Friday Bowl Games Preview, Open Thread: Gator, Sun, Cotton, and Orange Bowls

/yawns

//crumpled miller lite cans fall off bedspread

alright fine, some previews

as a treat

TaxSlayer Gator Bowl

#17 Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

10am | ESPN | Wake -16 | O/U 62

TIAA Bank Field (Jacksonville, FL)

MNW: The Gator Bowl is the only location where I have ever cried at a Northwestern sporting event and likely will be the only place I ever do.

Also it’s the only place where I’ve ever passed out in a hotel bathroom, but that’s a different—and much more quintessentially Jacksonville—story.

Kind of...: Wake Forest’s two bowl games vs. B1G opposition have come the last two years. In 2019, they lost the Pinstripe Bowl to Michigan State, and last year they lost the Duke’s Mayo Bowl to Wisconsin. But the Duke’s Mayo Bowl exists, so we’re all winners now:

MNW: Man, remember when the Duke’s Mayo Bowl was fun and quirky and not a corporate half-mayo dump on a stage akin to a Taliban hostage video that wound up concussing the winning coach?

Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl

Washington State Cougars vs. Central Michigan Chippewas

11am | CBS | Wazzu -7 | O/U 57.5

Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX)

Kind of...: Ah, the Sun Bowl. Debuting the same year as the Orange and Sugar Bowls, it is now a bit of an oddity. It’s “that one bowl game CBS still shows.” Still, this is college football and traditions are cool, so have yourself a day Sun Bowl. I’m pretty sure the Chippewas and Cougars are both grateful to have the opportunity.

CMU is 0-2 vs. the B1G in bowl games and both the 51-48 loss to Purdue in the 2007 Motor City Bowl and the 21-14 loss in the 2015 Quick Lane Bowl have already been noted earlier in our sure-to-be-award-winning series.

Washington State is 1-3 all-time vs. B1G schools in bowl games. They failed to prevent Michigan from winning a share of the 1997 national title, dropping a 21-16 Rose Bowl to Charles Woodson and Co.

[I have a Ryan Leaf argument that I won’t get into unless somebody asks in the comments.]

In 2001, they beat Purdue in a pretty entertaining Sun Bowl, 33-27. More recently was the 17-12 loss to Minnesota in the 2016 Holiday Bowl. This was Tracy Claeys’ swan song with the Gophers and their defensive performance so impressed Mike Leach that, a year later, he brought Claeys on as his DC. In the intervening year, 2017, Wazzu returned to the Holiday Bowl, where Michigan State ran them off the field, 42-17, in what probably should have been Mark Dantonio’s swan song.

College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Tortured Naming Rights Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic

#4 Cincinnati Bearcats vs. #1 Alabama Crimson Tide

2:30pm | ESPN | Alabama -13.5 | O/U 57.5

JerryWorld (Arlington, TX)

Kind of...: Fuck off.

That said, I think the tandem of Horry and Sprewell will be too much for Kenyon Martin to handle. And Derrick McKey is a really underrated defender. If only Oscar Robertson were still in his prime.

Orange Bowl

#3 Georgia Bulldogs vs. #2 Michigan Wolverines

6:30pm | ESPN | Georgia -7.5 | O/U 45.5

Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, FL)

Kind of...: I just. Really. I’ve got nothing. Michigan is 8-8 all-time vs. SEC schools in bowl games. Georgia is 9-2 vs. B1G schools (ugh). They two schools have only met twice (it’s 1-1) and not since 1965.

I hope it’s a good game.

MNW: Not much else to say—

Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images

—I just wanted to post that picture.

Here’s your thread for the day. We have, like, 5000 previews and recaps and other things, too—just look on the front page or under our 2021 B1G Bowlapalooza series.