Well kids, apparently ESPN feels the same way I do, since they busted out Herbstreit and Fowler for the Holiday Bowl. Cal’s taking TAMU to task at the moment, and bolstered by our Internet connection not sucking for the time being, here’s the predictions for the games up to the first (confusingly, Tito’s times are Eastern and mine are Central!):

• Music City Bowl, Kentucky vs. Clemson (ESPN, noon): Clemson totally outclasses Kentucky in probably every phase of the game. Clemson may be disappointed they fell to the Music City, but at least they’re east of the Mississippi. Clemson rolls.
• Sun Bowl, Oregon State vs. Missouri (CBS, 1:00): Sweet, the first non-ESPN game of the year! (NFL Network doesn’t count.) It’s tough to get a read here, except that I think the Beavers are pretty decent and Mizzou sucks.
• Liberty Bowl, Houston vs. South Carolina (ESPN, 3:30): For reasons I don’t exactly recall, I picked Houston. I’m sure I had a good reason for doing so and I stand by it.
• Insight Bowl, Texas Tech vs. Minnesota (NFL, 6:30): Uh, TTU should win. Same no one will get to see it.
• Champs Sports Bowl, Maryland vs. Purdue (ESPN, 7:00): I see Purdue as a sort of “Georgia Tech of the Big Ten” due to their strong engineering program and a skewed male/female ratio (though they have 30,000 undergrads and it’s only 58:42, but eh), so I have a soft spot for them. But not soft enough. Much like VPI, Maryland finished their season strong and I like their chances.
• Car Care Bowl, Boston College vs. Navy (Dec. 30, ESPN, noon): I hate to admit this (as the soon of an Army grad), but I like watching Navy’s offense. Who doesn’t love a well-oiled triple option machine? Unfortunately, the machine tends to break down against teams that don’t suck, as the Midshipmen lost 34-0 to Rutgers and lost 38-14 to Notre Dame. Boston College is probably not that much worse than Rutgers and certainly better than Tulsa, who also beat Navy, so I like BC here.
• Alamo Bowl, Texas vs. Iowa (ESPN, 3:30): I’ll go out on a limb here an say that Sun Belt officials probably won’t be working this game. I’ll also say that Iowa is pretty boned unless Texas is just really depressed or something.
• PeachChick-fil-a Bowl, Virginia Tech vs. Georgia (ESPN, 7:00): Okay, let’s see. I hate UGA, and VPI, while not exactly my favorite team ever, is in my conference. They’ve also finished the season red hot, though I guess you could say UGA has as well with consecutive victories over the teams we at this site like. (Ugh.) That said, more of UGA’s offensive lineman got arrested/suspended, so VPI’s defense should be able to take them to task. VPI should also fill their 50% of the dome against the exceedingly obnoxious UGA fans.
• MPC Computers Bowl, Nevada vs. Miami (FL) (Dec. 31, ESPN, 6:30): The Miami players, confused over this “snow” shenaniganry, without a coach, and, oh, yeah, in damn Boise, Idahoa will probably not be terribly excited. I think Nevada wins. That said, the Humanitarian Bowl was a much better name. And for the record, I like the blue turf. There, I said it.

Check back Sunday for the big New Year’s Day Preview bash!

Well, the internet connection here at the asimsports compound kind of sucks, so here’s a whole batch of stuff right through the 28th:

• Motor City Bowl, Central Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee State (ESPN, 6:30 CST): Well, about the only thing of interest to me is that I know a guy who went to MTSU. Unfortunately for him, CMU should roll.
• Emerald Bowl, Florida State vs. UCLA (ESPN, 7:00 CST): I assume that this game is still played at whatever they’re calling Pac Bell Park these days (AT&T Park I think, but whatever), which should give UCLA a slight home field advantage. I can’t forsee anyway that FSU would be into this game – I watched their game against Wake when they just absolutely quit, and then they lost to Florida. FSU also still doesn’t have an offense, as far as I know. UCLA should roll.
• Independence Bowl, Oklahoma St. vs. Alabama (ESPN, 3:30 CST): I know a couple things about this game. OSU is a decent team, and I hate Alabama and they just fired their coach. So I like OSU here.
• Texas Bowl, Kansas State vs. Rutgers (NFL Network, 7:00 CST): Rutgers wraps up their dream season with a bowl that has it’s like 4 name in 5 years and no one will watch because it’s on the NFL Network. Whoops. Kansas State isn’t very good and Rutgers should win, you know what they say about “if a tree falls in a forest and no one’s around…”? Yeah.
• Holiday Bowl, California vs. Texas A&M (ESPN, 7:00 CST): Now here we go. I don’t feel like it’s bowl season for real until the Holiday Bowl, usually because it provides the first real matchup of the season. I’m still a bit baffled the Holiday didn’t take Texas – despite TAMU’s victory over UT, I still feel the latter is probably a better team. At any rate, I like the Bears here.

