Tuesday marked day one for the BCS Bowls and the official end the college football season. The day was spattered with some great bowl games, which for the most part, the good ones ended up being the non-BCS bowl games. If you missed out on the South Carolina/Michigan Outback Bowl, you missed out on the best bowl of the day. The BCS bowls were kinda snoozers. Especially the Orange Bowl.

The Granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl, kicked us off in terms of BCS games and it featured Wisconsin (8-6) and Stanford (12-2). It wasn’t as high-scoring as expected, with the Cardinal defense really being stingy to the Badgers. Stanford took the Rose Bowl, marking their first ever win of the bowl game, 20-14. In a B1G heavy bowl day, the conference didn’t fair too well. The only win of the day for them came from the Northwestern Wildcats. Good try, good effort to the rest of them.

In the Orange Bowl, it pitted the Florida State Seminoles (12-2) against the MACtion’s Northern Illinois Huskies (12-2). It was the first time the MAC conference had sent a team to a BCS game, since they are not an auto-qualifying conference. Many had hoped that the MAC would put -up a better showing than they did, but it ended up in a 31-10 Seminoles beatdown. There was some controversy going into the game, ) while apparently the Orange Bowl actually told the Huskies they didn’t even want them playing in the game due to ratings. I don’t think the Orange Bowl should be complaining one bit, considering the ratings over the last couple of years have been terrible due to the teams who get selected. They Huskies should have just said, “It’s not me, it’s you.”

Wednesday night features the Sugar Bowl and the Louisville Cardinals and the Florida Gators, which has the making to be a very good match-up. Only five more games until the National Championship game featuring two of College Football’s blue bloods.

WEEEE!!

Though it feels like we just got started, the final week of the regular season has now come and gone. Of the 14 SEC teams, there are three who have only one loss overall and in the conference (Alabama, Georgia, and Florida) and two who went winless in the SEC (Auburn and Kentucky). Nine teams are bowl eligible, with the two 0-fer teams plus Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee failing to reach the necessary number of wins. Three coaches are out, too, as Joker Phillips of Kentucky, Derek Dooley of Tennessee, and Gene Chizik of Auburn, have coached their last game at those schools. Read on for recaps of all the action from the final games of the regular season.

(7) LSU 20, Arkansas 13

It was closer than the Tigers would have liked, but they managed to do just enough to beat the Razorbacks Friday afternoon. LSU put up a first quarter field goal and a second quarter TD on a 22-yard pass from Zach Mettenberger to Jarvis Jones to take a 10-0 lead at the half, but Arkansas had three chances to score themselves in the first half. Their first opportunity came on the game’s opening drive, when they got all the way down the field before Dennis Johnson fumbled at the goal line. Kicker Zach Hocker also missed two field goals. The Hogs finally got on the board early in the third quarter, when John Henson hit a 25-yard field goal. The Tigers answered with a TD a minute and a half later, but Arkansas found the end zone themselves before the quarter was over to pull within one score. Each team scored once, both, more field
goals, in the fourth quarter. LSU’s came with just a minute and a half left, and though the Razorbacks tried to rally in the final seconds of the game, Wilson’s pass fell incomplete as time expired.

Mettenberger finished the day 16-of-29 for 217 yards and a touchdown. Wilson went 31-of-52 for 359 yards, a TD, and an interception. Jeremy Hill had 17 carries for 88 yards and a touchdown and Odell Beckham had four receptions for 112 yards to lead the Tigers. Wilson had 38 yards on nine carries and Cobi Hamilton had 10 catches for 98 yards to lead the Hogs. Arkansas turned the ball over twice (LSU didn’t do it at all), but the Razorbacks also had more first downs (24) than the Tigers (16), allowed them only 89 yards on the ground, and outgained them in total yardage 462-306.

LSU finishes the regular season 10-2 overall and 6-2 in conference play. They will await a bowl bid. Arkansas finishes 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the SEC. They will not be eligible for a bowl game.

» Continue reading “SEC Summary – Week Thirteen”