First Weekend of Bowls

You can bet Wyoming watched the film from the Fresno State vs. Boise State game. Boise State was scoring at will against the Fresno State D. Fresno State's O was clicking. They can figure out how they might go about attacking Fresno and also figure out what makes the Bulldogs go. The answer is easy: Ryan Matthews. The guy is an amazing back. Speed, power, agility, burst: you name it, he's got it.
Wyoming's O seemed to figure things out down the stretch. They just needed to get a little healthier and maybe add a little depth with their younger players, particularly at the wide receiver position where things were a little shaky (nothing after David Leonard really on the outside and even he had a tough time breaking big plays and getting into the end zone). I think Fresno State's D is the difference in this game: if they can shut down Wyoming's passing game (which shouldn't be hard), they should win. Wyoming needs to try to stay balanced if they want to win. They should be able to move the ball on the ground, but they need some production out of the passing game to keep the D honest. Fresno State 31, Wyoming 17.

UCF gets a home game against Rutgers. Rutgers should run away with this one, but UCF plays up in games played in Central Florida. They nearly beat South Florida last year and they did take Houston down this year. The one thing UCF does well is stop the run. Really, offensively, they don't have the potential to march down the field: they need the big play. Rutgers has been unspectacular offensively. Defensively, they were so bad on run defense that they ended up with the best pass defense in the Big East: everybody just ran on them all the time. They are undersized up front. Unfortunately for UCF, their O-line isn't exactly full of 300 pounders. I don't expect a whole lot offense, mostly because of bad offense...first one to 20 wins: Rutgers 20, UCF 13.

Congrats to Middle Tennessee State on getting a bid from the Sun Belt. Sorry you have to play a Southern Mississippi team that is upset with how their season went. They have a great offense and a solid coaching staff. Middle Tennesse is a solid team, for a Sun Belt team. But there is a huge difference between C-USA and Sun Belt. Congrats to MTSU, but I think you're overmatched here. Southern Miss sports a very balanced offense combined with a very stout run defense. I watched a little bit of MTSU this year: they looked very methodical, very grind it out and march down the field type of O. You can do that in the Sun Belt against inferior opponents, but can they do it when it counts, on the big stage, against a quality opponent? I think this will be fairly close for a time but USM pulls away: Southern Miss 34, MTSU 20.