The Vegas prognosticators like Boise State by more than a touchdown, but I suspect it will be closer than that. My guess is that Tulsa will keep close all night long, but Boise should probably win this one with both teams scoring in the 20s.
Why yes, that is what I wrote yesterday shortly before kickoff. And my prediction looked silly for a while in the first half, when after each picking up a defensive stop, both teams unleashed their powerful offenses and we went from 0-0 to 15-14 in four drives. Tulsa’s big play offense was electric last night, but they struggled to get any consistency, which is what doomed them in the end. Their defense played, for the most part, a bend-but-don’t-break game, but it wasn’t quite enough in the end. Tulsa had their chances late, but wasn’t able to get the job done when things got hectic inside a minute to play.
Today, I’ll be cranking out my column over at the Phoenix Pub, which I’m fired up about. The first things that came across twitter last night after the game was the notion “Alabama would crush this Boise State team, obviously.” I declare that to be crap, and will expound on it in detail, hopefully around 10:30. Once that’s done, I’ve got another batch of report cards for you, hopefully about every hour through the afternoon. Should be a fun day on the Fringe, with a lot to look forward to in the next four days.
Finally, it’s not a Fringe game since they both moved out of C-USA in2005, but I am earnestly rooting for the Bearcats tonight. USF happens to be my least favorite program in the history of sports. I would root for the USSR to beat the USA before I rooted for USF. But that’s just me. Enjoy the day, we’ll see you at the Pub in a couple hours.