Mitch Picks The EagleBank Bowl: Wake Forest vs Navy 12/20/08

While I've enjoyed having a week to look at match ups and getting a chance to write about some other things besides just analyzing games and making picks, I'm ready for some college football action again.

My favorite thing I got to write about was the Coach of the Year Award, while it's something I was asked to write about several months ago by the award's sponsor, Liberty Mutual, it's something that I really wanted to wait until the finalists were announced before I wrote about and endorsed anyone, I also wanted to see how the season played out.

The main reasons I enjoyed it is an award the fans get to vote for and so much money gets given to charities and scholarship funds, and really that's what it's all about.

I am starting to see trickles of entries for the free bowl picking contest though to be honest I haven't looked at any of your picks. As things have grown I'm expecting this to be the biggest contest of the season. On a similar note, I have a good deal of Jordan's bowl picks and I will start posting some of them over the next couple of days.

Of course in order to get all of the free picks and to be eligible for the free picking contest  at The College Football Place, you need to sign up for the free newsletter which should take about 20 seconds total. If you have signed up and haven't received your entry form, make sure you have verified your subscription, while it isn't something I like, apparently it's the law as this is how our government thinks it is protecting us from spammers.

I will be using the same expanded format I use in the newsletter for all of my bowl picks and analysis so this will give those who haven't signed up a taste of what to expect, for the rest of you, this is what you have come to expect from us on a weekly basis.

Let's get this started with the first game of the College Football Bowl Season.

EagleBank Bowl   RFK Stadium Washington, D.C.

Wake Forest (7-5) Vs. Navy (8-4)

December 20, 2008  11 am EST  Current Line: Navy +3

Overview:

These two teams met on September 27, 2008 in a game where Wake Forest was a 17 point favorite and lost to Navy outright by a score of 24-17. In that game Wake QB Riley Skinner threw four interceptions, more than half of his season total of seven.

Navy finished the season strong winning four of their last five games while Wake Forest ended the year going 3-4 in their last seven games. Wake played a considerably tougher schedule as Navy's ranked 97th in the country this year.

While rematches aren't what Bowl Committees and bowl teams usually have in mind, this makes for a fairly decent game between two efficient teams.

See Mitch's College Football Bowl Pick against the spread