I had meant to post all my college bowl picks here, but completely forget. We’re a few days into the bowl season now, and with a few games gone by I figured I’d still post my picks. I’ll go forward from here (at this point I’m 4-1, which my only miss coming in the New Mexico Bowl).

2007 College Football Bowl Picks

Hawaii Bowl- Boise State over East Carolina

Motor City Bowl- Purde over Central Michigan

Holiday Bowl- Arizona State over Texas (Texas improved throughout the season, but I just went with my gut on this.)

Champs Sports- Boston College over Michigan State (This one caused me much pause, but in the end Matty Ryan will have too much for the Spartans.)

Texas Bowl- Houston over TCU (TCU is the popular pick here, but I think Houston is overlooked in Conference USA, TCU never lived up to its pre-season billing and, finally, two words- Anthony Aldridge.)

Emerald Bowl- Oregon State over Maryland

Meineke Car Care Bowl - UConn over Wake Forest (We’re starting to get to the bowls that don’t just have sponsors in front of its name, the name is a sponsor. UConn reminds me a lot of Wake Forest last year. This is a very interesting matchup.)

Liberty Bowl- UCF over Mississippi State (A battle between two schools whose stories have been mostly overlooked. UCF had a very good season, almost beating Texas, on the back of the nation’s leading rusher, and Mississippi State saved Sylvester Croom’s job with a very good season in the SEC after struggling so much for years.)

Alamo Bowl- Penn State over Texas A&M (The Aggies have a few players that always make them a threat, but they just have not displayed that threat this season. The Penn State defense will be too much.)

Independence Bowl- Alabama over Colorado (This is a tough matchup. My gut tells me the SEC team wins out here, but either way wouldn’t surprise me. Hawkins [both Coach Dan and QB Cody] has the Buffaloes back on the right track.)

Armed Forces Bowl- California over Air Force (This pick may haunt me. I wanted to pick Air Force, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. California’s skill level is far superior…but that hasn’t meant anything all season. This season for the Golden Bears really has made me question Jeff Tedford’s ability to motivate his kids.)

Humanitarian Bowl- Fresno State over Georgia Tech (Another pick ‘em. I went with the Bulldogs simply because Tech is in a state of flux as far as the coach goes, and I’m sure heading into the season they saw themselves playing in a better bowl than this.)

Sun Bowl- South Florida over Oregon (If Dennis Dixon doesn’t get hurt, Oregon is playing for the national championship and Dixon in your Heisman winner. But he did get hurt. So now a nearly helpless Duck team will fall to a very talented South Florida.)

Music City Bowl- Kentucky over Florida State (Kentucky was going to win this game before half of the kids on the FSU squad [36, to be exact] decided studying music history was a waste of their time. Kind of ironic that they are now suspended from the Music City Bowl. This could get ugly.)

Insight Bowl- Oklahoma State over Indiana (I am very happy to see Indiana get to this bowl game in memory of Terry Hoeppner. This really was Terry’s team, even if he wasn’t there to watch them get to this point. I want to see the Hoosiers win, but I just think the Cowboys’ offense will be too much for them to handle.)

Chick-Fil-A Bowl- Auburn over Clemson (Originally I picked Clemson to win this. Then starting linebackers Nick Watkins and Tramain Billie got suspended [two of their top three tacklers] along with the starting right tackle. Now I pick Auburn.)

Outback Bowl- Tennessee over Wisconsin (What’s with all the suspensions? Funny how teams are quicker to pull the trigger and suspend players for bowl games that really don’t matter. I originally picked Tennessee, and therefore I’m sticking with them. However, suspensions have since been announced, and now I’m not so sure I’m on the right side anymore.)

Cotton Bowl- Missouri over Arkansas (For me, this was one of the hardest, if not the hardest, game to pick. Missouri doesn’t really want to be here- they deserved a BCS bowl bid. Arkansas has Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. Unfortunately, they don’t have a whole lot else other than inconsistency. In the end I decided the Missouri spread offense with Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin and a defense that has been better than expected will be too much for Arkansas, no matter how hard those guys run. However, if Missouri isn’t focused after losing out on the BCS, they’ll lose this game too.)

Gator Bowl- Texas Tech over Virginia (Virginia has had a very good season and showed they can win a lot of close games, but I’m not sure this one will be close. The Cavaliers have faced nothing like this Texas Tech offense, and even with a lot of time to prepare I’m not sure they’ll be able to handle it. Prediction #2: Michael Crabtree will pull in at least three touchdowns.)

Capitol One Bowl- Florida over Michigan (Maybe its a mistake to write off a talented Wolverine team so easily, but I won’t lose sleep over it. Michigan has showed how much they struggle to defend the spread. They might be able to keep this one close, but I don’t think they can win this one. Time to start look forward to part one of the Rodriguez experiment next season.)

Rose Bowl- USC over Illinois (I’m not one of the people who thinks it’s ridiculous that Illinois is playing in the Rose Bowl. Were there more deserving BCS teams? Yes, but this just doesn’t upset me that much. It appears Ron Zook has figured out how to coach his talent on the field, but USC is just a far superior team. Illinois might be able to take out Ohio State, but I don’t see it at this point. The Illinis are just too young at this point.)

Sugar Bowl- Georgia over Hawaii (Colt Brennan in a dome? Oh my. Mark Richt is too good of a coach, though, and Georgia is too balanced of a team to lose this game. The Warriors will put up some points, but they haven’t faced a defense anything like that of the Bulldogs, and they haven’t faced an offense with weapons like Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno [not to mention Thomas Brown].)

Fiesta Bowl- Oklahoma over West Virginia (The Sooners have too many offensive weapons for the Mountaineers to dream of stopping them. White and Slaton are dangerous, but Oklahoma’s defense is good enough to keep them in check. Plus, they have no coach.)

Orange Bowl- Virginia Tech over Kansas (I struggled with this pick, too. In the end I just lean towards the defense of Tech and their ability to get after Todd Reesing and disrupt the passing game. The key will be if the Hokie offense can get anything going. They’ll need to be able to run the ball and keep the Jayhawks offense off the field. If they can’t, Kansas’ offense is potent enough to overcome the tough defense just enough to win the game.)

International Bowl- Rutgers over Ball State (A lot of people, including myself, don’t understand these mediocre bowl games taking place after the new year. Then again, if it’s college football I’ll watch and enjoy it, so I don’t complain about the extra games. Rutgers slid back a little this season, but they already beat up on MAC team this year, and they should win this game without too much trouble. My apologies to Nate Davis and the rest of a talented Cardinals team.)

GMAC Bowl- Tulsa over Bowling Green (Tulsa is another team that few people know anything about due to their location in Conference USA. Paul Smith and the passing attack will take them to victory.)

BCS Championship Game- LSU over Ohio State (And now the big one. After a crazy season that can hardly be explained, you’ve got a two-loss team playing a one-loss team, and I think the two-loss team wins. This could be a very good game, but I think the SEC experience, not to mention athletes, comes out on top. This will be the best defense the Buckeyes have faced [although this might be true in the other direction as well], and a two-headed quarterback monster paired with some dangerous receivers and a pounding run-game brings the crystal trophy home to the bayou.)

Before I leave, I just want to make note of something that just came on my TV screen.
Jamarcus Russell: 6/21 with 3 INT.
Ouch.

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