Bowl Update 12/25

FCS Championship Game

Villanova 23 Montana 21 @ Chattanooga, TN, December 18, 6:00 PM Mountain ESPN 2.
Congratulations to Villanova on their win over Montana.  The Wildcats showed the country how to beat the Grizzlies.  They made Chase Reynolds a non-factor and forced Andy Selle to win the game by himself.  That he almost did, but the Grizz could not recover the on-side kick at the end.

New Mexico Bowl

Wyoming 35 Fresno State 28 @ Albuquerque, NM, December 19, 2:30 PM
This was supposed to be a party for Ryan Matthews.  He was supposed to impress the heck out of all of the NFL scouts.  But 24,000 people in Albuquerque, most clad in prairie gold and brown ,witnessed a coming out party for Austyn Carta-Samuels and the Wyoming Cowboys.  When the game was on the line, when the Bulldogs were up by three in the final third of the fourth quarter, Ryan Matthews was forced to cough up the football.  What followed was a gutsy drive by Carta-Samuels and company, where they converted 3 fourth downs on the way to kicking the game tying field goal.  In  the OT, the Wyoming defense held on for the win

Las Vegas Bowl
BYU 44 Oregon State 20 @ Las Vegas, NV, December 22, 2009 6:00 pm Mountain Time

The difference in this game is that Max Hall and BYU could handle the wind, but Oregon State could not.  Even when the wind was at their back, the Beavers had trouble.  That was where the game turned around.  Whether the wind caught the ball, or it was a planned lateral, the fumble return turned the game around for good and OSU could not get on track until the fourth quarter.

Poinsettia Bowl
Utah 37 vs California 27 @ San Diego, CA, December 23, 2009 6:00 pm Mountain Time

Jordan Wynn looked a little shaky at first, but bounced back nicely.  Shaky is an understatement.  It was a near disaster at the bigging.  Before you could sit down with your nachos and Coke, Cal had a 14-0 lead.  There was no panic in Wynn, he settled down and had the best game of his young collegiate career, do date.  The Utes had little trouble putting the Bears away at the end.  Stevenson Sylvester put away Cal for good in the fourth quarter.


Hawaii Bowl
SMU 45 Nevada 10 @ Honolulu, HI, December 24, 2009 6:00 PM Mountain Time
June Jones returns to Aloha Stadium, but it was the Ponies that ran away with this one and not the Wolfpack.  Nevada only turned the ball over once, and that led to SMU's last touchdown.  The Mustang defense held the Wolfpack rushers to just 137 yards on the ground.  If I had been paying attention, I would have noticed that Luke Lippincott and Via Taua would not be playing and I would have predicted it differently.


Upcoming Bowls


Armed Forces Bowl @ Fort Worth, TX, December 31, 2009 at 10:00 am Mountain Time
Air Force vs Houston
Case Keenum is in a similar place to Ryan Matthews.  He is someone who is coming off a real sharp junior year and is deciding to enter the NFL.   The Difference, Keenum could earn some real heavy hardware should he remain in college.  The question is whether or not Air Force can play a good defensive game.  Keenum is the best quarterback the Falcon will face all season.  There are some very good quarterbacks in the MWC, and Keenum is better than any of them. Conventional wisdom is that if Max Hall can shred the Falcon defense, Keenum will annihilate them.
Houston 35 Air Force 17
WAC

Humanitarian Bowl @ Boise, ID, December 30, 2009 2:30 PM Mountain Time
Idaho vs Bowling Green
The Vandals were one of the feel good stories of the early college football season.  But they enter this bowl having lost four straight.  Sure, Fresno State, Nevada and Boise State are better teams and they actually had a chance to beat the Bulldogs as the Matthews was hurt for much of the game.  But the loss at the end of the season is a head scratcher.  The Falcons are entering bowl season the right way, on a four game winning streak.  Freddie Barnes has nearly 1/3 of all of BG's receptions and nearly half of their touchdowns.  The Idaho defense will be a good opponent to add to his record total.
BG 27 Idaho 17


Fiesta Bowl
TCU vs Boise State @ Glendale, AZ, January 4, 2010 6:00 pm Mountain Time
Matching these two in a bowl game is considered a big disappointment to BCS enemies, but a good move by BCS proponents.  But it is now time to worry about the game and leave the politics for later.  Boise State has not even seen anyone as close to the caliber as TCU.  The Frogs are much better than the team that they battled in last year's Poinsettia bowl.  The Broncos will have to be at the top of their game to come close to winning.  TCU has been scary the last half of the season and have obliterated all comers and have made it look easy.  This includes a pair of ranked conference rivals.  Ranked rivals are something that Boise State does not have to reckon with right now.
TCU 38 Boise 17