Bowl Recap 2009-2010

College football has been over for about a week and athletic directors and coaches and analysts are already frantically preparing for next season, still over 7 months from kickoff. I, on the other hand, want to take a little more time to write about the exciting bowl season that just ended.

Best Bowl game: From a quality standpoint, TCU vs. Boise State gets this one. Both teams played a hard physical game and it was up for grabs until the end. It wasn't a big shootout like many thought it might turn out to be, and that's a good thing. These are 2 very good teams that played a very good ball game. It wasn't the most exciting game but it was the best game.

Most exciting bowl game: Hands down, this one is definitely Auburn vs. Northwestern. This was filled with lots and lots of action, starting from the McFadden's interception of Northwestern's Kafka through the penalties and missed field goals and other drama that eventually led to a 38-35 overtime victory for Auburn. Idaho's win over Bowling Green would have gotten this award most years as they went for 2 in the final seconds to take a 43-42 victory. It was just a bit hard for me to get interested in that game on the Blue turf in Boise.

Best single team performance: Iowa's defense holding Georgia Tech to 155 total yards was very impressive. Georgia Tech has faced some very good defenses this year in VT and UNC and Miami and they had no problem moving the ball and racking up well over 400 yards per game. Iowa just came into the Orange Bowl well prepared. They are a very physical defense and having over a month to prepare for the triple option, and having the Iowa-like weather in Miami certainly worked to the Hawkeyes advantage.

Best Overall Moment: Seeing Bobby Bowden stick the spear in the middle of the field at the Gator Bowl. How could you not feel good about that? And then Bowden and the Seminoles went out and beat the heavily favored West Virginia Mountaineers. I was afraid the Seminoles would be embarrassed in Bowden's last game but it's good to see him go out a champion. Or at least with another winning season at 7-6.

Biggest Upset: Perhaps this one should also go to FSU but I've give this one to Southern Methodist for their rout of Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl. Nevada was supposed to roll over SMU with their high-powered offense boasting 3- 1,000 yard rushers this season. It was SMU's first bowl game in decades, but it was also sort of a home-coming for SMU coach June Jones. That may have gotten them a little more fired up to pull away with a 45-10 victory.