By Mike Luce
Our inimitable bowl coverage continues.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
#9 Ole Miss Rebels (9-3) vs. #6 TCU Horned Frogs (11-1)
December 31, 11:30 a.m.
Georgia Dome, Atlanta
Another in the Poultry Playoff Series, the Peach Bowl features two one-time contenders. Ole Miss went through a terrible four-game stretch late in the season, bracketed by impressive wins over #3 Alabama and (more importantly) #4 Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. The games in between included losses to #24 LSU, #3 Auburn, and (most damning) unranked Arkansas, which dropped the Rebs from playoff contention. An unbeaten TCU team would also have been playing for all the marbles but for a three-point defeat to #5 Baylor.
Why watch?
For an answer, do not turn to Yahoo! Answers. A Yahoo! search for “peach bowl why watch” returns, among other front-page results, a series of compelling reasons in response to “Why isn’t my crested gecko eating independantly?!?!?”
Answers:
You should not feed your crested gecko baby food, or anything like that such as apple sauce. (Awarded “Best Answer”)
my cresteds eat crickets, i put veggies in a dish but they dont eat them usually”
Our advice would be to avoid feeding the Horned Frogs baby food, apple sauce, or veggies during warm-ups. To keep up the players’ energy during the game, we recommend Chapul bars, “The Original Cricket Energy Bar.” For the Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears, we recommend a protein-rich snack, like human feet. Crickets, while high in protein, must be consumed in large quantities and could bog down the Bears.
For the curious, other trending questions on Yahoo! Answers include:
Would you be willing to eat a bowl of crickets for 40,000 dollars? (Are we talking live crickets or fried crickets with a nice chile rub? This is important.)
Is it safe to feed newborn kittens to my royal python? (We don’t see why not.)
If you were being eaten by a crocodile and croc cut your feet off what and finshed you without your feet what would happon next? (It depends. How long would we have to run away while the croc snacked on our feet? And by run, we mean crawl on bloody stumps.)
Our Pick: The Horned Frogs (-3.5) and the chile rub.
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Vizio Fiesta Bowl
#20 Boise State Broncos (11-2) vs. #10 Arizona Wildcats (10-3)
December 31, 3 p.m.
University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ
As a favorite in 2014, the Wildcats notched a 10-3 record overall but only 4-9 against the spread. The Broncos at one time were a free-money pick when getting points, but recent history has gone in the other direction. In Boise’s last six as a ‘dog, the Broncos are 0-6 straight up and 2-4 against the number. Not good. Based on those numbers, the three-point edge for Arizona should look attractive but not mouth-watering. We love BSU at home on the Smurf Turf but the play may be to sit back and just root for scoring.
Our pick: Offense. Let’s see a downright outburst. We’re on the “over” 67.5.
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Capital One Orange Bowl
#7 Mississippi State Bulldogs (10-2) vs. #12 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (10-3)
December 31, 7 p.m.
Sun Life Stadium, Miami
Inexplicably, ESPN.com refuses to preview this one or the Fiesta Bowl. Did the New Year’s Eve bowls sneak up on the Worldwide Leader this year? Odd.
No matter. We’re here for you. We won’t force you to watch a video preview either, as in the CBSSports.com page on the game. We hate videos on sports websites. To counter the constant chatter that often plays without prompting, we disable Adobe Flash Player in Firefox and Google Chrome. Rather than little nattering commentators in the sidebars or unexpected full-page videos, we get inoffensive grey boxes. “You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue.” No thank you. Nyah.
We don’t care much for this one. Georgia Tech always seems to fall into the “Oh, yea. Georgia Tech.” category for us. The Rambling Wreck runs an option offense, which can be fun to watch but implodes against speedy and disciplined defenses. As for the Bulldogs, the team compiled an impressive overall record including big wins in the treacherous SEC West, but did so in less-than-glamorous fashion.
We would like to see MSU win to continue the SEC’s domination in post-season play. Going into today, likely to most of the nation’s consternation, the conference has posted a 4-1 record.
Our pick: The only other bowl face-off between ranked teams also featured an SEC squad against an ACC opponent, a 37-14 pasting by #13 Georgia over #21 Louisville. We’ll root for a similar outcome and take Mississippi, giving (-6) the points.
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Previously:
* The College Football Report Bowl Preview Pt. 1: Cheap Trick, Gold Toes & Loaded Potatoes.
* The College Football Report Bowl Preview Pt. 2: Porn, Chicken & Bitcoins.
* The College Football Report Bowl Preview Pt. 3: Koozies For Floozies.
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Mike Luce is our man on campus. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on December 31, 2014