Five Up, Five Down: Bowl Teams to Back and Fade
By Josh Nagel
Bowl-bound college football teams are a lot like human beings in their basic nature. Some are just happier than others, no matter where they are.
It’s usually fairly easy to identify which bowl teams are happy to have extended their seasons with an additional game, versus others that would rather be watching grass grow than playing football on it.
In honor of both groups, we’ve compiled a list of the Five Happiest Bowl Teams and the Five Unhappiest Bowl Teams.
For instance, bowl-starved Baylor, making its first postseason appearance since 1994, leads the happy-to-be-there charge, while would-be BCS buster Boise State gets bowled over by misery.
“For Boise State, they go from potentially playing for a national title to the Las Vegas Bowl,” a handicapper friend told me. “That’s like going from taking Heidi Klum to the prom to taking your 250-pound English teacher.”
Here are the lists:
Five Happiest Bowl Teams
Baylor
The Bears got rewarded for their breakout season with a bid to the Texas Bowl, in their back yard in Houston. Although Baylor dropped three straight after becoming bowl eligible, we expect the Bears to be a lot happier than their opponent, the Fighting Illini of Illinois (see below).
Army
The Black Knights haven’t been to a bowl since 1996 and their best record since was 5-7 before their 6-5 mark this year. Even though they lost to rival Navy last week and have to travel into SMU’s backyard in Dallas for the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, they will be happy to make the trip.
Syracuse
Coach Doug Marrone is trying to undo nearly half a decade’s worth of futility for the Syracuse program, which might still rue the day it fired Paul Pasqualoni. Coach P was fired after losing the 2004 Champs Sports Bowl 51-14 to Georgia Tech.
His replacement, Greg Robinson, went 10-37 in four years and left the program in ruins for Marrone. The second-year coach has done an admirable job and the Orange (7-5) can cap off their fine season with a win in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
Tennessee
You wouldn’t think a proud program like Tennessee would ever find satisfaction in simply reaching a bowl game, but that’s the case for the rebuilding Volunteers, who needed to win their last four to become bowl eligible.
First-year coach Derek Dooley had to pick up the pieces left behind by Lane Kiffin, and for a while Tennessee looked like the worst SEC team this side of Vanderbilt. But a quarterback switch and some steady improvement led the Vols to the winning streak and a berth in the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl.
Connecticut
After starting 0-2 in the Big East and being shut out by Louisville, there was speculation about coach Randy Edsall’s job security. Now that the Huskies (8-4) are in the school’s first BCS Bowl, Edsall can go back to being the coach whose name is most frequently mentioned with higher-profile openings but who never actually gets an offer.
Honorable mention: San Diego State, TCU, Stanford, Notre Dame, SMU.
Five Unhappiest Bowl Teams
Boise State
The BCS bubble burst for Boise when it was upset by Nevada 34-31 in overtime on the day after Thanksgiving. Now, the Broncos (11-1) have to try and find some motivation against for the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl against a Utah (10-2) team that saw its own BCS hopes get shattered in a blowout loss to TCU.
Illinois
No one does less with more talent than Ron Zook, and this game could be his last chance to prove it. Illinois stuck with the Zooker after a three-win season last year but warned that the Illini had to show vast improvement.
Although Illinois (6-6) has looked impressive at times, its late-season dive looks all too familiar, with losses to Minnesota and Fresno State. Traveling to Texas for essentially a road bowl game likely isn’t putting this team in a festive mood.
Arizona
The Wildcats (7-5) had designs on winning the Pac-10 and going to a BCS bowl. Instead, they couldn’t even finish .500 in conference play (4-5). The Wildcats head into the postseason on the heels of four straight losses, including an embarrassing effort against Arizona State.
Now they are nearly a touchdown underdog against powerful Oklahoma State in the Valero Alamo Bowl and you have to wonder how much inspiration fiery coach Mike Stoops can extract from his team.
Maryland
Coach Ralph Friedgen and the Terrapins (8-4) have done nothing but whine about their perceived snub in the bowl-invitation process, going to what is essentially the ACC’s eighth-place bowl destination after finishing third in the conference.
Although they have a case, they might be better served by preparing to face an explosive East Carolina that is bound to be ready to play in the Military Bowl.
Michigan
While most followers of the Michigan program are waiting for the guillotine to drop on Rich Rodriguez’s coaching tenure, the Wolverines get to be chopped up by Mississippi State in the Gator Bowl. Although Rodriguez has publicly pleaded to keep his job, he looks like a man waiting to be put out of his misery. The Bulldogs might help him do just that.
Honorable mention: Penn State, Pittsburgh, Northwestern, Kansas State, Iowa.