Bold Predictions for Every SEC Football Bowl Game
With 12 of its 14 teams playing in bowl games this year, the SEC has carried over its distinction as the best conference in the country into the postseason. Nine of those qualifiers are favored to win their matchups, according to Odds Shark, making it very likely the SEC will dominate the bowl season like it did throughout the regular season.
Bowl games tend to bring out the crazy, with the extra preparation time making it possible for teams to break out some new wrinkles to their game plans and unveil breakout players who might not have had much of an impact before then. Anything goes during bowl season, and it's often hard to predict how things will pan out.
We're going to give it a try, though. Here are our bold predictions for what will happen in each bowl game the SEC is involved in over the next two weeks.
Independence Bowl: Pharoh Cooper Scores TDs Three Different Ways
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One of the few bright spots in an otherwise wildly disappointing season for South Carolina has been the emergence of sophomore Pharoh Cooper as a go-to offensive weapon. And not just as a wide receiver, the position he starts at, but also as a rusher and occasional quarterback.
Cooper has accounted for 12 touchdowns in 2014, eight on receptions and two each on runs and passes. He had one of each in the Gamecocks' overtime loss to Tennessee in November, catching two TDs while running for an 11-yard score and throwing a 30-yard TD pass to running back Brandon Wilds.
This will be the final game for quarterback Dylan Thompson, who figures to go out with a bang after a record-breaking season, but expect Steve Spurrier to unleash Cooper in as many ways as possible on Miami (Florida) to avoid the Gamecocks finishing below .500 for the first time since 2003.
Liberty Bowl: Kyle Allen Outgains Clint Trickett in Passing Yards
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The 968 pass attempts that Texas A&M and West Virginia combined for this season are the most of any bowl matchup, one of many reasons why the Liberty Bowl scoreboard might struggle to keep up with the scoring in this one.
The quarterback battle between West Virginia senior Clint Trickett and Texas A&M freshman Kyle Allen should be a fun one, especially if Trickett is at 100 percent after suffering a concussion on Nov. 20. If he can't play the whole game, it will be sophomore Skyler Howard—or possibly a combination of both.
But this will be a chance for Allen to have his coming-out party, and given that opportunity, the top-rated pro-style quarterback in the 2014 recruiting class will shine despite facing a West Virginia defense that has done relatively well against the pass this season.
"There hasn't been much to like about the Aggies in the latter half of the season, but freshman quarterback Kyle Allen should get a lot out of the bowl practices leading up to this game and could play his best game of the year," wrote Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports.
Another reason for Allen to have a big outing: A&M has another top-tier quarterback prospect, 5-star dual-threat passer Kyler Murray, committed for next season.
Texas Bowl: More Passing Touchdowns Than Rushing Scores for Arkansas-Texas
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The Texas Bowl has already sold out, with the anticipation of an old-school matchup between former Southwest Conference rivals Arkansas and Texas drawing supporters of those teams and plenty of football-loving Houston-area residents to a battle of schools with 6-6 records.
Both teams have gotten to this point through similar approaches, ones that put emphasis on hard-nosed defense and controlling the clock with the run game. Something has to give, and we think that means taking to the air to open up the ground attack.
The Razorbacks and Longhorns have combined for 47 rushing touchdowns and 33 passing TDs this season, but in this game, Arkansas' Brandon Allen and Texas' Tyrone Swoopes figure to have a major impact on the outcome.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Music City Bowl: Leonard Fournette Tops 200 Rushing Yards
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Leonard Fournette, the stage is yours.
The highly touted true freshman running back had a good first season of college football, leading LSU with 891 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. His last outing was his best yet, going for 146 yards and a TD on 19 carries in the win at Texas A&M.
That will be his second-best performance of 2014 after tearing through Notre Dame's defense, which during the Fighting Irish's last five games allowed an average of 244.2 rushing yards per game along with 12 TDs.
Not everyone thinks highly of Fournette, as Bleacher Report's Carter Bryant noted to NBCSports.com's Keith Arnold.
"He went down easy often and struggled to make defenders miss in the open field to create big gains," Bryant wrote. "It is easier said than done, but the No. 1 recruit in the country should be able to do that."
That's some good bulletin board material, if such things motivate Fournette.
Belk Bowl: Hutson Mason Has a Career Day
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Louisville sports one of the best secondaries in the country, accounting for 17 of the team's 25 interceptions. Safety Gerod Holliman has tied the FBS single-season record for picks with 14, and former Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham (now with Louisville) figures to have Holliman pumped to break the record in the bowl game.
Passing isn't Georgia's forte this season, accounting for 37.3 percent of the offensive snaps and 44 percent of the yardage. But Louisville is No. 3 in the country against the run, allowing 93.7 yards per game and 2.94 yards per carry, which should lead to Bulldogs senior Hutson Mason getting more involved in the offense.
Mason threw for a career-best 320 yards in last year's Gator Bowl loss to Nebraska and earlier this season had 319 yards in the loss to Florida. Every other game this season saw him throw for fewer than 200 yards, yet against Louisville, he'll put up his best numbers yet.
Peach Bowl: Ole Miss Sacks Trevone Boykin Five Times
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Ole Miss' defense is one of the best in the country, leading FBS in scoring defense at 13.8 points per game while ranking sixth in interceptions (19). But one area the Rebels weren't near the top defensively was in sacks, logging only 25 and failing to notch one in two of their three losses.
