Category Archives: college football

Bowl Games 2014: Pre-Christmas Bowls

Let’s take stock of the remaining five games before Christmas.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Monday, December 22
2:00: Memphis vs. Brigham Young (Miami Beach Bowl @ Miami, FL; ESPN): This season has been nothing short of miraculous for the Tigers. Perhaps the first sign that they could be better than anyone would have guessed was a narrow 7-point loss to UCLA back in September, and the game was tied in the fourth quarter. They haven’t lost since October 11th, in a 4-point loss to Houston. They dodged the other solid teams in the American conference, but nonetheless finished as co-champions with UCF and Cincinnati. So all that said, I have BYU has a narrow favorite. A lot like Utah State, BYU also lost their all-everything quarterback and lost four straight in a rough October, but they’ve recovered since and are coming off a 42-35 victory over Cal.
Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: This is Memphis’s first bowl game since 2008, when they lost to South Florida 41-14 in the St. Petersburg Bowl. This will be BYU’s tenth straight bowl game, dating back to the 2005 Las Vegas Bowl. They lost to Washington 31-16 in last year’s Fight Hunger Bowl.
Announcers: Dave Flemming and Danny Kanell

Tuesday, December 23
6:00: Northern Illinois vs. Marshall (Boca Raton Bowl @ Boca Raton, FL; ESPN): Marshall probably didn’t really have a shot at that access-bowl bid, but they probably would’ve at least liked to have had a shot. They won Conference USA, setting up this matchup against fellow mid-major champion NIU. These are both solid teams, but it still speaks to the quality of the Thundering Herd’s schedule that this will be their toughest test. Nonetheless, I expect them to prevail.
Previous meetings: These two have met seven times intermittently going back to 1969. Marshall won the last won 37-15 in 2001, but NIU owns the overall series 4-3.
Last bowl game: This is NIU’s sixth straight bowl game, going back to the 2008 Independence Bowl. They lost 21-14 to Utah State in last year’s Poinsettia Bowl. This is Marshall’s first back-to-back streak of bowl games since the streak they had 1997-2002. They beat Maryland 31-20 in last year’s Military Bowl.
Announcers: Dave Lamont and Desmond Howard

9:30: San Diego State vs. Navy (Poinsettia Bowl @ San Diego, CA; ESPN): Well, this matchup lacks any real sense of intrigue, but hey they’re selling a lot of tickets at least. I expect Navy to win.
Previous meetings: Three, in 1994, 1997, and the 2010 Poinsettia Bowl. San Diego State has won all three, the last by a 35-14 margin.
Last bowl game: This is the Aztecs’s fifth straight bowl game, a streak started with a 35-14 win over… Navy in this very bowl game. Last year they beat Buffalo 49-24 in the Potato Bowl. As I’m sure I’ve said a few times now, Navy would have a much longer bowl streak if not for the 2011 season, but thems the breaks. This is their third straight game now, and they beat Middle Tennessee State 24-6 in last year’s Armed Forces Bowl.
Announcers: Tom Hart and Mike Bellotti

Wednesday, December 24
Noon: Central Michigan vs. Western Kentucky (Bahamas Bowl @ Nassau, Bahamas; ESPN): This game pits one of the worst defenses in major college football against an extremely pedestrian offense, but hey at least it’s placed in a semi-exotic locale. I like the Hilltoppers in this one.
Previous meetings: Central Michigan won the only meeting back in the 2012 Little Ceasars Bowl, 24-21.
Last bowl game: That last meeting was also the last bowl game for both these teams.
Announcers: Steve Levy, Lou Holtz, and Mark May get an expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. I guess that would make me able to put up with Holtz and May for a day or two.
Fun facts: The highest point in the Bahamas is “Mount” Alvernia. At only 207 feet high, it should be relatively easy for the Hilltoppers to top it.

