The Cotton Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech (2:00 pm, FOX) Maybe this isn’t what the folks from Lubbock and our FR TTU Contingent had in mind a few months ago when they knocked off the Longhorns. Maybe Ole Miss had no hopes of even going to a bowl game entirely at the outset of the year. But they’re both here, and I think this is a rather underrated match up. You know the exploits of the Red Raiders offensive attack quite well, but you may not have known that the Rebels lead by QB Jevan Snead have averaged a pretty respectable 31 points per game, and also have been the only loss so far for the top ranked Florida Gators. This will also be the final Cotton Bowl at the current Cotton Bowl stadium before it moves to the new Texas Stadium, sports bar, hair care, and tire center next year.
The Liberty Bowl: Kentucky vs. East Carolina (5:00 pm, ESPN) Kentucky has two of my favorite names in all of college football: offensive coordinator Joker Phillips and WR Dicky Lyons, Jr. That having been said, this has been a banner year for the Pirates, who won their first conference title since some of you elected Jimmy Carter to run our country (and you know who you are, what the hell were you thinking?!?!? Seriously…oh you think this is funny, don’t you?) The true key to this one might be the QB position, as the Wildcats are currently starting their backup QB Mike Hartline. Meanwhile the Pirates have Patrick Pinkney who has thrown for about 2,400 yards in the 13 contests ECU has played this season. Still, the Pirates had an inside track to being a BCS busting team and that honor goes to...
The Sugar Bowl: UTAH vs. Alabama (8:00 pm, FOX) Wow. Yeah, the second time in four seasons, the Utes are playing in a BCS game and I’m still sort of amazed that we did it twice. The last time the Utes played an SEC school was back in 1984, when Tennessee upended the Utes 27-21. Hopefully the Bama fans on the thread will forgive me for being rather giddy about playing the Tide. I mean, this is the kind of game you play on your Xbox when you’re bored at 2 in the morning and can’t go to sleep. I know, this was a team that went into Athens and ambushed Georgia. This was also a team that might have a future NFL All-Pro in Terrence Cody. But still, this is Alabama…rammer jammer yellowhammer, THAT Alabama. I used a boxing comparison in last year’s Sugar Bowl, so I think I’ll use one here. Back in the day, Joe Louis had all he could handle from a fledgling fighter named Jersey Joe Walcott. Walcott didn’t win the fight, but I don’t think we’ll see a Roberto Duran/Sugar Ray Leonard kind of bout like last year with Hawaii.