Bowl Games Gameday Thread: Saturday, December 26th, 2009

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 9:45 AM PST in Non-49ers Game Threads

Bowl games, bowl games, and more bowl games today starting early and ending late. Today we have, yes, count 'em, three bowl games. For the early game we have the Little Bowl Caesars which will feature underdog (6-6) Marshall Thundering Herd vs the (9-4) Ohio Bobcats. The second game will be the Meineke Car Care Bowl featuring # 17 ranked (9-3) Pittsburgh Panthers vs the (8-4) North Carolina Tar Heels. And for the final game of the evening we will see The Emerald Bowl which will feature the (8-4) Boston College Eagles vs the (8-4) USC Trojans. All three of these games should be good matchups. Below, we will be taking a look at some of the key players, pro prospects, and their stats.

Little-caesars-pizza-bowl_medium

MARSHALL THUNDERING HERD VS. OHIO BOBCATS

Meineke-car-care-bowl1_medium

# 17 PITTSBURGH PANTHERS VS NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS

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# 24 USC TROJANS VS BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES

LITTLE CAESARS BOWL PREVIEW

Key players for the Thundering Herd:

[# 12] Brian Anderson QB 6'3" 217 (Senior):

57.5% Comp, 2561 Yards, 6.7 Yds/Att, 14 TD's.

[# 5] Darius Marshall RB 5'10" 189 (Junior):

207 Attempts, 1054 Yards, 5.1 Yds/Att, 11 TD's

[# 82] Antavious Wilson WR 6'0" 180 (Freshman):

57 Receptions, 706 Yards, 12.4 Avg, 3 TD's

[# 85] Cody Slate TE 6'4" 220 (Senior):

50 Receptions, 607 Yards, 12.1 Avg, 4 TD's

Key players for the Bobcats:

[# 3] Theo Scott QB 6'2" 209 (Junior):

58.2% Comp, 2258 Yards, 7.1 Yds/Att, 19 TD's

[# 23] Taylor Price WR 6'1" 212 (Senior):

52 Receptions, 735 Yards, 14.1 Avg, 5 TD's

[# 7] LaVon Brazill WR 5'11" 189 (Junior):

50 Receptions, 689 Yards, 13.8 Avg, 6 TD's

[# 13] Gerald Moore DB 6'1" 191 (Freshman):

6 INT's, 40 Yards

MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL PREVIEW

Key players for the Panthers:

[# 11] Bill Stull QB 6'3" 215 (Senior):

64.6% Comp, 2470 Yards, 8.1 Yds/Att, 21 TD's

[# 28] Dion Lewis RB 5'8" 190 (Freshman):

297 Attempts, 1640 Yards, 5.5 Yds/Att, 16 TD's

[# 82] Jonathan Baldwin WR 6'5" 220 (Sophomore):

54 Receptions, 1080 Yards, 20.0 Avg, 8 TD's

[# 2] Dorin Dickerson WR 6'2" 230 (Senior):

45 Receptions, 508 Yards, 11.3 Avg, 10 TD's

Key players for the Tar Heels:

[# 13] T.J. Yates QB 6'3" 215 (Junior):

60.4% Comp, 1953 Yards, 6.0 Yds/Att, 12 TD's

[# 8] Greg Little WR 6'3" 220 (Junior):

55 Receptions, 637 Yards, 11.6 Avg, 3 TD's

[# 27] Deunta Williams S 6'2" 205 (Junior):

6 INT's, 114 Yards

[# 16] Kendric Burney CB 5'9" 185 (Junior):

5 INT's. 200 Yards

EMERALD BOWL PREVIEW

Key players for the Trojans:

[# 7] Matt Barkley QB 6'3" 220 (Freshman):

58.4% Comp, 2385 Yards, 7.6 Yds/Att, 13 TD's

[# 4] Joe McKnight RB 6'0" 200 (Junior):

164 Attempts, 1014 Yards, 6.2 Yds/Att, 8 TD's

[# 21] Allen Bradford RB 5'11" 225 (Junior):

98 Attempts, 596 Yards, 6.1 Yds/Att, 8 TD's

[# 18] Damian Williams WR 6'1" 190 (Junior):

58 Receptions, 821 Yards, 14.2 Avg, 6 TD's

[# 86] Anthony McCoy TE 6'5" 255 (Senior):

22 Receptions, 457 Yards, 20.8 Avg, 1 TD

[# 2] Taylor Mays S 6'3" 235 (Senior):

88 Tackles, 1 Fumble Forced, 1 INT

[# 26] Will Harris S 6'1" 200 (Senior):

4 INT's, 64 Yards

Key players for the Eagles:

[# 2] Montel Harris RB 5'10" 192 (Sophomore):

285 Attempts, 1355 Yards, 4.8 Yds/Att, 13 TD's

[# 18] Rich Gunnell WR 5'11" 196 (Senior):

54 Receptions, 750 yards, 13.9 Avg, 6 TD's

[# 10] Colin Larmond WR 6'3" 196 (Sophomore):

26 Receptions, 567 Yards, 19.2 Avg, 5 TD's

[# 20] Roderick Rollins CB 6'0" 188 (Senior):

3 INT's, 7 Yards

KICKOFF TIMES

LITTLE CAESARS BOWL- 1:00 ET, 10:00 PST

MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL- 4:30 ET, 1:30 PST

EMERALD BOWL- 8:00 ET, 5:00 PST

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Comments

Darius Marshall

is a baaaad man. Fun to watch =).

by Cruithear on Dec 26, 2009 10:10 AM PST reply actions

Wow

Lee Smith just made a great catch

by Cruithear on Dec 26, 2009 10:22 AM PST reply actions

Momentum changer

for the Bobcats

Tim Tebow = 1,432,219 season tickets next year. Who wouldn't pick him in the 1st round with those projections?

