Paul Prattles On

Welcome Back! We've had 14 bowls since last Monday, and while there were a few routs, several were competitive, and one or two went down to the wire. First Responder Bowl This bowl game was cancelled due to lightning in the area that was expected to go on for several hours.  This had to be very disappointing for both teams and both fan bases, as I'm sure there was a whole lot of money spent on travel, hotels, etc.  Boston College ends a successful, but ultimately disappointing (because of their fast start), season at 7-5.  Boise State ends at 10-3, but did not win the Mountain West Conference Championship, though it did win the Mountain Division. Quick Lane Bowl Wisconsin absolutely destroyed Miami 35-3 in this battle of 7-5 teams that started the season with so much promise.  Miami coach Mark Richt has since retired, and the new Temple coach, Manny Diaz, has been lured back to take the Miami job, leavi

Welcome Back! So far, I am 11-3 in the bowl games, which I think is not too shabby!  Generally, if anyone is above 50% in predicting the bowl games, that's pretty good.  Or pretty lucky.  Because predicting bowls is fraught with difficulty.  There are coaching changes, academic suspensions, behavior suspensions, players not playing to prepare for the NFL Draft, injuries, and a host of other issues, not the least of which are the location of the game and the focus level of the players.  Which team will be more motivated?  Take the Quick Lane Bowl, for example.  The game is in Detroit, which is closer to Minnesota, but the Gophers just suspended 6 players.  Will that galvanize the team?  Or will it weaken it?  Then again, Georgia Tech is playing their last game under Paul Johnson.  Will that motivate them?  Or will they be distracted?  And how will the new redshirt rule affect the bowls?  I expect to see a lot of freshmen who pla

Welcome Back! We've had 9 bowls since last Monday, and while there were a few routs, several were competitive, and one or two went down to the wire. Boca Raton Bowl UAB routed Northern Illinois 37-13.  The Blazers finish their 2nd season back with an 11-3 record, a remarkable achievement!.  The Huskies finish a disappointing 8-6, but still won the MAC. Frisco Bowl Ohio destroyed San Diego State 27-0 to finish 9-4.  The Bobcats never allowed the Aztecs a chance.  SDSU winds up their season at 7-6, ending with 4 straight losses, and 5 in their last 6 games. Gasparilla Bowl Marshall jumped out early to a big lead, then held on for a 38-20 win over USF.  The Thundering Herd are 9-4, while the Bulls end their season at 7-6, due to 6 straight losses.   Bahamas Bowl This was one of the better bowl games, as far as competitiveness and drama was concerned.  The Rockets jumped out to a 10-0 lead, fell behind,

Welcome Back! So far, I am 6-1 in the bowl games, which I think is not too shabby!  Generally, if anyone is above 50% in predicting the bowl games, that's pretty good.  Or pretty lucky.  Because predicting bowls is fraught with difficulty.  There are coaching changes, academic suspensions, behavior suspensions, players not playing to prepare for the NFL Draft, injuries, and a host of other issues, not the least of which are the location of the game and the focus level of the players.  Which team will be more motivated?  Take the Quick Lane Bowl, for example.  The game is in Detroit, which is closer to Minnesota, but the Gophers just suspended 6 players.  Will that galvanize the team?  Or will it weaken it?  Then again, Georgia Tech is playing their last game under Paul Johnson.  Will that motivate them?  Or will they be distracted?  And how will the new redshirt rule affect the bowls?  I expect to see a lot of freshmen who played in

Welcome Back! Here at Odds and Ends, I plan to look at some stats, trends, storylines, etc. as they play out.  I will also give my opinion on some issues, but you can take that for what it's worth. Today, I want to explore how my preseason conference picks turned out and compare them with the most popular preseason magazines- Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, Street & Smith's- and the media predictions from each conference's media days.  I use my own formula, drawing from outside sources, to come up with my picks.  To see how I did, I use the formula from the Chris Stassen web site (as outlined in the 2018 Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine, pg. 6).  Basically, you take your conference picks, compare them to how they turn out, and assign a score.  If you pick a team 1st in their division, and they finish 2nd, that's 1 point.  If they finish 3rd, that's 2 points, etc.  The object is to have the lowest score.  The only "difficult" part