Although the name doesn't actually ring true this year, since the game has been moved to Lafayette, LA due to Hurricane Katrina, the match up of Conference USA vs. Sun Belt remains the same. Reigning New Orleans Bowl champion Southern Miss (6-5) will take on Sun Belt Conference champion Arkansas State (6-5), as ASU travels to its first bowl game in Division 1-A history. Southern Miss had a tough season, dodging all of the hurricanes plus a tremendous amount of injuries.
The Golden Eagles still had nine players selected to all-conference teams, with five on the first and four on the second. Senior quarterback Dustin Almond leads Southern Miss on offense, throwing for 2,607 yards and 21 touchdowns while throwing 12 interceptions. The Golden Eagles average 257 yards through the air while only 104 on the ground. Look for Almond to hand off to leading rusher Lamar Thomas, who has only four touchdowns on the season. On the other side of the ball is linebacker Kevis Coley who ranks fourth in the nation in tackles per game with 13.2.
While Southern Miss likes to throw the ball, Arkansas State gets things done on the ground. The team is 23 rd in the nation in rushing yards per game with 199.9 yds/game. Running back Antonio Warren is a career 3,000 yard rusher and in eight of the nine games he played, he gained 100 yards. Warren also averages a very impressive 6.3 yards per carry.
Quarterback Nick Noce has thrown for 1,839 yards and 11 touchdowns with 9 interceptions mixed in. Southern Miss could be on its way to its second straight New Orleans Bowl in, especially considering Arkansas State lost by four touchdowns at Army this season. This will the eighth bowl in nine years for Southern Miss. The Sun Belt conference has only been winners of one of the four New Orleans Bowls that have been played.
GMAC Bowl
The GMAC Bowl has had a history of high flying offenses. This year is no different. UTEP (8-3) and Toledo (8-3) will take to the field in Mobile, with both offenses in the top 20 in the nation. The UTEP offense has averaged only half a yard more than Toledo all season long, but for both teams, the offense starts with the quarterback. UTEP is coming off two losses to end their regular season, and Toledo couldn't believe they didn't make the MAC Championship, this could be a game where motivation could be a huge factor.
UTEP quarterback Jordan Palmer, the brother of Cincinnati Bengals QB Carson Palmer, has thrown for 3,340 yards and 28 touchdowns this season, but also 18 interceptions. That's over 300 yards per game through the air for the baby brother. Toledo QB Bruce Gradkowski has thrown for over 2,100 yards and 24 touchdowns, but perhaps more impressively the Rockets offense still averages 221 yards on the ground, 12 th in the nation. This is about as balanced as any offense could be with Toledo averaging 232 yards through the air.
Scouts are licking their chops for both of these quarterbacks, and it will be their final display before the combines. With the two defenses being pretty weak, look for each quarterback to light up the scoreboard early and often, in what could be one of the biggest offensive shootouts of the bowl season.
Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas
BYU (6-5) and the California Golden Bears (7-4) will meet in the annual Las Vegas bowl on December 22 nd . These two teams are going in slightly opposite directions if you look at their seasons. BYU started out slow, but seemed to pick up momentum as the year went along, while Cal must be disappointed to finish with four losses, considering they hovered around the top 20 for the first part of the season.
BYU ranks 13 th in the nation in total offense as they gain just over 477 yards per game. Quarterback John Beck has thrown for 3,357 yards and 24 touchdowns and a lot of people expect him to make a leap onto the national scene a year from now. The Cougars also boast tailback Curtis Brown who has rushed over 1,000 yards. It is the first time BYU has had a 3,000 yard passer and a 1,000 yard rusher. Since the Cougars average 37 points per game, and still lost five games this season, it tells you the type of defense they have.
The Golden Bears have had quarterback problems since week one when their starting QB went down for the season. They have now turned to a former fullback who made his first start at quarterback in their rivalry game against Stanford. Steve Levy has thrown for 211 yards with two touchdowns and two picks, but the 30 th ranked Cal offense really gets rolling on the ground. If Justin Forsett can gain 38 yards, he will surpass 1,000 yards and become the second Cal tailback this season to do so. Marshawn Lynch has gained 1,052 yards while getting into the endzone seven times.
BYU has not won a bowl game since 1996, while Cal has won four of its last six postseason appearances.
