Sun Bowl/Music City Bowl

[Eric]

Oregon State finished 3rd in one of the best conferences in the country. How are they going to lose to Missouri? The Tigers opened strong being in the select few of undefeated teams until the Aggies came around. Since then, it has been a disaster. They got their butts kicked by Nebraska along with a terrible rivalry game loss to Iowa State and they did also lose to Oklahoma pretty convincingly. I quit buying into this team a little while ago. Oregon State really has impressed me since that terrible game vs. Boise State. They’ve picked up the pieces and started from square one. All of a sudden, the team is just better. They’re on a roll with a win vs. USC at Reser Stadium and then a victory over their arch rival in Oregon and an impressive showing vs. Hawaii. Most teams treat that like a vacation but the Beavers didn’t and that says something about this team and how they want to get down to business. Matt Moore is efficient and Yvenson Brenard, outside of Marshawn Lynch and Jonathan Stewart, is probably the best running back in the conference.

BUT

Missouri is still a pretty solid team. Every team has that “What!!!??!!” loss and that game vs. Iowa State was theirs. This is a still a respectable team with a winner at QB, Chase Daniel. I remember nobody giving them much of a chance last season against South Carolina either. Statistically, these teams are very even.

I’m pretty confident that Oregon State will win, they appear to be the better team. 37-21.
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Kentucky has no shot to win this game. Not many people will disagree with that statement. C.J. Spiller and James Davis have combined to be one of the best running back duos, if not the best outside of Arkansas, in the nation. Kentucky’s defense has been porous all season long and they have been as leaky as a sieve. Not many people are aware of this, but they beat UL Monroe 42-40. Let me just say that anybody who beats UL Monroe by 2 points and surrenders 40 points to them has some serious issues.

BUT

Rich Brooks has done a tremendous job and Kentucky has competed with some of the SEC’s best including a close loss vs. Tennessee and they beat Georgia. They competed with Florida for a while too. I think that UL Monroe game just caught them totally off guard as they were likely going to a bowl game anyway with the victory over Vanderbilt the week before. Andre Woodson is one of the SEC’s best quarterbacks and I’d probably rank him over guys like Brett Schaeffer and Erik Ainge. Rafael Little is a big playmaker in the Wildcat’s backfield too.

Both offense have been lights out this year, but picking Clemson to avoid the upset is the smartest thing to do, 35-27.