Larry’s Losers in the SEC – Bowl Edition – Part One

By Larry Burton

You know folks, football season is like a great meal at your mama’s house on the holidays, you love the whole thing and when it’s over, you know the best is yet to come with some of the best desert your gonna have in a long time. Well folks, as much as you loved the regular season, it’s over, but like I said, just like with that great meal, the best is yet to come with football games from soon to past Santa and there will be match ups that you don’t get to see too often.

Now while the pigskin pickin’ pooch and I sort have a handle on the SEC and list of likely losers that they usually play, these games and teams send us outside our comfort zone and we’re bleary eyed from watching games of teams we’ve not had on our radar this year.

But now we know that Georgia Tech ain’t such a wreck and those boys from Rice play pretty nice. Then there are Blue Devils and Badgers, Hawkeyes and Sooners, Cornhuskers and Cowboys and each one hoping to make themselves some bowl game noise.

So let’s see if we can be pleasing with the first half of the bowl season and that’ll give us time to study up on those second half contests that will shape the top ten.

Ole Miss vs Ga Tech – FRANKLIN AMERICAN MORTGAGE MUSIC CITY BOWL – Nashville, Tn. – Mon. Dec. 30th – 4:15pm (CST)

Well, here’s the SEC kickoff to bowl season and it’s two teams that used to be together in the SEC before those Techers took off. The last time these two teams met, Ole Miss’ mascot was still Col Reb and Georgia Tech had one of the worst stadiums in the South. Well at least one of those things have changed.

Now it’s the Black Bears trying to send the Rambing Wreck from Georgia Tech to the junkyard in Song City, Tennessee. Both teams are sporting 7-5 records in this contest, but only the Rebels were expected to do much better this season.

With Hugh Freeze getting a contract extension and a bump in bucks, I think he’ll have the Johnny Rebs in jolly good fashion for this first post Christmas party in the SEC.

Larry’s losers – Georgia Tech

Rice vs Mississippi State – AutoZone LIBERTY BOWL – Memphis, Tn. – Tues. Dec. 31st – 5:00pm

The wise old Owls fly into Memphis, to conclude the Tennessee bowl games and they’re hoping that Mullen’s Mutts aren’t prepared for this cold weather contest. With all those warm feathers, these Owls don’t mind flying around and keeping the air attack going while the Bulldog’s bellies are barely above the cold frozen turf.

But these pooches know that a moving mutt don’t get as cold as one who just sits around in the snow and they plan on keeping up the barking and biting for all 60 minutes and these Owls could find themselves in big trouble if these Bulldogs get close enough to sink their teeth in these feathered fowls.

And in the end, that’s what should happen. If you look at the teams that have beaten the Bulldogs this season, they’re all great teams and now the world will see that this could just very well be the best 6-6 team around.

Larry’s Loser – Rice

Duke vs Texas A&M – Chick-fil-A BOWL – Georgia Dome – Atlanta, Ga. – Tues. Dec. 31st – 7:00pm

David Cutliff had these classic underachieving Blue Devils playing for the ACC Championship just a few weeks ago and it wasn’t done with smoke from Blue Devil hell and mirrors, but hard work and good coaching. Now they’re hoping that they can pull one more win out of a season to remember and catch those Texas farmhands overlooking their potential.

But the signature slinger from College Station doesn’t want to end his football career on a bad note, so he’s planning on flinging that football far and wide and putting up prodigious points that will procure victory. However, the Aggie defense is going to hard pressed from having some points pointed back in their direction from the dastardly Devils.

The boys in Vegas see this as almost a two touchdown win for the farm hands, but old Bacardi the Wonder Dog has me convinced that this one could be close till the end, but we both see a win for the Aggies and the SEC streak continues.

Larry’s Loser – Duke

Nebraska vs Georgia – Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl – Jacksonville, Fl. – Jan. 1st. – 11:00am

The first of the New Year’s Day daytime games finds Nebraska planning to shuck up Georgia’s hope to end this season on a high note. Some picked these dandy Dogs to finish the year in the BCS Championship Game, but with four losses, even a ten win season is beyond their reach at this point.

Meanwhile, in a year that was supposed to be a turnaround year for the Cornhuskers, they too have been up and down and mostly down against teams they could have, should have beaten. And while Mark Richt at Georgia is secure in his job, Bo Pelini’s seat is warming faster that Pelini’s temper at a post game press conference.

Aaron Murray may be down for the count in his final season for Georgia, but their back up quarterback should find enough gas in the tank and open receivers to help that good Bulldog running game grinding out the yards. Meanwhile, Georgia hasn’t exactly been anything like those old junkyard dogs on defense lately and the corn boys should be able to light up their side of the scoreboard too. But the SEC schedule has the SEC team ready in this one.

Larry’s loser – Nebraska

Iowa vs LSU – Outback Bowl – Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fl. – Jan. 1st. 12:00 pm

The Hawkeyes from Iowa fly South for the winter and hope that the early and mid-season stumbles are behind them and that they can finish as strong as they finished the regular season. Meanwhile, the bayou Bengals are hoping to make a statement that the woes of this season are behind them and that the future is bright down in bayou country.

People in the SEC may not realize that Iowa is a pretty good team. They’ve had some quality wins this season and are a team with sharp talons and a beak that can rip you up if you let it.

But then they haven’t played an SEC team the likes of LSU either. And when this games over, the old pigskin pickin’ pooch and I both believe that they’ll still be feathers flying even after the last whistle blows, but there will be some fur blowing around too.

Larry’s loser -(in a game that might be close) Iowa

 

Wisconsin vs South Carolina – Capital One Bowl – Orlando, Fl. – Jan. 1st. 12:00pm

When a Badger and a Gamecock usually meet up, the safe money is on the Badger, but when these two compete in the Capital One Bowl, it’s a whole different fight. The Old Ball Coach has these Cluckers with powerful peckers ready so these aren’t your Colenel Sanders variety of chickens.

Now the boys and girls South of the Mason – Dixon Line may not know that these bad boy Badgers can pack a punch and if you think this is going to be just another SEC thumping of a Big Ten team, then you don’t know what Gary Andersen, no, not the former field goal kicker, has been able to do since being on this job in this, just his first year. With a great Badger rushing game and a stingy defense, this game has caused me and old Bacardi the Wonder Dog a lot of sleepless nights. We can see this one going either way. We’ve gone back and forth and finally decided that big games are sometimes won by great men on a great stage and this could be Jadaveon Clowney’s NFL first round confirmation game, so that’s what tipped it for us.

Larry’s loser – Wisconsin (in a close one)

OK folks, that’s it for the early games and in part two, we’ll list the losers who landed on this little series of Bacardi and my prognostications. We hope you’ve laid in your supply of eggnog, snacks and family for the holiday season and that all the above will come together around the TV and enjoy the bowl games this season.

From all the staff at Touchdown Alabama Magazine and even the outpost in Panama City Beach, Florida with Bacardi the Wonder Dog and I, we all wish you a very Merry Christmas and a non losing New Year!