I had a bad start on my bowl picks yesterday, going 1-3, with my only correct pick being South Florida beating Memphis in the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl. Today, in Part 2, I'll be going over the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl and the (long name) San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. Yesterday showed that this will be an interesting bowl season, so get ready for Part 2!
R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Southern Miss heads to the New Orleans Bowl for the third time since 2003. Southern Miss started off the season losing 6 of their first 8, but then went on a 4-game winning streak and finished at 6-6. Troy is finally the outright Sun Belt Conference Champion after sharing the title the last 2 years. Southern Miss's signature win came 21-3 over East Carolina, and then became bowl-eligible by beating SMU. Troy played a nice game against Ohio State; however, though they lost 28-10. Troy has not played very well in Louisiana, though. They blew a 28 point lead to LSU earlier this year, and also lost a 31-30 game to Louisiana-Monroe. Troy's 8-4 record can be decieving though. They lost the Louisiana-Monroe game (mentioned above) after having a 56-yard FG hit the crossbar, and if they hadn't blown their 28 point lead to LSU (they eventually lost 40-31), they would be a very solid 10-2. 3 of their 4 losses came against bowl teams (Ohio State, Oklahoma State, LSU).
My pick: Troy. They score more points and give up less per game then Southern Miss does. Troy has also played competitively against teams like LSU and Ohio State. Unless Southern Miss does something ridiculous, this is Troy's game.
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
When I look at the matchup for the Poinsettia Bowl, I see two very good teams combining to create a GREAT bowl matchup. This is the first ranked vs. ranked bowl game of the year. #9 Boise State and their high-scoring offense faces one of the best defenses in the country in #11 TCU. This may possibly be the best non-BCS matchup in the country this bowl season. TCU's offense and Boise State's defense seemed to improve towards the end of the year, and I feel this is the best non-BCS matchup in the country this year.
My Pick: Call me crazy, but I'm going with TCU in this game. Boise State has wins over Oregon, Southern Miss, and Fresno State, but didn't do very well against a Nevada squad that went 7-5 (and will be playing Maryland in a bowl game). TCU's only 2 losses also came against #2 Oklahoma and an at-large BCS team in Utah. I feel TCU's defense prevails over the Boise State offense and takes the Poinsettia Bowl victory back to Fort Worth.
Record as of 10:19pm ET, December 24th: 2-4
BOWLS BEING PREVIEWED TOMORROW
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl: Notre Dame vs. Hawaii
Motor City Bowl: FAU vs. Central Michigan
Meineke Car Care Bowl: West Virginia vs. North Carolina
Champs Sports Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Florida State
Emerald: Miami vs. California
Independence Bowl: Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech