Bowl Mania: 34 Games, 34 Short But Sweet Predictions

by HD Handshoe
Founder—Block-O-Nation



Here's our take on this seasons 34 bowl games. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section.

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December 19, 2009—4:30PM
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Fresno State (8-4) vs. Wyoming (6-6)

Projected Winner — Fresno State

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December 19, 2009—8:00PM
St. Petersburg, Florida

Rutgers (8-4) vs. UCF (8-4)

Projected Winner — UCF

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December 20, 2009—8:30PM
New Orleans, Louisiana

Southern Mississippi (7-5) vs. Middle Tennessee State (9-3)

Projected Winner — Southern Mississippi

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December 22, 2009—8:00PM
Las Vegas, Nevada

No. 18 Oregon State (8-4) vs. No. 14 BYU (10-2)

Projected Winner — Oregon State

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December 23, 2009—8:00PM
San Diego, California

No. 23 Utah (9-3) vs. California (8-4)

Projected Winner — California

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December 24, 2009—8:00PM
Honolulu, Hawaii

Nevada (8-4) vs. Southern Methodist (7-5)

Projected Winner — Nevada

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December 26, 2009—1:00PM
Detroit, Michigan

Marshall (6-6) vs. Ohio (9-4)

Projected Winner — Ohio

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December 26, 2009—4:30PM
Charlotte, North Carolina

No. 17 Pittsburgh (9-3) vs. North Carolina (8-4)

Projected Winner — Pittsburgh

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December 26, 2009—8:30PM
San Francisco, California

Boston College (8-4) vs. No. 24 USC (8-4)

Projected Winner — USC

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December 27, 2009—8:30PM
Nashville, Tennessee

Clemson (8-5) vs. Kentucky (7-5)

Projected Winner — Clemson

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December 28, 2009—5:00PM
Shreveport, Louisiana

Texas A&M (6-6) vs. Georgia (7-5)

Projected Winner — Georgia

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December 29, 2009—4:30PM
Washington, D.C.

UCLA (6-6) vs. Temple (9-3)

Projected Winner — Temple

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December 29, 2009—8:00PM
Orlando, Florida

No. 15 Miami-Fla (9-3) vs. No. 25 Wisconsin (9-3)

Projected Winner — Miami

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December 30, 2009—4:30PM
Boise, Idaho

Idaho (7-5) vs. Bowling Green (7-5)

Projected Winner — Bowling Green

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December 30, 2009—8:00PM
San Diego, California

No. 20 Arizona (8-4) vs. No. 22 Nebraska (9-4)

Projected Winner — Nebraska

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December 31, 2009—12:00PM
Fort Worth, Texas

Houston (10-3) vs. Air Force (7-5)

Projected Winner — Houston

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December 31, 2009—2:00PM
El Paso, Texas

Oklahoma (7-5) vs. No. 21 Stanford (8-4)

Projected Winner — Stanford

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December 31, 2009—3:30PM
Houston, Texas

Navy (9-4) vs. Missouri (8-4)

Projected Winner — Navy

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December 31, 2009—6:00PM
Tempe, Arizona

Minnesota (6-6) vs. Iowa State (6-6)

Projected Winner — Minnestoa

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December 31, 2009—7:30PM
Atlanta, Georgia

No. 11 Virginia Tech (9-3) vs. Tennessee (7-5)

Projected Winner — Virginia Tech

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January 1, 2010—11:00AM
Tampa, Florida

Northwestern (8-4) vs. Auburn (7-5)

Projected Winner — Auburn

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January 1, 2010—1:00PM
Jacksonville, Florida

Florida State (6-6) vs. No. 16 West Virginia (9-3)

Projected Winner — West Virginia

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January 1, 2010—1:00PM
Orlando, Florida

No. 12 Penn State (10-2) vs. No. 13 LSU (9-3)

Projected Winner — Penn State

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January 1, 2010—4:30PM
Pasadena, California

