This month San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium will be hosting two college football bowl games, and two of the four teams are ranked nationally in the top 25.
The Poinsettia Bowl will be played on December 26th between the Utah State Aggies and the Northern Illinois Huskies. The Huskies are ranked 23rd in the country and had a very impressive season losing only one game. The Aggies went 8-5 and just lost in the Mountain West Championship game to Fresno State.
On December 30th, the Arizona State Sun Devils and the Texas Tech Red Raiders will matchup the day after the Chargers final home game. This game should be fun and high scoring, which is what the Holiday Bowl is all about. There have many memorable games that have featured NFL legends like Barry Sanders, Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles. Last year, 75 points were scored between Baylor and UCLA.
The Sun Devils will come into this one ranked #14 and they will almost surely be favored. Texas Tech on the other hand, has had a roller coaster ride of a season. They started the year 7-0 and were ranked as high as tenth in the country, but they have now lost five straight.
Todd Graham, the head coach for Arizona St. was named 2013 Pac-12 Coach of the Year. His team is led by quarterback Taylor Kelly, who not only can throw the ball, but can run it as well, piling up eight rushing touchdowns. Running Back Marion Grice is just four yards away from reaching the 1,000 rushing yard milestone and has carried the ball well this year.
Texas Tech’s head coach is Kliff Kingsbury, who in 2002 threw for over 5,000 yards as the Red Raiders quarterback. This year, two freshman each have exactly 2,315 passing yards. They are Baker Mayfield and Davis Webb. Webb has had some very impressive games, but Mayfield looks like he is going to be the starter. This is definitely a passing team, they are ranked second in the country in passing yards per game and their leading rusher only has 480 yards.
In the Poinsettia Bowl you have one of the most explosive players in quarterback Jordan Lynch. Lynch, the Huskies quarterback has thrown for only 2,676 yards but has run for an eye-dropping 1,881 yards which is 223 more than Mark Ingram had when he won the Heisman trophy as a running back in 2009.
The Huskies lost to Florida State in the Orange Bowl last season, but just getting to the Orange Bowl was an incredible feat. For teams that don’t play anybody good, they have to have a perfect season to get any respect. Take this year for example, the Huskies were undefeated until they lost to Bowling Green this week, and instead of getting to play in a good bowl game, they get put in this one.
I expect Northern Illinois to defeat Utah State easily. In the Holiday Bowl I think that it will be a shootout with Texas Tech ultimately winning 45-35 thanks to their lethal passing attack.