It’s the cheesy colony-wide bowling game 1988 can wear.
The Sun Bowl “Brut,” from glorious El Paso, Texas, will be fought not in the trenches, not through the airways, but through the nose. Oregon and Missouri will travel south to the supposedly warm but actually quite tundra-like border city, where cheerleaders will be kitted out in BreatheRight headbands, scented candles will replace end zone pylons and Keith Jackson will will pose on the artificial playing surface in a parachute. wearing a suit that makes him look less like a New Years baby and more like a giant nose. He will also be carrying an advance DVD copy of DreamWorks’ new feature, Perfume, which will be given out to the most interesting smelling bosses in the game of baseball.
State of Oregon and Missouri. Yes, it’s always a classic when these two schools come together. Wait. What’s that? The only other time these two schools got together was in 1956, when the Beavers beat the Tigers 19-16, and there was very little olfactory magic involved? Well, it’s never too late for a major intersectional rivalry between the Big 12 and Pac-10 to start leaking, right?
Good?
Granted, the Sun Bowl doesn’t exactly tantalize the tongue (or nose) with national intrigue. Joe Six-Pack probably couldn’t name a single player on any of these teams. But this is a bowling game that has been played every year since 1935, and it has the longest continuous relationship with a single television network, as CBS has carried the game since 1968. And the truth is, El Paso almost always sees a good game, and often a very high score. Over the past eight years, the average Sun Bowl score has been 31-25, with a pair of one-point wins to start. El Paso’s energetic air evidently brings out power on offense; UCLA racked up 50 at Northwestern last year (while the Wildcats scored 38), and Washington State, Minnesota and Purdue have all eclipsed the 30-point mark here in the last five Sun Bowls.
Oregon State isn’t shy when it comes to scoring. They’ve recorded 30-plus points in five of their last six games, including a 33-31 win over USC, a 30-28 win against Oregon and a 35-32 thriller in high-octane Hawaii. After starting the year 2-3, the Beavers have won seven of their last eight games and covered six of their last eight. Yvenson Bernard, a 5-foot-8 running back in the Jerome Harrison mold, has been one of the Pac-10’s big surprises over the past two years, rushing for more than 1,200 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2006 after racking up 1,321 yards in his sophomore season last year. Quarterback Matt Moore has thrown eight touchdowns and zero interceptions since Oregon State’s Oct. 28 upset of then-No. 3 USC, a six-game span.
On the other hand, Missouri started the year 6-0 and was a cause celebre on the national scene, paradoxically standing out a year after the almighty QB Brad Smith left the Tigers. Unfortunately, that great start came against Murray State, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Colorado and Texas Tech, none of which were particularly great (Ohio was okay this year, but good in terms of MAC). When the relative iron of Mizzou’s schedule came around, the team lost four of six, including a disheartening five-point loss to Iowa State. Coach Gary Pinkel was recently rewarded with a five-year contract extension, even though he’s been the target of some national speculation in recent years about how Smith soured once Pinkel joined. This year, however, Pinkel helped turn quarterback Chase Daniel into what Smith never was: a consistent shooter, with 26 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. Missouri’s high-octane offense averages the 12th-most yards per game in the nation, and Daniel boasted the 10th-most passing yards of any Division IA quarterback. In that sense, Oregon State could be a good match for Daniel and Missouri. The Beavers only ranked 80th nationally against the pass, allowing many long passing plays. Meanwhile, the Tigers’ secondary would appear to be a better test for the Oregon State passing attack: They ranked 19th in the nation in terms of passing yards allowed per game.
What strikes me in this contest, however, is the nature of the Beavers’ defense’s big-play interests. They intercepted 17 opposing passes this year, making the Oregon St. secondary a true boom-or-bust affair. They also tied nationally for the most turnovers created overall, with 31. The truth is, Chase Daniel has been prone to big picking this year and has struggled every time Mizzou has lost. While I think the Tigers have a chance to rack up some big plays, I also think the Beavers have a chance to score on defense.
Really, a game like this could go one of two ways. The much hotter team, Oregon State, may come out flat, while the team that tanked in the second half of the regular season, Missouri, may come out fuming. We’ve all seen that happen plenty of times. Something tells me, though, that OSU coach Mike Riley, in his second tenure with the Beavers after (among other stops) a stint as the leader of the San Diego Chargers, will be able to hold his guys up and help in this one. game. go the other way: an extension of the Beavers’ glossy finish. Could Moore be shut down by what has been a statistically pretty good Missouri secondary that hasn’t allowed many big plays this year? Yes. Could Daniel go on fire and rack up a ton of offense on what has been a break-but-don’t-bend Oregon State pass defense? Yes. But to me, finishing third in the Pac-10 is much more impressive than finishing second in the Big 12 North (and going 4-4 in that conference overall). I like big plays from the Beavers in this case, so I’ll take Oregon State (-3) over Missouri.
And well, either way, the winner of this one comes out smelling like a rose. Now, you know, something.
Regular Season: Our last college football regular season pick, San Jose St. giving up four against Fresno St., was a relatively easy cover, as the Spartans won against the rival Bulldogs, 24-14. That helped us wrap up another successful college football season, going 9-5 overall against the spread. Here’s hoping we can keep it going through bowl season.