Arizona Preview

Matchup I’m excited about: Nick Foles vs. Brandon Weeden.

And honestly, I don’t know which guy I’m rooting for. The “Brandon Weeden is going pro after the Alamo Bowl” train has picked up enough speed to qualify for Unstoppable 2 and a 400-yard+ performance is only going to help. I agree with Mike Strain that replacing Blackmon is going to be a lot easier than replacing Weeden. You can throw out some combo of Randle, Anyiam, and Harrison and probably get 80% of Blackmon’s production. Johnny Deaton, JW Walsh, Clint Chelf, and the reincarnation of Josh Fields himself aren’t going to be posting 2010 Weeden numbers in 2011.

Don’t get me wrong, I hope we win and I hope Weeden plays well but I wouldn’t mind a few more of those “worst plays in college football history” Holgorsen is so fond of talking about.

Why I hate the Alamo Bowl: I’ve only been to a pair of Alamo Bowls and neither was a memorable experience. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen OSU win a sporting event in the city of San Antonio since I’ve been alive. ’97 was the Purdue game when a guy named Billy Dicken (not Drew Brees) set the passing yards and total yards Alamo Bowl records (imagine that) against Bob Simmons’ Pokes. ’04 was the Ted Ginn game. I don’t think I need to recap that one.

Number I don’t want to see: 33. Strangely Purdue and tOSU both scored 33 points. Although if Arizona only posts a 33-spot and OSU doesn’t leave south texas with a set of bowl rings I’d be absolutely stunned. Only K-State and Texas (?!) have held Holgorsens record-setting offense to under 35.

Uniforms I hope we wear: Orange tops, black pants. This should have been the Bedlam combo but I’ll settle for a meaningless late-December game instead.

The line and what I’d do with it if you could gamble with Monopoly money: [-5 Oklahoma State] Bet the house on the Cowboys. I look at two things when betting bowl games:

1. Who’s hotter – OSU doesn’t exactly come in guns a’blazin but Arizona hasn’t won since October.

2. Who had lower preseason expectations – OSU (as we all know) was picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big XII South so making it to the Alamo Bowl, even though they had Tempe in their sights, is definitely what we call “exceeding expectations.” Arizona, on the other hand, was picked to finish in the top four of the Pac-10 so the Alamo Bowl might be a slight disappointment.

Throw in the fact that OSU is shooting for its first ever 11-win season and read quotes like “I want to win this game so bad I can’t even tell you” from Andrew McGee and I have to put my money on Gundy and co. In a possibly related story that might only interest me: I’m 8th (of 10) in my bowl picks group and Mrs. Pistols is in 1st so take what I say with a grain of salt (or the entire dead sea).

Why I hate this game: Because Arizona is coming to Stillwater in 9 months anyway.

Why I love this game: Because we don’t have to play UConn — talk about a lose-lose situation.

How excited (1-10 scale) I would be if this was the 1st round of a 16-team playoff: 923. I know Arizona wouldn’t have even made the cut in a 16-team playoff. Semantics people, semantics. If this was a playoff, though, I’d be in attendance losing my mind instead of watching in some uppity Dallas bar taking notes on my iPad. Mike Freeman tweeted this morning that he’s “a football addict and hasn’t watched a single minute of any bowl game.” I concur Mike, and so does the entire state of Connecticut.