Tulane's option attack is off and running It all starts today. My confidence picks are in. Now its time to sit back and watch the grand finale of college ball – bowl season.
And while the confidence picks are straight up, no spread. The Big Book of Guesses is all about the spreads. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose – it’s whether you cover.
Five games kick off the festivities today.
Cure Bowl - UL Lafayette +3.5 vs Tulane – It’s for bragging rights in the Cajun State. Willie Fritz took his option attack from Georgia Southern to the Big Easy and has the Green Wave on a roll. They’ve won four of the last five to get bowl eligible.
Billy Napier is going to be the next big coaching candidate next year. In his first year at ULL he took the Ragin’ Cajuns to the Sun Belt championship game.
Both teams are built around the run game. Tulane ended the year 30th overall running while ULL ended up 19th. Tulane has the better defense, while ULL has a better passing game. Tulane leads the series 22-4.
These teams are about equal. I struggled to make a pick in the confidence pool. The track could be a little soggy after all the rain down here so I’ll take the points. No quatloos though. One long muddy run will determine the outcome.
And while the confidence picks are straight up, no spread. The Big Book of Guesses is all about the spreads. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose – it’s whether you cover.
Five games kick off the festivities today.
Cure Bowl - UL Lafayette +3.5 vs Tulane – It’s for bragging rights in the Cajun State. Willie Fritz took his option attack from Georgia Southern to the Big Easy and has the Green Wave on a roll. They’ve won four of the last five to get bowl eligible.
Billy Napier is going to be the next big coaching candidate next year. In his first year at ULL he took the Ragin’ Cajuns to the Sun Belt championship game.
Both teams are built around the run game. Tulane ended the year 30th overall running while ULL ended up 19th. Tulane has the better defense, while ULL has a better passing game. Tulane leads the series 22-4.
These teams are about equal. I struggled to make a pick in the confidence pool. The track could be a little soggy after all the rain down here so I’ll take the points. No quatloos though. One long muddy run will determine the outcome.
The Mean Green are a scoring Machine New Mexico Bowl - North Texas +8.0 vs Utah State – While the Cure Bowl will be the first game of the season, football fanatics TVs will soon switch over to this game, what should be one of the highest flying offensive extravaganzas of the bowl season.
Matt Well’s 10 win season at Utah State got him a promotion to Texas Tech. UNT’s Seth Littrell's nine wins at UNT will put him on some short lists during this year’s Coaching Carousel.
The North Texas Green Machine was an offensive Machine leading the CUSA with 36 points per game. QB Mason Fine led the way putting up 316 yards per game through the air. Overall they ended up 15th in YPG and 21st in PPG
Utah State was even better, scoring 42 points or more in eight of nine games. The Aggies ended up 11th in YPG and 3rd in PPG.
Both teams beat up on the weak and the Hole. North Texas had zero wins over bowl teams while Utah State had only two.
This one could be one of those “whoever has the ball last” type game. I’ll take the points for a quatloo.
Matt Well’s 10 win season at Utah State got him a promotion to Texas Tech. UNT’s Seth Littrell's nine wins at UNT will put him on some short lists during this year’s Coaching Carousel.
The North Texas Green Machine was an offensive Machine leading the CUSA with 36 points per game. QB Mason Fine led the way putting up 316 yards per game through the air. Overall they ended up 15th in YPG and 21st in PPG
Utah State was even better, scoring 42 points or more in eight of nine games. The Aggies ended up 11th in YPG and 3rd in PPG.
Both teams beat up on the weak and the Hole. North Texas had zero wins over bowl teams while Utah State had only two.
This one could be one of those “whoever has the ball last” type game. I’ll take the points for a quatloo.
I underestimated Herm. My bad Las Vegas Bowl – Fresno State -4.0 vs Arizona State – I’ll admit it. I was wrong about Herm Edwards. I thought this would be a disaster of a season for the Sun devils but he took them to a bowl game. He did it with a balanced offenses and aggressive defense.
Fresno State had another great year under former Cal HC Jeff Tedford. Two years ago he took over a team that was 1-11. This year he won the Mountain West. The defense was fantastic finishing first in college football in the red zone.
With ASU missing star WR N’Keal Harry, ASU will struggle to put the puck in the net. ASU already lost to a mid level MWC team, San Diego State, now they face the champs. Fresno was a Memphis upset of UCF from playing in a New Years Six Bowl.
I hate to underestimate Herm again but I’ll take the MWC Champs for a Mega Bet.
Fresno State had another great year under former Cal HC Jeff Tedford. Two years ago he took over a team that was 1-11. This year he won the Mountain West. The defense was fantastic finishing first in college football in the red zone.
With ASU missing star WR N’Keal Harry, ASU will struggle to put the puck in the net. ASU already lost to a mid level MWC team, San Diego State, now they face the champs. Fresno was a Memphis upset of UCF from playing in a New Years Six Bowl.
I hate to underestimate Herm again but I’ll take the MWC Champs for a Mega Bet.
Georgia Southern returned to it's option roots to great success Camellia Bowl – Georgia Southern -1.5 vs Eastern Michigan – Georgia Southern went back to their option attack roots and wow was it fun. They started out 7-1 with the only set back to Clemson ooking like a NY6 team. They stumbled to the finish line ending up 9-3 with the 9th best ground attack.
Eastern won four of its five and had the nation’s fifth best pass defense. Eastern did face the option once already, losing to Army 37-22. Army is better than Georgia Southern and Eastern has had two weeks to prepare.
But I’ll still take Eagles, Georgia Southern’s version that is. Eastern’ rush defense was in the bottom half all year. Put me down for a quatloo.
Eastern won four of its five and had the nation’s fifth best pass defense. Eastern did face the option once already, losing to Army 37-22. Army is better than Georgia Southern and Eastern has had two weeks to prepare.
But I’ll still take Eagles, Georgia Southern’s version that is. Eastern’ rush defense was in the bottom half all year. Put me down for a quatloo.
App State's defense will carry the day New Orleans Bowl – Appalachian State -6.5 vs Middle Tennessee State – The day’s best game is saved for last. It could be argued that Appalachian State deserves to be a NY6 team. They nearly knocked off Penn State and won the Sun Belt behind a fantastic defense.
Middle Tennessee is no slouch, they made it to the CUSA championship game only to lose a heart breaker to UAB 27-25.
MTSU QB Brent Stockstill is the driving force for the Blue Raiders. He hit 70.4% of his passes for 3,203 yards with 28 TDs and eight INTs on the year, but he will be facing one of the best pass defenses in the nation in this one.
The Mountaineer defense ranks 5th in the nation in total yards allowed at 3rd against the pass and all MTSU can do is pass the ball as they have no ground game to speak of.
I’ll lay the points for a second Mega Bet.
Middle Tennessee is no slouch, they made it to the CUSA championship game only to lose a heart breaker to UAB 27-25.
MTSU QB Brent Stockstill is the driving force for the Blue Raiders. He hit 70.4% of his passes for 3,203 yards with 28 TDs and eight INTs on the year, but he will be facing one of the best pass defenses in the nation in this one.
The Mountaineer defense ranks 5th in the nation in total yards allowed at 3rd against the pass and all MTSU can do is pass the ball as they have no ground game to speak of.
I’ll lay the points for a second Mega Bet.
