THE BIRDMAN'S BOWL GAME OF THE YEAR & Tonight's FSU v. UCLA game

Well, here it is, my Game of the Year for the 2006-2007 Bowl Season. My Bowl Game of the Year is now 5-0 including a 42-13 Kansas rout of Houston last year (a KU cover by 25 points!!!). Without further ado, this season's Game of the Year is:

Oklahoma State -2 (*****)
Ok State is playing Alabama December 28, 2006 in the Independence Bowl. These two teams could not be more different. Bama is a team without a pulse. They have no coach, apparently no prospective coaches, no quality wins and no offense. Ok State has a young team with a coach the team respects and play hards for, a great offense, a couple quality wins and momentum going into 2007-2008.

When one takes a look more deeply into Alabama's schedule, one sees a very bad football team. Bama has 6 wins against the following teams: Hawaii (by 8 at home), Vanderbilt (by 3 at home), UL Monroe (by 35 at home), Duke (by 16 at home), Mississippi (by 3 at home), and Florida International (by 35 at home)...see a trend? Every game they won was at home...this team was dreadful on the road. Further, the only win that could be seen as somewhat legitimate was Hawaii and that was the first game of the year (before Hawaii hit its stride) and Hawaii is not exactly a road warrior themselves. Also of note, Bama started the year 3-0 before losing 6 of their final 9 (including a home beating by the hands of Miss St). Two of their wins came against Duke and FIU...both of them went winless on the season. Bama needed overtime to pull out a home victory against Ole Miss and they lost to EVERY decent team they faced this year.

On the other hand, OSU has a handful of quality victories. They beat Nebraska 41-29, and they won a couple road games (at Ark St 35-7 and at Kansas 42-32). In all their losses except one (Texas), they were in it till the end. They scored over 20 in every game except the Texas game and averaged 35 points per game. OSU has a ton of offensive firepower. Their only weakness is a defense that gives up yards and points; however, Bama is not the type of team that can take advantage of a bend (but don't break) defense. Bama's offense is not good enough.

To sum, if there were no controversy surrounding Bama's program right now, I would still pick the Cowboys to win this game easily as they are the better team. But, the problems at Bama cannot be ignored. They have a program that no one wants to coach at. Do you think their players don't know that? This team will not have any heart in this game and will throw in the towel by the 3rd quarter. I like the Cowboys to win this game by at least two TD's.

Oklahoma State -2 (*****)--BOWL GAME OF THE YEAR


For Tonight's Game, I like Florida State +4 (buying 1/2 point) against UCLA. These are two pretty equal teams, but I think that FSU's defense will shut down UCLA and with a new offensive coordinator (not related to Bowden), the FSU attack should be better. REmember, Bowden hasn't had a losing season in 30 years!!! Dont think that he and his team are not aware of this stat. FSU finds a way to get it done tonight.

Florida State +4 (**)
(Buying 1/2 point)