Maddux Sports Blog

There are five games today, so we’ll go through them quickly:

Armed Forces Bowl
Houston (-4.5) vs. Air Force
12 pm ET

I can’t wait to see what happens with this one. Houston throws and throws and throws again. Case Keenum is exceptionally good at it, and few things in college football are more fun to watch. Air Force, on the other hand, has the top ranked pass defense in the country. Keenum has averaged 419 yards passing per game. Air Force has allowed just 149. One of those sides is going to have to give, because both can’t play their game. My bet is that it is going to be Houston, but the more I think about it the less confident I am in that. These teams met twice last year – regular season and in this same bowl game – but we didn’t learn much from that because each team won a close game, and the loser scored 28 points each time.

Sun Bowl
Oklahoma (-10) vs. Stanford
2:00 pm ET

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I didn’t get a chance to write about the Humanitarian Bowl before it started, but as I write this it is nearing the end of the third quarter, and Bowling Green has just scored a touchdown to close the gap to Idaho to 28-21. This game is exactly why I love bowl season. I haven’t seen either of these teams play this season, or in the last several seasons, and I have no real reason to be interested in either of them. Despite that, I am absolutely riveted by this great game. It’s been offensive and exciting. Both sides have plenty of talent, and it is on display here. BGSU receiver came into the game with 138 catches on the year, and has added 11 so far to break the single season receiving record. We’ve seen highlights and lowlights . This game really shouldn’t matter, and in normal circumstances it would never be on TV, but it is and it is brilliant. I love bowls. I don’t love Boise State’s smurf turf, though. That stuff is nastier every time I see it.

Holiday Bowl
Nebraska (-2.5) vs. Arizona
Wednesday, December 30, 8 pm ET

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Before we get into the bowl previews, I just want to look at one issue with the Mike Leach situation. I’m not going to try to decode whether he did what he is alleged to do, whether it is as bad as it seems, or what punishment he should face. I justwant to ask one question – if you were going to harass one of your players, wouldn’t a smart person make sure that the player they were harassing wasn’t the son of an ESPN commentator who loves nothing more than the sound of his own voice? If Leach goes down then it will be incredibly hard to have any sympathy for him because of this shocking lack of judgement. Any self-respecting bully knows that you pick on kids who can’t defend themselves, not those who have a vocal advocate on their side.

EagleBank Bowl
UCLA (-5) vs. Temple
Tuesday, December 29, 4:30 pm ET

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Before we take a look at tonight’s bowl game I want to touch on the controversy surrounding what the Colts did yesterday against the Jets. If you’ve been under a rock then you missed that Indy got out to a 15-10 lead and then pulled Peyton Manning and the rest of the starters. They didn’t score again, and the Jets waltzed to a deceptively easy 29-15 win. Coach Jim Caldwell has spent most of his time since making the decision defending it. This stinks in a whole lot of ways. There’s the fact that this was a home game, so they effectively robbed their fans of their ticket prices. There’s the fact that resting the starters hasn’t worked in the past for Indy, and it’s especially meaningless because there are three weeks between this game and the first playoff game. There’s the fact that intentionally throwing a game away like they did makes a mockery of any of the legal betting that happened on the game. Most significantly, though, the Jets were in the midst of a very intense chase for the wild card spots, so by throwing this game away and handing the Jets a win they were intentionally hurting the chances of every other team trying to earn one of their spots. I understand a team wanting to be at their best for the playoffs, but doing it at the expense of the chances of other teams is vile.

Independence Bowl
Georgia (-6.5) vs. Texas A&M
Monday, December 28, 5 pm ET

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We’ll be back with more Bowl game goodness on December 28th.

In the mean time, relax, have a great holiday, don’t eat too much turkey (unless you want to), and enjoy the season.

All the best to you and your families.

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Little Caesars Bowl
Ohio (-3) vs. Marshall
Saturday, December 26, 1 pm ET

If you are a big believer that motivation is a key factor in bowl games then you won’t have any problems picking a side in this one. Ohio hasn’t won 10 games since 1968, but they have the chance to do it this year if they win this one. That’s a huge milestone for any team. Marshall, on the other hand, had such a frustrating season that their head coach resigned right after the season – just before he would likely have been fired. They are coming into this game with an interim coach, and that almost never goes well. On the plus side for Marshall, stud running back Darius Marshall is back in action for this one after missing two games due to injury.

Meineke Car Care Bowl
Pitt (-2.5) vs. North Carolina
Saturday, December 26, 4:30 pm ET

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There are 31 bowl games left to play, and over the next several days we are going to look at each of them. Today we’ll begin by looking at three games, starting with tonight’s potentially brilliant Las Vegas Bowl.

Las Vegas Bowl
Oregon State (-3) vs. BYU
Tuesday, December 22, 8 pm ET

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I love the craziness of kickers in the NFL. A couple of weeks ago Shaun Suisham was the bum in Washington when he missed a kick that would have let the Redskins beat the Saints. He was cut immediately after the game. This week Dallas’ Nick Folk missed a 24 yard field goal that would have given the Cowboys an easy win, and instead forced them to sweat the end of the game. Folk was cut today as a result of that kick and his general habit of missing kicks. Ironically, Folk’s issues came against the Saints as well – at this rate no kicker is going to want to play against the Saints. The best part of this drama – the Cowboys have chosen to replace Folk with none other than Suisham. One man’s garbage…

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There is just one bowl game on tap for today, and it’s far from the best one of the season. It’s still worth a  look, though:

New Orleans Bowl
Middle Tennessee State (+3.5) vs. Southern Mississippi
8:00 pm ET

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The three weeks of brilliance that is the bowl season gets underway this afternoon with the first of 34 games. There aren’t that many games that look like they could be massive blowouts, but the very first game out of the gate – the New Mexico Bowl between Fresno State and Wyoming certainly does. Here’s a look at the two games that get us started today:

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