Written by Adam Jones
Thursday, 15 December 2005

I drive across the Enfield bridge over Lamar street every day on the way to work. As you approach the bridge, the pink dome of the State Capitol appears, seemingly out of nowhere, with postcard-perfect morning light behind it. I'm not so jaded; it still gives me a warm feeling in my heart. On the other hand, it's only my second-favorite landmark. That's because, to the right of the bridge, sits House Park Field. House Park has hosted high school football games since 1939. The old gal looks every bit of her 66 years and, allegedly, seats 6000 - they had better be skinny. My two youngest took in their very first football game at House Park this season. That night was filled with wonder. McCallum beat Lanier and B's babysitter turned in a helluva performance as the McCallum drum major - they went to state this year, you know. The stadium buzzed with the energy of hundreds of teenagers on a Friday night. Nothing else in life really approximates that feeling. But those feelings fade. On this morning, a man in khaki coveralls and a black watch cap slowly moves through the bleachers at House Park with a leaf blower. He removes, re-circulates and re-organizes all manner of debris from all manner of events. McCallum v. Lanier is just another box score, another piece of historical debris. There won't be another football game played at House Park this year, nor in most of the rest of the House Park Fields around the country.

Welcome, friends, to Bowl Preview 2005.

Ah Bowl Season, the annual asinine ritual where college football takes a full month off and then stages two dozen or so exhibition games, a few games of real national importance and one title game, all without the messiness of an actual playoff. You can watch the NFL for that, right?

This is also the annual asinine ritual where your faithful author actually picks every game against the spread. You will be amazed to learn that, in six previous bowl seasons, my record against the line is a remarkable 49%. I am obviously a noted gambling expert, but am hamstrung by the one piece of analysis I don't have. That piece of analysis regards how many category A players versus category B players a team has. Here's what I mean:

Category A player: Honored to pull on the school uniform and play his heart out one last time, after last-minute film study, the category A player goes to bed at 9:00 and rises for carefully constructed pre-game preparations.

Category B player: Has never been to Memphis (or Shreveport, or Boise...) before and thinks perhaps the best way to see the city is to duck out after the coaches have come around at 11:00, find a local establishment offering up a little holiday cheer and seeing if he can muster up a nice fistfight with the locals or, even better, the group of category B players from his opponent's team sitting at the table over by the pool table. The trip isn't really complete until at least one resisting arrest citation, an assistant coach calling a local bail bondsman and a 42-3 rout at the hands of a two-touchdown underdog opponent that the school's athletic director would never have the guts to schedule during the regular season. 

One other thing, 56 out of 117 (or is it 119?) Division I football teams play in the bowl season this year. If you think I am about to pick the winner of the GMAC Bowl between UTEP and Toledo, then you are sadly mistaken. Leave that to the holiday filler columns foisted on you by your local newspapermen. I ain't buying. That said I do have a soft spot in my heart for Arkansas State. A-State has been described in more than one piece as "the worst bowl team in NCAA history" (obviously none of these writers saw the 1990 Texas Longhorns play Miami in the Cotton Bowl). The 6-5 Indians, by virtue of victories over North Texas and Louisiana Lafayette, are the Sun Belt co-champions. Somehow, they are 17-point underdogs to Southern Mississippi in the New Orleans Bowl, which is actually being played in Lafayette. Go get 'em Indians.

We'll get to the main event in a minute, but first a word on the awards. I would be the first guy in line to shake Reggie Bush's hand and call him the "outstanding player" in college football, which is what the Heisman actually honors. He's remarkable. But the margin of victory is preposterous when the quarterback of an undefeated team leads the nation in pass efficiency and rushes for 850 yards on top of it. That's almost a once in a lifetime season and it hardly takes a Longhorn partisan to point that out. The Maxwell and Walter Camp committees agreed.

Speaking of Longhorn partisans, I was very surprised that Michael Huff won the Thorpe Award. I think he's the best defensive back in college football, but I chalked that up to personal bias. Apparently not.

