Last time on Holy Bowlers...
Wake Forest beat Navy, Colorado State beat Fresno State, South Florida demolished Memphis, Arizona upset BYU (who refuse to play well when it matters), and Southern Miss got the best of Troy in overtime (the yellow jerseys helped).
Now that you're all caught up let's go through the next few bowl games leading up to Christmas Day. Don't worry, it'll be easy because, you see, there are only TWO bowl games before Christmas. However both have pretty big storylines. Let us ponder over these games and then we'll get right to the cheerleader pics.
I know, I know the last post was a little lacking in that department so the Church will revert back to its "ace up the sleeve." But please stick around, read up, you might even learn something...then we'll get to the T and A.
December 23rd
San Diego Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: (9) Boise State, 12-0 vs. (11) TCU, 10-2
In all reality we should be calling this the "You Got Screwed By The BCS Poinsettia Bowl." Seriously these are two teams, that if a playoff was implemented in the BCS, could do some major damage to a school from a major conference. This will be a good game, hell, even a great game but somehow I think fans of the game will be watching this wondering, "What if?" I love underdog teams and Cinderella stories (not to mention Cinderella, that sexy minx, get in there and mop those floors!)
But what makes those Cinderella stories great is that they get to go to the ball (yikes this metaphor is drying up quick). This bowl game is the story of Cinderella if the evil stepmother sent Cinderella to the "ugly" ball (seriously I'm done). Boise State has been great on offense this year. Their redshirt freshmen quarterback has lit it up this year, completing 70% of his passes for 3000+ yards and 25 touchdowns this year. TCU, on the other hand, does its damage on the defensive side of the ball. The Horned Frogs have been holding opponents to a paltry 10.9 points per game. This is in part to the BEST defensive player in the country, Jerry Hughes. Hughes leads the nation is sacks (14), Hughes also has over 18 tackles for a loss. So this should be a great game in it's own right and it's cool that it is our big Pre-Christmas bowl, something to get us through all the tree decorating and problem drinking of the holidays.
TCU is getting 3 points, i'd probably take the points because the game is not being played on that deadly blue turf they got up there in Boise. Go Horned Frogs.
December 24th
Hawaii Bowl: Hawaii, 7-6 vs. Notre Dame, 6-6
Suck, suck, suck, suck, suck. This game sucks. The only solace of this one is, if the Irish happen to lose then Weis will probably be canned. The bad news is no matter what happens we will not hear the end of Weis' story or the Irish's story. Seriously can you think back to a time in college football, let alone any sport other than maybe the NFL, where a team gets this much media attention for being terrible? I thought in this country we were supposed to reward success, not failure.
Ugh, so we're gonna do this anyway. There are some SERIOUS obstacles to overcome for the Irish if they want to win this one. 1st, they have to get over the fact that they haven't won a bowl game in their last nine tries, they just have to forget the past and treat this game not as a bowl game but just another big game for their team, which in all reality it is especially for their coach.
Second, the coaching staff has to get this team prepared to play. Listen if I were going to the beaches of Waikiki from the desolate wasteland that is South Bend, Indiana there would be one thing on my mind and it sure as hell wouldn't be football.
These two teams are evenly matched, that is to say both kind of suck. If Hawaii's offensive line can hold in key situations then their odds of winning improve substantially, the problem is their offensive line usually cannot hold. Notre Dame, i'm sure, will blitz a lot on defense to try and rattle Hawaii starting QB Greg Alexander, but if Alexander gets any kind of time then he has proven he can be successful.
The Irish are getting a point and a half, take them as the dogs. Weis will win this one to give the boosters back in South Bend a little morsel to chew on until next year when he'll REALLY have to perform.
Stay tuned because after Christmas Day we will have the third installment of the Church of Keith Jackson Bowl Previews. Not only that BUT we will also be live blogging a few BCS bowl games in the upcoming weeks so keep those ears and eyes open kids.
Hope you get everything you want this year!