Emerald Bowl/Holiday Bowl

[Eric]

UCLA is just coming off of a victory against USC. Does it get any better than that? Defeating your arch rival to knock them out of the championship game? UCLA has not looked impressive, but they have been solid over the last few weeks. Just solid. Patrick Cowan has played well, they’ve ran the ball well, but the biggest improvement for UCLA has been on defense. The 2005 Bruins were hideous at stopping any form of offense and I feel that De La Salle High school could’ve scored 20 points against that D. But in steps Dwayne Walker the new defensive coordinator and in comes a new attitude. The Bruins have made strides everywhere you can imagine on defense and that doesn’t bode well for a struggling FSU offense.

BUT

FSU isn’t going to roll over, guys. They haven’t all season (except the Wake Forest game). This is finally a bowl game that will try to reshape public opinion about the ACC. Everybody is saying that it is downtrodden (including me) but Florida State brings a unique challenge to the Emerald Bowl. I can’t figure out how UCLA is a shoe-in to win this game because, um, has anybody really seen the Trojans play this year? Outside of the Arkansas game, have they been that impressive anyway? They skated past Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, and didn’t play great against Stanford not to mention Cal is slipping and Notre Dame is average and they got beat by Oregon State !. I had USC behind LSU in my poll before they lost to UCLA to begin with. The UCLA win is not as big of a deal as it is made out to be. I wouldn’t be surprised to see FSU finally make something of this season and leave this semi-disastrous (for them) season in the rear view mirror and have Bobby Bowden walk out of 2006 a winner. 2007 looks super bright for Bobby and his boys.

UCLA will win very close with a bad break and a late score making it worse than it appears, 23-10.
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I love the Holiday Bowl game. Nobody on the planet is talking about this game and yet it could be one of the best non-BCS games out there. Still, Cal is probably too fast for A&M. Army almost beat A&M for heaven’s sake and so did Kansas! A&M didn’t really play anybody and didn’t really beat anybody. When they did play somebody, they lost. It was close, yes, but they lost. Cal is coming into this game not playing very well either skating past Stanford. Playing Stanford is a remedy that should make them focus on the game and play up to their potential.

BUT

I love the Aggies in this game. Stephen McGee is a battler out there on the field and they have a great linebacker who’s name is not coming to me. The DE, Harrington, is very good too. They made some big plays in that Texas game. A&M is one of the more quiet 9-3 teams in the country. Gary Darnell, surprisingly enough, has made a great impact on this defense. Look for the Aggies to slow down, yes, A&M will slow down, Cal’s offense and make a game out of this. Nobody is really looking at Texas A&M as much of a threat, so I’d watch out for a potential “upset” here (both teams are really evenly matched).

Aggies end up winning, 33-27.