The Minnesota Gophers Look to Make a Statement.
(Jesse Johnson/USA Today Sports.)
War Eagle, everybody! SEC bowl season is here, and begins tonight in Houston, Texas. This is my favorite time of year, when I can sit back and watch lots of good teams from around the country, and see matchups of the sort I normally don’t get to see during the regular season. And mostly, I love to see how the SEC stacks up against the rest of the country. Lately, that answer has not been good. The SEC hasn’t had a winning bowl record since 2015. Last year’s SEC teams went 6-6, after fielding losing records in 2016 and 2017.
Auburn faces a historic matchup at noon on New Year’s Day, against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The two teams have never played each other in football. Minnesota has some pretty good scalps on its belt from this past season, including knocking off Penn State when the Nittany Lions were 4th in the country. A perfect season was derailed at Iowa, then the Gophers were thumped by 21 points at home against Wisconsin.
There is no question that Minnesota can pile up the points and the yards, with a tandem of 1000-yard receivers, a great quarterback in Tanner Morgan, and a 1000-yard rusher in Rodney Smith. The Gophers are averaging 34.3 points per game. I think Auburn will be stronger up front on defense, so we will likely see Minnesota utilize quick-passing strategies like most Auburn opponents have, this season. Auburn likes to use mostly man coverage. Opponents have tried to isolate size on cornerback Javaris Davis, and speed on nickelback Christian Tutt. Auburn will allow short completions, but until the Iron Bowl, few of those passes went for very many yards as the Auburn secondary is fundamentally very sound on tackling.
Auburn’s key to winning this game is to get some production out of the ground game. With a healthy Auburn backfield and offensive line, this should be possible. In their last game, Minnesota was blown out by Wisconsin 38-17. The Badgers did it by rushing for almost 5 yards per carry, and eating the clock.
The Outback Bowl will kick off at Noon Central Time on Wednesday, New Years Day, and will be televised on ESPN. We’ll have our usual trackemtigers.com open thread up and running for this one.
There is quite the slate of post-Christmas bowl action this season. I had a great time last night watching the mighty Miami Hurricanes get shut out 14-0 in the Independence Bowl against Louisiana Tech. That team has fallen fast in recent years.
Upcoming Bowl Games, after the jump!
In just a few minutes, the Military Bowl kicks off in Annapolis, Maryland. North Carolina will take on Temple in that one. I’ve been impressed by the job Mack Brown has done at UNC. There have been some stumbles, but the Tar Heels did win their last couple of games to get bowl-elegible, including a 41-10 thrashing of North Carolina State. Temple has lost 3 of their last 6, including blowout losses to SMU and Central Florida. I’ll take the Tarheels, in this contest.
This afternoon, Michigan State takes on Wake Forest in the Pinstripe Bowl from Yankee Stadium in New York. Wake was looking like a challenger in the ACC before a late-season fade. Meanwhile the Spartans barely made a bowl this year. This is the sort of game the Spartans seem to find a way to win, and they should have a crowd advantage as well.
SEC action kicks off at 5:45 PM in Houston, in the Texas Bowl. The Texas A&M Aggies take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Both teams underachieved this season, and I’ll be curious to see if the Aggies can get up off the mat after they were absolutely destroyed in the season finale against LSU.
This evening the Holiday Bowl features Southern Cal and Iowa. This should be a virtual home game for the Trojans. This will be a good opportunity to see what decent Big-Ten and PAC-Twelve teams do in a showdown.
Late evening action has Washington State meeting Air Force in the Cheez-it bowl in Phoenix. The Air-Raid meets the triple option, in this one. I like Air Force, in this game.
Saturday features 4 games, 3 of them are New Years Six games, and 2 are playoff games. A pair of 11:00 AM games precede the playoffs. First, Penn State takes on Memphis in the Cotton Bowl, in Arlington Texas. Memphis won the AAC title, while Penn State missed out on the Big Ten championship game. Memphis will be playing for pride, but it is worth noting that they lost head coach Mike Norvell to Florida State in recent weeks.
Also at 11:00 AM is the Camping World Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Notre Dame takes on Iowa State. Iowa State is a potentially explosive team, but lost some close games this season. I suspect the winner in this game is the team that is more excited to be there. Notre Dame fans were expecting to be back in the Playoff, this season.
At 3:00 PM on Saturday, we have the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl, in the first game of the college football playoff. LSU hosts Oklahoma in this one. I think LSU’s defense really came on in the second half of the season, and should be able to slow Oklahoma down. No team except Auburn really slowed LSU down, all season. LSU may be without the services of banged-up running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but the Tigers still should have plenty of firepower ready to go in this one.
The other playoff game is Saturday evening, in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. Ohio State hosts Clemson. This is a matchup featuring the best of the ACC and the Big Ten. I think overall the ACC was the weaker conference, but Clemson played awfully well down the stretch, even so. Also, Clemson has been in the playoff every year since 2014, and knows what it takes to win it all. I would also point out that Clemson defensive coordinator has had a month to scheme up something for the Ohio State offense. In the past 4 Clemson playoff openers, the Tigers held Oklahoma to 17, Ohio State to zero, gave up 24 to Alabama in 2017, then held Notre Dame to 3 last season. I’m not looking for the Buckeyes to do any better.
