BCS Bowl Musings

New Year's Day was a disaster, moving the numbered musings to 10-9 for the bowl season. Bad beats galore...they definitely made up for the smidgen of good fortune I had gotten in some of the previous games of the season. The musings went 1-5 on 1/1, with Mississippi St's destruction of DickRod being the only winner of the day. I feel like I was on the right side on 4 of them, (TT, Miss St, Florida, TCU) the absolute wrong side on 1 (Mich St) and one that could have gone either way (UCONN). I was half expecting Matt McGloin to toss that pick 6 late to blow the Penn State cover. It happens, as we all know. A lot.

20. Stanford -3 1/2 v Virginia Tech: I just don't see a scenario where Harbaugh isn't the happy coach geting interviewed at the end of the game. This is definitely his swan song at Stanford, as most people expect him to either take the Michigan job once Dick Rod gets canned or the 49ers job. This is a matchup of 2 really good teams..both are solid in both phases on offense, but I think VT will be exposed on defense. I think Harbaugh will take extreme advantage of VT's inability to stop the run and then play action them to death with Luck. . Defensively, Stanford has shown an ability to stop the run, and their pass defense is among the best in the country.

21. Arkansas +3 1/2 v Ohio St: At this point, who in their right mind would lay points with a Big ten team against a good SEC squad, espcially considering the carnage that occurred on 1/1? All kinds of distractions for Ohio St, since most people think the kids who got suspended for selling jerseys and the like should be out for the bowl game, and OSU has had to spend a lot of time on that damage control. The focus on this game revolves around the Arky offense vs the Ohio State defense, since those are the sides that each team depends on. Ohio St is ranked 3rd in total defense, but those numbers have been accumulated against teams that can't hold a candle to Arkansas in the passing game. OSU has not seen a passing game like this. On the flip side, Arkansas is ranked 3rd in total offense, and they HAVE faced defenses like Ohio St, having moved the ball and scored effectively on the likes of Alabama and LSU. They have great balance now that Knile Davis is the starting RB..he's averaging more than 6 yards a carry. Arkansas is no pushover on defense(ranked 33rd nationally) and I think they can gameplan to make Pryor beat them. So basically, I have a good SEC team facing a Big Ten team in SEC country, and I'm getting points. Based on what we've seen, and with OSU's prior history against the SEC, I think you have to take the points here.

More later.