St. Petersburg Bowl

Mississippi State (5-7) vs. Miami of Ohio (6-6)

Tropicana Field, St. Pete, FL. (40,473)

10 AM CT/11 AM ET

ESPN

Dave LaMont, Rene Ingoglia, Chris Doering

Stripes: C-USA, Jay Edwards

State sophomore quarterback Nick Fitzgerald led the SEC in total yards this season with 3,524 yards. Nick rushed for 1,243 yards, which was third in the conference, and passed for 2,281 yards, 21 TDs and 10 Ints. He completed 55% of his passes. The Bullies were banged up with injuries this season, but finished off the season with a tremendous Egg Bowl victory over Ole Miss, 55-20 @ Ole Miss. Look for State wide receiver Fred Ross, who caught 68 passes for 873 yards and 12, 7’s, to have a big day. Look for Fitzgerald Ross and the Bullies, which qualified for a bowl game at 5-7 due to a high Academic Progress Report, which is impressive in itself, to have a big day in St. Pete, and get ready for a much improved and very competitive 2017. 

State 31, Miami of Ohio 14

Quick Lane Bowl

Maryland (6-6) vs. Boston College (6-6)

Ford Field, the Motor City, (65,000)

1:30 PM CT/2:30 PM ET

ESPN

Mark Neely, Ray Bentley, Alex Corddry

Whistles: Pac-12, Steve Strimling

Like a defensive struggle here. BC defensive end Harold Landry had 15 sacks for -133 yards and 20.5 tackles for loss of 142 yards, second in the nation. Wow. The Terps were led this season on defense by outside linebacker Jesse Aniebonam, who completed the regular season posting 13 tackles for loss of 88 yards and 9 sacks for -74 yards. So I’m seeing a defensive battle in Detroit. Like Maryland to play a little better on offense and get over the hump here.

Terps 20, BC 17

Independence Bowl 

Vanderbilt (6-6) vs. NC State (6-6)

Independence Stadium, Shreveport, LA. (65,000)

4 PM CT/5 PM ET

ESPN2

Mike Couzens, Cole Cubelic, Kevin Wiedl

Laundry: Big Ten, Mike Cannon

The Wolfpack have just kept improving under fourth year coach Dave Doeren. They lost in overtime at Clemson. Their kicker missed a 27 yard field goal at the end of regulation to win it. Then they lost to FSU, 20-13, at home, but finished the season with a huge upset victory over North Carolina, 28-21, at Chapel Hill. Doeren is doing a tremendous job in Raleigh and has the Wolfpack headed in a strong direction. Matt Dayes is their stud running back who’s rushed for 1,119 yards and 10 TDs. Quarterback Ryan Finley has completed 224-of-372, 60%, for 2824 yards, 15 TDs and 8 ints. Defensive end Bradley Chubb is tied for the lead in the country with 21 tackles for loss of 80 yards. He also has 9.5 sacks for -53 yards. He is a force.

The Vanderbilt Commodores really exploded at the end of the season with upset victories over Ole Miss, 38-17, and Tennessee, 45-34. The Dores offense came alive as sophomore quarterback Kyle Shurmur came into his own in those games, and played like the 4 star quarterback Derek Mason and his staff expected him to be when he came to Nashville. Shurmur completed 185-of-329 passes, 57% for 2,251 yards, 9 TDs against 7 ints, but was a different quarterback from the Auburn game on, a game the Commodores lost 23-16 at Auburn, one in which they could have won and played a heckuva game. That game and the Georgia game two weeks before that, which the Dores won at Athens, 17-16, catapulted this team towards the end of the season when they demolished Ole Miss and dominated the Vols. Ralph Webb is the man for the Commodores on the ground. Ralph rushed for 1,172 yards and 12, 7’s this season. Ralph broke Zac Stacy’s career rushing mark this season. Ralph is a junior. C.J. Duncan (38 receptions, 447 yards), Trent Sherfield (31-468, 1 TD), freshman Kalija Lipscomb (25-306, 2 TDs), tight end Jared Pinkney (22-276, 2 TDs) and Caleb Scott (20-417) are all highly capable receivers in the passing game. 

And the man on the Vanderbilt defense is consensus All-American Zach Cunningham from Pinson, Alabama. The 6’4″, 230 pound junior led the SEC with 119 tackles, had 16.5 tackles for loss of 31 yards and was second in the country with four fumble recoveries. Zach also had two of the best plays of the year in college football when on fourth and one and Georgia going in for the winning score at the end of the game, Zach blasted Georgia speedster Isiah McKenzie, who was running around the right side for an almost certain first down,  for no gain and preserved the Commodores victory. Cunningham came out of nowhere to make the play. It was phenomenal. Just as phenomenal was Cunningham’s leap and block of a Daniel Carlson 26 yard field goal attempt that would have iced the game for Auburn at Auburn. Cunningham raced to the line of scrimmage right before the snap, leapt over the snapper, which was timed perfectly with no penalty, and blocked Carlson’s kick to keep the game at 23-16 and give the Commodores a chance. The Dores threw an interception and lost the game, but there was a very controversial overturn of a fumble by Auburn when VU was up 13-10. It was a pivotal play late in the third quarter that really hurt the Dores’ momentum. Cunningham had stripped Kamryn Pettway of the ball as he was going to the ground, and VU recovered. The refs initially called it a fumble, recovered by VU, but the replay official overturned the call. The ball came out simultaneously as Pettway was hitting the ground. It was impossible to overturn, but somehow the SEC replay ref figured out a way to overturn the call on the field. That was a tough break for the Dores. But a very strong third season under Derek Mason and his recruiting is going extremely well for 2017.

Final Analysis

The Dores are a 5 1/2 point underdog to the Wolfpack, but I like my Commodores to pull off the slight upset in Shreveport. Zach Cunningham, Ralph Webb and company get it done and finish off the season with huge momentum heading into 2017.

Vanderbilt 24, NC State 21