Today's Bowl Games Thread
December 29th, 2021 at 2:36 PM ^
Maryland - VT are playing in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. VT is wearing throwbacks to their national championship game appearance and a maroon and orange interlocking NY on one side of their helmets. I'm a Yankee fan and once lived a half mile from the Stadium on the Grand Concourse so...go Hokies.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:55 PM ^
My father-in-law lived on the Grand Concourse, near the upper end. Later living in Manhattan, he always referred to hid old home as the Old Country.
December 29th, 2021 at 4:01 PM ^
The Concourse! I lived across the street from Executive Towers, the big white building in background. Flava Flav lived there and knew some dudes from my building, so I had the pleasure of meeting him once.
December 29th, 2021 at 6:05 PM ^
You related to Mike Boddicker, former Orioles pitcher?
December 29th, 2021 at 9:50 PM ^
Yes. Yes, I am.
December 29th, 2021 at 6:03 PM ^
You must be younger then me. Most here are. Yankee fan since ‘55. Grew up on east 164 th street between grand concourse and Sheridan avenue. Isn’t Executive Towers the tall white building on 165 th and the GC? When I was a kid, middle 50’s, that was an empty lot.
December 29th, 2021 at 9:49 PM ^
That it is--I lived in a building at the corner 166th St on the west side of the Concourse. I became a Yankee fan in 1973, though I lived in a different part of the Bronx then.
December 29th, 2021 at 6:15 PM ^
The Yankees logo is a tribute which goes back to the 2007 VT shooting, when Steinbrenner sent $3M to VT for families and memorial. He also sent the Yankees to Blacksburg to play an exhibition game against the Hokie baseball team.
December 29th, 2021 at 2:38 PM ^
Va Tech looks slow
December 29th, 2021 at 4:03 PM ^
Doesn't look like there's much talent there for the new coach to work with.
December 29th, 2021 at 2:40 PM ^
VT punting from the Maryland 36 was the type of bold football I came here for...
December 29th, 2021 at 2:43 PM ^
Good punt though. Usually that punt goes into the endzone for a huge 11 yard gain of field position!
December 29th, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^
Just setting up the fake punt they successfully executed a minute ago lol
December 29th, 2021 at 3:01 PM ^
i loved when locksley ripped #15 on the sideline...dude was the only guy who came up to make a play. locksley really is a train wreck.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:08 PM ^
TBH, I am perplexed why you would choose to go for it on your own 36, but punt on the opponent 36.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:13 PM ^
DECEPTION ?
December 29th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
Terps by 4 EDIT: I totally forgot a 4...I meant 44!
Clones by 6 (good value)
Oregon by 3
December 29th, 2021 at 2:44 PM ^
Tualia Tagovailoa has to be this years' Big Ten Disaster Factory Award winner if it can't be given to Nebraska as a team trophy.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:24 PM ^
Adrian Martinez would like a word.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:30 PM ^
I thought I gave Adrian a word when mentioning that Nebraska deserves it as a team. With their special teams and coaching, Adrian shouldn't carry all of the blame.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:44 PM ^
I hear you, but I do think he was a bigger problem for his team than Tags II is for his.
December 29th, 2021 at 4:07 PM ^
Maryland played 4 ranked teams and Tualia threw 9 interceptions in those games. Tualia is definitely top tier for the DFA award, but he pads the stats against bad team and only has a 68 QBR for the season.
Adrian's 4 picks against Purdue put him in the conversation, but he kept them in the Oklahoma game single handedly and threw 6 INTs in 5 games vs ranked teams. His 73 QBR for the season is a bit better.
I stand by my pick but Adrian isn't a bad choice either.
December 29th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
Does an Oklahoma loss take the SEC to 0-5?
December 29th, 2021 at 2:56 PM ^
Didn't think of that prior but now that is how I'm scoring it.
December 29th, 2021 at 2:59 PM ^
Yep, loss scored to the SEC, win scored to the Little 12.
December 29th, 2021 at 5:34 PM ^
And A&M's COVID failure takes the SEC to 0-6.
December 29th, 2021 at 2:56 PM ^
Let's hope we'll never have to play in the Pinstripe Bowl.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:12 PM ^
One of the announcers praised the 'perfect setup' of Yankee Stadium for football, right as a camera was panning the middle of the field, where seats are like 40 yards from the action.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:25 PM ^
Football in baseball stadiums is a terrible concept. I wish they’d play this game over at MetLife at least, but I assume the Yankees are running this thing and making it be played at Yankee Stadium.
