Hello friends, and welcome to college football bowl season. We now have the matchups all set, the playoffs ready to go, and the travel plans being made. Before we get to a small preview of Notre Dame’s game against Iowa State let’s take a look at some of the best and worst bowl matchups to conclude the 2019 season.
The Bad
Boca Raton Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 21st 3:30 PM ET
SMU vs. FAU
Lane Kiffin has scampered off to Oxford, Mississippi and back into the lives of everyone in the SEC leaving this game a lot less appealing than it would otherwise. This bowl game is also played literally inside FAU’s home stadium which is lame.
Hawaii Bowl
Tuesday, Dec. 24th 2:30 PM ET
Hawaii vs. BYU
This is the 13th bowl game in Hawaii football program history and the 11th time they are playing in a bowl game on their home island. So congrats on another home game, Warriors! Enjoy the beach!
Independence Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 26th 4:00 PM ET
Louisiana Tech vs. Miami
Are you sensing a theme? This game takes place just one hour west of campus for La Tech which is a bummer. Throw in one of the nation’s most disappointing teams in the Hurricanes and you have a special recipe for bowl game crap.
Quick Lane Bowl
Thursday, Dec. 26th 8:00 PM ET
Pitt vs. Eastern Michigan
Eastern Michigan gets the luxury of traveling 40 minutes east into the city of Detroit to play Pittsburgh. I’m having trouble coming up with a negatives for this game. It sounds amazing.
Cotton Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28th 12:00 PM ET
#17 Memphis vs. #10 Penn State
This game is going head-t0-head with Notre Dame/Iowa State and with Memphis losing head coach Mike Norvell to Florida State and Penn State missing the Rose Bowl this game feels like a major downer. Otherwise, it has potential to be a good matchup it’s just missing a lot of luster.
Orange Bowl
Monday, Dec. 30th 8:00 PM ET
#9 Florida vs. #24 Virginia
The ACC needed a team to be ranked to make their choice for the Orange Bowl easier, I guess. In doing so, the playoff committee only dropped Virginia one spot after a 45-point loss to Clemson in the ACC Championship. This is a fantastic date and time slot that is going to be utterly wasted.
Sugar Bowl
Wednesday, Jan. 1st 8:45 PM ET
#5 Georgia vs. #7 Baylor
If you looked at this matchup in the pre-season with the teams a combined 22-4 I’m sure many would’ve been excited. However, both just lost in their league title games and Georgia in particular looks like a real big disappointment relative to their recent standards.
The Good
Las Vegas Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 21st 7:30 PM ET
#19 Boise State vs. Washington
Huskies head coach Chris Petersen is going out against his former team before he transitions into a roll with the University of Washington. That’s pretty cool.
Fiesta Bowl
Saturday, Dec. 28th 8:00 PM ET
#3 Clemson vs. #2 Ohio State
This could be the game of the season, can’t wait.
Music City Bowl
Monday, Dec. 30th 4:00 PM ET
Miss State vs. Louisville
There were rumors that Joe Moorhead was close to losing his job which seems a bit crazy. On the other side we have the improved Cardinals who could use an 8th win to bring some momentum into next year when they will play Notre Dame again, this time on Senior Day.
Sun Bowl
Tuesday, Dec. 31st 2:00 PM ET
Florida State vs. Arizona State
I don’t know if it’s actually been verified at the time of this writing but I did read that Mike Norvell wants to coach in the Seminoles’ bowl game. If that’s true this is an automatic watch against Coach Herm and a plucky Arizona State squad.
Outback Bowl
Wednesday, Jan. 1st 1:00 PM ET
#18 Minnesota vs. #12 Auburn
The Gophers have to be disappointed about how their season ended but they get one of the best bowl matchups of the season and a chance for P.J. Fleck to add a top notch win to his belt.
Citrus Bowl
Wednesday, Jan. 1st 1:00 PM ET
#14 Michigan vs. #13 Alabama
Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play. Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play. Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play. Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play. Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play. Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play. Please make all of Alabama’s receivers play.
Rose Bowl
Wednesday, Jan. 1st 5:00 PM ET
#6 Oregon vs. #8 Wisconsin
We have a couple contrasting styles offensively but a pair of defenses that can really get after it. On a national scale this probably doesn’t move the needle for a lot of folks but this could be a really good game, and frankly, it’s much better than if Utah was in this spot.
Iowa State Bullet Points
- Head Coach Matt Campbell is finishing up his 8th season and 4th with the Cyclones.
- Campbell was 36-15 at Toledo with 1st place ties in his division over his final two years but no conference title game berths in either season.
- Since a debut 3-9 season, Campbell is currently 23-15 at Iowa State, has entered the discussion as one of the country’s top young coaches (he recently turned 40), and jumped into the spotlight with a 38-31 upset of eventual No. 3 Oklahoma in Norman back in 2017, followed up by a 14-7 upset over eventual No. 9 TCU a few weeks later.
- Iowa State has lost this season to Iowa, Baylor, and Oklahoma by a combined 4 points. For a 7-5 team they are a healthy +105 in point differential.
- From the possible Big 12 opponents to match up with Notre Dame, the Cyclones are by far the highest ranked (23rd) according to SP+ just 4 spots below the Fighting Irish.
- Iowa State has generally played very close games, 9 of their contests in 2019 have been decided by 10 points or fewer.
- For being noted as an upset-minded team, the Cyclones are 2-9 in their last 11 against ranked opponents.