8:00: Rice vs. Fresno State (Hawaii Bowl @ Honolulu, HI; ESPN): This is probably one of the bowl games on the slate, but it has a slight chance of being more exciting than the Yule Log channel. Maybe. Fresno is coming off a loss to Boise State in the Mountain West championship (and consequentially has a 6-7 record) while Rice’s last game was a 76-31 thrashing at the hands of Louisiana Tech. Neither team ranks in the top half of Division I FBS in offense or defense, so, again, maybe check in on that fire every once a while, something might happen.
Previous meetings: Six, all from when both teams were members of the old WAC from 1999-2004. Fresno won all six by an average of 16.5 points, and they won the last meeting 52-21.
Last bowl game: This is the third straight bowl game for the Owls. They lost to Mississippi State 44-7 in last year’s Liberty Bowl.
Announcers: Allen Bestwick and Rod Gilmore

Bowl Games 2014: Opening Slate

Welcome to the opening of Bowl Season 2014-2015. This year’s slate is larger than ever with 38 games, and it also features the first ever play-off in major college football. As usual, I’ve got all my predictions available here, and I’ll be publishing these previews in chunks. (Getting the scores in for all the games may take a bit, but I assure you as of this writing I’ve at least picked all my winners.) Get a fire going (if you’ve got a fireplace and stuff), sit down in your favorite chair, enjoy a warming beverage, and get ready for a ton of football.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Saturday, December 20
11:00: Nevada vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (New Orleans Bowl @ New Orleans, LA; ESPN): This is effectively a home game for UL-Lafayette, but Nevada plays in a tougher conference, has done better against Power 5 foes, and otherwise has numbers comparable to the Ragin’ Cajuns, so I’m going with the Pack.
Previous meetings: Just one, in 1995. The Wolfpack won 38-14.
Last bowl game: Nevada snapped an 8 consecutive bowl streak last year by going 4-8, so their last appearance was the 2012 New Mexico Bowl, where they lost 49-48 to Arizona. This the Ragin’ Cajuns’ fourth straight appearance in the New Orleans Bowl. They beat Tulane 24-21 last year.
Announcers: Bob Wischusen and Mack Brown

2:20: Utah State vs. Texas-El Paso (New Mexico Bowl @ Albuquerque, NM; ESPN): Despite the loss of their star quarterback, Utah State has managed to find a way this year, going a respectable 9-4. UTEP has had a good year, but all things considered Utah State looks like a stronger team.
Previous meetings: Two, way back in 1960 and 1961. Utah State won 20-7 and 21-6, respectively.
Last bowl game: This is the Aggies’ fourth straight bowl game. They beat Northern Illinois 21-14 in last year’s Poinsettia Bowl. This is the Miners’ first bowl appearance since the 2010 edition of this game, where they got blown out 52-24 by BYU.
Announcers: Mark Neely and David Diaz-Infante

3:30: Utah vs. Colorado State (Las Vegas Bowl @ Las Vegas, NV; ABC): Colorado State was one of the darlings of the mid-majors this year, and with their wins over Boston College and Colorado I still think they were one of the best. However, their loss to Boise and an upset by Air Force left them in the cold. Utah, meanwhile, enters ranked. While this isn’t their first bowl as a Pac-12 member, things have to feel like they’re on the up-and-up. That will be but to the test against a very tough foe. I like the Utes, but not by much.
Previous meetings: These former conference foes have played 79 times going back to 1902. They met regularly from 1926 until Utah joined in the Pac-12 in 2011 (though there was a gap between 1965 and 1971). Utah won the last five meetings in a row and holds a pretty good edge overall, 55-22-2.
Last bowl game: This is Utah’s first bowl game since the 2011 Sun Bowl, where they beat Georgia Tech 30-27. The Rams broke a bowl-less streak last year with a 48-45 win over Washington State in the New Mexico Bowl.
Announcers: Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer
Fun fact: Provided you don’t care for your liver, take a shot every time Uncle Brent makes an oblique (or not-so-oblique) gambling reference during the course of the game. This game should be pretty good anyway, but this definitely adds an additional layer of intrigue.

