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Miami is playing in the Russell Athletic Bowl against the Louisville Cardinals. But who are they really? Lets find out.
In case you don't already know, Miami has been selected to play Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl on December 28th. We apparently were in the running for the Chick-fil-A Bowl, but ACC commissioner John Swofford lobbied hard for Duke to go in our place. Swofford got what he wanted. U mad? Don't be. Instead, be mad at our team for not beating Duke. If we won the Coastal, and got jobbed like that for a team we blew out, you'd be pist off if Swofford didn't lobby for you. In fact he did just that for us with the Gator Bowl in 2009, but the Gator told him to kick rocks and took FSU instead.
I have to admit it feels good to be back in post season play, even though it's not the caliber of bowl game that we would prefer. The players seem excited:
I'm interested to see how well Golden can prepare for a bowl opponent. It was one of Randy's many negatives. Hopefully with Al he'll show us he's great at getting his team focused on a single opponent with 3 weeks to prepare. It's been three years since Miami played in a bowl game, and seven years since they were victorious in one. So beating this team in particular to get to 10 wins will go a long way in alleviating the butt-hurtedness throughout the fanbase over not winning the Coastal. At least it will for me.
That's how much Teddy Bridgewater and Clint Hurtt rustle my jimmies. I can't quite put into words how pist off I'll be if Bridgewater puts a bow on his college career by lighting up our defense in a bowl victory. We haven't played them in seven years, and outside of Teddy Bridgewater, I really couldn't care less about their team. There are a ton of story lines and subplots to this game, and I'll go further into them the week of the bowl game. Until then, there's this.
Where Do They Football?:
Louisville plays in the American Athletic Conference. The AAC, as currently constructed, is basically the crappy leftovers of the Big East mixed with the tallest midgets from Conference USA. Rutgers is bolting to the Big 10, and Louisville will be replacing Maryland in the Atlantic side of the ACC. It's basically the Sun-Belt on a 3 day blue magic bender. I'd be pretty shocked if they keep up their winning ways once they move over.
Who Did They Football?:
Their schedule was even weaker than ours. The lone slip up was against UCF and I gotta say, 4 or 5 current ACC schools could probably run the table with that schedule. In fact, it should be a fireable offense to not run the table with that schedule. It will be interesting to see the effort and chippy-ness of this game with so many Florida kids on both teams.
How Do They Football?:
You know who he is, where he's from, and the circumstances of him getting there. You also already know that he's their whole team. Sure, they've got some weapons at every skill position, but he's the reason they've been so good for the past 2 years (including a Sugar Bowl win last year). They've also got lots of south Florida kids on their roster. About 10 to 12 guys who you'll instantly remember if you follow recruiting at all. They're all going to be amped up for this game.
Statistically, they're one of the best teams we will have faced all year:
The stats speak for themselves. They put up points and are really good at preventing their opponents from doing the same. They've got a Heisman caliber QB that will go in the 1st round of the next draft if he feels like leaving early. The ground game is basically running back by committee. Whoever gets the bulk of the carries for them will no doubt run all over us. The defense is solid, but it's hard to tell how good it really is since they've played no one. UCF and Cincinnati are the only schools that scored more than 17 points against them.
Given our defense's struggles in the 2nd half of the season, we're probably going to have to win a shoot-out. Bring it.
In case you don't already know, Miami has been selected to play Louisville in the Russell Athletic Bowl on December 28th. We apparently were in the running for the Chick-fil-A Bowl, but ACC commissioner John Swofford lobbied hard for Duke to go in our place. Swofford got what he wanted. U mad? Don't be. Instead, be mad at our team for not beating Duke. If we won the Coastal, and got jobbed like that for a team we blew out, you'd be pist off if Swofford didn't lobby for you. In fact he did just that for us with the Gator Bowl in 2009, but the Gator told him to kick rocks and took FSU instead.
I have to admit it feels good to be back in post season play, even though it's not the caliber of bowl game that we would prefer. The players seem excited:
I'm interested to see how well Golden can prepare for a bowl opponent. It was one of Randy's many negatives. Hopefully with Al he'll show us he's great at getting his team focused on a single opponent with 3 weeks to prepare. It's been three years since Miami played in a bowl game, and seven years since they were victorious in one. So beating this team in particular to get to 10 wins will go a long way in alleviating the butt-hurtedness throughout the fanbase over not winning the Coastal. At least it will for me.
That's how much Teddy Bridgewater and Clint Hurtt rustle my jimmies. I can't quite put into words how pist off I'll be if Bridgewater puts a bow on his college career by lighting up our defense in a bowl victory. We haven't played them in seven years, and outside of Teddy Bridgewater, I really couldn't care less about their team. There are a ton of story lines and subplots to this game, and I'll go further into them the week of the bowl game. Until then, there's this.
Where Do They Football?:
Louisville plays in the American Athletic Conference. The AAC, as currently constructed, is basically the crappy leftovers of the Big East mixed with the tallest midgets from Conference USA. Rutgers is bolting to the Big 10, and Louisville will be replacing Maryland in the Atlantic side of the ACC. It's basically the Sun-Belt on a 3 day blue magic bender. I'd be pretty shocked if they keep up their winning ways once they move over.
Who Did They Football?:
Their schedule was even weaker than ours. The lone slip up was against UCF and I gotta say, 4 or 5 current ACC schools could probably run the table with that schedule. In fact, it should be a fireable offense to not run the table with that schedule. It will be interesting to see the effort and chippy-ness of this game with so many Florida kids on both teams.
How Do They Football?:
You know who he is, where he's from, and the circumstances of him getting there. You also already know that he's their whole team. Sure, they've got some weapons at every skill position, but he's the reason they've been so good for the past 2 years (including a Sugar Bowl win last year). They've also got lots of south Florida kids on their roster. About 10 to 12 guys who you'll instantly remember if you follow recruiting at all. They're all going to be amped up for this game.
Statistically, they're one of the best teams we will have faced all year:
The stats speak for themselves. They put up points and are really good at preventing their opponents from doing the same. They've got a Heisman caliber QB that will go in the 1st round of the next draft if he feels like leaving early. The ground game is basically running back by committee. Whoever gets the bulk of the carries for them will no doubt run all over us. The defense is solid, but it's hard to tell how good it really is since they've played no one. UCF and Cincinnati are the only schools that scored more than 17 points against them.
Given our defense's struggles in the 2nd half of the season, we're probably going to have to win a shoot-out. Bring it.
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