2005-2006 Bowl Games

[Colonel_Reb]

Its time to start talking about them. We have 16 straight days of bowls to look forward to, with the exception of Christmas day. There seem to be a number of good bowl games this year. My favorites are as follows.

Dec. 20 New Orleans Bowl in Lafayette. This will be the real "Bourbon Bowl" that was made famous in The Waterboy. Two Southern teams battling it out in Cajun country, and literally on Cajun Field. Southern Miss will probably win over Arkansas State, who had their first winning record in years and is going to their first bowl ever.

Dec. 22 Las Vegas Bowl BYU and California square off. This one will be tough for BYU to win, but it is their first bowl in 4 years and they are hungry to win it. I am hoping that Nathan Meikle, Matt Allen, John Beck, and Johnny Harline all have a good game, not to mention the defense.

Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. Colorado State and Navy square off in what could be called the White Bowl of the year! Kyle Bell and David Anderson will likely star in what should be a good game.

Dec. 27 Insight Bowl in Phoenix. Arizona State squaring off against Rutgers. Rutgers RB Brian Leonard always plays great. Look for him to have a big day against the Sun Devils defense.

Dec. 28 MPC Computers Bowl in Boise. Boise St. and Boston College will provide an intriguing matchup. Having seen Boston College early in the season, I think this one could be close.

Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Nebraska and Michigan sounds like a fun game to watch for me. I think it could be a big win for Nebraska.

Dec. 29 Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. Utah and Georgia Tech. If Utah's backup QB Brett Ratliff starts this game, GT might be in for a long evening. Ratliff can run, and run and throw a whole lot better than Johnson, who he replaced.

Dec. 30 Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Seeing two black as coal teams beat each other up will be fun to watch. I will be pulling for LSU defensive stars Kyle Williams and Chase Pittman to do well though.

Dec. 31 Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Tulsa's offense should be fun to watch. Fresno State will still be upset that they lost the WAC to Louisiana Tech though.

Jan. 2 Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Alabama's stingy defense against Texas Tech's high powered offense. Which team will give?

Sugar Bowl in Atlanta. West Virginia may surprise some people by beating Georgia in this game. Owen Schmitt should have another big game for the Mountaineers.

Fiesta Bowl in Tempe. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best bowl of the season, and quite possibly the biggest. Notre Dame and Ohio State! It will be white offensive ND stars vs. white defensive OSU stars! It will be one to record for posterity.

Any thoughts?Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

As of yesterday, I will be attending the Liberty Bowl! I am looking forward to seeing Garrett Mills get some huge receiving yardage. Hard to believe that he, as a TE, is 5'th in receiving yardage in the nation. This will be my first Liberty Bowl, and 3'rd overall. Next year, the Liberty Bowl will go back to having an SEC tie in like they did prior to 1993.

 

[white lightning]

I hope you have a great time Colonel Reb!Garrett Mills is as good as they come.I wonder what position he would play in the NFL.He is probably too small to stay at tightend for the NFL.I could see him possibly get a chance at running back or receiver.

 

[whiteCB]

In what city and stadium is the Liberty Bowl played in?

 

[Colonel_Reb]

It has been played in Memphis since 1965. It started in Philadelphia in 1959, and then was in Atlantic City in 1964. It is the 7'th oldest Bowl game in the country. It has been played in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis since 1965.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Only 4 more days until they start!

 

[Colonel_Reb]

The New Orleans Bowl ended up being a pretty good one. I knew Southern would pull away, but ASU made a game of it. It was good to see Southern's FB Cole Mason get a nice 5 yard TD in the game. It is something how quick these teams change their uniforms these days. The next bowl game is the GMAC today at 7 Central, with Toledo and UTEP.Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Today is the Motor City Bowl, with Akron vs. Memphis. I don't care who wins, but it should be a fairly good game during the first half.

Tomorrow will be Brian Leonard's showcase game against Arizona State. I hope he runs for 200 yards.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Brian Leonard has 105 total yards at the end of the first quarter in the Insight Bowl! Keep it up Brian!

 

[Don Wassall]

Brian Leonard is an incredible talent at running back, but is forced to play fullback because of his race and waste a lot of plays blocking for a tailback. Gary Danielson keeps describing him in the Insight Bowlas a "tweener," which is Caste System-ese for "a white man who should be a tailback but isn't allowed to be solely for racial reasons." If Leonard was black the last thing anyone would call him is a "tweener." He would be a stud tailback, plain and simple. It asclear as day what he is.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Danielson is a definite jock-sniffer. He gushes about Raymell Rice being RU's RB of the future and the present, while Brian Leonard rushes for a TD. It was good to see Brian shut him up for a little bit.

 

[nj816]

Don your comments concerning Leonard are on the money. He has all the skills to be a feature back at the NFL level, however, he will be given the Rob Konrad treatment once he gets there.

 

[SteveB]

Unfortunately, Rutgers pathetic defense couldn't stop ASU, so Leonard can't get as many touches since they were playing from behind. Matt Miller had a good game for ASU with 5 rec for 134 yds and 2 TD receptions. This was my first game to watch Leonard and he has some serious skills. Go Brian!Edited by: SteveB

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Well, Brian had a good night, with 98 yards and a TD on 6 catches, and 45 yards and a TD on 10 carries. If things had been going right, Brian would have had close to 150 yards receiving and 100 rushing, but alas they didn't and Rutgers lost the game. Kudos to both QB's as well as the talented TE's Zach Miller and Clark Harris, as well as ASU WR Matt Miller. Quite a game guys!