5:45: Western Michigan vs. Air Force (Potato Bowl @ Boise, ID; EPSN): This is a toss-up for me. Going with Air Force, but I can’t say I have a whole bunch of confidence.
Previous meetings: This is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: Western Michigan was last seen in the 2011 Little Ceasars Bowl, where they lost 37-32 to Purdue. Last year’s 2-10 debacle snapped a pretty good bowl streak for the Air Force Academy. Back in the 2012 Armed Forces Bowl, they lost 33-14 to Rice.
Announcers: Eamon McAnaney and Dan Hawkins

9:15: Bowling Green vs. South Alabama (Camellia Bowl @ Montgomery, AL; ESPN): South Alabama is rapidly turning into a refuge for UAB’s cast-offs, but that’s not immediately relevant to this game. What is relevant is me finding scant reasons to pick a 7-6 MAC team over a 6-6 Sun Belt team, but that’s what I’m doing anyway.
Previous meetings: this is the first meeting between these two teams.
Last bowl game: This is Bowling Green’s third straight bowl game. Last year they lost 30-27 to Pittsburgh in the Little Ceasars Bowl. As you might’ve guessed, this is South Alabama’s first ever bowl game.
Announcers: Dave Lamont and Joey Galloway

This Weekend in College Football: Week 16

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Friday
8:00: Chattanooga @ New Hampshire (Division I Football Championship Subdivision Quarterfinal; ESPN2): I like to do these games, because, hey, playoff football on TV, but I don’t know enough about the teams in question to really even give you a good breakdown, much less make picks. So I’ll let you know that the Mocs (that is, UT-Chattanooga) are 10-3 on the year and are a primarily run-oriented team, ranking 24th in the FCS in rushing. They have the 21st best scoring offense and 11th best scoring defense. The Wildcats are much more of a passing attack, ranking 13th in the FCS, but they’ll be going against one of the pass defenses in the nation. Should be a good one.

Saturday
Noon: Coastal Carolina @ North Dakota State (Division I Football Championship Subdivision Quarterfinal; ESPN): The Bison (I think you can figure out which one is which) are of course semi-famous at this point for basically being the 11th member of the Big 12, having beaten Iowa State this year after beating Kansas State last year. They did suffer a lost to Northen Iowa, but they still boast one of the best defenses in the country and are playing at home. The Chanticleers boast a pretty balanced offense, but their defense is pretty average, which may get them into trouble.

3:00: Army vs. Navy (@Baltimore, MD; CBS): One of these days, I’ll get to make this post and Army will actually have a chance. But again, it’s hard to fathom just how they’ll be able to win here. Army is 4-7, so if one result had gone their way they could be playing for a bowl game. The tempting thing would be to say “oh, they shouldn’t have lost to Yale”. And that’s true, because while the win wouldn’t have counted for them (they also played FCS Fordham) the loss still does. This isn’t exactly a powerhouse edition of Navy, though, and both these teams lost to Western Kentucky over the course of the season. But again, based on everything else, I just can’t pick the USMA here.

Bowl Prections 2014: Final

It’s the final weekend of the season, and the last set of bowl predictions where in I predict who goes where are here. Of course, since the Committee will unveil their rankings at noon Eastern, most of you won’t see this, but those are the breaks I guess.

Let’s get down it.

Playoff

Here’s that image again, one last time:

Here’s my projected top three:

  1. Alabama
  2. Oregon
  3. Florida State

So the problem is that number four slot. Based on the above, I consider TCU and Baylor to have virtually identical resumes, except for the part where Baylor, you know, beat TCU. The problem is that I have been saying that for as long as I’ve been doing these predictions this year, and the Committee has not agreed with me one bit.

Ohio State’s utter annihilation of Wisconsin makes them much more likely to jump into the #4 slot than previously slot. Also hurting TCU (and Baylor) is Oklahoma being upset by three touchdown underdog Oklahoma State.

The challenge here is thinking like the Committee. In a fair and just world where I rule over everything, Baylor is in. Since this world is unfair and cruel, Baylor almost certainly has no shot.

That leaves us with TCU and Ohio State. So let’s go to a tale of the tape:

Ohio State Texas Christian
Record 12-1 11-1
Best Win Michigan State Kansas State
Worst Loss Virginia Tech Baylor
vs. >.500 teams 7-0 4-1
Opponent win % 0.574 0.529
MOV vs. >.500 26.3 9.2
Yard Margin vs. >.500 186 9

The mental block for me is still Ohio State’s loss to Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is not a team that should be a confused with a good one. Also, I still think Ohio State’s Big Ten competition was weaker than TCU’s competition, even considering that Ohio State faced more teams with winning records. (Worth noting that the Big Ten only has eight conference games compared to the Big 12’s nine, which means that Big Ten teams only need three conference wins to get to better than .500 rather than four.)