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 11:11 AM PST reply actions

Bowl games

I never understood the point of having 6-6 teams in bowl games. Clearly a playoff would be costly to such AWESOME bowl games!

by David Fucillo on Dec 26, 2009 11:23 AM PST reply actions

Hey now

This game isn’t bad at all, and serves as a means an extra exhibition of senior talent.

That said, why can’t we have a playoff system AND bowl games (for those teams that don’t qualify).

by Cruithear on Dec 26, 2009 11:25 AM PST up reply actions

?*

Oops

by Cruithear on Dec 26, 2009 11:26 AM PST up reply actions

agree

My playoff idea has been for an 8 team playoff, and then the remainder are in the bowl games. I suppose you could go with 16, but 8 is a good start. You could use the BCS rankings and just take the top 8 teams. Or at the very least go with the 6 BCS conferences and 2 at larges like they do now, only turn it into an 8 team playoff. You’d have 7 games, so you go with the BCS title game, the 4 major bowls, and then two more bowls such as the Cotton Bowl and Gator Bowl (or any other combination).

One of the arguments against a playoff is the idea of getting people to travel to all these games on relatively short notice. I say go with a playoff, but that’s one of the few arguments that makes sense.

by David Fucillo on Dec 26, 2009 11:33 AM PST up reply actions

The travel issue

Is legitimate, but I should imagine most working fans would start saving a couple of vacation days to use for playoff games if that were the case. Plus, the better teams have fans all over the country, so it may not have as much an impact for those teams anyway.

by Cruithear on Dec 26, 2009 11:38 AM PST up reply actions

I would go top 4 playoff for #1 but not rid bowl games

True knowledge is knowing you know, nothing!!
"I seen the ball was behind me and I can't go out like that"- MCraptree #15
Niners trade up in 2010 draft!! (pleeeeease)

by rlott#42 on Dec 26, 2009 3:08 PM PST up reply actions

I just like Marshall

because of that movie “We Are Marshall”. Always find myself rooting for that school since they’ve always kind of been an underdog… but I agree, a 6-6 team should never be in a bowl game. It used to happen in the NFL occasionally when you only had the 3 divisions in each conference but I am glad it is structured the way it is now

Tim Tebow = 1,432,219 season tickets next year. Who wouldn't pick him in the 1st round with those projections?

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 11:32 AM PST up reply actions

Marshall

When I was in college in Washington, DC Randy Moss was at Marshall. I became a fan of them their last year at 1-AA. Pennington to Moss was filthy.

by David Fucillo on Dec 26, 2009 11:34 AM PST up reply actions

That was an awesome combo

Tim Tebow = 1,432,219 season tickets next year. Who wouldn't pick him in the 1st round with those projections?

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 11:38 AM PST up reply actions

This first bowl game is turning in to a good one

Tim Tebow = 1,432,219 season tickets next year. Who wouldn't pick him in the 1st round with those projections?

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 12:27 PM PST reply actions

dion lewis

for pitt. i watched this kid in the game against cinci and he can flat out get it on. should be fun to watch. amazing he’s only a freshman

by srill waiting on Dec 26, 2009 1:17 PM PST reply actions

Well

I watched the WVU game and for most of it he looked like a dud. I’m biased though… Ryan Williams should have been the #1 freshman RB this year considering he faced much tougher Ds and picked up more TDs than Lewis.

by Cruithear on Dec 26, 2009 1:20 PM PST up reply actions

101 yards at half...not bad

he’s got some great moves

Tim Tebow = 1,432,219 season tickets next year. Who wouldn't pick him in the 1st round with those projections?

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 3:18 PM PST up reply actions

Make sure you guys watch our 1B pick in Taylor Mays!!!

by hudd07 on Dec 26, 2009 3:38 PM PST reply actions

Yep

plan on it… there’s a few more prospects in that game as well. Charles Brown, Damian Williams, Anthony McCoy, Will Harris, etc…

Tim Tebow = 1,432,219 season tickets next year. Who wouldn't pick him in the 1st round with those projections?

by Drew Kerr on Dec 26, 2009 3:42 PM PST up reply actions

I don’t know man . . .

Watched him get beat on a long pass and then take a poor angle of pursuit. Also watched him intentionally miss a touchdown scoring RB. He always seemed to be arriving late & then standing & watching. To be fair, he did make a nice shoestring tackle. Wanted to be impressed, but wasn’t. I wanted to see him appear horizontally on the TV screen blasting every opponent that got in his way. Guess that’s why he number is 2 and not 42.

by Flyin' Taco on Dec 26, 2009 10:01 PM PST up reply actions