No. 7 Oregon (10-2) vs. No. 8 Ohio State (10-2)

Projected Winner — Ohio State

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January 1, 2010—8:30PM
New Orleans, Louisiana

No. 3 Cincinnati (12-0) vs. No. 5 Florida (12-1)
Projected Winner — Florida

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January 2, 2010—12:00PM
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

South Florida (7-5) vs. Northern Illinois (7-5)
Projected Winner — South Florida

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January 2, 2010—2:00PM
Birmingham, Alabama

Connecticut (7-5) vs. South Carolina (7-5)
Projected Winner — South Carolina

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January 2, 2010—2:00PM
Arlington, Texas

No. 19 Oklahoma State (9-3) vs. Mississippi (8-4)
Projected Winner — Oklahoma State

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January 2, 2010—5:30PM
Memphis, Tennessee

Arkansas (7-5) vs. East Carolina (9-4)
Projected Winner — Arkansas

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January 2, 2010—9:00PM
San Antonio, Texas

Michigan State (6-6) vs. Texas Tech (8-4)
Projected Winner — Texas Tech

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January 4, 2010—8:00PM
Glendale, Arizona

No. 4 TCU (12-0) vs. No. 6 Boise State (13-0)
Projected Winner — Boise State

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January 5, 2010—8:00PM
Miami, Florida

No. 9 Georgia Tech (11-2) vs. No. 10 Iowa (10-2)
Projected Winner — Georgia Tech

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January 6, 2010—7:00PM
Mobile, Alabama

Central Michigan (11-2) vs. Troy (9-3)
Projected Winner — Central Michigan

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January 7, 2010—8:00PM
Pasadena, California

No. 1 Alabama (13-0) vs. No. 2 Texas (13-0)
Projected Winner — Texas


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From "Harley In The Huddle" - Oregon's Spread Offense And How to Stop It

Written by Rob Harley
Former Buckeye and Founder of Harley In The Huddle




The Rose Bowl sets up to be a fantastic battle of imposing wills.

Will Oregon's offense impose their fast break tempo on Ohio State, or will it be the Buckeye silver bullet defense that flexes it's muscles to pound the Ducks into submission?

There are tons of questions surrounding Oregon's spread offense, and more importantly their bread and butter: the read option.

What are the keys?

What are the reads?

How do you defend it?

First of all let's review the spread offense. The main goal of the spread is to stretch the field horizontally, forcing the defense to defend from sideline to sideline. The offense is looking to stretch and distort the defense to open up multiple creases, thus giving themselves multiple options.

Offenses want to put the pressure on defenses to make quick decisions, and most importantly defend in the open field. In fact decision making and open field play is the crux of the read option on BOTH sides of the ball.

The one thing to keep in mind about Oregon is that they love "smoke and mirrors," tons of movement and misdirection to get the defense out of position. The hard part is seeing this for what it really is, mainly window dressing covering up a familiar option attack.

Every option play leaves one defender unblocked that the quarterback will option off of (keep, pitch, or dive), and the Ducks' read option is no different. It may vary who they leave unblocked at times, either the defensive end or defensive tackle, but the plan remains the same. Force the defender into jumping one of the options, leaving the defense out leveraged with little time to rally to the football.

The reason Oregon has been so successful is because QB Jeremiah Masoli has done a superb job making good decisions, and hitting the defense where it hurts. The Ducks' offense is like a metronome staying on pace and chipping away at opposing defenses, forcing them to play perfect on every play. They know that one defensive mistake can lead to big gains and big points.

Which leads us to stopping this seemingly unstoppable attack.

To be honest there's no real secret—dominating the trenches is paramount. Don't allow horizontal creases, and the offense won't have any options. Then the defense has to put the pressure back on the offense by forcing the quarterback to be perfect under duress.

I'd bring heat early and often to make things happen quickly, now the creases don't have time to become huge gaps. When things happen fast the defense can resort to old fashioned football...see ball, hit ball. The last and most important part is being able to rally to the football.

