Tag: Bowls

Florida Keeps Napier: Why this is a good idea

News came through for Florida Gators that embattled head coach Billy Napier would stay on for at least another season. Gators AD said: “As we’ve seen these past several weeks, the young men on this team represent what it means to be a Gator. Their resolve, effort and execution are evident in their performance and growth each week — building a foundation that promises greater success next season and beyond…I am confident that Billy will meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.” SO WHY WASN’T HE SHOVED? The Gators had performed as expected, with a 4-4 record (2-3 SEC). The wins against Kentucky and Mississippi State were comfortable (ie no upsets), and the losses to Georgia, Tennessee and Texas A&M were

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Quick bowl reaction: Bama in, FSU/ Georgia out

After they beat Georgia in the National Championship Game and Florida State’s offense looked so ragged against Louisville, it seemed inevitable that Alabama was going to be the final team into the College Football Play-Off. They will play No.1 Michigan, while No.2 Washington and No.3 Texas face off in the other one. Georgia fans could moan about not being one of the best teams in, but they sank themselves by back-to-back not-great performances against Georgia Tech and Alabama respectively. In the end, they ended up No.6 in the nation, and will face Florida State in the Orange Bowl – something we suspect won’t have a lot of weight if you consider the amount of players who won’t play. But the bottom

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SEC Bowl Line-Ups

These are the bowls that SEC teams are involved in. Obviously the biggest games are the two play-off semi-finals games. We’ll update you with previews before the whole thing starts. To repeat what everyone else has said: All but Vanderbilt are involved!! Wednesday, December 22 Armed Forces Bowl: Army vs. Missouri 8 p.m., ESPN Thursday, December 23 Gasparilla Bowl: Florida vs. UCF 7 p.m., ESPN Tuesday, December 28 Birmingham Bowl: Houston vs. Auburn Noon, ESPN 3:15 p.m., ESPN Liberty Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Mississippi State 6:45 p.m., ESPN Thursday, December 30 Duke’s Mayo Bowl: North Carolina vs. South Carolina 11:30 a.m., ESPN Music City Bowl: Tennessee vs. Purdue 3 p.m., ESPN Friday, December 31 Gator Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Wake

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Spurrier with the zingers!

I could sit here and give you a long news article about Steve Spurrier and what he said about South Carolina football – “We’ve got a good team at South Carolina ready to go this year. We had a little bit of a struggle in the middle of last season” – but that’s not why we look out for what the Head Ball Coach says at SEC Media Days. It’s the zingers. So here’s a collection of them: INTRODUCTION SPEECH “A lot of familiar faces out there after a lot of years coming to this event. I figured a bunch of you guys would have retired by now.” “We believe we have a fighting chance to do that. I know

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SEC Bowl Predictions: Will Alabama Roll?

We were thinking of going with such articles as “SEC bowls we’re looking forward to”, but if we’re honest, we’re looking forward to all of ’em, unless we get drinking and then we stop watching football because we’re too busy catching up with THAT GUY who we went to high school with who’s back for a while to show off his new wife and tell everybody how he got that BIG CAREER in the city. Let’s face it, the guy who’s come out of this Christmas best is Will Muschamp. Gets fired by Florida, gets $6.2m for his trouble. Picks up $1m job as defensive co-ordinator at Auburn a few weeks later. And has a smoking hot wife to boot.

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Vanderbilt Head Coach James Franklin to go to Penn State – reports

Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin is going to leave the SEC and be the next coach of Penn State, according to reports. Franklin, who had been head coach in Nashville since 2011, took the Commodores to an unprecedented two straight bowl games, going 2-0. They beat Houston 41-24 in their last one only last week. But Vanderbilt has denied the rumors. “Until I hear otherwise, he (James Franklin) is Vanderbilt’s football coach,” said Vandy AD David Williams to Jeff Lockridge at the Tennessean, who tweeted this out. Penn State site Fight On State said Franklin had signed a contract, but the deal had yet to be approved by the Penn State Board of Trustees. BOTTOM LINE: Franklin’s enthusiasm for the Vanderbilt program

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The SEC Bowl Performance Rankings: Who makes No.1?

Right, for the first time in this blog’s history, we’re doing a SEC bowl performance power rankings from top to bottom. It’s inspired by the performances by UCF or UCLA (“Who did you think did really well in the bowls?”) as well as Michigan or Miami (“Who did you think really didn’t do that well in the bowls”). WARNING: Some of the teams may come in two parts. 1)  Auburn: OK, so we know that Cinderella didn’t get her glass slipper. But by God did she have a go at getting it! The Tigers ran out to a huge lead, lost it, grabbed a lead with a minute left….and lost it to the Drive Of The Season. Tre Mason showed

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Badgers, Bulldogs, and .341: SEC Bowl Preview

The blessing of bowl season in the SEC is that you don’t have to overdo it with SEC previews until pretty much the last minute. Well, thank God for the NFL Sabbath, which gave yours truly a little more chance to digest some (more) turkey and adult beverages and put together his SEC preview. And don’t worry: We haven’t forgotten you, Auburn. We are just doing yours seperately. MONDAY DECEMBER 30TH  MUSIC CITY BOWL: OLE MISS VS GEORGIA TECH  Georgia Tech and Ole Miss ended the season in heartbreaking fashion. Georgia Tech by giving up a 20-point lead over hated rivals Georgia, and then losing in double overtime, while Ole Miss quarterunning backack Bo Wallace fumbled on his way to

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