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Regarding the Peach Bowl, LSU will be starting a white Sophomore QB named Matt Flynn because their regular black starter Russell is hurt. Matt played well against Ole Miss and a couple of other teams this season. He played at Robert E. Lee High School in Tyler, Texas. I wish him well against Miami. It is good to see another white LSU starting QB, even if it is due to injury. I was beginning to think it may never happen again.

Edited by: Colonel_Reb

 

[white lightning]

Brian Leonard had a great game tonight.You guys are so right about him being a nfl caliber running back.If only some team would give him a chance.He would probably be even better than Heath Evans and Evans is a beast!We can only hope someone see's that he is special and gives him a look.

 

[BonnieBlue]

To be fair to Danielson he threw more than one compliment Leonard's way such as mentioning his 4.45 speedand even going so far asto say there is nobodycomparable at the collegiate level. Mind you, I am not a Danielson fan. Along with Musberger, their effusive praise of the Texas qb during the Ohio State game earlier this season was downright sickening.That being said, I agree that Leonard's skills warrant him being a feature back. Leonard is just a junior, but what does he have left to prove at Rutgers? In addition, Rutgers' tailback, Rice, is only a freshman so Leonard's opportunities in '06 will not increase. He should enter the next NFL draft and resist all "suggestions" to bulk up.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

What about the end to the Alamo Bowl last night? I didn't see it until today. Crazy! Utah is off to a good start against GT, 23-10 at the start of the 4'th. Weddle has played well, except for that crazy throw in the first half. Ratliff is doing good as well.

 

[whiteCB]

Utah is for real to anyone who already didn't know that. As even the ESPN announcing crew acknowledged it. Utah just creamed Georgia Tech and the game was really never close. CB Eric Weddle played shut down corner on star WR Calvin Johnson(i think). I think Weddle is NFL material at CB but I thought the same thing about dustin Fox and look what happened to that.

 

[jaxvid]

Although UM and Nebraska are currently strong caste supporters you will note that 4 of the 8 TD's in the Alamo Bowl were scored by white players. What are the odds of that when 90% of the skill guys are black?

 

[SteveB]

What about Utah's Travis LaTendresse, 16 rec for 214 yds and 4 TDs? Holy Crap! The Ga. Tech DBs looked like high school players as the Utah WRs were running free the whole game. Way to go Utes.

 

[JD074]

Simply sensational. 4 TD's plus a 2 pt conversion. One of the most exhilarating performances in quite awhile.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Man, was I ignorant about the LSU offense. I knew they were starting Matt Flynn, but I forgot they have a white FB and TE plus a white backup FB named Jacob Hester. Hester started at HB when the score was 27-3, and reeled off some big runs and capped it with a TD. He then ran the second series and reeled off several more huge runs. This kid is awesome and is just a sophomore. Between he and Flynn, LSU could have several more white backfields in the next couple of years!

 

[hedgehog]

After Hester kept ripping of those runs of 8 and 9 yards, the announcer made sure to tell us how important itis to have a player like Hester who has exceptional blocking abilities.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

LSU ended up beating Miami 40-3, thanks to the superb play of first time starter QB Matt Flynn. He had 197 yards and 2 TD's, went 13/22 passing and had 5 runs for 40 yards. I couldn't believe my ears when the announcers gushed about how Flynn could run better than Russell and is more consistent than him as well. We may have another Matt Jones type QB on our hands here guys, one who is as lethal with his legs as with his arms! Sophomore FB/HB Jacob Hester had 13 carries for 70 yards and a TD. He also had a 15 yard catch. Senior blocking FB Kevin Steitz got a 1 yard carry for a first down on the last play of the game, ending his college career on a good note.

There were several things that struck me about this game. I already mentioned how the announcing was for the white players most of the time. An example of this was when the announcers praised LSU punter Chris Jackson's athleticism when he ran 20+ yards on a fake punt play. Those type of plays had me jumping up and down. KJV1 is correct about their idiotic ramblings on certain occasions. The second thing was how white players became more prevalent and important throughout the game. You had Kyle Williams batting down passes, and Chase Pittman getting several big tackles. On offense you had Flynn throwing accurately to his receivers and making the all black Miami defense look slow and silly when he decided to run the ball!

You had Jacob Hester getting some good playing time and making the most of it from the middle of the 3'rd quarter when the game was still in question. I think it says something that Les Miles played him at that point. Opening up huge holes on the line was blocking tight end Doug Planchard, who played most of the game instead of starting black TE David Jones. I found it very odd but good that as the second half began, the number of whites on offense increased from 5 to 7 and stayed there pretty much the rest of the game. The times when they did put blacks in after that, they did not perform well at all. It was very awesome to see an all white SEC backfield for a quarter and a half, and especially to see them score in the way they did!

This game gave me, an SEC throw-away Mascot, some hope that there just might be some room left for white runners/athletes in the SEC. I went into the game not really pulling for anyone, but when I started to realize that LSU was giving some white players rare chances to perform, I began to get into it. I haven't been into an LSU game that much since the mid-90's!

Jacob Hester has 2 more years to prove himself, as does Matt Flynn. It will not be easy, as they find themselves in the heart of fickle-fandom Louisiana. Here's to hoping they both keep playing and make a lasting imprint on LSU football!

You know, just like in nature, there are White Tigers too and they are so much more spectacular to see!

Edited by: Colonel_Reb