Im all for cold weather football during the regular season, but bowls in the north in cold weather are stupid. If you are going to play in the north, play it in an enclosed stadium.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:28 PM ^
Exception to your rule: when the playoffs are expanded, higher ranked teams had better get home games. Playing USC or Georgia in Michigan would be a major plus and the built in advantage the bowl system gives warm weather teams is stupid.
December 29th, 2021 at 5:22 PM ^
I think a playoff home game is a very different proposition than a neutral site exhibition game that relies on (1) local alumni of the involved schools, (2) curious locals and (3) 'tourist' visitors from the schools' home states.
While New York is naturally by no means the least attractive destination on the bowl calendar even in late December, the motivation level to spend 3-4 hours in 30 to 50 degree weather with potential for rain/snow (and of course ballparks aren't really built for events in poor weather) gotta be pretty different when it's your team's chance at a championship vs an essentially meaningless extra game on the calendar. In the former case all those factors constitute home advantage, in the latter case it's simply a nuisance.
December 29th, 2021 at 5:49 PM ^
I think they should play the championship game at Lambeau sometime. Maybe the SEC would learn something about football.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:39 PM ^
if you call it the 'pinstripe bowl' you kinda have to play in yankee stadium.
and indoor football is a crime against humanity.
December 29th, 2021 at 2:58 PM ^
I miss when bowl games used to mean something
December 29th, 2021 at 3:21 PM ^
Come on. Outside of the Big 4--the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Cotton--plus the late-comer Fiesta Bowl, none of the other bowls has ever meant much. What fanbase of the past was amped over winning the Bluebonnet Bowl? Or the Peach Bowl? They've always been meaningless exhibition games unless you were ranked in the top 5 and could go to #1 in the polls with a win. Winning the conference and beating your rival meant more than winning a bowl and still does.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
Agreed, if college football can pay Mel Tucker $95 million to finish 3rd place in his division, I am sure we could incentivize players to care enough about bowls to produce a good product.
December 29th, 2021 at 8:18 PM ^
Some people like college football and can enjoy watching a close game between teams from different parts of the country that don't normally play each other. Even if they are not in a playoff.
Others are football snobs and don't enjoy watching games involving teams that they view as unworthy.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:15 PM ^
Wow, VT is garbage. Starting a option quarterback that's...really slow? Yet cannot complete a pass to save his life? They're a long way from the Mike Vick salad days.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:23 PM ^
VT hasn't had a season with less than 4 losses since they dropped the Sugar Bowl to Brady Hoke. They have been a mid-pack team at best for a decade.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:26 PM ^
dude's hair / mustache game is the biggest problem.
December 29th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
Yea Pry has a LOT of work to do in Blacksburg
December 29th, 2021 at 3:22 PM ^
Dayum, I just logged on to say Maryland is bringing the wood! Go Terps! 21-3, Maryland...
December 29th, 2021 at 3:30 PM ^
VT is playing like they brought the Vaseline.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:27 PM ^
Wow--did VT burn this kid's redshirt to play in the bowl game?
December 29th, 2021 at 3:36 PM ^
IDK how many games he's played, but isn't the rule that you can play in up to 4 games, no matter when they are, and still preserve the redshirt?
December 29th, 2021 at 3:42 PM ^
Isn't that just the first quarter of of the season? If you play late at all after that you burn the shirt? Maybe they changed it at some point? My brain hurts thinking about it...
December 29th, 2021 at 3:50 PM ^
I thought they changed the rule but a quick Google search didn't give me a definitive answer in the first few results. I'm supposed to be working, so I didn't search any farther than that. Figured someone else on the board would know.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:55 PM ^
This article mentions bowl games as part of the 4.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:57 PM ^
I've got to believe you're right. Because the VT coach is an interim who got hired by their new coach. Burning a freshman's redshirt in hopes of a big comeback in the Pinstripe Bowl is a move that could--and probably should--cost him his post-bowl job. I don't think the interim is that dumb.
December 29th, 2021 at 3:40 PM ^
Maryland's HC is magna cum laude at the Pre-2021 Jim Harbaugh School of Clock Management.