Bowl Games 2014-15: Full Schedule and Predictions for Remaining Slate
So begins the home stretch of the 2014-15 bowl season.
If pre-Christmas bowls are any indication, the stretch toward 2015 will be a classic. Western Kentucky and Central Michigan partook in a shootout for the ages, while Navy and San Diego State put on a gritty classic.
The small sampling suggests things will get wild when teams such as Auburn and Wisconsin collide.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
What is perhaps the best time of the sporting year is here, so brush up on the full schedule and some of the biggest matchups to catch.
2014-15 College Football Bowl Schedule
| Military Bowl | Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech | December 27 | 1 p.m. | ESPN | Cincinnati |
| Sun Bowl | Arizona State vs. Duke | December 27 | 2 p.m. | CBS | Duke |
| Independence Bowl | Miami vs. South Carolina | December 27 | 3:30 p.m. | ABC | Miami |
| Pinstripe Bowl | Boston College vs. Penn State | December 27 | 4:30 p.m. | ESPN | Boston College |
| Holiday Bowl | Nebraska vs. USC | December 27 | 8 p.m. | ESPN | USC |
| Liberty Bowl | Texas A&M vs. West Virginia | December 29 | 2 p.m. | ESPN | Texas A&M |
| Russell Athletic Bowl | Oklahoma vs. Clemson | December 29 | 5:30 p.m. | ESPN | Oklahoma |
| Texas Bowl | Arkansas vs. Texas | December 29 | 9 p.m. | ESPN | Arkansas |
| Music City Bowl | Notre Dame vs. LSU | December 30 | 3 p.m. | ESPN | LSU |
| Belk Bowl | Georgia vs. Louisville | December 30 | 6:30 p.m. | ESPN | Georgia |
| Foster Farms Bowl | Maryland vs. Stanford | December 30 | 10 p.m. | ESPN | Stanford |
| Peach Bowl | Mississippi vs. TCU | December 31 | 12:30 p.m. | ESPN | TCU |
| Fiesta Bowl | Boise State vs. Arizona | December 31 | 4 p.m. | ESPN | Arizona |
| Orange Bowl | Mississippi State vs. Georgia Tech | December 31 | 8 p.m. | ESPN | Georgia Tech |
| Outback Bowl | Auburn vs. Wisconsin | January 1 | 12 p.m. | ESPN2 | Auburn |
| Cotton Bowl | Michigan State vs. Baylor | January 1 | 12:30 p.m. | ESPN | Baylor |
| Citrus Bowl | Missouri vs. Minnesota | January 1 | 1 p.m. | ABC | Missouri |
| Rose Bowl (College Football Playoff Semifinal) | Oregon vs. Florida State | January 1 | 5 p.m. | ESPN | Oregon |
| Sugar Bowl (College Football Playoff Semifinal) | Alabama vs. Ohio State | January 1 | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN | Alabama |
| Armed Forces Bowl | Houston vs. Pittsburgh | January 2 | 12 p.m. | ESPN | Houston |
| Taxslayer Bowl | Iowa vs. Tennesseee | January 2 | 3:20 p.m. | ESPN | Tennessee |
| Alamo Bowl | Kansas State vs. UCLA | January 2 | 6:45 p.m. | ESPN | UCLA |
| Cactus Bowl | Washington vs. Oklahoma State | January 2 | 10:15 p.m. | ESPN | Washington |
| Birmingham Bowl | East Carolina vs. Florida | January 3 | 12 p.m. | ESPN | Florida |
| GoDaddy Bowl | Toledo vs. Arkansas State | January 4 | 9 p.m. | ESPN | Arkansas State |
| College Football Playoff National Championship | TBD vs. TBD | January 12 | 8:30 p.m. | ESPN | N/A |
Breaking Down Noteworthy Matchups
Music City Bowl: Notre Dame vs. LSU
Call it old versus new in the latest iteration of the Music City Bowl.
Les Miles' LSU Tigers sit at 8-4 with just a .500 mark in SEC play. The coach sees no reason to change much of anything, though.
"You won't see much new in this game at all," Miles said, per STATS LLC (via ESPN.com). "What we're doing is we've got young players and we're trying to grow them up and have them do the things they've done in the past here and see if they can do them better, execute well on game day."
Losses to Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama and Arkansas are nothing to go nuclear over. Sophomore quarterback Anthony Jennings (1,460 yards and 10 touchdowns to seven interceptions) needs more time to develop. Freshman back Leonard Fournette (891 yards, eight scores) may be the best in the nation but more experience would not hurt.
Now contrast that with Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a team seemingly ready for a change under center.
“I’m open really to anything at this point,” Kelly said, per Keith Arnold of NBCSports.com. “We want to put the best football team, the best offense that we can on the field. Ideally, you’d like to have one, but if we’ve got two, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Kelly will not only give time to Everett Golson against the Tigers but to sophomore Malik Zaire as well. The former has faded down the stretch with 10 interceptions over the course of his last six games.
Zaire is the future for Notre Dame; hence his wealth of playing time against USC in which he went 9-of-20 for 170 yards and a rushing touchdown.
A meet between two former Top 10 teams is sure to be sheer quality. The advantage has to go to the SEC team that ranks better in important areas and does not have a dramatic strategic change to make in order to prep for the future.
Golson and Zaire will struggle plenty against a top-three defense. Pair that with a top-30 LSU rushing attack that can dictate the game, and Miles and the Tigers will have few issues cementing a strong building block for next season.
Prediction: LSU 24, Notre Dame 17
Cotton Bowl: Michigan State vs. Baylor
One needs simply to gloss over the names in the Cotton Bowl to know it will be a war of wills.
The Michigan State Spartans, known for defense, collide with the high-flying Baylor Bears in what may turn out to be a better contest than the College Football Playoff Semifinal games have in store.
NFL Network's Gil Brandt put it best:
Beneath the surface, though, it is clear that the 10-2 Spartans are not that far behind the 11-1 Bears in the offensive category:
Michigan State does plenty of damage on the defensive side of the ball by allowing less than 20 points per game on average, but the improvement of junior quarterback Connor Cook is noteworthy. The Hinckley, Ohio native completed 58.2 percent of his passes this season for 2,900 yards and 22 touchdowns to six interceptions.
Six times this year the Spartans have scored a minimum of 45 points. The efforts of senior back Jeremy Langford (1,360 yards, 19 scores) are not to go unnoticed, either.
Baylor knows all about scoring, though. Bryce Petty, who totaled 3,305 yards and 26 scores to six picks through the air, leads the nation’s top offense. He has an elite complement of his own in sophomore Shock Linwood, who rushed for 1,226 yards and 16 scores.
Petty understands that the task is perhaps his biggest test of the season, as captured by Matt Charboneau of The Detroit News:
"What we got to do offensively is establish a run. They pride themselves on stopping the run, so we got to establish a run and take chances when we get them. They are going to make you earn every inch you get. So those small successes, those first downs, you know plays of 10 yards or more are big. You got to take them any way you can get them. So for us it's just small successes.
"
Petty has seen defenses that rank in Michigan State's neighborhood this season, though. A 61-58 win over TCU back in October saw him throw for 510 yards and six touchdowns.
That sort of production against the Spartans is no sure thing, but a bowl game close to home against a tough team will see the Bears pull through. In a shootout that may come down to which team has the ball last, the more experienced quarterback figures to put his team at an advantage.
Prediction: Baylor 45, Michigan State 40
Statistics and info courtesy of ESPN unless otherwise specified.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
