So what the hell happened to the Aggies on Saturday? They had almost one hundred yards more than Ohio on total offense and led the entire game. Until the last 13 seconds, aka the important part. I will take some comfort in it being a close loss – and me still ending the day fifth in my pool. Onward.
A note on how I’m doing this: For each game, I’ll include my straight up pick and my confidence ranking, bearing in mind that the lower the number, the less confident I am – and the fewer points I score in my Bowl Mania pool.
St. Pete Bowl: FIU Panthers vs. Marshall Thundering Herd
Are we still calling this the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl? Or the MagicJack Bowl? I can’t remember because the game is usually atrocious and every year I get confused watching them play football at my beloved Trop. (Nope, no one has ever said that sentence before.) When I started looking into this game, I had to ask myself, “Is Florida International the one with the Owl and Howard Schnellenberg?” No, no it is not.
It is the one with the “school-record eight wins” that only made it to a bowl game because the Big East didn’t have enough bowl eligible teams to fulfill all its tie-ins. (And we give them an automatic BCS berth…why?) You might think that would make them very excited, and that excitement would make me pick FIU. You would be mistaken. You see, I just got done reading several paragraphs about Marshall BEGGING to go to the St. Pete Bowl, and I’m not getting that time back. Thirty percent of Marshall’s players come from Florida, including the quarterback who became so flustered when he returned to his home state to play UCF that he refused to get on the phone with the quarterback coach after one possession. That bastion of maturity is backed up by a 5’6” wide receiver who coach Doc Holliday (!!!) describes as, “a good little player.”
The Herd also has Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year Vinny Curry, whose name you’re going to hear on Sundays soon. He has a tackling technique that he lovingly refers to as “The Hammer” because of its propensity for causing fumbles. Look, I think this is going to be an ugly game from two teams who are lucky to be there at all, but my gut (and that’s all it is) says Marshall’s Floridians will want to redeem themselves at home. Pick: Marshall. (I also like them +4.) Confidence: 26.
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