Relentless pursuit covers up all mistakes, when someone misses their assignment there's four more guys to clean up the mess. It has to be eleven defenders playing with one heart beat, nobody trying to make "the big play." You try to do too much or be the hero, and that's when the Ducks strike.

Football is a simple game—forget about all the exciting schemes and you're left with fundamentals. The team that dominates the trenches and wins the run game, is almost always victorious. Win your one on one battles on each play and you'll ultimately win the war.

Can the Buckeyes find a way to slow down this juggernaut attack? Will the Ducks waver amidst the silver bullets flying?

The Rose Bowl approaches...


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No. 4 TCU vs. No. 6 Boise State: Further Proof The BCS Conspiracy Theory is Real

by HD Handshoe
Founder—Block-O-Nation



For the first time ever, two non-automatic-qualifiers (TCU and Boise State) have earned bids to play in a BCS bowl in the same season.

That is progress I suppose, and great for each of those programs and their players, but it's not still not enough.

Why might you ask?

The problem is, the BCS decided to pair them up against each other in the Fiesta Bowl, rather than to have each face a "traditional power" in separate bowls.

Now, don't get me wrong—I love college football, and a No. 4 vs. No. 6 matchup is generally a great thing, but not in this case.

This mid-major pairing was a major letdown. The BCS really dropped the ball here.

No matter who wins, the question will still remain: Just how good is TCU, or Boise State really...

Personally, I think the BCS does not like its' automatic-qualifier conference teams to look bad, and Utah made Alabama, and the SEC, look very bad in the 2008-2009 Sugar Bowl.

I believe that because of that game, this year the BCS did not want to take any chances of having any of its' other supposedly superior-to-the-mid-major-programs teams meet a similar fate as the Tide.

I'll watch the TCU-Boise State Fiesta Bowl, and it could be one of the top bowl games of this postseason. I just wonder how many others will miss it because it's two mid-majors, and because they played against each other last year in the Poinsettia bowl.

Ultimately, the BCS is about making money and they could have certainly increased their bowl revenue significantly in my opinion if they weren't trying to protect the teams from the big six conferences.

Here's how the BCS bowl games should have been paired up:




January 1, 2010
No. 7 Oregon vs. No. 8 Ohio State




January 1, 2010
No. 4 TCU vs. No. 5 Florida




January 5, 2010
No. 3 Cincinnati vs. No. 6 Boise State




January 5, 2010
No. 9 Georgia Tech vs. No. 10 Iowa




National Championship-January 7, 2010
No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 2 Texas


Those are the games I wish I could watch this bowl season, but the BCS monopoly avoided those pairings to save itself.

Just imagine the push for change if TCU thumped Florida or Cincinnati, or if Boise State blew out Cincinnati or Florida.

The BCS conspiracy is real, alive and well, and exists for the BCS like the primal instincts of an animal in the wild, with one main purpose in mind—self preservation.


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2010 Rose Bowl—Ohio State vs. Oregon: Preview, History Lesson, and Prediction Included

Preview

It is official—the stage is set.

Oregon outlasted Oregon State in "The Civil War" and will now face the REAL OSU.

That's right—The Big Ten champion vs. the Pac-10 champion in the grand-daddy of them all.

The No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes (10-2) will face the No. 7 Oregon Ducks (10-2) on January 1, 2010 in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl presented by Citi.

The Ducks are a very talented offensive team, and to this point have proven they can score plenty of points to win games—especially in the clutch.

The Buckeyes aren't quite as flashy, preferring to pound their opponents with their unrelenting and very successful running game while boasting one of the top defensive units in the nation, yielding less than 11 points per game.

Will the experience and leadership of junior QB Jeremiah Masoli be the difference in leading the Ducks to victory and another big-stage loss for Ohio State, or will youth win out as sophomore QB Terrelle Pryor looks for the first bowl win of his Buckeye career after a narrow, near-miss-loss to Texas a year ago?

