Oregon State generated the biggest one-year turnaround in school history and could secure its third 10-win season by beating Texas in the Alamo Bowl tonight.
The Longhorns? They are trying to reverse a three-year slide from the days when 10 wins were just a footnote on the way to BCS bowls.
Beating the 15th-ranked Beavers (9-3) would be another baby step back to the elite for Mack Brown and company, with still a long way to go. Texas (8-4) followed a loss to Alabama in the 2009 BCS Championship Game with a shocking 5-7 record — the only losing season in 15 under Brown — and an 8-5 mark last year that included a Holiday Bowl win over Cal.
Lose to Oregon State, and the Longhorns will have a second straight eight-win season and a long offseason to think about a three-game losing streak, too.
“I think that at Texas we want to be 13-0,” Brown said. “The standards are higher than eight, and that’s what the kids need to understand and our coaches do understand. And we are ready to take that next step and get it back to where it should be.”
Mike Riley has had to do a little rebuilding of his own after leading the Beavers to 10 wins in 2006 and three more winning seasons after that. Oregon State matched Texas at 5-7 in 2010, then slipped to 3-9 a year ago.
Quarterbacks Cody Vaz and Sean Mannion split the snaps in the Beavers’ finale against Nicholls State (a 77-3 win) after injuries led to both being starters during the season. Riley picked Vaz, a former receiver who has 11 touchdowns and just one interception, to start against the Longhorns.
“It’s been a hard decision,” offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf said. “It’s probably been more difficult on the two kids. They have been kind of flip-flopping back and forth. But I think our team understands that there’s two guys that can go out and win a game.”
Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
After a middle-of-the-pack finish in its first season in the Big 12, TCU will get the chance to prove something against Michigan State tonight in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.
It figures to be as tough a task as anything the Horned Frogs (7-5) faced in the Big 12, at least from a defensive standpoint.
Instead of the quick-and-athletic defenses TCU faced in its first season in the Big 12, the Spartans (6-6) are big, physical and love to knock opponents around.
Michigan State finished the regular season with the nation’s fourth-best defense, giving up 273.25 yards per game, and was 10th in scoring, allowing 16.33 points.
Armed Forces Bowl
Air Force (6-6) makes its school-record sixth consecutive bowl appearance today in Fort Worth, Texas, against Rice (6-6) of Conference USA in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Coach Troy Calhoun’s first season ended with a loss to California in the 2007 Armed Forces Bowl, where the Falcons played three consecutive years before going to the Independence and Military bowls the last two years. They are back in Fort Worth after overcoming the loss of 17 senior starters from last season.
Even with the huge turnover in the starting lineup, the Falcons still do well what they have for so long. They run. Air Force is second nationally with 329 yards rushing per game, and won against Hawaii — the victory that got them bowl eligible — without throwing a single pass.
Fight Hunger Bowl
Arizona State contends with a variety of offenses in the Pac-12 Conference.
From the Air Raid at Washington State to the power running game at Stanford to the pro styles at Southern California to the fast-paced option at Oregon.
None of that will prepare the Sun Devils (7-5) for what they will face today in San Francisco in the Fight Hunger Bowl when they take on Navy (8-4) and its vaunted triple-option running attack.