Obviously, every college football fan looks forward to the BCS bowl games including the BCS National Championship and this year features an incredible slate of BCS games, which fans should be very intrigued about.
In the Rose Bowl, two of the best running backs in the country, Montee Ball of Wisconsin and LaMichael James of Oregon, will meet in a game that features two of the top 4 scoring teams in the FBS. Wisconsin is playing in the grandaddy of them all for the second consecutive year, while Oregon is playing in its second Rose Bowl in three years. However, Wisconsin hasn't won a Rose Bowl since 1994 when they beat UCLA 21-16 and Oregon hasn't won a rose bowl game in almost 100 years since 1917 when the Ducks beat Pennsylvania 14-0.
For fans that love to watch great offenses and teams that score a lot of points, the Fiesta Bowl and definitely not the BCS National Championship is the game to watch. Oklahoma St., led by the lethal aerial connection of Brandon Weeden and all-American Justin Blackmon, will be playing in their first BCS bowl against the Stanford Cardinals, who are led by Heisman runner-up and future number 1 pick, Andrew Luck. Both teams have potent offenses that ranked within the top 5 in scoring in the FBS.
For the first time since 2000, the sugar bowl will be a matchup where neither team is from the SEC. However, the matchup of Michigan and Virginia Tech, two of the most high profile schools in the country with two of the largest fan bases in the country, is going to be a huge attraction. While Virginia Tech has dominated the ACC and is in its sixth BCS game and its fourth since 2008, Michigan is appearing in its first BCS game since the 2007 Rose Bowl.
Although the Orange Bowl is once again the least attractive of the BCS games, it does feature two teams that can score a lot of points. Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd is in the top 10 of the FBS in passing yards and touchdowns, many of which go to his big time freshman receiver Sammy Watkins. The Mountaineers can also score some points and rack up a ton of yards, which they showed even against the incredible defense of LSU. West Virginia ranked 6th in the FBS in passing yards per game. Clemson is just playing in its fourth Orange Bowl and its first since 1982 when they beat Nebraska 22-15. West Virginia is playing in its first BCS bowl game since 2008 when they beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl 48-28.
The BCS National Championship is a rematch of the "Game of the Century" played earlier this year when the LSU Tigers beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa in a defense battle 9-6. The last rematch in a college football National Championship game was back in 1996 when the Florida Gators lost to Florida St. 24-21 in Tallahassee and then went on to beat Florida St. in the National Championship 52-20. The National title game features arguably two of the best defenses in college football history. Alabama ranked 1st in the FBS in points allowed at an incredible 8.8, while LSU finished 2nd allowing 10.5 points per game. Through Alabama's first 10 games, they were allowing just an average of 7.1 points per game including holding 6 of those opponents, Kent St., North Texas, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and LSU, to under 10 points. LSU's defense wasn't too far behind. In 8 SEC games and the SEC championship game, LSU allowed an average of less than 10 points per game and held everybody beside Arkansas to less than 11 points. Although the Alabama and LSU offenses should manage to put some more points on the board than in their previous meeting, don't expect an offense shootout with defenses like LSU and Alabama that have so many talented and NFL caliber players.
No comments:
Post a Comment