Monday December 30th, we have a quartet of bowls. At 11:00 AM, we have the Servpro Bowl in Dallas, where Western Kentucky takes on Western Michigan. I’ll be honest. I know little about either of these teams.
At 3:00 PM, we have the Music City Bowl in Nashville. Mississippi State takes on Louisville in that one. Mississippi State did not have their strongest season, but did make it to a bowl game. Louisville was blown out 52-27 by Miami, and 45-13 at Kentucky in recent weeks. Here’s hoping the Bullies can win one for the SEC.
Also at 3:00 PM, there is the Redbox Bowl in Santa Clara, California. California takes on Illinois in that game. Again, I watched neither team play this season.
Monday Night features the Orange Bowl in Miami. Florida will take on the Virginia Cavaliers. The Cavs won their last 4 regular season games to take their division, then got blasted 62-17 by Clemson in the title game. Considering that Florida had close losses to LSU and Georgia, I think the Gators are much more talented, and should bring a lot of in-state fans to this game. If Florida is motivated for this game, I think we’ll see a big Gator win.
New Years Eve is a busy bowl day, this year. The action kicks off with the Belk Bowl in Charlotte at 11:00 AM. Kentucky will take on Virginia Tech. I keep on saying that Kentucky is unlikely to win with a wide receiver taking snaps at quarterback, and yet the Wildcats keep winning. The Hokies can put up some points, though. I don’t see Tech rolling over like Louisville did against Kentucky.
At 1:00 PM, we have the “Tony the Tiger” Sun Bowl, from El Paso, Texas. Florida State takes on Arizona State in that one. Both teams are trying to build for next season, after forgettable 2019 campaigns.
At 2:45 PM, the Liberty Bowl kicks off in Memphis. Navy will take on Kansas State in that game. Normally I’d rank the Big 12 ahead of the Mountain West, but I suspect Navy may be the more motivated team.
At 3:30 PM, there is the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl, from Tucson. Wyoming will take on Georgia State in that one. I can remember opening weekend, when Wyoming knocked off Missouri and Georgia State beat Tennesee. I would think Wyoming would bring more fans to this one, but I can’t really guess who might win this one.
At 6:30 PM on New Years Eve, the Alamo bowl kicks off from San Antonio. This one features Utah vs. Texas. Utah is fresh off an embarrassing loss to Oregon in the PAC-12 title game, while Texas has been embarrassing for a good bit of this season. I suspect that the Longhorns will fall once again, in their home state.
Wednesday, New Years Day is strangely quiet this bowl season, with only 4 games. Auburn will play in the Outback Bowl at noon in Tampa against Minnesota. Also at noon, the Citrus Bowl will be played in Orlando, with Alabama taking on Michigan. I would have really rather seen Alabama and Auburn play at different times. I think the Tide will play angry in this game, and send Michigan fans home grumbling.
The Rose Bowl game kicks off at 4:00 PM, in Pasadena, California. Oregon will take on Wisconsin. I like Oregon’s versatility on offense in this game.
The New Years nightcap is the Sugar Bowl, in New Orleans. Georgia will take on Baylor. This will be a tough game for the Bulldogs. Baylor is not an easy out. The Georgia skill position players have had a lot of injuries lately, and it has been a sub-par passing year for the Bulldogs. I’m thinking we’ll see a 5th straight Georgia post-season loss.
A couple of bowls were pushed to Thursday, January 2nd. The Birmingham Bowl kicks off at 2:00 PM, with Cincinnati and Boston College doing battle. I think the Bearcats will win this one easily. I wonder how well attended this game will be?
The Taxslayer Gator Bowl will be played Thursday night, with Tennessee taking on Indiana. Tennessee started the season off looking like the worst team in the SEC, then won 6 of their last 7 games. I think Vol fans and players are excited to be back in a bowl game after a 2 year absence.
Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM, we’ll have the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl from Boise, Idaho. The Ohio Bobcats will take on the Nevada Wolfpack. The extended forecast for this one looks to be rainy with temps around 40 degrees. Brrrrr.
Saturday, December 4th will have the earliest of the bowl kickoffs, with the Armed Forces Bowl kicking off at 10:30 AM in Ft. Worth Texas. Southern Mississippi will take on Tulane. I’ll be pulling for the Green Wave, who Auburn defeated 24-6 this past season.
The bowl season continues on Monday evening, January 6th, with the Lending Tree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. Louisiana takes on Miami of Ohio in that one. I expect that the Ragin’ Cajuns will carry that one.
Finally, on Monday evening, January 13th we’ll have the College Football National Championship Game, from New Orleans. It is an interesting situation this season, as we have over a 2 week delay between the playoff games and the final. My prediction is that we will see LSU and Clemson do battle in this one.
The post A Week Crammed Full of Bowls! appeared first on Track 'Em Tigers, Auburn's oldest and most read independent blog.
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