Well, quite the entertaining bowl season, I think.

We have, somewhat, of a consensus national champion. The University of Florida Gators did their business and dispatched the Oklahoma Sooners. This result was not much of a suprise, 24-14 Gators. Bob Stoops continued his terrible performance in bowl games while Urban Meyer won his second national championship with Florida. Meyer is really doing his best to erase the Old Ball Coach's legacy in Gainsville and what is bad for Steve Spurrier is GREAT for me.

I wasn't sure how to recap this year's bowl season in a way that would be appealing for the blog. I was thinking about putting in my input on every bowl that I watched, then I thought about handing out awards for the bowls. But after a while I got to thinking that ONE day really capitulated everything that is great about bowl games.

Then, it hit me... 

You see the bowls are never ALL about the national championship. Often enough the best games take place in that vortex between Christmas and New Years. This year was no exception. There was one day in particular, it was the 27th of December, when we had a triple header of GREAT bowl games. It started early with a shootout between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the West Virginia Mountaineers. This was a matchup of great collegiate athletes as WVU QB Pat White took to the air and ended his four-year career as the starting QB with a 300-plus game through the air, the most in his career. This game also featured probably my favorite player in college football, Hakeem Nicks. Nicks finished that game with eight catches for 217 yards and two touchdowns. Not only did this game end 31-30 WVU but coach Bill Stewart had probably one the ALL-TIME nicest sound bites about his QB when he said that he hopes his kids grow up to be like Pat White. Rich Rodriguez never said that about Pacman or Chris Henry.

Later that day the vaunted Florida State Seminoles were locked in a great battle with the Badgers of Wisconsin. This was a great game, not only because FSU won 42-13 in a blowout, but it showed the real chasm between great speed and great size. Wisconsin, perennialy, one of the bigger teams looked just outclassed by the speed of Florida State on every side of the ball. This game was also featured a KICKER winning the MVP of the game. Congrats Graham Gano, you da man!

 The night of the 27th took us out west for the University of Miami-Cal Berkley game. The Emerald Bowl was a chance for me to take a look at one of the best kept secrets of the Pac-10 Conference, Jahvid Best. Best, one of the BEST, get it?, rushers in the nation, racked up 186 yards and two TDs against the Hurricanes defense, albeit a young Hurri-Shames defense, helping the Golden Bears won 24-17 on a late drive. Still Best had a great year this year, with eight 100-plus yard games, including a game where he rushed for 311 yards! After Marshawn Lynch's NFL success it is no stretch of the imagination that Best will come and do the same at the next level. Only a sophomore, Best will have another year to impress NFL scouts even more.

Truly the Mineke Car Care Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl and the Emerald Nuts Bowl were what bowling is all about. Sure they weren't BCS bowls, sure they didn't have national championship implications. They were just the BIGGEST games in the career of many players who were there. We didn't have . They were games that entertained, they were games that were exciting, they were just damn fine football games.

So this is it kids. We sure did have a good time didn't we? Some fun times, some hard times but always good times.

So as we depart (for what like five or six months?) I leave you with some of 2008-09's hottest cheerleaders.

Yes I will have the Shocker, thank you very much.

That's it kids. Have a great spring.