Bowl Games 2018-19: Predictions for Most Exciting Matchups on the Schedule
The 2018-19 bowl schedule is littered with intriguing storylines from the College Football Playoff games on down.
While most of the focus will be centered on the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl, there are some other games that need to be on your radar.
One of the most exciting games of bowl season could come from a renewal of an old rivalry that was shelved because of conference realignment.
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Other exciting matchups feature some of the best individual positional battles we've seen all season.
Predictions For Most Exciting Matchups
Orange Bowl: Alabama 34, Oklahoma 27
No matter who you think the Heisman Trophy favorite is, you can't deny the building excitement for the Orange Bowl.
Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa and Oklahoma's Kyler Murray are set to go head-to-head in one of the most anticipated individual showdowns in college football history.
By the time the game is played December 29, every angle of the matchup will be broken down in depth, but all we'll revert back to is the clash of quarterbacks.
The hype continued to grow this week when Murray was named AP Player of the Year and Tagovailoa won the Maxwell Award.
Of course, that hype will hit overdrive once the Heisman results are handed out, as many believe the voting will be the closest in years after Murray's run to end the regular season that included wins over West Virginia and Texas.
Murray is going up against a more difficult defense stacked with future NFL stars, which will make his life harder for four quarters, but he'll make enough plays to keep the Sooners in the game.
After resting his injured ankle in the time between the SEC Championship and the Orange Bowl, Tagovailoa will feature in a starring role and lead the Crimson Tide to a victory with a fourth-quarter game-winning drive.
Camping World Bowl: Syracuse 42, West Virginia 35
One of the other exciting matchups of bowl season is a renewal of an old Big East football rivalry.
Syracuse and West Virginia meet in the Camping World Bowl, where two of the nation's most explosive quarterbacks get a chance to duel to finish their seasons.
Eric Dungey and the Orange are trying to end one of the best seasons in program history with a bowl victory, which would hand them 10 wins for the first time since 2001.
Will Grier and the Mountaineers head into Orlando with a sense of disappointment regarding their season, as they fell to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to miss out on the Big 12 Championship and an outside shot at the College Football Playoff.
The December 28 meeting between the two programs is the first since the 2012 Pinstripe Bowl, when Syracuse earned a 38-14 victory.
Points will be exchanged throughout the contest, as each quarterback tries to one-up his counterpart, but look for Dungey, who is one of the top dual-threat signal-callers in the FBS, to create separation with his legs.
Dungey threw for 17 touchdowns and ran for 15 more, and with the Orange hungry to reach the double-digit win mark for the first time since 2001, their defense will find a way to put pressure on Grier, who threw for 3,864 yards and 37 touchdowns, and get a stop in the fourth quarter.
But before the Orange earn the valuable stop, the Camping World Bowl will lack in defensive highlights, as Dungey and Grier steal the spotlight.
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