That doesn't bode well for Ole Miss in its quest to contain TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin, who himself has only been sacked 20 times in 2014 while throwing for 3,714 yards and 30 touchdowns along with 642 rushing yards and eight TDs.
But look for the Landsharks to amp up the pressure up front, with breakout freshman defensive end Marquis Haynes leading the charge. Despite only starting three games, he leads the team with 7.5 sacks and "showed that he could excel as both a speed and power rusher off the edge," according to Edward Aschoff of ESPN.com.
Orange Bowl: Mississippi State Holds Georgia Tech to Season-Low Rushing Output
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You don't stop Georgia Tech's triple-option, you just hope to contain it.
The Yellow Jackets have the No. 3 rushing offense in the country, averaging 333.6 yards per game with 41 touchdowns and a healthy 5.95 yards-per-carry average. It will require a heck of an effort by Mississippi State to be able to slow down that attack, especially coming off a poor performance in the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss and with the recent departure of defensive coordinator Geoff Collins.
Coach Dan Mullen didn't take Collins' move to Florida very well, so look for him to devote extra time during bowl preparation to that side of the ball. Being able to limit Georgia Tech's run game will be a key to a victory since the Yellow Jackets only throw for 135 yards per game.
Look for MSU's linebackers, particularly junior Benardrick McKinney and senior Matthew Wells, to spend a lot of time defending the edges and forcing Tech to run more inside. That's where defensive lineman Preston Smith, the team leader in tackles for loss with 14.5, will eat up ball-carriers and hold the Yellow Jackets under 225 rushing yards.
Outback Bowl: Auburn Takes a Kickoff to the House
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Auburn is in jeopardy of going a season without a kickoff return touchdown for the first time since 2007, and it hasn't even been close. Ricardo Louis had a 40-yard return against San Jose State and brought one back 36 yards against Mississippi State while leading returner Corey Grant's best went for 32 yards.
The Tigers rank 79th in kickoff return average at 20.25 yards per return.
If there's a game to buck the trend, though, it's here against Wisconsin. The Badgers have only had 25 of 86 kickoffs result in a touchback, with kicker Andrew Endicott's 29.8 percent kickoff rate among the worst in the country for full-time players.
Auburn will get chances to make a return, and Grant or Louis should have a great chance to break one for either a long gain or the first TD since Grant had a 90-yard kickoff return score last season against Tennessee.
Citrus Bowl: Missouri Has Two 100-Yard Rushers
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Minnesota has had to deal with some of the best rushers in the country in the tail end of the season, facing Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon and Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah in back-to-back weeks after facing Ohio State when it still had J.T. Barrett scrambling from the pocket.
The chance to face a less-imposing run game, such as Missouri's, was probably graciously accepted by the Golden Gophers when they saw their bowl opponent. Missouri averaged 165.6 rushing yards per game this season, down from 237.9 in 2013.
Junior Russell Hansbrough and senior Marcus Murphy have combined for 1,437 yards and 13 touchdowns, but rarely have both had big games at the same time. That all changes on New Year's Day, when each will top the century mark in Missouri's win over Minnesota.
Sugar Bowl: DeAndrew White Will Be Alabama's Leading Receiver
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The chess match between championship coaches Urban Meyer and Nick Saban will no doubt lead to this national semifinal game being one of the most exciting of the bowl season. It also means that, with more than three weeks to prepare for each other, Ohio State and Alabama's coaches will have come up with great strategies to shut down the other's top players.
That means Alabama wide receiver Amari Cooper should expect blanket coverage regardless of the route he takes and also means that other Crimson Tide receivers should have a chance to have a big day.
DeAndrew White did just that in last year's Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma, and he'll end up being quarterback Blake Sims' go-to option in the passing game.
White is second on the team in receptions (37), yards (439) and touchdowns (four) this season, trailing Cooper by a wide margin in all three categories. But he is coming off his best effort of the year in the SEC title game, catching four passes for 101 yards, including a 58-yard TD reception.
TaxSlayer Bowl: Derek Barnett Outplays a First-Round Draft Pick
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Most of the NFL scouts that attend the TaxSlayer Bowl will be there to watch Iowa offensive tackle Brandon Scherff, and for good reason. The 6'5", 320-pound senior just won the Outland Trophy, given to the country's top lineman, and he's a likely first-round draft pick.
They'll get to see how Scherff handles one of the top young defensive ends in the country—and see how Tennessee's Derek Barnett wins many of those battles.
"I've faced a bunch of good guys in the SEC, so it's another good guy I'm going to face," Barnett told Dave Link of The Nashville Ledger.
Barnett has 10 sacks and 20.5 tackles for loss this season, with three-sack games against Ole Miss and South Carolina.
Birmingham Bowl: Vernon Hargreaves Holds Down the Career Receptions Leader
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Florida not only drew one of the top offenses in the country for its bowl game, it also gets to face the FBS career leader in receptions. East Carolina senior Justin Hardy has 376 catches, including 110 this season.
Odds are that Gators sophomore Vernon Hargreaves III will be assigned to cover Hardy, as he's handled most opponents' top receivers this year. Hargreaves has two interceptions and 13 pass breakups, numbers that don't really show had much he's managed to limit opponents.
Hardy has at least eight receptions in nine of 12 games this season, with a low of four, and has seven 100-yard games. Hargreaves will keep Hardy out of the end zone and under 100 yards.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
