| OUTBACK BOWL |
| #18 Minnesota Golden Gophers (10-2) vs. #12 Auburn Tigers (9-3) |
| New Years Day @ 1:00 - Tampa, FL - ESPN |
| While the Citrus Bowl has the helmets, this is the New Years Day afternoon game I'm more excited for, between two teams that I think both want to be there. Auburn showed last year that they are going to be ready to show up for a second tier bowl, and unlike last year, this Minnesota team can probably give them a fight. While it technically occurred in 2018, Minnesota launched their 2019 season with a dominating win over Georgia Tech in the Quick Lane Bowl a year ago. While their early season momentum fell short of a first ever division title, and trip to Indianapolis, they still have a chance to have their winningest season in over a century, and the program's first New Years Day Bowl victory since the 1962 Rose Bowl. For their part, Gus Malzahn was able to use the Tigers' flat effort against UCF the year before to get their A+ game in the Music City Bowl last year. And this isn't a team that limped its way into the postseason. They played 5 top 10 teams, and beat two of them, including a season ending win in the Iron Bowl. Auburn ranks #10 in SP+, with a rating of 21.8, and can look to this game to launch them into their 2020 campaign, as the Gophers did this year. With Bo Nix returning as a true sophomore, and division rivals LSU and Alabama both looking to replace their starting quarterbacks, the Tigers look to perhaps be the SEC West favorite next year. For Minnesota's offense, who can dictate how the passing game plays out? The Gophers aren't going to pass often, but look to hit big downfield plays when they do. Auburn's secondary will give you the underneath stuff, but there is probably no secondary in the nation, outside of maybe Clemson, who has more sound tacklers. Can Tanner Morgan consistently complete the short passes and 3rd down conversions that will be there? Because as good as Bateman and Johnson are, the downfield targets typically aren't there against the Tigers. Auburn was 8th nationally in yards per completion allowed. |
| AUBURN 31, MINNESOTA 23 |
The better team won this gameYou got that right. Dare I say.. Minnie looked like Wisconsin today. Very physical. I loved watching it.
This, to me, is another of the very interesting games afoot. USC-Iowa was (for me) as well. I like all these bowl games and ignore all the hype over the playoff. Yes, it's very important and I watch, but it doesn't need the constant hype when the "lesser" bowl games often are very compelling, like Bama-Michigan as well.
Why don't they hype these games? Any marginal fan is aware of the playoff situation.
Makes you wonder if the diminishing the bowl games in hopes of a playoff expansion is a long term play for ESPN.Huh, interesting theory, not bad. I also got the notion they paid relatively little attention to even NY6 bowl games, and almost none to the lesser bowls, some of which were quite compelling stories.
speaking of ESPN, was it me or were several of the ESPN games not in HDTV this year? felt like the feed quality was down.probably all in HD, just turned down the bit rate somewhere along the network to save bandwidth
speaking of ESPN, was it me or were several of the ESPN games not in HDTV this year? felt like the feed quality was down.Yeah, they were certainly all in HD, maybe just not quite the same bit rate. Turn to a non HD channel at some point to remember how truly bad it is.
I wasn't seeing quality issues with the video. They had a few audio glitches.
I think ESPN announcers are all entirely shills for the Big Ten and say nothing but negative stuff about SEC teams.
When a person says "I think ....", whatever follows is generally an opinion. One can of course disagree with another's opinion, but it remains his opinion.Am I being punked right now?
ESPN clearly favors the Big Ten in every way nearly all the time and constantly belittles the SEC, in my opinion.
In basketball anyway.
Am I being punked right now?I think you are. In my opinion.
Am I being punked right now?