Arizona 31, BYU 21 I honestly wasn't that surprised. ND 49, Hawaii 21 (it was 42-7 at one point) I don't like Weis or Clausen (or any ND player that I know of), but I think this was a big win for them. Hawaii had won three straight Hawaii Bowls in a row, while ND hadn't won a bowl in 15 years--entering the game, ND had an NCAA-record of nine straight bowl losses. In the first half alone, Clausen broke the all-time ND bowl record for passing yards. Clausen finished 22 of 26 (84.6%), 401 yards, 5 TDs, zero Ints. Granted, Hawaii is a team that lost 56-10 to Florida this year, but ND isn't that great either (they finished the regular season 6-6). WV 31, UNC 30 Lou Holtz was saying it's a disappointing loss for UNC, but I don't think so (maybe Holtz still hates Miami and its former coaches for all the headaches the Miami/ND games gave him when he was at ND). UNC was 4-8 last year. They finished 8-4 this year. It looks like Butch Davis and UNC is on the up-and-up. As for WV, their victory is not as impressive as their 48-28 victory over 11-2 OU last year (Fiesta Bowl) or their 38-35 victory over 10-2 Georgia in 2005 (Sugar Bowl). FSU 42, Wisconsin 13 FSU beat down a 7-5 Wisconsin team (Wisconsin lost three of their games by 3 points or less, including their loss against #14 Ohio State and their loss against #22 MSU). I think it's a pretty big win for the 'Noles, giving their fans a little taste of how they used to be in the 90's.
UNC's Nicks was such a freak of nature in that game, that not one, but two of his catches were featured as the co-#1 on ESPN's best plays... and that was beating out some other great catches by WVU and FSU today.
The Cal-Miami game was one of the worst coached games ever. EVER! Shannon took away any chance they had to win in the final two and a half minutes. Got the ball with 2:41 left, down by seven, and they ran a total of eight plays before time ran out. It was really pathetic. They had one timeout through all of this, and the freshman QB scrambled and stayed in bounds with about 45 seconds left. No time out called. QB takes his time to snap the ball, throws it out of bounds. 12 seconds left. Miami calls time out. :dis::dis::dis:
The Big XII isn't looking so hot. Northwestern (Big Ten) took Missouri to overtime--and Northwestern put up 376 total yards, while Missouri was only able to manage 311. Then, Oklahoma State lost to Pac-10 Oregon 42-31, and Oregon put up 562 yards while Oklahoma State was only able to manage 468. Remaining games for the Big XII: Kansas vs Minnesota Nebraska vs Clemson Texas Tech vs Ole Miss Texas vs Ohio State Oklahoma vs Florida
I debated the Big 12 homer earlier in the year and said they were only putting up huge numbers because their defenses all sucked hard. We're seeing that to be true right now.
Oklahoma State choked tonight. They were up 17-7 and had two opportunities inside the 30 and got nothing. Oregon scores, and OSU throws an interception in the red zone.
Maybe I am alone, but it bothered me that the Humanitarian Bowl changed nothing about the field. It had "Broncos" in the end zones and Boise State on the 50. It seems like something that brings in that much money could at least pony up enough to at least paint the field.
it doesn't bug me as much last night as it does when Boise is in the game and they keep the stuff on the field.
I think non-BCS bowls should have a rule about no true home-field advantage. Basically Hawaii, Boise State, Arizona (Insight Bowl), Tulane (New Orleans Bowl), and a few others. A lot of these bowls exist for home field advantage for their home team more times than not.
will never happen. because a small bowl being a home game for a team means the stadium actually being full, unlike Maryland who sold 500 or so tickets for that game yest.
