Watch out for the SEC
LSU’s 38-3 rout of Georgia Tech in the used-to-be-the-Peach Bowl had to sober up Sooner fans on New Year’s Eve.
LSU was a mediocre SEC team this year; 3-5 in league. The Tigers beat Auburn 26-21, Mississippi State 34-24 and South Carolina 24-17. They lost big to Florida 51-21 and Ole Miss 31-13.
Yet LSU toyed with Georgia Tech, the ACC’s third-best team, even in Atlanta. That’s an indictment of the ACC, I’ll grant you. Especially when you consider that Vanderbilt beat the No. 2 ACC team, Boston College, 16-14 in the Music City Bowl earlier Wednesday.
But the SEC looks awfully strong so far in bowls. Don’t dismiss that. As I’ve told you, this isn’t September, where you can manufacture good records. In bowl games, it’s even Steven. Neutral fields and equitable foes. You stand on your own two feet.
More on the Chick-Fil-A Bowl:
* Les Miles is up to his old tricks, calling a second-quarter onside kick that LSU recovered. That was a sign of Tiger confidence that it could stop Georgia Tech’s option offense.
* I think it’s safe to say that the momentum for G-Tech’s triple-option will evaporate for awhile. It looked completely inadequate against LSU.
* One thing the Big East officiating crew kept doing — and I liked it — was signal a fumble recovery right away. If you see a guy recover the ball and he’s on the ground, the play’s over. Too many officials let possession go to the team that’s roughest at the bottom of the pile.
* I can live with most corporate bowl names, but the Chick-Fil-A gets to me. They’ve scrapped Peach from the name. Peach Bowl was a great name; symbolic of Georgia. Chick-Fil-A Bowl is among the worst.
Insight Bowl
Kansas’ 42-21 victory over Minnesota was nothing special. Good for the Jayhawks, but the Gophers have got to be one of the worst bowl teams in big-league history.
Minnesota finishes 7-6, and here is its victims: Northern Illinois (31-27), Bowling Green, Montana State, Florida Atlantic, Indiana, Illinois, Purdue.
Minnesota finished the year with a five-game losing streak, including losses of 55-0 to Iowa and 29-6 to Michigan.
* In any other league, KU’s Dezmon Briscoe would be a star. In the Big 12, he’s overshadowed by Michael Crabtree and Dez Bryant and Jeremy Maclin and the bevy of passcatchers at Texas and OU. But Briscoe is big-time; he caught 14 passes for 201 yards. Briscoe hurt the Sooners more than any other receiver did this year.
* It’s still a joke that two Big 12 bowl tie-ins — Insight and Texas — are on the NFL Network. The Rice-Western Michigan game in the Texas Bowl (the Big 12 didn’t supply enough teams to fill the allotment) had to be the lowest-rated bowl game of all time.
* Kansas will get some support in the preseason to win the Big 12 North in 2009.
Sun Bowl
* No kidding, I never thought I would ever see a 3-0 bowl game again. But Oregon State and Pitt not only played a 3-0 game, they could have played another two quarters and not reached the end zone.
Pitt completed nine of 28 passes. We watch the Holiday Bowl and think Zac Robinson is off target on a night when he completes 27 of 50 for 329 yards.
There’s a whole lot of bad quarterbacking across America. Just not much in the Big 12. Heck, KU’s Todd Reesing would be the best quarterback in a several leagues, and he’s no better than fifth or sixth in the Big 12.
* The Sun Bowl looks like a fun game to go to. Good crowd. Good atmosphere. Just stay away from Juarez.
* I don’t ever get to see much of the CBS crew that calls SEC games. But it called the Sun Bowl, and while I don’t think Gary Danielsen any good, I’ve always liked Verne Lundquist. And CBS’ sideline reporter, Tracy Wolfson, was excellent. Very good. Much better than ESPN’s best.
Music City Bowl
* You had to be happy for Vanderbilt. First bowl game since 1982. First bowl win since 1955. And the Commodores beat a school, Boston College, that had won eight straight bowls.
Armed Forces Bowl
Good for Kevin Sumlin, whose Houston Cougars beat Air Force 34-28, ending an eight-bowl losing streak dating back to 1980. UH finished 8-5 in Sumlin’s first season.
Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel.
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Comments
Here is another problem with the BCS. In the current system, teams have to wait so long until the bowl games it really is not a fair assumption on how good the teams are. When a team has to wait as long as they do to play one game the team the that plays that day has up to 5 weeks of rust on their shoulders. Can you imagine if pro team had to wait 5 weeks for the Super Bowl! I am sure the outcomes of the games would be a lot different. When a team is red hot at the end of the year and then has to wait for enternity for the bowl game it is a real disadvantage to the “hot” team verses the not so hot team. These are young college kids and the momentum can swing in these long lay offs.
