Bowl Predictions - Day 10

Music City Bowl:
Vanderbilt 31
North Carolina State 14

Sun Bowl:
USC 45
Georgia Tech 24

Liberty Bowl:
Iowa State 27
Tulsa 17

Peach Bowl:
LSU 33
Clemson 31

South Carolina Prediction

South Carolina College 29

Catholepistemiad of Michigania 20

Bowl Predictions - Day 9

Armed Forces Bowl:
Rice 27
Air Force 24

Pinstripe Bowl:
West Virginia 51
Syracuse 38

Fight Hunger:
Arizona State 38
Navy 10

Alamo Bowl:
Oregon State 31
Texas 21

Restaurant on State and Washington Bowl:
TCU 17
MSU 9

Baylor keeps Trophy into 2013

Baylor knocked off UCLA in the Holiday Bowl last night 49-26 to keep the jiMpossible-sarcasMike Trophy for the off-season.
The trophy spent the entire season in the Big 12. A one conference season has been more of the norm lately. The Trophy was in the SEC for both the 2009-2010 seasons after Florida beat Oklahoma in the 2009 BCS Championship game. The Big 12 had the trophy the entire regular season of 2008 and the SEC had it all of 2007.
You have to go all the way back to 1996 to find the trophy in more than 2 conferences in a season.

As I said coming into the bowls, Baylor seems to have a relatively light non-conference schedule in 2013 so we may see another year of Big 12 trophy holding.

Bowl Predictions - Day 8

Independence Bowl:
Louisiana - Monroe 28
Ohio 24

(Cazzie) Russell Athletic Bowl:
Rutgers 17
Virginia Tech 14

Bowl of Texas:
Texas Tech 31
Minnesota 17

Bowl Predictions - Day 7

Military Bowl:

San Jose State  35
Bowling Green 14

Belk Bowl:
Cincinnati 28
Duke 27

Holiday Bowl:
UCLA 38
Baylor 35

Note the Holiday Bowl has Trophy implications

Bowl Predictions - Day 6

Mean, Unnamed Corporate Bowl:
Western Kentucky 45
Central Michigan 31

Bowl Predictions - Day 5

Hawai'i Bowl:
Fresno State 38
Southern Methodist 14

Bowl Predictions - Day 4

New Orleans Bowl:
Louisiana-Lafayette 31 East Carolina 20

Las Vegas Bowl:
Boise State 17 Washington 14

Bowl Predictions - Day 3

Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl:
Central Florida 35 Ball State 24

Bowl predictions - Day 2

Pointsettia Bowl:
BYU 17 San Diego State 14

Michigan's Outback Bowl Uniforms

Twitter, blogs and sports talk radio erupted yesterday in a panic about the uniforms Michigan will wear in the Outback Bowl. The vast majority of it was negative. Here's a few of the bloggers.

MVictors
BrianGoBlog
MaizenBrew

I'll start by saying I kind of like them. I like the maize numbers and I have no problem with the blue shoulder yokes. Of all the things they could have done to the helmet, a matte finish is not so bad.

That being said, I will jump on the "Why does Michigan need to do this" bandwagon. Traditional powers shouldn't have to do this. Alabama, USC, Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State haven't had special Bowl Uniforms. I wonder if M had been the home team, if there would have been Maize shoulders on a navy jersey.

I think the jerseys led to some hyperbole. This tweet cannot be true.

Total number of jersey designs worn by @umichfootball 1969-2010: Three.Total number of jersey designs worn by Michigan 2011-present: 7!
— Hoover Street Rag (@hooverstreet) December 18, 2012

Off the top of my head I can thing of 5 designs M wore in those years. Let's see how many it really is.

