The bowl season kicks off tomorrow with the UAB Blazers and the Troy Trojans in action in the morning and afternoon games respectively. Florida plays Saturday in the Las Vegas Bowl. A lot of games in the next 3 1/2 weeks, culminated by the National Championship Game Monday, January 9, 2023 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, just outside of Los Angeles, where the LA Rams and LA Chargers play. The Championship game kicks off at 6:30 PM CT. The Playoff Semifinal Games feature No.2 Michigan vs No.3 TCU at the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, AZ. Saturday, Dec. 31 at 3 PM CT on ESPN. The second semifinal on Saturday, Dec. 31, features No.1 Georgia vs No.4 Ohio State in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the Peach Bowl. Kickoff is at 7 PM CT. All 3 games will be televised by ESPN. The No.5 Crimson Tide is in the unfamiliar position as they are not in the Playoff. The Tide will square off with No.9 Kansas State in the Sugar Bowl, Saturday, Dec. 31st at noon on ESPN. Kansas State won the Big 12 Championship Game over TCU in an electric overtime victory. We’ll see if Bryce Young and Will Anderson will play. They just received their degrees, which is awesome, and they’re great kids, so they could surprise and play. May be unlikely though. The Auburn Tigers and new coach Hugh Freeze are recruiting trying to land a successful 2023 recruiting class. The first and most important signing day is next Wednesday, 12/21. The Crimson Tide has the No.1 class in the country with 3, 5 stars and two highly rated 4 star quarterbacks. Bryce Young, projected to be the No.1 pick in the NFL Draft in April, will need to be replaced. The Tide also has Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson on the roster. Milroe, has played some including starting the Texas A&M game, and can really run, but needs to work on his passing. Simpson is an unknown but is s 5 star recruit from the 2022 class. Milroe was a 4 star in 2021. Interesting scenarios for the Crimson Tide when they play Kansas State. Should be a nice matchup.

Here’s a look at the weekend’s action with the 3 most important games for people in this region.

Last time, Championship Games, 6-2, Overall, Record, 156-60, 72%, ATS, 6-2, 113-100, 53%

Last year in Bowls. 11-9, ATS, 12-8.

Friday

Bahamas Bowl

UAB (6-6) vs. Miami Ohio (6-6)

Thomas A,. Robinson Stadium, Nassau, Bahamas

10:30 AM CT

ESPN

Steve Levy, Joseph Galloway, Kris Budden

Laundry, Mountain West, Lead Yella, Tim Davis

Blazers by 11

Nice trip for the Blazers. Second time in 3 years. UAB interim coach Bryant Vincent will coach his final game as head coach of the Blazers. Good guy, did a fine job. UAB is looking for bigger things though. They hired Trent Dilfer two weeks and there’s a lot of excitement about Dilfer on the Southside. He’s been a successful high school head coach leading Lipscomb Academy in Nashville to two straight Division 2, Class 2A state championships with a 13-1 record in 2021 and 13-0 this past season. We’ll see if that translates to the collegiate level. Certainly an out of the box hire by UAB Athletics Director Mark Ingram. For this game, UAB will rely on its prolific running game led by DeWayne McBride, 1,713 yards, 19 TDs, and Jermaine Brown, 832 yards, 6 TDs, to capture the Bahamas Bowl title. I like the Blazers to do that and gain momentum for the Dilfer era that begins in 2023, after his recruiting class is finalized.

UAB 34, Miami Ohio 21

Cure Bowl

No. 24 Troy (11-2) vs No.25 UTSA (11-2)

Exploria Stadium, Orlando

2 PM CT

ESPN

Beth Mowins, Kirk Morrison, Stormy Buonantony

Suds and Duds, Mountain West, Christian Watkins

Troy by 1 1/2

One of the top games of the “regular bowl” season. Two excellent teams. Troy, under first year coach Jon Sumrall, went 8-1 in the Fun Belt losing its only game to an always good at home App State team. They also were highly competitive with Ole Miss in the first game of the year falling 28-10 to the Rebels. Running back Kimani Vidal rushed for 1,059 yards and 9 TDs. DK Billingsley added 656 yards and 8 TDs. Quarterback Gunnar Watson completed 62% of his passes, 193-of-212, for 2,705 yards, 13 TDs and 10 ints. So Watson will have to watch out for the ints. UTSA (Texas-San Antonio) went 9-0 in Conference USA play. It’s only losses came to Houston, 37-35, in triple overtime the first game of the season, and 41-20 to Texas. Otherwise, they were flawless. Quarterback Frank Harris is superb. He completed 305-of-429 passes, 71 percent, for 3,865 yards, 31 TDs against 7 ints.

I’m expecting a classic here. Troy will survive a hard-nosed, exciting football game.

Troy 31, UTSA 28

Saturday

Las Vegas Bowl

Florida (6-6) vs. No. 14 Oregon State (9-3)

Allegiant Stadium, Vegas

1:30 PM CT

ESPN

Dave Pasch, Kirk, Pat McAfee, Laura Rutledge

Mark’s Cleaners, ACC, Riley Johnson

Oregon State by 10

Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson is opting out to get ready for the NFL Draft. Here we go again. There are a few others who are opting out for the Gators. The Gators will turn to Ohio State transfer Jack Miller III under center. Miller hasn’t thrown a collegiate pass, but had superb numbers in high school but just couldn’t break through at Ohio State with C.J. Stroud locking down the starting job the last two years. He threw for 56 TDs his freshman season in high school in Scottsdale, AZ. He put up prolific numbers in the ensuing years. He’ll have to make some plays in the passing game for the Gators to be successful. Oregon State is a running team mainly. Quarterback Ben Gulbranson completed 100 of 176 passes, 62 percent for 1,290 yards, 8 TDs against 5 ints. Running back Damien Martinez rushed for 970 yards and 7 TDs. Deshaun Fenwick added 446 yards and 7 TDs. Florida will rely on running backs Montrell Johnson (827 yards, 10 TDs) and Trevor Etienne (705 yards, 6 TDs) to help Miller in the passing game.

I’m going to take the upset here.

Florida 34, Oregon State 31