The Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas boasts the finest belt buckle-themed logo in all of college football.
The 2012 Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Bill Trocchi’s game preview.)
• Wait, we just had our bowl game in Charlotte. Not that Meineke Car Care Bowl. The title sponsorship has been moved to Houston and plopped onto the Texas Bowl, even going so far as to incorporate that game’s belt buckle logo. Was this game ever a Tangerine Bowl? It was not! Are you sure? Not really!
• Where will this game be played? Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans.
• When is it on television? Nightcap game! Coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, with Mark Jones, Brock Huard and Jessica Mendoza relaying the action. The game will also be streamed on WatchESPN.
• Whom does it feature? Big 12 versus Big Ten.
• What about this year? 7-5 Texas Tech versus 6-6 Minnesota. When was the last time Minnesota was in a bowl? Not as long ago as you might think, but this is the Gophers’ first appearance in a postseason contest that’s not the Insight Bowl since 2005. Minnesota played bowl games in Arizona in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Who’s coaching Texas Tech in the bowl game? Red Raiders offensive line coach Chris Thomsen is serving as interim head coach.
• No. 5 Oregon 48, No. 16 Oregon State 24. Despite the typically gaudy final score for the Ducks, this game was close well into the third quarter. Two De’Anthony Thomas touchdowns in just more than two minutes, separated by a Beavers fumble on a kickoff return, put the game out of reach. And Oregon being Oregon, the Ducks piled on just a bit, with Kenjon Barner and Marcus Mariota adding another pair of touchdowns around a second-down Sean Mannion interception. Turnovers completely hamstrung Oregon State this afternoon; the Beavers committed six in all, including three interceptions that killed off three of their four final drives.
While the Ducks’ most memorable defensive plays occurred in the air, their offensive attack was confined largely to the ground. Mariota completed 17-of-24 attempts for 139 yards and a touchdown and rushed for an additional 85 yards and a score. The best of these: a 42-yard touchdown run just more than two minutes into the first quarter. Ahead of him in rushing: Barner, with 221 yards and two scores on 29 carries, and Thomas, with 122 yards and three scores on 17 attempts.
Assorted bests from college football’s weekend that was.
• Play of the week, offense and defense at the same time. Johnny Manziel, handing off to Christine Michael AND making a tackle. Johnny Manziel is a 7-on-7 team of his own design. We saw this happen in person and still didn’t quite believe it:
• Play of the week, miscellaneous. There’s something almost whimsical about the way this Minnesota helmet logo flutters away from the scene of a collision.
Rashad Greene and other FSU return men, beware! Clemson’s long snappers will haunt you once every two years! (AP)
• A very specific part of the Clemson-Florida State series is haunted. We must share this email we received from Clemson sports information, because it’s too wacky not to pass along: “Clemson long snapper Phillip Fajgenbaum recovered a Florida State punt fumble in the first half. It set up a Clemson touchdown, helping the Tigers to a 21-14 lead at intermission. It was the first fumble recovery of Fajgenbaum’s career. What made it odd was that it marked the third straight trip to Tallahassee that a Clemson long snapper had recovered a Florida State fumble. And those are the only recovered fumbles by Clemson long snappers in the 21st Century. In 2010, Matt Skinner recovered a Florida State fumble on a punt return and in 2008 Charles Roediger accomplished the same feat.” Florida State special teams players of 2014: HEADS ON A SWIVEL.
• Other news of the weird in our inbox. Here’s a press release excerpt we bet the Big Ten didn’t count on writing this year: “Minnesota, Northwestern and Ohio State carry unblemished records into the beginning of conference play following wins last weekend…”
• Hey, Harvey Updyke’s back! “Updyke ran into trouble again last week when attempting to return a lawnmower to a national home improvement store in Hammond.” Harvey Updyke’s post-treeslaying life is going about how you’d expect.
Perhaps voters merely admired Bret Bielema’s timely icing of Utah State’s kicker to seal a win over the WAC. Yes. They must have. (AP)
• Down in a poll. Feelin’ so small. Alabama and LSU perch atop the AP Poll. This, for the moment, does not worry us. They will play each other and this will sort itself out for real this time and we continue to believe we will not be subjected to a re-rematch. We must believe. Of greater concern for us, as usual, is what is going on in the bottoms of this exercise in folly we, as a society, continue to refer to as the “Coaches’ Poll.” Wisconsin is ranked. This is problematic and dumb. There are a dozen other stupidities lurking behind this link; can you spot them all?
• Get those Lorax costumes pressed. We’re just a couple short weeks away from the restart of the Harvey Updyke trial, and while from an entertainment standpoint we truly resent this being staged during football season, it’s probably best to get it over with while the whole state’s distracted with football good and football bad.
• Mark Richt, refined meanie. Folks ask us sometimes if we miss cussing a blue streak on the job. We do not, because there are ways to make one’s point without uttering so much as a “consarnit” if you really work at it. It’s like writing poetry with a very strict verse structure. Consider this, from Mark Richt on Sunday, on the subject of Week 4 UGA opponent Vanderbilt: “They have a lot of belief, and they’re playing to win it. They’re doing a good job of it.” The Commodores (1-2) recorded their first win of the season Saturday against Presbyterian, after losing in consecutive weeks to South Carolina and Northwestern.
• Important things first. We will get to the part featuring teams expected to finish with winning records and play in the postseason momentarily, but for right now, please just bask in the radioactive glow of a Kent State player recovering a fumble and taking it 58 yards in the wrong direction. The announcers aren’t really enjoying this thing as much as they should, so maybe mute this and have the same spirited discussion with your coworkers that we had in our living room last night: Who’s the best/worst here? Andre Parker, the disoriented runner? The Towson players who tackled him even though a muffed punt can’t be returned (even in the wrong direction)? Or Parker’s Kent State teammates blocking for his wrongward journey? We love all three equally. We missed you, MACtion. (Kent State did manage a win, 41-21.)
• No. 9 South Carolina 17, Vanderbilt 13. The 2009 South Carolina-NC State 7-3 slog remains our gold standard for queasy Thursday night openers, but this game was a valiant attempt to carry on that legacy. Andy Staples was on the scene, and writes from Nashville: “Did South Carolina look like a top-10 team in its 17-13 win at Vanderbilt? Not even close. Did the Gamecocks look like a team capable of competing for an SEC — and, using a logical leap informed by the results of the past six years, the national — title? Nope. Did South Carolina leave Vanderbilt Stadium 1-0 overall and 1-0 in the SEC East? Yes. For opening night, that’s enough.”
• BYU 30, Washington State 6. We expected Mike Leach’s unseasoned band to have a rough go of it in Provo. We did not expect Washington State to not be able to score a single touchdown. Stewart Mandel was there to take it all in: “The outcome shouldn’t be entirely surprising. BYU, perhaps unduly overlooked by preseason voters (the Cougars garnered just 10 points in the same Coaches’ Poll that ranked them 25th to end last season), trotted out a senior quarterback, Riley Nelson, who went 6-1 upon taking over the starting job last season, along with seven returning starters from a top 15 defense. Wazzu, nine years removed from its last bowl trip, started a senior quarterback, Jeff Tuel, who’s experienced seven wins in his career (most while injured on the sideline), and a defense that returned three of the front seven from last year’s 82nd-ranked unit.”
