Happy New Year, Eleven Warriors!
By drawing the Wednesday Skull Session in the fall, I just happened to get the sessions for both Christmas and New Year's Day this holiday season. Therefore, this session will not look like a standard Skull Session, assuming you have today off work like you did on Christmas. Instead, today's session will discuss yesterday's bowl games in large part.
The preamble itself will conclude with a synopsis of the games on television today. The Gator Bowl (Nebraska vs. Georgia, ESPN2) and Heart of Dallas Bowl (UNLV vs. North Texas, ESPNU) start at noon ET. The Capital One (rather: Citrus) Bowl (Wisconsin vs. South Carolina, ABC) and Outback Bowl (Iowa vs. Louisiana State, ESPN), the two feature games of the ongoing Big Ten-SEC Hundred Years War, start at 1 p.m.
Afterward, two of the BCS games start later that evening. The 2014 Rose Bowl, the 100th contest, featuring Stanford and Michigan State starts at 5 p.m. on ESPN. When that game concludes, ESPN will switch to the 2014 Fiesta Bowl, perhaps the weakest of the BCS games. That will feature Central Florida playing against Baylor in the BCS debut for both teams.
Let's discuss yesterday's bowl games.
DOES MICHIGAN HAVE BUYERS' REMORSE? The first game of the New Year's Eve was the Advocare V100 Bowl, formerly the Independence Bowl, in Shreveport, Louisiana. Typically the bowl of last resort for the SEC, it feels so unnatural for it to have a Pac-12 team playing an ACC team.
Yesterday's contest featured Arizona playing Boston College in a game that featured the two (arguably) best running backs in college football. Arizona won handily, 42-19.
Ka'deem Carey wanted to use the game to make his statement for why he, and perhaps not Boston College's Andre Williams, deserved the invitation to New York City for the Heisman Ceremony. He may have made his case. Despite starting the game sluggishly, and with a turnover, Carey finished with 27 carries, 169 yards, and two touchdowns.
His counterpart, Andre Williams, finished with 75 yards. This would be fine if the yards were limited by Boston College's offense falling behind and having to play the duration of the game in catch-up mode.
However, Williams' 75 yards came on 26 carries, putting Williams at 2.9 yards per carry. For how productive Williams is, his stats may be skewed a bit by the number of carries he gets. Williams was comparably stymied by USC in Week 3 (17 carries, 38 yards).
For the second straight year, Rich Rodriguez' Arizona Wildcats finish with a better record than Brady Hoke's Michigan Wolverines. Do Michigan fans miss him yet?
UCLA ROUTS VIRGINIA TECH IN EL PASO. Virginia Tech's extended stay in mediocrity was renewed another season after UCLA whipped it in the Sun Bowl. UCLA held a 14-7 lead at intermission, but it was only a matter of time before the dam burst. UCLA won, 42-12.
I'm not sure Virginia Tech was going to do anything other than get bombed in this contest. The injury Logan Thomas suffered in the second quarter made it a fait accompli. It came on a drive that featured a Logan Thomas run that mirrored the iconic run of Tommie Frazier against the Florida Gators in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. A few plays later, UCLA's defense repaid him the favor by crushing him on a late hit, knocking him from the game and effectively ending his collegiate career.
Virginia Tech managed only five points the rest of the game in his absence. Two of those points came on a safety when UCLA's punter forget he was at the end of his own end zone and took a step back when he received the snap.
Meanwhile, Brett Hundley shined in the rout of the Hokies. He was 16/27 passing for 226 yards and two touchdowns to zero interceptions. He also had ten carries for 161 yards and two rushing touchdowns. The performance left open the question whether he returns for his redshirt junior season.
ALL MISSISSIPPI STATE IN THE LIBERTY BOWL. Rice opened the scoring in the 2013 Liberty Bowl with a nine-play, 45-yard touchdown drive, capped by a one-yard run by Charles Ross.
Mississippi State, which fumbled the ball to Rice on its first drive of the game, responded by scoring touchdowns on its next four drives. All told, Mississippi State scored the final 44 points of this game to win by a final score of 44-7.
I'm not sure we need to say anything more about this game.
To those that wonder WHY I say the SEC is the MOST POWERFUL checkout Dak Prescott and MSU. Under .500 in the SEC 6-6 blasting CUSA's Rice!
— Tim Brando (@TimBrando) December 31, 2013
Doggone it, Tim Brando. Seriously...
Johnny First Half Frustration. ANOTHER PEACH BOWL CLASSIC. Texas A&M was anywhere from an 11-point to full two touchdown favorite against Duke. A&M is a four-loss team this season with the worst defense in college football. Duke is a ten-win team, albeit with uninspiring losses against programs like Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, and a mauling by Florida State in the ACC Championship Game.
So, Duke gets pummeled this game, right? It's what I thought would happen.
The first half was a pummeling, albeit of Texas A&M's defense and not Duke. The only Duke drive of the first half that did not end in a touchdown was its final drive that ended in a field goal to end the half. That drive was set up by a roll of the dice by David Cutcliffe, for whom Duke's previous touchdown came on a few fourth down conversions. Cutcliffe called the onside kick to keep Manziel on the sideline. A field goal gave Duke a 38-17 lead.
Then, Texas A&M's offense came alive under Johnny Manziel, the only player from this game permitted to have glamor shots for ESPN's break-bumper. Manziel, believed to be en route to the NFL, had an almost flawless performance. He was 30/38 passing for 382 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also had 73 rushing yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
However, the game was won by Texas A&M's defense. Yes, the defense that conceded 48 points on 661 yards to Duke. Texas A&M's defense did, tops, two good things this game. One was a pick-six for the go-ahead score. The other was the game-sealing turnover. It was the difference in Texas A&M's 52-48 victory.
MISCELLANY. Bill O'Brien finally en route to Houston to coach the Texans... Trailing by seven at half, Michigan State later poured it on Penn State... No. 11 Villanova eventually beat Butler in overtime... Houston upset no. 17 Connecticut... An extended scoreless drought doomed Nebraska against Iowa... Illinois beats Indiana at home for second straight year...
