March Madness in December: Duke vs. Cincinnati, Baylor vs. UCLA

Leave a comment

December 27, 2012 by ryanoudoak

For those who have been longing for consecutive days filled with college football action, the long-awaited time of the year is finally upon us. Between today and New Year’s Day, there will be no shortage of football action to satisfy those desires. The bowl gods get us off to a terrific start on Thursday beginning with a contentious matchup of non-BCS teams followed by two matchups of teams from the big boy leagues. The WAC plays their last bowl game before folding up their tents for good at the end of the year and San Jose St. should represent the conference well as it goes off into the sunset. MAC Conference member Bowling Green offers one of the better defenses in FBS and should provide us with a competitive game in the early going. The Belk Bowl between Duke and Cincinnati would have been a better basketball matchup and should offer fans a break to catch their breath before the Holiday Bowl wraps things up. The Holiday Bowl is annually one of the best matchups of the college bowl season and no college football fan should miss this year’s edition between UCLA and Baylor.

Military Bowl

 

Bowling Green (MAC) (+7) vs. San Jose St. (WAC) December 27th 3 pm ESPN – The San Jose St. Spartans came a field goal away from beating the Stanford Cardinal in the first weekend of the year, and their only other loss on the season was to WAC Champion Utah St. In between they used a strong offense and stout defense to reach the program’s first bowl since 2006 in Mike MacIntyre’s third season. They had impressive wins along the way against San Diego St., BYU, and La Tech. This could be a stepping stone year for the Spartans with a young nucleus of talent, although they do lose All-American DE Travis Johnson.

Bowling Green almost shocked the world in the first week of the season when they pushed the Gators to the brink in the swamp. After they started the season 1-3, they ran off 6 straight victories while allowing less than 8 points per game in that stretch. Kent St. ended the winning streak and the Falcons’ defensive dominance before they finished the season with a victory over Buffalo. The Falcons have played with one of the best defenses in the nation this year under 4th-year HC Dave Clawson. BG returns to a bowl this year for the first time in three years and the alumni should be excited about a trip down the road to Washington, D.C.

What to Expect:

 

BG has one of the best defenses in the country and came up just short in the MAC. The long distance trip for San Jose will hamper a young team that is still building. This should be one of the better matchups of the bowl season. It is difficult to go against a team from the competitive WAC conference this year, but expect the Falcons to keep it within the number here with a good chance of winning the game. The Spartans win only their second bowl game since 1990, 21-17.

Belk Bowl

 

Duke (ACC) (+7) vs. Cincinnati (Big East) December 27th 6:30 pm ESPN – The Blue Devils make the post season for the first time since 1994 and get rewarded with a trip to Charlotte, NC – wait, what? This would have been a pretty sweet location for a first and second-round pod matchup in the NCAA tournament but this can’t have the fans in Durham head-over-heels excited. A 5-1 start under 5th year coach David Cutcliffe no doubt had the Duke faithful dreaming big, particularly with the post-season bans to N. Carolina and Miami, but the Blue Devils only managed a victory down the stretch over North Carolina on their way to a 1-5 finish.

The Cincinnati Bearcats were dreaming of a Big East Championship, particularly with early season victories over Pitt and Virginia Tech en route to a 5-0 start. A shocking loss to in-state rival Toledo followed by a loss to Louisville put a damper on dreams of something big this year for the Bearcats. They were able to manage a 4-1 run at the end for a very respectable 9-3 record and a share of the Big East Title, sans the BCS bowl awarded to the Big East Champ. For the Alumni and fans of Cincinnati, it’s another short trip for a bowl game, after going to Memphis last year for the Liberty Bowl, and a long way from the BCS bowls they had become accustomed to under former HC Brian Kelly.

What to Expect:

It has been a tumultuous offseason already for the Bearcats, as HC Butch Jones left for Tennessee leaving the Bearcats with an interim coach or Tommy Tubberville. Meanwhile, HC David Cutcliffe reaffirmed to the Duke faithful that he would stay around for at least another year in Durham. Look for the offensive mind of Cutcliffe to give Duke the advantage in this one as Duke wins their first bowl game since 1960, 28-20.

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl

 

UCLA (Pac-12) (PK) vs. Baylor (Big XII) December 27th 9:45 pm ESPN – The Holiday Bowl has been known for its shootouts over the years and this one should be no different. Baylor returns to a high profile bowl for the second year in a row and this one is after the RGIII-era. It’s the third-straight bowl game in Art Briles’ five years in Waco and he is succeeding where it seemed virtually impossible to do so. Senior QB Nick Florence picked up nicely for Robert Griffin this year and the Bears started the season 3-0 including a thrilling win at UL Monroe. Thrilling, high-scoring games were to become the norm for Baylor as they do not care much for playing defense. Their opening Big XII game was a 70-63 loss to WVU where they simply ran out of time. The last team to possess the ball in that game was going to win with two of the league’s best offenses facing two of the worst defenses. That game started a four-game slide until they were able to face an atrocious Kansas team. After losing to Oklahoma the following week, they finished strong with 3 impressive wins against previously unbeaten Kansas St., Texas Tech, and Oklahoma St.

The Jim Mora era at UCLA couldn’t have started any better. No one imagined a Pac-12 Championship in his first year, yet there were the Bruins, going toe-to-toe with Stanford for the right to play in the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1999. A week 2 win against Nebraska was a nice surprise and a hint at the potentially quick turnaround for UCLA under Mora. Losses in 2 of their first 3 conference games tempered those expectations a bit before the Bruins went on a 5-game winning streak, including a win over Southern Cal, to punch their ticket to the Championship Game. Their 9 wins are the most for the program since 2005 and their first winning season since 2009. The key to the Bruin success was the emergence of redshirt freshman Brett Hundley. The athletic quarterback has proven to be a weapon with his legs and arm.

What to Expect:

 

The offensive genius of HC Briles against the defensive fortitude of HC Mora; always go with defense in a game like this one, but there should be plenty of points scored. With the Bruins playing a freshman at quarterback, there would normally be an edge for the upperclassman Florence. Hundley, however, has not played like a freshman all season and the extra practices leading up to the bowl game should only improve his development. The defense should be able to get enough stops in this one and score a big victory for the Pac-12 this bowl season. Bruins win another classic Holiday Bowl, 45-37.