Frankly, based on the Committee’s votes so far, I have to predict that it will be TCU in the playoff. Florida State’s win over us should put them back at #3, but TCU has been consistently above Ohio State in every poll. I don’t really know what criteria they’re looking at, but at this point my gut says that they’re going to say it’s TCU.

As though that’s not confusing enough, there’s another issue. Regardless of what the top four looks like, the following teams are virtual locks to play in either the playoff or one of the access bowls:

  1. Alabama (SEC Champ)
  2. Oregon (Pac-12 Champ)
  3. Florida State (ACC Champ)
  4. Ohio State (Big Ten Champ)
  5. TCU (Big 12 Co-Champ)
  6. Baylor (Big 12 Co-Champ)
  7. Boise State (highest ranked Group of Five team)
  8. Georgia Tech (highest ranked non-playoff ACC team, Orange Bowl)
  9. Michigan State (Orange Bowl selects highest ranked Big Ten/SEC non-champ or Notre Dame)
  10. Mississippi State (ranked #10 this week and didn’t play)

There are two playoff bowl games and four access bowls for a total of 12 teams.

So I need two more teams. Arizona (#7 going into the week) was a pretty good bet, but they got blown out by Oregon. Kansas State was #9 and lost. Both these losses will almost certainly put Ole Miss (#12) into a game. Now the question is, how far does Arizona fall? Kansas State is probably out of the picture now. #13 was Wisconsin, but their demolition at the hands of Ohio State puts them out. Are #14 Georgia and #15 UCLA now also in play?

The Committee has executed large drops before. Ole Miss dropped 11 spots after getting blown out by Arkansas. Of course, Oregon is a slightly better opponent than Arkansas, and Arizona did beat them earlier in the season. I don’t think Arizona will be ranked behind Georgia. The worry for the Wildcats, though, is UCLA, who beat Arizona. UCLA also beat Arizona’s second-best win, Arizona State. However, UCLA was last seen losing in dominating fashion to a pretty mediocre Stanford team.

So with that, I’m going to stick with Arizona. I’ve placed them in the Fiesta against Boise State. The rest of the access bowls are pretty interesting. Ole Miss has been to the Cotton Bowl a couple times in the past five years, so I sent them to the Peach instead to face Ohio State, leaving Baylor to face Mississippi State in the Cotton. (Talk about two teams who wish their seasons had gone just slightly different.)

ACC

The top of the ACC is fairly orderly as long as nothing happens to Florida State. Since a Big Ten team will appear in the Orange Bowl, the ACC will take its slot in the Citrus Bowl, and that team would most likely be Clemson. This leaves Louisville to gobble up the Russell Athletic Bowl bid.

Did that seem too easy? Well, don’t worry, it gets weird. Apparently the ACC’s “first tier” bowls have entered a lottery to see which one gets Notre Dame. Oh boy. Drawing on some Internet “news”, it seems like the Pinstripe will take Duke. I put Notre Dame in the Music City Bowl, but since the drawing is random they could really end up anywhere. As a result of that, though, I sent Boston College to the Sun Bowl and NC State to go Belk it up.

I’d seen some news that a Virginia Tech-Cincinnati Military Bowl matchup was pretty likely, so I did that and pushed some of the other teams down a slot.

Big Ten

In Big Ten news, these two articles demonstrate the hard part of this business. The Minneapolis Star Tribune thinks that Nebraska and Wisconsin will occupy the Big Ten’s more prestigious bowl slots, while the Lincoln Star Journal thinks it’ll be Minnesota and Wisconsin. I wound up going with the Nebraska paper, and besides, Nebraska did just fire that coach while Minnesota is enjoying one of their best seasons ever.

Trying to figure out who went where in the Big Ten’s second tier bowls is a bit of a nightmare, especially since they’re short a bid with the Citrus Bowl going to an ACC team. Another way this hurts is that Illinois is forced to scrounge for an at-large bid somewhere, though that could just easily be Maryland. I did see some news, however, indicating that Penn State is a good bet for the Pinstripe Bowl.

Big 12

The Big 12 is pretty straightforward, and they even get to fill their Cactus Bowl slot thanks to Oklahoma State’s upset. I don’t think anything too wacky will happen here.