1. 1969 through 2010 Home jersey (all the others are white/away jerseys)
2. 1969 through 1973 "no stripe-no M" 
3. 1974 and 1975 thin Blue-Maize-Blue stripe with white pants 
4. 1976 same tops with maize pants
5. 1977 through 1996 "Schembechler Stripes"
6. The exception was the 1993 Rose Bowl which were more like the 74-76 striping. This is the only single game one off I find in the pre-David Brandon era.
7. 1997 through 2004 Block M and Maize/Blue stripe
8. 2005 through 2007 Single blue stripe on sleeve, maize piping, maize outline on blue numbers, no M almost 69-73ish in simplicity (except for the piping and outlined numbers)
9. 2008 through 2010 - thicker piping at jersey torso - and switch to adidas

Now 9 jerseys in 40 years is not quite 7 in 2, but it is more than 3...

Bowl Predictions - day 1

New Mexico Bowl:
Arizona 63 Nevada 45

Potato Bowl:
Utah State 35 Toledo 31

Team 133 seniors in sarcasMike History

Since I won't be going to the Outback Bowl, Michigan's victory over Iowa was the last time I will have seen the seniors of team 133 play for the Wolverines. From my weekly prediction posts you can tell I keep track of the outcomes of all the Michigan games I have attended.

I have a separate database that tracks the individual Michigan player statistics (rushing, passing, receiving and interceptions) in the games I've attended as well. So where do the departing seniors rank?

Rushing (top 20 in yards rushing):

	Carries	Yards	avg	TD	lg	years
Hart, Michael	749	3,683	4.9	31	64	04-07
Thomas, Anthony	688	3,384	4.9	42	60	97-00
Robinson, Denard	459	2,940	6.4	31	79	09-12
Perry, Chris	545	2,720	5.0	29	63	00-03
Wheatley, Tyrone	370	2,294	6.2	26	82	91-94
Morris, Jamie	412	2,182	5.3	13	57	84-87
Boles, Tony	334	1,897	5.7	18	81	88-89
Biakabatuka, Tshimanga	236	1,583	6.7	12	60	93-95
Powers, Ricky	311	1,455	4.7	13	39	90-93
Minor, Brandon	221	1,245	5.6	15	55	06-09
Toussaint, Fitzgerald	204	1,163	5.7	11	61	10-12
Hoard, Leroy	216	1,138	5.3	14	54	87-89
Williams, Clarence	265	1,104	4.2	3	32	95-98
Smith, Vincent	185	1,027	5.6	9	56	09-12
Howard, Chris	211	969	4.6	9	30	94-97
Askew, BJ	202	935	4.6	12	30	99-02
Davis, Ed	193	898	4.7	8	33	92-95
Bunch, Jarrod	203	888	4.4	6	53	87-90
Shaw, Michael	133	837	6.3	12	50	08-11
Jefferson, Allen	133	761	5.7	8	70	87-90

Denard ends up 3rd in yards rushing, 4th in carries and tied for 2nd in rushing TDs. Vincent Smith became the 15th to top the 1,000 yard mark in games I've attended (he did it against U-Mass). Fitz Toussaint is, hopefully still active.

Passing (top 20 in yards):

	Att	comp	pct	QB Rate	yds	TD	int	lg	years
Henne, Chad	934	562	60.2%	132.8	6,284	59	22	69	04-07
Navarre, John	775	451	58.2%	130.7	5,355	43	15	64	00-03
Robinson, Denard	468	272	58.1%	152.3	4,335	39	26	77	09-12
Collins, Todd	423	281	66.4%	155.5	3,647	28	11	90	91-94
Brady, Tom	487	292	60.0%	134.1	3,636	26	15	57	96-99
Grbac, Elvis	439	278	63.3%	149.8	3,508	36	17	65	89-92
Harbaugh, Jim	292	196	67.1%	159.7	2,704	21	13	77	85-86
Henson, Drew	286	167	58.4%	141.0	2,240	17	4	75	98-00
Griese, Brian	317	180	56.8%	124.4	2,153	18	13	75	95-97
Forcier, Tate	276	169	61.2%	132.3	2,009	15	11	61	09-10
Dreisbach, Scott	236	127	53.8%	127.4	1,810	12	9	58	95-97
Taylor, Michael	206	122	59.2%	138.2	1,608	12	6	45	86-89
Brown, Demetrius	161	88	54.7%	135.8	1,376	10	9	53	86-88
Threet, Steven	164	77	47.0%	97.8	846	8	7	51	08
Gardner, Devin	77	47	61.0%	164.8	787	6	3	53	10-12
Mallett, Ryan	99	48	48.5%	111.3	631	4	2	48	07
Smith, Steve	53	24	45.3%	129.3	405	5	3	52	80-83
Leach, Rick	29	22	75.9%	278.4	385	8	0	63	76-78
Sheirdan, Nick	80	38	47.5%	78.6	352	1	4	35	07-09
Wangler, John	29	16	55.2%	162.5	292	2	0	45	76, 79-80