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia
Navy will travel across the country to San Diego which is the home of the Navy on the west coast, which could easily make this a home game with so many Navy uniforms in the stands to watch the Midshipmen. The key to this game will be Navy's first ranked rushing offense with their patented option, going up against the 104 th ranked rushing defense in Colorado State.
Navy has passed the ball only 136 times, while they have rushed 603. Lamar Owens leads the team both passing and rushing, with 15 combined touchdowns. Also look for fullback Adam Ballard who stepped up against Army with 192 yards on the ground.
For Colorado State, they have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball. Wide receiver David Anderson has 1,095 yards receiving this year with eight touchdowns, adding to his impressive career numbers that exceed 3,000 yards. QB Justin Holland is an NFL prospect in the upcoming draft, throwing for over 2,800 yards and 20 touchdowns, but he has also thrown 15 interceptions. Even with all that fire power through the air, the first option for the Rams is on the ground.
Running back Kyle Bell has been great in CSU wins, but bad in CSU losses, the game may fall into what Bell can do on the ground as he has averaged 54 more yards in the games the team has won.
This will be Navy's third straight bowl game, the first time for an academy school.
Fort Worth Bowl
The Forth Worth Bowl matches two teams that are 6-5. Both Kansas and Houston had to win their final game of the season just to get to the post season. Looking at each teams history in bowl games, Houston hasn't won one since 1980, and Kansas hasn't won a postseason game in nearly ten years.
Houston has the much superior offense in this match up, as they have the 14 th best offense in the nation compared to Kansas which sits at a lowly 106 th . But Kansas does boost the 19 th best defense in the country, led by the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in Nick Reid. Reid will have to deal with Houston QB Kevin Kolb, who has thrown for over 9,000 yards in his career at UH, including over 3,000 this season. The Jayhawks defense held eight of its eleven opponents to 21 points or less on the year.
The Cougars also have a weapon at running back in Ryan Gilbert, who has rushed for over 1,000 yards and scored nine times, while averaging 6.4 yards per carry. Jason Swanson and Brian Luke have split time at quarterback for Kansas this season, with each not putting up very impressive numbers. Swanson has thrown 10 interceptions compared to only three touchdowns, while Luke has two more interceptions than TD's.
The weak offense is led on the ground by Jon Cornish who has gotten into the endzone nine time this season. Kansas leads the all-time series 2-0.
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
UCF gets to go bowling for the first time in school history, and not a bad way to start out by getting invited to play in Hawaii. The Golden Knights are one of the best stories of the college football season, as Head Coach George O'Leary turned them around from 0-11 last season to 8-4 this year.
Perhaps the most exciting playmaker on the Knights is punt returner Joe Burnett who finished sixth in the nation in punt return average at 16.5 and added two touchdowns. Knights QB Steven Moffett has been a pleasant surprise for Central Florida, as he has thrown for 19 touchdowns and only eight interceptions. Looking at his numbers last year, he had nine TD's to 10 INT's.
Nevada also boasts a good QB, as Jeff Rowe had tossed 20 TD's and only nine INT's. But the real big weapon on offense for the Wolfpack is senior running back B.J. Mitchell, who was the WAC's leading rusher with 1,221 yards. Nevada was able to put up over 32 points per game this season, and the UCF defense is very young and was prone to mistakes during the regular season, so Rowe and Mitchell could take over this game if the Golden Knights aren't careful.
Motor City Bowl
The battle of the Motor City this season matches the Memphis Tigers with the MAC Champion Akron Zips. The Zips are another team that is making its first trip to a postseason bowl game, and in impressive fashion after a thrilling come from behind win to steal the MAC championship out of the hands of Northern Illinois.
Akron will have its hands full as they have to face off against the active career rushing leader in DeAngelo Williams. He has rushed for over 1,700 yards and an astonishing 15 touchdowns, adding to his career totals that put him over the 5,000 yard mark. QB Marcus Avery is the fourth Memphis QB to start a game this season, and has racked up over 700 yards and five touchdowns, but don't look for Memphis to throw too much, when they have the sixth best rushing attack in the nation.
Avery is the teams leading passer in yards gained, second leading rusher, and second leading receiver. Akron is the complete opposite, they throw first and run second. QB Luke Getsy has found his favorite target Domenik Hixon 68 times this season and seven times in the endzone. Hixon has racked up1,147 yards as well.
This could very easily wind up being an offensive shootout, but with each team doing it in very different fashion.
Douglas Kroll can be reached at d.kroll@umiami.edu
