2023-24 Other Bowl Games Thread

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Penix has a 56% completion on passes 30 yards or longer. Watching him is a treat. His gets rid of the ball quickly and with a compact motion. He also has a great Oline and skill players around him, but he throws guys open and is good at moving in the pocket. I would love to see the Vikings take him.
 

This will be an all time bad beat if Washington loses this because of Johnson’s injury
 

Brutal sequence for Washington. Texas would have got the ball with like 8 seconds left.
 

Great game there. If Johnson can’t go next week for Washington, it’s basically going to be entirely passing for Penix. Would make it a whole lot tougher
 

Good guys won and we get to see Penix and that offense (unfortunately minus Johnson) vs the best defense in the country.
 


Texas Defense had to be gassed and made a game of what was going to be a blowout…
 

Washington made it harder on themselves than they needed to. If they run the ball on 3rd down before the FG, it’s over after the onside. And probably could have just taken a knee on 3rd down on the last possession.
 

Most importantly, I want to know what would the Vegas line be of Georgia vs either Michigan or Washington.....because that's what really matters, right?

I am excited for next Monday; should be great contrast of styles.
 




Weren’t those last four plays by Texas from the 12 terrible? One was a great play by Ewers just to not get sacked and the other three were all boundary plays that barely or didn’t give their own guy a chance to make a play. I’m glad Washington won, but I would not be happy with the last sequence if I was a Texas fan.
 


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Lots of talk in the press about the games yesterday being the best ever. Looks to me like they got it right with the final four teams. And then Georgia -- not FSU -- was by far the 5th best team.
 





GophersInIowa said:
Washington made it harder on themselves than they needed to. If they run the ball on 3rd down before the FG, it’s over after the onside. And probably could have just taken a knee on 3rd down on the last possession.
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This is exactly correct. DeBoer made one of, if not not the dumbest coaching decision ever on that 3rd down, and now he lost his #1 rb because of it. He needs to be asked why he did it. They could have been taking a knee after the onside kick as Texas would have only had 1 timeout left. Unbelievably stupid.
 


SeaBee_Gopher said:
Weren’t those last four plays by Texas from the 12 terrible? One was a great play by Ewers just to not get sacked and the other three were all boundary plays that barely or didn’t give their own guy a chance to make a play. I’m glad Washington won, but I would not be happy with the last sequence if I was a Texas fan.
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It was a weird series.

That whole drive Ewers was just throwing it up seemingly carelessly to WRs who maybe 40% of the time were NOT even looking for the ball yet.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Weren’t those last four plays by Texas from the 12 terrible? One was a great play by Ewers just to not get sacked and the other three were all boundary plays that barely or didn’t give their own guy a chance to make a play. I’m glad Washington won, but I would not be happy with the last sequence if I was a Texas fan.
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They (Washington) made up for the real questionable prior play calls by blitzing on the last couple downs. The heat made Ewers have to dump the ball quickly. They did get their best wr a look but that was a great play by the DB. The first down call was horrible
 

Got to finally see some consistently good, competitive football yesterday. And yes confirmed for me that I like to see scoring in the face of obviously good defense. Got that yesterday in spades.

Of course the bowl season broadly was full of busts as a fan...UGA vs FSU is the poster child followed by OH-IO State vs Mizzou as the kid on the milk carton. As stated even by Kirby Smart, there are problems with the post-game season with timing of the Portal window, NFL opt outs, and always present injuries intersecting the bowl season. These are huge factors to navigate in fielding a competitive team.

On the other side though is the belief that the 12-team playoff will not be subject to this potential chaos as the shot at the Nattie will limit opt outs and maybe even curtail the allure of the Portal? This line of thinking has the 11 games in the College Football Playoffs on par with yesterday's semifinals.

On this Tuesday morning, that's a very appealing thought. Only new injuries, in-game suspensions, or off-field trouble would keep a player out of the game.. Will have to revisit this a year or so from now to see how it actually unfolded.

In the meantime pulling for Michigan. Go Blue!
 

BilldGopher said:
Got to finally see some consistently good, competitive football yesterday. And yes confirmed for me that I like to see scoring in the face of obviously good defense. Got that yesterday in spades.

Of course the bowl season broadly was full of busts as a fan...UGA vs FSU is the poster child followed by OH-IO State vs Mizzou as the kid on the milk carton. As stated even by Kirby Smart, there are problems with the post-game season with timing of the Portal window, NFL opt outs, and always present injuries intersecting the bowl season. These are huge factors to navigate in fielding a competitive team.

On the other side though is the belief that the 12-team playoff will not be subject to this potential chaos as the shot at the Nattie will limit opt outs and maybe even curtail the allure of the Portal? This line of thinking has the 11 games in the College Football Playoffs on par with yesterday's semifinals.

On this Tuesday morning, that's a very appealing thought. Only new injuries, in-game suspensions, or off-field trouble would keep a player out of the game.. Will have to revisit this a year or so from now to see how it actually unfolded.

In the meantime pulling for Michigan. Go Blue!
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I think they need to move the timing of the portal. You’re still going to have depth guys transferring out prior to the games and that’s just silly. Some of this may be due to how the semesters are structured and scholarships elsewhere, but it’s sad to see some kids leave their team before all the games are done for whatever reason
 

upnorthkid said:
They (Washington) made up for the real questionable prior play calls by blitzing on the last couple downs. The heat made Ewers have to dump the ball quickly. They did get their best wr a look but that was a great play by the DB. The first down call was horrible
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I agree. Ewers ball to that receiver wasn't as good as it was earlier in the game when they scored on the same play. It was too close to the sideline so his receiver couldn't jump for it. He had to stay on the ground to try to drag his foot which allowed the corner to jump over him and knock the ball down. It really is a game of inches!
 


