College Bowl Preview (December 28-30)

With six bowl games being played in the next three days from Shreveport to Boise, the next three days will provide college football fans with plenty of excitement. Two bowls (Holiday, Champs Sports) boast games between ranked opponents. Other games will showcase great talents like Case Keenum and Freddie Barnes who are not familiar names to the casual fan but will be at the end of their respective bowl games. So, here are the predictions:

Tuesday, December 28
Independence Bowl (Shreveport, LA, 5:00, ESPN2)
Texas A&M v. Georgia
Mark Richt's Bulldogs have struggled this season and were relegated to a trip to Shreveport instead of Tampa or Atlanta. The Bulldogs do have some momentum going into Shreveport after beating Georgia Tech in their final game of the regular season, 30-24. The Aggies are lead by an exciting playmaker in QB Jerrod Johnson, who threw for 342 yards and ran for 97 more in the almost upset of Texas on Thanksgiving.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Jerrod Johnson, QB, Texas A&M
PREDICTION: Texas A&M 34, Georgia 16


Wednesday, December 29
EagleBank Bowl (Washington, DC, 4:30, ESPN)
UCLA v. Temple
Temple is in its first bowl game since the 1979 Garden State Bowl. UCLA got into this bowl by an Army loss to Navy. Temple will have tons more motivation to win than the Bruins. Al Golden has done a tremendous job with the Owls football program and Rick Neuheisel is getting there with the Bruins. But, the Bruins are making their first East Coast trip since 1998 and will not be motivated to play in a game that they should not deserve to be in.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Bernard Pierce, RB, Temple
PREDICTION: Temple 20, UCLA 6


Champs Sports Bowl (Orlando, 8:00, ESPN)
(15) Miami v. (25) Wisconsin
In the first of two ranked matchups to end the decade, the Hurricanes should have no problem sending the Badgers back to Madison with a loss as long as their run defense stops RB John Clay,who has run for 16 touchdowns this season. Hurricanes' QB Jacory Harris will look to this game to be a springboard into the offseason and into next year in which he could be a Heisman contender.
PLAYER TO WATCH: John Clay, RB, Wisconsin
PREDICTION: Miami 26-23


Wednesday, December 30
Humanitarian Bowl (Boise, 4:30, ESPN)
Bowling Green v. Idaho
The Vandals have the home state advantage and will travel well with a little above 300 miles to travel. To win the game for the home fans from Moscow, the Vandals need travel well against WR Freddie Barnes, who is third in the nation in receiving. QB Tyler Sheehan will have connect with Barnes just like the first 138 times they have this season for the Falcons to pull off the win.
Player to Watch: Freddie Barnes, WR, Bowling Green
Prediction: Bowling Green 45, Idaho 35


Holiday Bowl (San Diego, 8:00, ESPN)
(20) Arizona v. (22) Nebraska
Both teams almost won their respective conferences but losses to Oregon and Texas put them in San Diego in what should be the best matchup before the new year begins. Mike Stoops has probably tapped into his brother Bob's gameplan on how to try and stop Ndamukong Suh from dominating the game. The Arizona coach should not focus on that but the inability of the Huskers' offense to score. If Arizona's offense is able to score 20 points they should beat the Huskers but Nebraska has had almost a month to gameplan against the spread offense of the Wildcats and this game should be a defensive struggle.
Player to Watch: Alex Henery, K/P, Nebraska
Prediction: Nebraska 17, Arizona 13