One thing is certain—When these two teams meet in Pasadena, something must, and will give.

They say defense wins championships and Ohio State gets the edge on that side of the ball—but it remains to be seen if defense, or offense, will ultimately win the 2010 Rose Bowl.


Oregon—By The Numbers

Jeremiah Masoli has 2,066 passing yards, 659 rushing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, 15 passing touchdowns, five interceptions, and a QB Rating of 138.

Masoli, LaMichael James, and Kenjon Barner have combined for 2,437 yards on the ground and 29 rushing touchdowns. That's an average of 203 yards and 2.4 touchdowns per game.

After missing 10 games due to suspension, LeGarette Blount is also back in the mix and may have an impact against the Buckeyes for the Ducks.

Oregon's top receivers are Jeff Maehl (52 receptions, 686 yards, six touchdowns), Ed Dickson (42 receptions, 551 yards, six touchdowns), D.J. Davis (22 receptions, 230 yards, two touchdowns), and Jamere Holland (13 receptions, 199 yards, two touchdowns).


Ohio State—By The Numbers

Terrelle Pryor has 1825 passing yards, 707 rushing yards, seven rushing touchdowns, 16 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a QB Rating of 128.

Pryor, Brandon Saine, Boom Herron, and Jordan Hall have combined for 2,207 yards on the ground and 19 rushing touchdowns. That's an average of 184 yards and 1.6 touchdowns per game.

Ohio State's top receivers are DeVier Posey (52 receptions, 727 yards, seven touchdowns plus one passing touchdown), Dane Sanzenbacher (27 receptions, 506 yards, six touchdowns), Duron Carter (13 receptions, 176 yards, one touchdown), Ray Small (15 receptions, 175 yards), and Brandon Saine (15 receptions, 165 yards, one touchdown). Small is also a solid contributor as a punt returner.

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2010


1/01/2010—Game 13—4:30PM EST—TV: ABC


Vs.

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History Lesson
Ohio State—Oregon Tidbits

• This will be the eighth meeting between Ohio State and Oregon.

• Ohio State leads the all-time series 7-0 (1958, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1983, 1987).

• Ohio State is 6-6 all-time in the Rose Bowl.

• This will be Ohio State's first Rose Bowl appearance since their 1997 win over Arizona State.

• The first ever meeting between the two schools was in the 1958 Rose Bowl, a 10-7 Ohio State victory.

• This will be the first meeting in which Ohio State and Oregon are both ranked in the top 10.

• Oregon is 1-3 all-time in the Rose Bowl, the programs only win coming in 1917 over Penn—no not Penn State, just Penn.

• Oregon's last Rose Bowl appearance was a 38-20 loss to Penn State in 1995.

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I seriously doubt that Ohio State's defense, as good as it is, will hold Oregon to less than 11 points.

That being said, I do not believe Oregon's defense will be able to contain the Buckeyes running game, nor will they be able to keep the Bucks from scoring.

Clearly Masoli has better statistics and would be considered the better QB of the two right now, but I do believe Terrelle Pryor will have more success vs. the Oregon defense than will Jeremiah Masoli against the Buckeye defense when it comes to scrambling away from pressure, and finding open receivers down the field.

Much like the 2009 Fiesta Bowl (Texas, Ohio State), I fully expect this game to be one of the best, and most entertaining bowls of the season, and also like that game, this one could come down to the final seconds as well.

Call me a homer if you want, but the Buckeyes are due for a big-stage bowl game win, and the Big Ten rep finally gets to play a game in Pasadena in which its' opponent is not essentially playing at home 10 minutes from campus (cough, USC, cough).


Prediction

Ohio State 24
Oregon 17


The Ducks WILL NOT blowout Ohio State, if they even win -- which is NOT a given.

P.S. to the Duck fans posting the cocky, disrespectful, classless comments in the comment section below, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Your fan base and your players are clearly birds of a feather...




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