Point two: The Presidents of the Universities do not want a playoff because of the MONEY right. Imagine if the reduced the amount of regular season games to 10. Then they had two different playoffs. One would be a national championship 16 team playoff, where the top four ranked teams at the end of the regular season would get a bye-week. The second round, the highest ranked team would get home field advantage. The “final four” would be represented on a netral site like basketball, and the Championship would also be on a neutral site. Both the final four games and the Championship games would be predetermined before the season started. This would make every regular season game important. The second playoff would be like the NIT. No this is no going to determine the national championship but it would be fun and neither does every other bowl game in the current system besides the Championship.
So you as many games as we currently have in the bowl games and the Television advertising would dwarf what we currently have. It make march madness look like the a joke it would the biggest sporting event in the country. Everybody would watch every game instead of maybe 2-4 games, because it would indirectly effect “their” team. You also would not lose interest because of the long lay off!
Well, so far the Big 12 has lost to the Pac 10 and beaten the ACC and the Big 10 twice. I’d say the Big 12 is doing alright for itself.
Berry, you are foolish to assign any significance to the Chick-fil-A Bowl other than the outcome of the game itself. LSU was “mediocre” in 2008 because it got awful QB play over the course of the season. After spending four weeks tailoring the offense to the talents of its gifted freshman signal-caller, Jordan Jefferson, the Tigers all of a sudden found their teeth again.
The LSU team that played Georgia Tech was not the same Baton Rouge squad that toiled through a subpar 2008 season. Solid QB play made the difference.
We got another win. Good Job Huskers. I’d give Texas an 80 percent chance of beating Ohio State, and I still think OU can beat Florida, despite everything in the media (Shamefully, even from the Oklahoma media). Tech should win too. Other than the shameful performance of Oklahoma State, I think the Big 12 will represent itself very well this year in the bowls.
Berry, your stupid! LSU didn’t have Jefferson at QB all year long. They had J-Lee. Jefferson was the diff. in the game. They had a decent QB this time. Which is what they needed the whole year..
I think Bob Stoops and the Oklahoma coaching staff are very aware of the capabilities of Florida. I also think they have learned from the previous BCS games and will have the Sooners ready for this game. I believe the defense will play with attitude and the offense will perform admirably. Let the press and media keep disrespecting OU. All that does is provide fuel for the fire in the Sooners. One other point: ABC and ESPN is praising the PAC-10 for their 5-0 bowl record and slobbering over USC. ESPN is West Coast biased and it always tries to prop up those teams and disrespect the teams that play in the other conferences. I am glad the the OU-Florida game is on Fox. Go Sooners!
Hey Barry, thanks for the kind words about my Tigers and the SEC. This year for the Tigers was an aberation as we had no experienced qb and lost a ton of leadership across the whole team. Jefferson would probably not have played as well had he not had a month to prepare and the game reflected better play by the team as a whole.
Sorry for the two idiots who previously commented.
It may surprise you but I’m pulling for the Sooners to kick some Gator ass! Have too many Sooner golfing buddies to do otherwise! LOL
Happy New Year and Geaux Tigers!
Mike “The Tiger” Ruckman
MANUFACTURE GOOD RECORDS?
Again a kneejerk reaction. That is how teams get overrated in the AP sportswriters poll and we know the politics in the coaches poll. The best argument for computers is coaches and sportswriters. Yes, LSU had another good win in Atlanta but Georgia Tech ended the season beating Georgia. Was that manufactured or that Georgia didn’t beat any quality opponent until the Bowl Game (see LSU)?
I know the article was written before the Sugar Bowl but the PAC-10 was undefeated in bowls and as much as it pains me to say it, the article should have been about crowning USC champs in the AP Poll? Utah slapped around the SEC West Champ for 4 quarters.
The SEC in head to head match-ups during the regular season (isn’t that the best measure) was average, in fact Wake Forest beat 2 SEC bowl winners (Vandy and Ole Miss). No doubt it is generally ONE of the toughest conference, but this year it was weak. The SEC generally does well in its local Bowls (lets see them travel to San Diego or Phoenix). Regarding the Cotton Bowl – Ole Miss was 19 points from a perfect season and when was the last time that Tech played well outside of Lubbock? That match-up was a bookie’s dream.
The thing to remember about the SEC is it covers nearly the same land mass as the WAC (from the Atlantic Ocean to the Oklahoma Border) and has nearly the same population as the Big 10. I lived in North Alabama and could reach 2/3 of the US population within 12 hours. It should have 4 good teams every year winning bowls in their backyard providing they are not playing Big Ten teams.
Always enjoy your inceitful and interesting srticles.Also if OU and TX don’t win their games, the Big 12 is not looking too big.
On target Berry. Made some great points. CY