What to watch for at bowls
Coaching changes, record-seeking players are factors.
The Alabama invitational, um, College Football Playoffff is set, along with 38 other bowl games big and small. From coaching intrigue to record-sett i ng runs there should be plenty of story lines to follow.
Top-ranked Alabama and Nick Saban aim to win an unprecedented fififth national title in eight seasons, including back-to-back for a second time, and add to what is considered the greatest run in the history of college football.
The Peach Bowl semifinal bet ween the Tide and No. 4 Washington will also be the fifirst meeting of Saban and Washington coach Chris Petersen, who has an .826 winning percentage since he fifirst became a head coach with Boise State in 2006.
Petersen’s Boise teams were known for upsets. Alabama is a two-touchdown favorite.
The Fiesta Bowl semififinal between No. 2 Clemson and No. 3 Ohio State is a rematch of the 2014 Orange Bowl won by Clemson 40-35. That game completed a late-season meltdown of Ohio State’s defense that led coach Urban Meyer to make staff and scheme changes that have helped the Buckeyes have one of the top defenses in the country three years running.
San Diego State’s Donnel Pumphrey needs 108 yards in his fifinal college game against Houston in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 17 to break the FBS career record held by former Wisconsin star and Heisman winner Ron Dayne. The Cougars, led by star freshman defensive lineman Ed Oliver, have one of the best run defenses in the country, allowing 97 yards per game and 2.87 per carry. Pumphrey is the nation’s second-leading rusher at 155 yards per game.
Houston will go into its bowl game with an interim coach after Tom Herman left for Texas and a few other schools could be in similar situations.
■ No. 12 Western Michigan is on its way to the biggest bowl game in school history, a matchup with No. 8 Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl, but coach P.J. Fleck has been the subject of much speculation with regards to openings at Purdue and Oregon.
■ Boise State and Baylor meet Dec. 27 at the Cactus Bowl in Phoenix. It will be the last game for Jim Grobe, Baylor’s acting head coach who took over on short notice after Art Briles was fifired.
Broncos coach Bryan Harsin is being mentioned as candidate for Oregon.
The best bowls are often between teams taking very different approaches to offffense.
■ Navy will bring its triple option (averaging 327 yards rushing per game) to the Armed Forces Bowl to face Louisiana Tech, which averages 360 yards passing per game behind quarterback Ryan Higgins.
■ Minnesota faces Washington State in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27, but only the Cougars have the pedigree to live up to the bowl’s high-scoring tradition. Minnesota has thrown eight TD passes, tied for 124th in the nation. The Cougars have 39 TD passes.
■ Nor t h C a ro l i n a’s u p - tempo offffense matches Stanford’s plodding, traditional pro style in the Dec. 30 Sun Bowl.
The Music City Bowl in Nashville was defifinitely not what Tennessee (8- and coach Butch Jones had in mind this season after the Volunteers beat Florida in September. But here the Vols are facing No. 24 Nebraska (9-3). Not only did the Vols blow a chance to win the East by losing to South Carolina, but they blew a chance to back into the Sugar Bowl by losing to Vanderbilt.
On the other side, No. Nebraska’s second season under coach Mike Riley was a huge step forward from fifive wins to nine. But the Cornhuskers were a top-10 team in late October, and their best victory of the season was against Minnesota. Getting to 10 wins against a big brand like Tennessee would make a huge difffference to how this season is viewed.