The most maddening award was the Lombardi, the "nation's best lineman."  It went to A.J. Hawk, the Ohio State linebacker whom, I guess, sometimes plays on the line. This is ridiculous. It was ridiculous last year when Derrick Johnson was nominated (he didn't win - it went to David Pollack, who actually is a lineman). More ridiculous? The Butkus Award for best linebacker and the Bednarik for best defensive player, both of which Hawk actually should have won, went instead to Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny, a great player who is not A.J. Hawk. At least Hawk got something.

I'm not sure I buy that Mike Hass of Oregon State is a better receiver than Jeff Samardzija or Dwayne Jarrett, but he won the Biletnikoff and it is nice that someone noticed he had a great year. Greg Elsinger, Minnesota's center was an insightful choice for the Lombardi. Yes, a great center is somewhat important to a physical running game, even if every All-American team tends to put four left tackles on the first-team offensive line these days.

And now for something really important, the 3rd Annual JonesTop Ten Underappreciated Player of the Year Award. This is your chance to vote for the player who, in 2005, deserved a lot more credit than he actually received: maybe because he played on a lousy team, maybe because he played with superstars and got lost in the shuffle or maybe because too many people watch college football without really paying attention. The 2003 winner was Wes Welker of Texas Tech, Virginia Tech's Darryl Tapp won in 2004. The nominees for 2005:

Jerome Harrison, Washington State running back: Let's see, rushing for 1900 yards for a major conference team gets you 20 total points in the Heisman voting. Not 20 first place votes, 20 total points.

Broderick Bunkley, Florida State defensive tackle: How can a player this good play for Florida State and get zero recognition? Not quite zero - Sports Illustrated smartly made him a first-team AA, everyone else ignored Bunkley. The problem with playing on the line is that if you make the pre-season All-American teams, you are pretty much assured making the post-season All-American teams if you put up even decent stats. Bunkley was FSU's best defensive player on a team full of very good ones.

Greg Elsinger, Minnesota center is disqualified. He won the Lombardi, which makes it a little tough to argue he's underappreciated. Instead...

Rudy Niswanger, LSU center: Not only has he started for a top tier SEC team that won a national title - and played well enough to be on several all-conference teams, Niswanger also is a summa cum laude graduate and is headed to medical school. He is the winner of the Draddy Award, also known as the academic Heisman.

Patrick Willis, Mississippi linebacker: It's tough to get any attention in the SEC if you play for a lousy team. Tougher still when one of the season's true breakout stars, DeMeco Ryans, plays your position for a much better team. Nevertheless, Willis may be the best linebacker in the conference. He is a tackling machine that we will watch on a lot of Sundays over the next few years.

Make sure and get your votes in by kick-off of the Rose Bowl. Write-ins are allowed, as is commentary on why the author is an idiot for leaving out your favorite underappreciated player: adam@jonestopten.com

Are you ready for some bad gambling advice? Let's get to it.

First prediction: Arkansas State, Southern Mississippi, UTEP, Toledo, Navy, Colorado State, Houston, Kansas, Nevada, Central Florida, Akron, Memphis, Clemson, Colorado, Cal, BYU, Rutgers and Arizona State will all play in games I could care less about. They will play in things like the Poinsettia Bowl (that's just vile) and the Motor City Bowl (great, Detroit, I thought bowl season was supposed to be a reward?) and I just don't have the energy. And without those games that STILL leaves 19 games for me to pick.

MPC Computers Bowl
Boston College 34 (-1)
Boise State 27

Why is BC only a one point favorite? Because not only are they playing on Boise's blue turf, the betting public also remembers the last time a talented but inconsistent ACC team went west during bowl season to play a less-talented mid-major opponent. In that one, Fresno State thwacked UVa. This time around, I think BC is made of tougher stuff, especially if Matt Ryan starts at quarterback. This will be a good one.