Pac-12

Note that this all hinges on Arizona getting an access bowl bid as detailed above. If UCLA gets you can swap Arizona for them, but if it goes to a team from another conference then all hell breaks loose in these predictions.

UCLA/Arizona is a good bet for the Alamo Bowl, which picks first. Next up is the Holiday Bowl, which apparently pretty badly wants USC, even at the expense of Arizona State, so it’ll probably happen. This puts the Foster Farms Bowl in a bit of a bind, as they’ve made it known they want Stanford. Apparently the Pac-12’s two-win rule applies to conference victories. Stanford is okay if Arizona State drops this far, but if Arizona does (by virtue of being left out and not getting picked earlier) they cannot fall past here.

The Internet tells me it’s pretty likely Washington falls to the Cactus Bowl, so that sends Utah to Vegas.

SEC

I don’t think Georgia will go to Orlando, as that would cause a re-match with Clemson, so I’ve slotted Mizzou there instead. Some news I found indicates that LSU is a strong possibility for the TaxSlayer Bowl. Some news I did find had UGA officials saying their preferred destinations were Orlando and Tampa, so I’ve somewhat reluctantly slotted them into the Outback Bowl, again. (At least they won’t face Nebraska this time.) I’ve slotted Auburn into the Music City Bowl, so I think that leaves South Carolina as a strong possibility to go Belking.

That leaves the Texas and Liberty Bowls and four teams: Florida, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Arkansas. Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl just has to happen, right? I’ll be very disappointed if it doesn’t, along with the rest of the Internet. I think that point Tennessee winds up in the Liberty.

Next up in the SEC’s pecking order is the Birmingham Bowl, which I’d guess would take Florida, leaving Arkansas for the Independence. But wait! I have Miami in the Independence Bowl. And Arkansas has definitely had a better end to their season, which may make them the more exciting bowl prospect. So, just for fun, I’ve switched the two around. We’ll see how it really shakes out pretty soon anyway.

Everyone Else

Some of the bids for the Mountain West, American, and other conferences are based on news, but a lot of it (more than usual) at this point is guesswork. Hopefully next year there’ll be more bowl officials leaking news like they used to.

There is one game that needs an at-large team, the Armed Forces Bowl. Their backup conference is normally the Big 12, but there is not an extra Big 12 team. I think it will be the extra Big Ten team, which in this case is Illinois.

That leaves the following teams eligible but without bids: Texas State, Temple, Middle Tennessee State, Ohio, and Alabama-Birmingham.

A quick aside on UAB: what happened this past week is awful. They’re bowl eligible for only the second time ever, but with the school pulling the plug (for frankly what I think are entirely petty political reasons), they’ve alienated Conference USA (so they’re unlikely to get one of the conference’s bids, even at the expense of another 6-6) team and there are not enough at-large slots otherwise. I’m predicting the Blazers have played their last game.

Well, we’ll see how wrong I am very shortly. Thanks for reading!

This Weekend in College Football: Week 15

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Thursday
7:30: Central Florida @ East Carolina (ESPN): This has wound up being a disappointing season for both these teams, but regardless I still think ECU is a pretty decent team. I like them here.

Friday
7:00: Bowling Green vs. Northern Illinois (Mid-American Conference Championship @ Detroit, MI; ESPN2): The MAC title game has had some wacky upsets in its short history, but that’s what they are: upsets. Northern Illinois is 10-2 and hasn’t lost a game since early October, dispatching many of their MAC rivals with ease. I like them to do the same to Bowling Green.

9:00: Oregon vs. Arizona (Pacific-12 Championship @ Santa Clara, CA; FOX): This game is full of intrigue. Arizona has an outside shot at the playoff, while Oregon is pretty safely ensconced with a win. Of course, there’s also the tidbit about Arizona’s win earlier in the season. I don’t really expect a repeat of that game. Since then, Oregon has gotten healthier on the offensive line, which was their main downfall to the Wildcats back in October. With a healthy line, it’s hard to see how Arizona will be able to keep up this time around.