Denard also finishes 3rd in passing yards and TD passes and number 1 in interceptions. His QB rating is 3rd among the 1,000 yard passers. His yards per attempt really keep him in the running there. Devin Gardner is on track to take the all-time QB ranking title.

Receiving (top 20 in total receptions): 

	Catches	yards	avg	TD	lg	Years
Edwards, Braylon	152	2,120	13.9	29	64	01-04
Terrell, David	118	1,840	15.6	17	57	98-00
Walker, Marquise	114	1,475	12.9	11	75	98-01
Avant, Jason	109	1,403	12.9	8	54	02-05
Breaston, Steve	107	1,075	10.0	5	50	03-06
Manningham, Mario	99	1,633	16.5	19	69	05-07
Roundtree, Roy	93	1,506	16.2	10	75	09-12
Hayes, Mercury	81	1,468	18.1	10	58	92-95
Alexander, Derrick	79	1,317	16.7	15	90	89-90,92-93
Mathews, Greg	79	841	10.6	5	40	06-09
McMurtry, Greg	74	1,334	18.0	9	53	86-89
Arrington, Adrian	73	863	11.8	7	33	04-07
Streets, Tai	72	1,125	15.6	10	58	95-98
Howard, Desmond	70	1,050	15.0	14	64	89-91
Toomer, Amani	70	1,334	19.1	12	75	92-95
Askew, BJ	64	617	9.6	5	58	99-02
Hemingway, Junior	61	1,164	19.1	11	77	07-11
Thomas, Anthony	61	541	8.9	0	46	97-00
Morris, Jamie	59	435	7.4	1	24	84-87
Odoms, Martavious	58	664	11.4	3	50	08-11

Roy Roundtree is the only departing senior in the top 20. He finished 7th in receptions, 4th in yards and tied for 6th in TD receptions. Jeremy Gallon is just off the top 20 (50-874-4-77) so he should crack the list next season. 

Unfortunately no on on defense cracked the interceptions leaders. Kovacs career ended with 2, Kenny Demens and Craig Row with 1.

Baylor will bring the Trophy to the Holiday Bowl

Baylor held off a late charge by Oklahoma State to retain the jiMpossible-sarcasMike Trophy 41-34.
When Baylor takes on UCLA on December 27th (9:45 EST) in the Holiday Bowl it will be the 62nd time the trophy has gone Bowling.

The trophy holder is 38-23 in Bowl games. Most recently Clemson got clobbered by West Virginia in last season's Orange Bowl 70-33.

Here's a quick looks at both teams 2013 schedule to see if there is a chance the trophy can come to the boneg:

Baylor's non-conference opponents are Buffalo, SMU and Louisiana-Monroe. Buffalo does travel to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes next season, but it is the week before the Baylor game - so no quick trips to the boneg via Baylor.

UCLA opens with Nevada then goes to Lincoln Nebraska before closing out the non-con with New Mexico. So 2 UCLA wins and then there is a chance Nebraska could bring the trophy back to the boneg for the first time since Ohio State lost the 2007 BCS championship game to Florida. Penn State was the last conference team to face the trophy holder when they took on Alabama in 2010.

So a UCLA victory is the easiest trip back to the boneg - Go Bruins!