CollegeBowlProjections.com

The best conferences in bowl games:
Pac-10 5-0
SEC 6-2

The worst conferences in bowl games:
Mid-American 0-5
Big Ten 1-6

Great Defenses:
Florida holding Oklahoma to 14 points.

TCU holding Boise State to 16 points.  The last time Boise State was held under 20 points was September 8, 2007(Washington 24 Boise State 10)

Lousy Offenses:
Oregon State 3 Pittsburgh 0.  The Beavers had an excuse missing the Rodgers’ brothers for the game but Pitt needs to desperately find a quarterback for next season. Pitt quarterbacks completed 9 of 27 passes for a total of 89 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception.  Can you imagine how many more yards LeSean McCoy could run for if they had a decent pass game?

We didn’t see that coming:
Notre Dame thumping Hawaii 49-21 in the Hawaii Bowl.  After all the debate about Charlie Weiss returning, the Irish gave the Warriors a whoopin on their home turf.  Casey Clausen went 22/26 401 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Ole Miss putting 47 points on Texas Tech in Texas at the Cotton Bowl.  We knew the Big 12 didn’t have the best defense but we didn’t see the Rebels giving Tech a bunch of their own medicine.

Utah 21 Alabama 0 after 11 minutes in the first quarter.  The Crimson Tide were blown away by a far better prepared team in the Sugar Bowl.

We saw that coming:
USC dominating another Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl.  Pete Carroll prepares his team as well as anyone for bowl season.

Virginia Tech winning the Orange Bowl.  The Cincinnati Bearcats are new to the BCS and showed they didn’t have the poise to defeat a young Hokie team.

Another BCS mess:
Why do we continue to deal with this terrible system?  Who is rolling in all the cash from the bowl systems that won’t allow a change?  Why aren’t the over 50 non-BCS schools not working together to destroy this system?

We endure another year with controversy about the number one team in the nation.  Florida, USC, Utah and Texas should all have a piece of the title this season until they fix this joke of a system.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Most college football fans would argue the Big 12 was the best conference this season.  With three one-loss teams (Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech) the conference appeared to be the cream of the crop.  Those teams haven’t played their bowl games yet and we’ll see how they fair against the other best teams in the nation but the Big 12 is on a rocky start this bowl season.

Missouri barely got past Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl.  Chase Daniel threw a career high three interceptions in the game and couldn’t get past  the Wildcats until overtime.  Missouri went into the game as a 12-point favorite.

Oklahoma State took a beating against the Oregon Ducks in the Holiday Bowl.  The Ducks had two one hundred yard rushers in the game as they scored 35 points in the second half.  Oklahoma State’s Kendall Hunter couldn’t get anything going on the ground and finished with only 37 yards.  Oklahoma State went into the game as a three point favorite and lost by 11 points.

Did we overestimate the power of the Big 12 this season?  Were Missouri and Oklahoma State a bit overrated and the top teams will still prove their dominance this bowl season?

It’s still early too tell which conference will win the bowl conference records this year but we have two surprises at the top.  The Big East and Pac-10 conference are leading the race at 3-0.  These two conferences arguably were the two weakest BCS conferences this season but their bowl games performances are proving the opposite.  The ACC was the “deepest” conference this year but are only 3-3 this bowl season.  They’ve managed victories against Navy, Wisconsin(Big Ten 0-2), and Nevada(WAC 1-4).

Bowl games begin to be played at all hours these next couple of days. We’ll finally find out which conferences will raise to the top.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Head Coach Randy Shannon fired Patrick Nix as the offensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes this week.  Nix was cordial to Shannon on the way out but also said he wanted to play a more wide-open, no-huddle type of offense and Shannon wasn’t willing to do play that style.

Isn’t that what most football fans like to hear?  A more exciting offense?  A way to isolate the Hurricanes athletes against their opponents?  Nix’s offensive philosophy sounded like a better solution for the team.  Is Shannon going to hire a offensive coordinator who wants to run the ball and eat up time on the clock?  Do the fans want to see such an offense? Don’t the Hurricanes want to excite players to come to Miami because they play a wide-open, no-huddle type offense?  The type of offense the Hurricanes played during their glory years.

CollegeBowlProjections.com decided to take a look at the numbers to see if they warranted a dismissal of Nix.

2008 ACC Offensive Statistic Rankings

Points per game: Miami 2nd
Offensive yards per game: Miami 5th

These don’t look like horrible numbers.  Especially if you consider Nix was working with two freshman quarterbacks as the starter.  We decided to look at the defensive statistics to see if how they compared to the offensive side of the ball.

2008 ACC Defensive Statistic Rankings

Points allowed: Miami 11th
Yards allowed per game: Miami 7th

Are we missing something?  Since Randy Shannon fired the defensive coordinator last year he had to lay the blame on the offense?

The most alarming stat was the amount of interceptions the Hurricanes created this season.  The defense was only able to pick off opposing quarterbacks four times this season.  Compare that number to 26 times for the Boston College Eagles and you can see why the Eagles won their ACC division and the Hurricanes didn’t.  If the Hurricanes had half the interceptions of Boston College they would of easily won three more games.

Apparently Shannon is laying the blame on the offense this season.  Next year, Shannnon won’t have any place to look but at himself if the Hurricanes don’t turn it around.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Duke’s head football coach David Cutcliffe received a two year contract extension. His contract now extends until 2015. You would think a contract until 2013 would be plenty for a coach whose team only went 4-8 this season. However at Duke it took 42 games previously to win 4 games. Duke snapped a 25-game losing streak against ACC rivals this season.

Don’t underestimate the job stability if you can turn around a losing program.  Head coaches jumping into huge winning programs(Tennessee and Auburn) should take notice of David Cutcliffe’s job security.

Popularity: 4% [?]