Alamo Bowl
Nebraska 24
Michigan 42 (-11.5)

All you need is a time machine to make this the best Alamo Bowl ever. As it is, it is a great "name" match-up of a Nebraska team that hardly lives up to Big Red's best and a Michigan squad that sleepwalked through a 3-3 start before Chad Henne overcame his sophomore slump. Michigan is a lot better than Nebraska and will eventually run away with this one.

Emerald Bowl
Utah 24
Georgia Tech 27 (-8.5)

In a world of terrible new bowl names, I kind of like "Emerald Bowl." Cool name, the teams get to go to San Francisco, almost makes me over look the ugly fact that they play this one in a baseball stadium, excuse me, park. Georgia Tech was very close to being great this year. The Jackets beat both Auburn and Miami and lost a very close one to Georgia. On the other hand, they dropped one to UVa, got blasted by Va Tech and let one slip through Calvin Johnson's hands against NC State. Utah is not in GT's league but the Utes will catch Tech napping early before losing a close one in the fourth. 

Holiday Bowl
Oklahoma 28
Oregon 24 (-3)

I'm conflicted about this one. Usually you don't take a team mad about their bowl destination and Oregon believes, with some justification, that they should be BCS bound. Cal was in this position last year in this game and Texas Tech blew them out. I don't think that will happen to Oregon, a very mentally tough unit. On the other hand, this OU team has improved greatly over the season and Adrian Peterson is healthy. That's enough for me to take the Sooners.

Music City Bowl
Virginia 13
Minnesota 31 (-3.5)

The author has no faith in Virginia, especially not knowing which Cavalier squad will show. Minnesota will start running down hill and shove the Wahoos right out of the stadium.

Sun Bowl
Northwestern 63
UCLA 60 (-3)

This is part sentimental foolishness and part a real belief that Northwestern has better balance than UCLA. Oh, and why in God's name is a group of players who live year-round in Westwood going to get amped up to travel to El Paso? I've been to El Paso. Take the Wildcats; they will at least be glad that it is warm.

Independence Bowl
Missouri 17
South Carolina 28 (-4)

Who let Missouri in a bowl game? Brad Smith's remarkable and underappreciated career will end in Shreveport, Louisiana in front of dozens of spectators and at the hands of a resurgent South Carolina team built on the return of a great coach, a pretty fair defense and a fantastic freshman receiver, Sydney Rice.

Peach Bowl
LSU 16 (off)
Miami 20 (off)

I can't find a line on what might be the best Peach Bowl match-up ever. That's because LSU's starting quarterback is unknown, although I can't imagine JaMarcus Russell playing with a separated shoulder. Because of that, I am taking the 'Canes in a rare bowl game where I expect both teams to bring their best to the table. A final top ten ranking likely hangs in the balance.

Meineke Car Care Bowl at Bank of America Stadium
Are you kidding me? I thought the Poulan Weedeater Independence Bowl retired the bad bowl name trophy? Guess not. I'm not picking this one.

Liberty Bowl
Tulsa 26
Fresno State 19 (-7)

Tulsa's probably better than you think; the Hurricanes have a legitimate All-American tight end named Garrett Mills (83 catches for 1183 yards, not bad) and have won eight out of ten since opening the season with losses to Minnesota and Oklahoma. Fresno State may be the team that took USC to the limit or they may be the team that, seemingly spent by the experience, dropped their next two games and blew a chance at a conference title. Tulsa will be the home team and I will take them straight up.

Houston Bowl
Iowa State 17
TCU 38 (-4)

For two seasons in a row, Iowa State missed out on the Big 12 North title by blowing makeable field goals. ISU gets the most out of what they have, but they are also wildly inconsistent. TCU will dominate the lines of scrimmage and win going away. I wish the Horned Frogs had a better opponent, actually.

Cotton Bowl
Alabama 17
Texas Tech 21 (-3)

Now we're talking. Alabama's top notch defense will face an attack more sophisticated than any in the SEC. Tech had problems with good defenses at times this season but I think the Raiders will score just enough points to go home happy. This will be one of the best games of the bowl season.

