Today's bowl slate is only good if you believe any level of football, no matter how buffoonish, is better than no football. In which case, two puddle guppies are set to scrap somewhere in the ruins of old Alabama at high noon:
| Time (ET PM) | BOWL | Matchup | Favorite | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | BIRMINGHAM | EAST CAROLINA vs. FLORIDA | UF (-7) | ESPN |
Yesterday, I made about 30 calls in attempts to get into the call hopper for the Paul Finebaum Show. (It would've been epic.) So yeah, this wait until the 12th is going to be a disaster.
HOW URBAN MOTIVATED THE SQUAD. Urban Meyer admitted in the lead-up to the Sugar Bowl he didn't have to "rock the boat" to get the team fired up to play Alabama. But that doesn't mean he shunned help.
From Todd Porter of CantonRep.com:
“We had a reflection moment with our team and a speaker (Wednesday). He talked about how a strong belief can increase your level of play. Poor belief, can lower it.
“There’s no doubt we saw Wisconsin beating Auburn. That was a major, major moment for us getting ready to play this game.”
While most everyone else in the country was counting out Ohio State, Meyer was giving his team tangible reasons why they should have been counted in.
Even though I figured Alabama was ripe for a bullying, that Outback Bowl result was a nice shot in the sails as well.
And while one game (or one bowl cycle) doesn't erase seven-straight SEC titles, the gap is obviously not as big as some would have had us believe.
HOW URBAN PLANNED TO BEAT THE SEC. You young jaspers likely don't remember it, but much like there was a time when Michigan was something to be feared, there was also a time where the SEC was considered the totalitarian ruler of the sport. In fact, when Urban Meyer took the job, his wife asked him how he planned to unseat college football's iron kings.
From Doug Lesmerises of cleveland.com:
"The whole thing, even when we were in the SEC - 'The Big Ten, terrible, can you ever beat the SEC?' And when he wanted to take this job," Shelley Meyer said, following Urban Meyer back out from Ohio State's locker room to the Superdome turf early Friday morning, "I said, 'How are you going to beat the SEC?'"
[...]
The Buckeyes dipped into the south for playmakers on both sides of the ball, from St. Louis running back Ezekiel Elliott to Texas quarterback J.T. Barrett to Georgia safety Vonn Bell to Florida defensive end Joey Bosa. They spread the field on offense, stretching defenses from sideline to sideline like Meyer always did, and added an up-tempo attack that he hasn't used at Florida. But they coupled it with an offensive line and power run game. And then Meyer and the staff made sure the players knew, when it was time, they were good enough.
The scary thing for Ohio State's haters is how youthful Ohio State's roster is. The Buckeyes weren't supposed to be this good until 2016.
I'm telling you: That 2013 class could go into the eons when their time at Ohio State is over.
BAMA, BUCKS MOVE THE NEEDLE. Remember in the simpler times, when people were worried if Ohio State could leap frog both Baylor and TCU after J.T. Barrett broke his ankle against Michigan? I was never worried about that handkerchief waving, because Ohio State makes it rain.
From Rachel Margolis of ESPNMediaZone.com:
- The Rose and Sugar Bowls each averaged more than 28 million viewers.
- Sugar Bowl ratings were up 130% from 2014's game.
-
The Sugar Bowl averaged 28,271,000 viewers, based on a 15.2 rating.
Haters can say what they will, but TCU ain't bringing that kind of bread to the table. (Guess it shoulda started grinding earlier.)
THIS VINE IS HYPNOTIC. Ohio State's defensive line assistant still has some oil in those hips:
I'll tell you what: I'm not about to call a blowout of the Oregon Ducks (they're a tough flock to break, no doubt), but if Ohio State has this much swagger dripping all the way down to the assistants of the assistants... well, I'm not about to call Ohio State an underdog.
You can check out other videos from the winner's locker room here.
ERIC GLOVER-WILLIAMS GETS #BIZZY, BUT 12-DALE MIGHT'VE WORN IT BETTER. Who threw a better stiff arm? The original 2015 commit, Canton's Eric Glover-Williams, on this UnderArmour All-Star game punt return:
Or King Dolodale in this tweet:
3rd String pic.twitter.com/fxdFbFSJeR
— Cardale Jones (@CJ12_) January 2, 2015
I'll side with the good king, but Eric Glover-Williams looks like a young Jalin Marshall in that Instagram clip. (I will be praying to Warren G. Harding that Glover's off-season is free of malarkey, because it'd be a crushing blow to see him get torpedoed before getting to Columbus. He's going to be a good one otherwise.)
THOSE WMDs. College bands faded Jim Rome after his bad take... Remember when Jim Delany was an anti-playoff goon?... Momentum is huge... I'm not messing with Baylor's Shawn Oakman... Archaeologists in Turkey uncovered a large group of Byzantine-era shipwrecks.
