect defense. Fact: BYU's defense has performed extremely well all year with one glaring exception, FSU. BYU has done well this year against pocket passers in run-heavy offenses. OSU's QB is an exceptional pocket passer and he will get his points against this BYU defense. OSU's RB (Jaques Rodgers, yeah the guy who tore up USC a couple years ago) is great NFL bound running back. If BYU can slow him down and force a few third and longs then they will be alright. I expect this game to be a shootout with both offenses putting on a show. Whichever defense can make the big plays will come out on top. Max Hall has a big monkey off his back now that he has beaten Utah 2 out of 3 times. He also owns the BYU record for most wins in a career and he will be relaxed and looking to go out with a bang. He will lead BYU to a game winning TD drive in the 4th Quarter. BYU 42 OSU 35

SAN DIEGO COUNTY CREDIT UNION POINSETTIA BOWL Wednesday Dec 23, 6:00 pm MT
23 Utah vs California
I don't like Utah, in fact I hate them (not really). If Utah wins this match up then the MWC will finish with 3 ranked teams for the second consecutive year. So I will be cheering for Utah this time, but I will probably feel the need to shower soon after the game is over. I'm going to predict a very nice game for the Freshman QB for Utah. Utah 38 Cal 21

BELL HELICOPTER ARMED FORCES BOWL Thursday DEC 31, 10:00 AM MT
Air Force vs Houston
This is another very good but very tough match up for both teams. Air Force's defense is one of the best in the nation but will be looking to recover a bit from the shalacking that BYU handed them their last time out. Houston has a very good offense and one of the best passers in the Nation in Case Keenum. I'm not sure what two expect but something has got to give so lets just hope that Air Force's defense learned something from Max Hall. Air Force 28 Houston 42

TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL Monday JAN 4, 6:00 pm MT
6 BSU vs 4 TCU
I can't wait for this game. TCU has got something to prove and so does BSU. When I first caught wind of this match up I was a bit disappointed but after thinking about it, this should be a very good game. TCU is one of the best teams in the country largely because of it's defense. BSU is one of the best because of it's offense. TCU's defense is better than BSU offense though. BSU is a similar team to BYU. BYU could have very likely gone undefeated with BSU's schedule. As much as a hate to say it TCU's beating of BYU was not a fluke. Their defense will do the same thing to BSU. However, BSU has a lot to play for and they won't take it lying down. They will probably do about what they did last year against TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl.
TCU 28 BSU 21

Basically I'm expecting the Big 3 to win their games and the other two bowl teams to come up a bit short. 3-2 with this years match ups will be very big for the MWC. Any upset that Wyoming or Air Force can pull off will be icing on the cake. Get your chips and salsa and grab a Dr. Pepper folks (caffeine free of course) cause "it's the most wonderful time of the year"!