Outback Bowl
Iowa 20
Florida 28 (-3)

Two teams led by two great young coaches, both of whom had up and down years. I don't know what to make of this. Florida was great in a 34-7 win versus Florida State to close out the season. Iowa hasn't played since November 19th - that's a 42 day vacation from live action. I'll take Florida for no good reason.

Gator Bowl
Louisville 27
Virginia Tech 45 (-7.5)

The Hokies will be angry and Louisville will be without their regular starting quarterback. The Cardinals didn't always answer the bell anyway this season and suffered the most shocking loss of the year, 45-14 to South Florida. I just don't think Louisville is a good bet here.

Capital One Bowl
Wisconsin 14
Auburn 31 (-11)

Wisconsin will play hard in Barry Alvarez's last game. Unfortunately, the Badgers are playing, in my opinion, the best team in the country not invited to the BCS. Wisconsin's defense will not fare well against a balanced Auburn attack.

Fiesta Bowl
Notre Dame 16
Ohio State 21 (-4)

Give Charlie Weis a month to prepare for Ohio State and...he still has no answer for A.J. Hawk. Some will think this line is depressed because of the public's fascination with Notre Dame. Maybe, but I don't think Ohio State is that much better than the Irish and I have no idea which Buckeye offense will show up. I think this one will have a lower score than people might think and the Buckeyes will make one more play than the Irish.

Sugar Bowl
West Virginia 17
Georgia 20 (-7.5)

If you haven't seen WVU's Pat White play quarterback, you need to tune in to the Sugar Bowl. He is a much better facsimile of Michael Vick than even Marcus Vick is. I am tempted to go with the 'Neers in an upset, but Georgia is too good on defense and D.J. Shockley will find a way to go out a winner.

Orange Bowl
Florida State 16
Penn State (-7.5)  27

The over/under on inane jokes about the combined age of Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden during the broadcast is set at 34. If Brad Nessler falls ill and Dave Lapham has to fill in as color man you can confidently bet the over.

Rose Bowl
Texas 38
USC  35 (-7.5)

Well here we are. I look at USC and see the Jimmy Johnson Dallas Cowboys. Leinart is Aikman and he throws to Dwayne Jarrett (Michael Irvin) and Steve Smith (Alvin Harper, the guy who beats you for 50 yards while you are covering the superstar on the other side). He hands off to Lendale White (Emmitt Smith) running behind Brandon Hancock (Moose Johnston) and uses Dominique Byrd (Jay Novacek) as a reliable outlet. The 'SC line is the college equivalent of that nasty Stepnoski/Williams/Allen/Tuinei/Newton group.

OK, now take all that and add Gale Sayers to the Cowboy roster (Reggie Bush) and account for him while you account for all of the other guys. This is what Texas is up against.

What does Texas have? Start with five defensive backs who will play in the NFL one day, including a Thorpe Award-winning strong safety who is faster than Reggie Bush (check their documented sprint times, not what the media guide says they run). Texas is just as physical on the defensive line as their USC offensive counterparts, and that will be a first for the Trojans this year. The UT linebackers are inconsistent, especially on the outside and that should worry any team that is playing Reggie Bush.

On the other side, Texas has an offensive line that is, on paper, better than the USC defensive front seven. Behind it they have Vince Young. And nothing can really help you game plan for Vince Young. His skill position players are very fast and talented, but not nearly as celebrated as some because of how Texas shares the wealth. The one guy Texas fans want to see healthy and engaged is freshman tailback Jamaal Charles.

The USC defense is better than they are getting credit for; they're just not as good as last year's version, especially at cornerback. Texas will score. Will the Longhorns also turn the ball over a couple of times? Quien sabes?

My final thought is that the seven point spread makes me wonder if the general public has actually seen Texas play. On the other hand, USC 55, OU 19 may still be fresh on their minds.

Am I betting with my heart or my head? I honestly don't know.

Let's find out.

Merry Christmas to all and I will see you on the other side.