Gophers1992 said:
I think the fact that we don't play Michigan annually anymore has a lot of fans forgetting how insufferable that fanbase, and entire university is. I hope Washington beats the brakes off of them.
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They kinda vanished for a while too....

Now this year on reddit in nearly every bowl game thread there were Michigan fans talking shit in entirely unrelated games ... it was weird.

Like wtf Michigan fans, it's not about you ...

I wonder if it is a mix of enthusiasm for the playoffs + nervousness about the investigation.
 

BilldGopher said:
On the other side though is the belief that the 12-team playoff will not be subject to this potential chaos as the shot at the Nattie will limit opt outs and maybe even curtail the allure of the Portal? This line of thinking has the 11 games in the College Football Playoffs on par with yesterday's semifinals.
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Or the awkward situation of someone opting out even though their team is in the playoff. All optimism aside, if you're a G5/G6 team with the #11/12 seed, you know darn well you aren't winning the nattie and most likely are getting bounced game 1. So I'd still opt out/enter portal.

Like, hypothetically speaking, if we had made the 12 team playoff I'd still see Zach Evens entering the portal. If you're not going to be with the team next year, then early December is the best time to get moving on the new plans.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
They kinda vanished for a while too....

Now this year on reddit in nearly every bowl game thread there were Michigan fans talking shit in entirely unrelated games ... it was weird.

Like wtf Michigan fans, it's not about you ...

I wonder if it is a mix of enthusiasm for the playoffs + nervousness about the investigation.
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Yeah, they were so beat down for a while, especially from Ohio State, now they have 10 years of pent up anger and arrogance that they are unleashing on the world.

Personally, while Wisconsin and Iowa will always be the two most hated teams, I think Michigan isn't that far behind in my mind, simply because of how superior they think they are to the rest of the world. It's a different type of hate than what I have towards the hawks and skunks, but they are unbearable IMO.
 


upnorthkid said:
I think they need to move the timing of the portal. You’re still going to have depth guys transferring out prior to the games and that’s just silly. Some of this may be due to how the semesters are structured and scholarships elsewhere, but it’s sad to see some kids leave their team before all the games are done for whatever reason
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...and how would moving the timing of the portal help? Just because you can't put your name in it doesn't mean you have to still play for your current team.

All that moving it back would do was make the players stand out like sore thumbs before the portal opens. For example, if a player isn't eligible to enter the draft, yet they are opting out of the bowl game, well that would be a pretty solid indication they are entering the portal whenever they finally can.

So I don't see how it solves anything.

Edit: I'd add that the people complaining about this (portal opt outs) are basically asking the players to forget about their futures for a little bit so we can have some more entertaining games to watch over the Christmas holiday. I'd give a solid middle finger to them if I was an athlete in their position.
 
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GopherTheJugular said:
...and how would moving the timing of the portal help? Just because you can't put your name in it doesn't mean you have to still play for your current team.

All that moving it back would do was make the players stand out like sore thumbs before the portal opens. For example, if a player isn't eligible to enter the draft, yet they are opting out of the bowl game, well that would be a pretty solid indication they are entering the portal whenever they finally can.

So I don't see how it solves anything.
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because a ton right now is guys who are high tier entering because the getting is good. If no one can bid on me/alter the market, it just changes the timing/impetus. Right now guys are getting out and committing elsewhere before bowl season is even half in swing because you don’t want to end up with no partner. It will not change declarations, but it stops the risk to a guy waiting if he’s transferring ending up with nowhere to go
 

upnorthkid said:
because a ton right now is guys who are high tier entering because the getting is good. If no one can bid on me/alter the market, it just changes the timing/impetus. Right now guys are getting out and committing elsewhere before bowl season is even half in swing because you don’t want to end up with no partner. It will not change declarations, but it stops the risk to a guy waiting if he’s transferring ending up with nowhere to go
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You have a point, and I'll admit I hadn't considered that angle yet. If I was in that position though, I'd still opt out to prevent injury. Even a hamstring issue or mild ankle sprain could linger into spring ball and I'd want to be 100% healthy since I'm going to a new team.

I think that's more of a concern for the "high tier" guys like you mentioned, as they'll be just fine getting NIL thrown at them anyways.

Plus, and this is the shady part that we can't comment on with 100% accuracy, but aren't players going to reach out through their old high school coach or whatever anyways? Don't they already do that (at regular season's end)?
 

Gophers1992 said:
I think the fact that we don't play Michigan annually anymore has a lot of fans forgetting how insufferable that fanbase, and entire university is. I hope Washington beats the brakes off of them.
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Agreed, until Mich beat OSU in 2021 they hadn't won a Conf Championship since 2004 and with that one win by Harbaugh the arrogance was immediately back. They quickly forgot how avg they were those 16 yrs including the Rich Rodge and Hoke eras. I wouldn't mind Wash rolling into the Conf with Natty in hand making them the top dog going into the 2024 season. I would much rather see Kalen DeBoer at the podium rather than Harbaugh as I'm sure he'll be insufferable if they win the title.
 

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