Little Caesars Pizza Bowl

Pittsburgh Panthers (6-6) vs. Bowling Green Falcons (10-3)

Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan (65,000)

6 PM ET/5 PM CT

ESPN

Dave Lamont, Ray Bentley and Niki Noto

Surface: Artificial

Refs: Sun Belt Conference: Head ref: Chuck Lewis, will have official listed tomorrow if there is a blown call

Weather: Indoors, 70

Line: Bowling Green by 7

Bowling Green looked for real to me in their dismantling of Northern Illinois in the Mid American Conference Championship game. Northern Illinois for the second year in a row was overrated, but I was impressed with the Falcons domination. They were so good this year that it earned coach Dave Clawson a job at Wake Forest after the MAC championship game. Adam Scheier will be the interim head coach as Dino Babers will move over to the Bowling Green sideline next year. Babers comes over from Eastern Illinois. Scheier did a very solid job with the special teams and tight ends and the team looks to be in good hands for this game. The Falcons are led by quarterback Matt Johnson, who completed 217-of-337 passes (64.4%) for 3,195 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven ints. He’s a really good player. Running back Travis Greene rushed for 1,555 yards and 11 TDs this season and wide receiver Shaun Joplin pulled in 48 catches for 822 yards and three scores. True freshman wide receiver Ronnie Moore had 26 catches for 535 yards (20.6 yards per catch) and seven touchdowns. He’s a gamebreaker. The Falcons were fifth in the country in scoring defense allowing just 14.8 points per game. Linebacker D.J. Lynch (5’11”, 244, junior) led the teams in tackles and tackles for loss with 78 and 7.5 for -23. Defensive backs BooBoo Gates and Ryland Ward led the team in interceptions, both getting two. Pitt is led by Coach Paul Chryst who is 12-14 in two years at the helm. Running back Isaac Bennett ran for 795 yards and seven Tds. RB James Conner added 579 yards and 7 scores. Quarterback Tom Savage completed 230-of-376 passes (61.2%) for 2,834 yards, 21 TDs and nine ints. True freshman wide receiver Tyler Boyd had a big year with 77 receptions for 1,001 yards and seven TDs. Senior Devin Street added 51 catches for 854 and seven TDs as well. Senior defensive tackle Aaron Donald led the country in tackles for loss with 26.5 for -130. He also added 10 sacks for -73. Defensive back Ray Vinopal led the defense with three ints.

Final Analysis:

I really liked the Bowling Green team when I watched them overwhelm the overrated Huskies of Northern Illinois. They’re legit. Northern Illinois isn’t but they are. I’m looking at a convincing win by the Falcons in this one.

Bowling Green 38, Pitt 27

Poinsettia Bowl

Utah State (8-5) vs. No.23 Northern Illinois? Are you kiddin me? NI is 12-1

Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California (71,294)

9:30 PM ET/8:30 CT

ESPN

Joe Davis, Mike Bellotti, Cara Capuano

Surface: Grass

Refs: Pac-12, Shawn Hochuli (Father, Ed, is an NFL head ref and has some serious Howitzers for arms)

Weather: 67 @ kickoff, 0 % rain, wind NE 7 MPH

Line: Utah State by 2

Utah State is led by first year coach Matt Wells who did a nice job this year after serving as offensive coordinator under then coach Gary Anderson, who is now the head coach at Wisconsin. Dave Garretson took over at quarterback in October when starter Chuckie Keeton was hurt and completed 109-of-180 passes (60.6%) for 1,325 yards, nine TDs and five ints. Running back Joey DeMartino ran for 1,078 yards and 12 TDs, and the wide receivers are very good led by the electric Bruce “JoJo” Natson, who pulled in 56 catches for 384 yards and two TDs and also ran for three. He’s not big, but a lot of fun to watch. He’s a burner. Travis Reynolds (51-832, 4 TDs) and Travis Van Leeuwen (50-638, 3 TDs) are also excellent. Wide receiver Brandon Swindall had five TD catches this year. Their defense was 7th in the country in scoring defense allowing only 17.3 points per game. Linebacker Jake Doughty was second in the country in tackles with 140. Keith Smith of San Jose State was tops in the country with 159. Doughty also had 10.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. Linebacker Zach Vigil added 115 tackles and 12.5 for loss. Defensive back Nevin Lawson led the team with four ints. For Northern Illinois it’s the overrated Jordan Lynch leading the way. Lynch completed 233-of-369 passes for 2,676 yards, 23 TDs and seven ints. He also ran for 1,881 yards and 22 scores. His numbers were good, but in the biggest game of his life against Bowling Green, he was a bust. He finished third in the Heisman and that was laughable.

Final Analysis:

I don’t trust Jordan Lynch and Coach Rod Carey of Northern Illinois and I like the Utah State program. Utah State gets it done here.

Utah State 35, Northern Illinois 30