- Quarterback Brock Purdy is probably one of the best signal-callers in the country you’ve never watched play. He’s 20th nationally in passer rating and 2nd in the Big 12 behind Jalen Hurts. He was 6th nationally in passer rating last year as a true freshman. Through 22 career games, Purdy has accounted for 56 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
- Purdy spreads the ball around well to his 4 main pass catchers, each of whom have at least 30 catches and 600 receiving yards.
- Iowa State relies on true freshman running back Breece Hall (842 yards, 4.98 per carry) most of the time with a little of Purdy sprinkled in, as well.
- The Cyclones defense has only caused 13 turnovers, tied for 112th nationally.
- SP+ likes Iowa State’s defense (22nd, 3 spots higher than the Irish defense) than their offense (41st) which is abnormal for a Big 12 team.
- Campbell is a former defensive end from Mount Union (sneaky tall 6’3″ get ready for the pictures next to Brian Kelly) but has carved out a coaching career on the offensive side of the ball. Nevertheless, Campbell’s transformation at Iowa State has largely been tied to defensive efficiency where he engineered a 10.4 point drop in opponent scoring after his first season and has kept the Cyclones’ defense at a very respectable 22.9 PPG and 25.3 PPG over the last 2 years.
“Iowa State has lost this season to Iowa, Baylor, and Oklahoma by a combined 4 points. For a 7-5 team they are a healthy +105 in point differential.”
Major key to me. Pete Sampson pointed out Iowa State has second-best scoring and yards/play offense the Irish will have faced all season. Should be a major test for the defense and an unusual one. Other than USC (and UVA in first half), almost all of the teams Notre Dame has played this year have been good running attacks and not really good QB play to speak of. Seeing what could be more spread and more vertical based passing attack is going to be a unique challenge.
It’s a shame that most will just see Iowa State as a 7-5 team and seemingly dismiss this, but they’re a pretty good team, and this should be a pretty good game. Wish they were like 9-3, which they easily could have been and ranked to give the matchup a little more value.
It appears the “most will dismiss” is actually referring to a lot of the obnoxious Nd fans. Reading the comments on Sampson’s article today and god that is an annoying group of fans. A small vocal group stating this is beneath Notre dame and they should decline the bowl bid. But I agree this is a sneaky good/unlucky Iowa state team. If we beat them oh well it’s only a 7-6 team and if we lose it will kinda suck.
But I guess as far as tests go this is a far better challenge than Texas or Kansas state, just feels like nationally not a ton of upside, but should be a good barometer for next year
They’re good, but it’s tough to get excited about playing a team that needed triple OT against Northern Iowa and only beat one team that finished over .500 (and only beat them by 2 points). I understand why everybody wants to point out that they were unlucky to not get a win vs. Iowa/Baylor/Oklahoma, but it’s also tough for me to look past the fact that they were a last second field goal away from 0 wins against teams with winning records.
ISU is a lesser version of SC. They have a slightly better defense and a worse offense
That’s certainly all true. I wasn’t trying to say they’re a great team, clearly they’re not right now. Just kind of along the lines that SP+ likes Iowa State and ranks them only a few spots behind ND and higher than Texas, Ok St., K-State. 7-5 is 7-5 and you can see whatever perspective you want about that, but to me they’re overall strength and caliber of team is better than just the first glance of “oh a 7-5 Big12 team” that a lot of people just see and dismiss.
Winning this game wouldn’t be confused with a major or hugely important win for Notre Dame, don’t get me wrong, but I think it would be a more quality win than the reception that seems to be out there about this matchup.
Mike Norvell has said he wants to coach Memphis’ bowl game, not Florida State’s.
Oh, I saw this headline:
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/seminoles/2019/12/08/odell-haggins-mike-norvell-both-may-lead-fsu-in-sun-bowl/
…and thought Norvell may coach FSU?
Are there any rumors floating around about Long or Lea being candidates for jobs?
Haven’t seen too much yet…I don’t think it was a “rumor” but one idea about Long potentially following Norvell to FSU is already put to rest (and probably never existed) with Norvell hiring the Auburn OC to be his new OC.
And I don’t know if there’s any reputable “rumor” out there, but it makes sense that Long has to be somewhere on Memphis’ radar somewhere to replace Norvell, but nothing really concrete has come out other than the obvious that he makes a good candidate for the spot.
Right now I’m just still glad Vanderbilt retained Mason because I think that job was the most likely to steal and subsequently ruin Clark Lea.
Hmmm, did you leave out LSU-OU on purpose? Not good enough to be good, not bad enough to be bad?
Yup, probably won’t be a great game but not a terrible one either.
I just wanted to point out an ad I saw for a tee shirt for the Camping World Bowl, on the Iowa State SBN website. It has three simple words on it:
“Catholics vs. Combines”
I saw that last night and I’m still smiling.
Pithy!
See, but wouldn’t NEBRASKA be more appropriately the Combines? Cyclones have nothing to do with farming. Catholics vs. Cyclones makes more sense
ISU is a huge Ag Sciences school. And in general, IA is somewhat known for farming. Large John Deere presence in the state, with ISU partnering with them on several experimental farms. (Though Deere actually assembles their harvesting combines on the IL side of the Mississippi, in sight of IA)
Iowa is #1 in corn for grain, the crop that most of us think of when we think of combine harvesters (Nebraska is #3, behind Illinois). Plus, a combine is way scarier than a cyclone and the cyclones name is already taken by a number of teams. Combines ftw (is ftw still a thing?)
Looks like Iowa State might be a Purdy good matchup for us.
“I” “S”ee what “U” did there.
If only you could have come up with that “Sooner”. Then, I could “Bear” it.