Saturday
Noon:

  • Iowa State @ Texas Christian (ESPN): Baylor fans at this point have to be hoping against hope that the Cyclones can keep this close, maybe repeat what Kansas did to the Horned Frogs two weeks ago. I’m, well, not optimistic.
  • Louisiana Tech @ Marshall (Conference USA Championship; ESPN2): Louisiana Tech is easily the best team Marshall will have played at this point. I still like the Herd to win, but after last week’s loss to Western Kentucky it’s not hard to see the wheels coming completely off.
  • Houston @ Cincinnati (ESPN/ESPN2): Since getting blown out by Memphis back in early October, Cincy has cruised to six straight wins against AAC competition. I think they’ll make it seven, but the Cougars are certainly game to make it a little more difficult.
  • Southern Methodist @ Connecticut (CBSS): UConn is really, really bad, but fortunately for them, SMU is worse.

3:30: Oklahoma State @ Oklahoma (FS1): Far from being Florida State’s best win, Oklahoma State has had a very disappointing season that looks like it’s about to be a 5-7 campaign unless something weird happens. Then again, this is Bedlam.

    4:00: Alabama vs. Missouri (Southeastern Conference Championship @ Atlanta, GA; CBS): Thanks to an incredibly soft SEC schedule that saw them miss all SEC West teams except a reeling Texas A&M and Arkansas, Mizzou wound up winning the SEC East despite such sins as getting blown out 34-0 by Georgia and losing to Indiana. It is very, very hard to see how they will keep up with the Crimson Tide, much less beat them.

    7:30: Temple @ Tulane (ESPN2): Like many great plans, Temple’s season has failed to survive contact with the enemy. The Owls have lost 5 of their last 6, with the win being that still flukey win over ECU. But their losses have all been to the other respectable teams of the American. Tulane is below .500 and should provide the springboard Temple needs to get to 6-6.

    7:45:  Kansas State @ Baylor (ESPN): The most intriguing game of the day, in my mind. Baylor not only needs to win now but win big. I’m still a Bears advocate and I think that if Baylor beats K-State than their resume will be largely similar to TCU’s. But it’s worth remembering that this will be a quality win for a reason.

    8:00: Florida State vs. Georgia Tech (Atlantic Coast Conference Championship @ Charlotte, NC; ABC): Where to even begin? It’s been odd this week as my team has essentially become America’s favorite team to dispose with the annoying, not-very-good Seminoles. The problem is that the latter is largely a matter of perception, as they’re still pretty good. Are there logical arguments that they’re not one of the top four teams in the country despite being undefeated? Yes. However, if they’re not one of the top four, they’re certainly one of the top eight or so. If they’ve won twelve games this year solely on luck, then they are either supremely lucky still really good and just a tad lucky. The latter seems more likely.
    This will be the best defensive line we’ve seen since the Clemson game. (After watching what we did to Georgia in the second half last weekend, I’ve got to say I wasn’t very impressed by UGA’s line play. We owned them.) They have at least two linemen that can get in and disrupt the exchange, which may limit the dive. Florida State is still fast on defense and can fly to the ball if they know where it’s going. That said, there should still be opportunities (see: the Boston College game) and Tech will have limit turnovers to have any chance. Our defense will need to continue to get turnover-lucky and I suspect we’ll need a +2 or +3 turnover margin. Winston has been obliging this season in that department, but he’s still a pretty good quarterback and I don’t think we should be banking on him through four interceptions again.
    I doubt we can win this one going away, which means we have to bank on it being a very interesting night in Charlotte. The keys for Tech are the usual: limit the amount of time the opposing offense is on the field, score (touchdowns) every time we have the ball, and try to get a turnover or three.

    8:00: Ohio State vs. Wisconsin (Big Ten Championship @ Indianapolis, IN; FOX): The main headline going into this game is the Ohio State quarterback situation. Are we quick to forget, though, that J.T. Barrett originally was the unproven backup? Of course, the counter-argument would be that it was Barrett who got the job and not the starter for this Saturday, so even if it is Ohio State it stands to reason that the third string quarterback going into the season may not be their best option. I honestly have no idea who will win this one, but I still feel somewhat irrational in that I’m picking the Buckeyes.

    10:00: Fresno State @ Boise State (Mountain West Conference Championship; CBS): And here’s your nightcap. Unfortunately, it features a Fresno squad that is likely to be overmatched against a Boise team that’s had a pretty good run of form lately.