The overloaded BCS bowl season kicks off today with some of the lesser known bowls featuring some lesser known teams, on the national scale anyway. Sometimes, these games are far better than the much hyped “big” bowl games and just might be worth your viewing time today.
The first bowl of the year kicks off at 2pm ET on ESPN with the New Mexico Bowl featuring Temple and Wyoming. Temple is 8-5 overall and Wyoming is 8-4. Temple is ranked 7th overall in rushing yards and brings a potent running attack to the game. Wyoming is 5-2 in the Mountain West Conference. They have 2 losses this season to top 25 opponents. Temple did not face any top 25 teams this season. Wyoming should have more supporters in the crowd as they are far closer to the New Mexico playing location than is Temple.
The second bowl game kicks off at 5:30pm ET also on ESPN with the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl featuring Ohio vs Utah State. Ohio is 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the MAC. Ohio has a big passing game with their QB throwing for 3086 yards this season. Utah State is 7-5 overall and 5-2 in the WAC featuring a big running game with their RB Turbin going for 1416 yards this season. The Utah State team is ranked 6th overall in rushing yards per game. There may not be a home field advantage for either team with the game in Boise, Idaho but Utah may be a little bit closer as far as travel time.
The third bowl of the season kicks off at 9pm ET with the New Orleans Bowl featuring San Diego State and Louisiana-LaFayette. Obviously L-L has a home field advantage being located in state. They are 8-4 overall and 6-2 in the Sun Belt conference. They are 0-1 against top 25 teams this season. San Diego State is 8-4 overall and 4-3 in the Mountain West. They are 0-2 against top 25 teams this season but they feature a RB Hillman with 1656 yards this season.
These games are the first of many bowl games of the season, but they are the first. Sometimes they can offer great matchups and other times they just turn out to be blowouts like last year’s scores that had all the winners of the first 3 bowl games score over 40 points each. If you’ve missed college football, you can get back in the spirit with these first games.
