Bowls and Motivation

In completing your bowl picks, reflect on a team’s attitude.  Particularly during the bowl season, said attitude is of paramount importance.  Michigan had its heart broken in the Ohio State epic.  Louisville was getting talked up as a playoff team before the Cardinals performed a repeated faceplant in its last two games as heavy favorites versus Houston and Kentucky.  Nor can Georgia  feel too good, blowing a 4th quarter, 27-14, lead at home against archrival Georgia Tech, to cap a very underwhelming season in Athens.

Both Michigan and Louisville play teams who will be excited to play in a bowl game.  Florida State is a formidable opponent, cruising into Miami on the wings of a comprehensive victory over the archrival  Gators.  LSU players, who profess to orgasmically love Ed Orgeron, should be excited that Orgeron now has the gig on a permanent basis.   This bodes poorly for the Cardinals’ matchup against LSU.  Motivationally, these games feature teams on opposite arcs.

Picking a team that has lost its head coach is always a bit dicey.  Temple, Western Kentucky, South Florida and Houston have lost their coaches in the past two weeks.

Since the bowls are so often unpredictable, I would never place too much confidence in a schizophrenic team.  Not only has Houston lost its coach, but the Cougars are beyond impossible to figure out.  They absolutely clocked the two strongest teams on their schedule:  Oklahoma and the Cardinals. Houston’s loss to Navy in Annapolis is understandable but their setback to SMU was incomprehensible.  Houston should have been buoyant after it blew the doors off of Louisville.  loving its sackfest against the Cardinals’ offensive line while making Lamar Jackson look very mortal.  The euphoria did not last.  In its next game, Houston sleepwalked thru the 1st half against Memphis and allowed the Tigers to pull off an upset.

Houston is a 3 point favorite against SD State in Sin City.  On talent, Houston clearly deserves to be favored.  But Aztec fans will happily make the 5-hour drive as Southern Californians look for the tiniest excuse to make the drive thru the high desert.  Despite the awesome talents of Greg Ward Jr. and Ed Oliver, all the intangibles point to San Diego State.

Meanwhile, Baylor has fantastic momentum going into the Cactus Bowl, riding the crest of a 6-game losing streak.   Which Central Michigan deeply appreciates, as, at least, the Chippewas will not have the most negative momentum heading into a bowl.  More good news for CMU:  Nobody will EVER be able to take away the illicit, but beyond awesome, ending in the Oklahoma State game!  Thank God!