Hands down one of the most exciting bowl seasons I have witnessed. Let's recap...
There were 35 bowls, 70 teams. Here are some stats:
35 bowls, 35 favorites and 35 underdogs.
The underdogs won 12 games (34%).
There were also 12 games decided by 10 points or less.
There were six games between ranked vs un-ranked...and the ranked team won each time.
The best bowl conference was the WAC (2 - 0) followed by C-USA (4 - 1) and the SEC (6 - 3).
The Ga Tech win over USC showed that USC is in a downward spiral again
Tulsa pulls of the win over Iowa State even though they lost to them early in the season and few gave them a chance. Few gave Clemson a shot over LSU (including me) but they pulled off the surprise because LSU could not control the clock down the stretch (really? Three straight passes when you just needed to run out the clock?). Michigan had SCar on the ropes but the backup QB pulled out the win with 0:11 seconds left.
Georgia over Nebraska was a great back-and-forth defenseless battle through three quarters until the Dawgs finally wore down the Huskies and rattled off 22 unanswered points in the second half. The "best" pass defense in the nation was shredded by the Dawgs for 5 TDs and 428 passing yards.
Highly touted Stanford over 5-loss Wisconsin started exactly as expected with Stanford going up 14 - 0 in the 1st. But by half time it was 17 - 14 and Wisconsin kept the Cardinal scared until the final minutes when Stanford secured the 20 - 14 win.
The David vs Goliath game (FSU and NIU) was not what many expected (a dominant FSU win). NIU silenced the critics with a great showing. But IMHO, FSU played about like I expected as I have not been on the FSU bandwagon all year.
Florida and Louisville - unbelievable. There is always at least one like this every year (remember Utah over Alabama?) and this was the one. No doubt this was THE shocker of the bowl season. Florida came in the 14-point favorite but started out flat and cocky and unprepared and soft and the poor play calling and mistake-laden Gators dug themselves into a hole early and then they just kept digging. Mistakes multiplied like rabbits and the obscene play calling didn't help any. What an embarrassment for an 11-1 SEC team that had the toughest schedule in all of FBS against the Big Least co-champ that played the 115th toughest schedule. Axe strength-of-schedule in determining all future rankings...or at least bowl match-ups.
NOTE: Is the SEC not as good as previous years or has everyone else just caught up with the their talent?
Oregon over K State...just as we all expected. They came out strong and never stopped. K-state tried to make of game of it early but then Oregon just pulled away. K-State has been a good team this year but they just do not have the fire-power and energy of Oregon (and few do).
TA&M over Oklahoma was just fun to watch (click HERE). Johnny Manziel was down right entertaining from the get-go all the way to the end. What an exciting year it has been for that red-shirt freshman and first-year coach Kevin Sumlin and the whole TA&M nation. I am sure there is plenty of spark left in that team and 2013 will be just as fun to watch.
And then the Championship Game.
Whoa...what happened to the Golden Domers? They got seriously schooled by the Mobile Homers. (And, once gain, made the BCS system show its weakness. The "real" championship game was the Bama - Georgia game a few weeks ago). It was no contest. ND had zero answers for the Bama defense, the Bama offense, the Bama play-calling...and they didn't even have a fan or girlfriend of the QB near as cute as the one Bama brought. ND seemed to have no fight in them. They looked dumbfounded. Suddenly (as opposed to my above comment) the strength of schedule does make sense. ND simply had not seen (first hand) an O-line or D-line like the Tide brought. They had not seen a QB with McCarron's accuracy and ability to read defenses. They simply were out of their league. 'nuf said.
So who is really the best team in the nation?
Some say Oregon. Others say Texas A&M. And one could make an argument for Georgia. And there are those that say one of these teams should have been in the title game. But bottom line is they didn't win their conference. Yea....it was just that one game, but boo-hoo. Championship teams may give up one or even two games but they don't give up the BIG game that costs them a shot at the title. That is what 11-1 Oregon did, and 12-2 Georgia, and 11-2 TA&M. Winning and exciting plays andplayers are all part of a championship team. But you have to win the right ones. Yes - the final national champ did lose to a highly ranked and repsected team...but they didn't lose the game(s) that would have cost them a chance at the title game. And that makes all the difference.
There were 35 bowls, 70 teams. Here are some stats:
35 bowls, 35 favorites and 35 underdogs.
The underdogs won 12 games (34%).
There were also 12 games decided by 10 points or less.
There were six games between ranked vs un-ranked...and the ranked team won each time.
The best bowl conference was the WAC (2 - 0) followed by C-USA (4 - 1) and the SEC (6 - 3).
The Ga Tech win over USC showed that USC is in a downward spiral again
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Georgia over Nebraska was a great back-and-forth defenseless battle through three quarters until the Dawgs finally wore down the Huskies and rattled off 22 unanswered points in the second half. The "best" pass defense in the nation was shredded by the Dawgs for 5 TDs and 428 passing yards.
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| Toe-to-toe with the boss. |
The David vs Goliath game (FSU and NIU) was not what many expected (a dominant FSU win). NIU silenced the critics with a great showing. But IMHO, FSU played about like I expected as I have not been on the FSU bandwagon all year.
Florida and Louisville - unbelievable. There is always at least one like this every year (remember Utah over Alabama?) and this was the one. No doubt this was THE shocker of the bowl season. Florida came in the 14-point favorite but started out flat and cocky and unprepared and soft and the poor play calling and mistake-laden Gators dug themselves into a hole early and then they just kept digging. Mistakes multiplied like rabbits and the obscene play calling didn't help any. What an embarrassment for an 11-1 SEC team that had the toughest schedule in all of FBS against the Big Least co-champ that played the 115th toughest schedule. Axe strength-of-schedule in determining all future rankings...or at least bowl match-ups.
NOTE: Is the SEC not as good as previous years or has everyone else just caught up with the their talent?
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| A flawless performance prize. |
TA&M over Oklahoma was just fun to watch (click HERE). Johnny Manziel was down right entertaining from the get-go all the way to the end. What an exciting year it has been for that red-shirt freshman and first-year coach Kevin Sumlin and the whole TA&M nation. I am sure there is plenty of spark left in that team and 2013 will be just as fun to watch.
And then the Championship Game.
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So who is really the best team in the nation?
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| Really? Another TD? |