That’s it, kids! Tune in the 28th or 29th for the remainder of the non-Jan. 1 bowls.

A little late, but yeah….I don’t have much to write, just want to keep up the streak. Anyway.

Hawaii has a decent team this year. However, it’s hard to predict what they’ll do against this Arizona State squad. They played Oregon State in their last regular season game and despite the massive home field advantage for the Warriors they still lost.

Once again, Hawaii has the home field advantage here. Will they be able to pull it off against a Pac-10 team this time? I think ASU is not nearly as good as OSU, so they have a shot and I’ve picked Hawaii to win. We’ll see what happens.

Lots of stuff on the plate the next couple of days.

• Georgia @ Georgia Tech (FSN, 6:00 PM CST) in basketball. Tech has struggled since their victory over Memphis in Maui. It’s hard to take away much of anything from the blowout over Centerary Monday night other than that Morrow shot well, which may indicate he has a finally recovered from an off-season injury. Georgia is playing very inspired ball right now and beat Gonzaga earlier this week. Tech has played with little inspiration, especially on defense. Hopefully we can crank it up tonight.
• New Orleans Bowl, Troy vs. Rice (ESPN2, 7:00 PM CST): WTF, mate? Rice makes a bowl for the first time since 1961, Troy makes a bowl for the second time in their history. No idea who is going to win this. C-USA is obviously a better conference than the Sun Belt, but I mean, we’re talking about Rice here. I’ve seen Troy in person this season, but I’m not sure that helps. I don’t even know if Rice still runs that wishbone/flexbone offense – I’d have to guess not since they have a WR who’s caught 20 TDs. Troy runs a wide open offense – usually 4 or 5 WR on the field at a given time. I expect some points to be scored, but the question is who will come out on top? I picked Troy here, but it could go either way.
• Papajohns.com Bowl, East Carolina vs. South Florida (ESPN2, Noon CST): There is nothing remotely interesting about this game except that it’s being played down in Birmingham at the legendary Legion Field. Expect to see lots of Iron Bowl footage during the game. I probably won’t even be able to see it. Also, I thought the “.com” thing died like 3-4 years ago? Even the Insight.com Bowl is now the Insight Bowl. Just silly. I also like USF for what that’s worth.
• New Mexico Bowl, New Mexico vs. San Jose State (ESPN, 3:30 CST): Did You Know that SJSU has their own passenger jet plane? It’s true – I saw it while I was landing at San Jose’s airport. It was one of those old tri-engine jets from the early 70’s, like the DC-10 or the Lockheed 1101 or some such. Anyway, while New Mexico has home field advantage here, they’re just not a good football team. SJSU is back from the basement of the WAC and should take care of business.
• Armed Forces Bowl, Utah vs. Tulsa (ESPN, 7:00 CST): The Mountain West started well, but I don’t see New Mexico winning and I don’t see Utah winning either, though I don’t really know to be honest. Tulsa should be much more motivated than Utah’s previous bowl opponent, and Tulsa is a lot closer to Fort Worth than Salt Lake City is, so I give Tulsa the edge.

That takes care of the bowls through Saturday. I’ll put something up about the Hawaii Bowl on Saturday night or sometime Sunday. Enjoy the holidays and the bowl games, kids!

In a recent article in the Macon Telegraph:

Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson expects one-on-one coverage from West Virginia’s secondary, which allowed 236 passing yards per game this season.

“We see opportunities there,” Johnson said of watching film of WVU’s cornerbacks, “so yeah, we’re looking forward to it.”

Opportunities indeed. Hopefully we can take advantage of them.