Sun Bowl Free Pick: South Florida -6.0 (-105)
Monday Dec 31 ‘07 2:00p
The Sun Bowl is by no means the venue either of these clubs felt they’d be this bowl season. Each at one point was ranked the #2 team in the country, yet each failed to hold onto that spot the following week. South Florida saw its hopes squashed when they paid Rutgers a visit and lost by a 30-27 final count in a wild and wacky contest. Oregon’s hopes to play in the National Championship were all but squashed in the desert when QB Dennis Dixon ripped apart his knee, and the Ducks went on to get embarrassed for the second year in a row to Arizona.Still, it was a very successful campaign for the SFL Bulls who won nine games for the second time under the watchful eye of Head Coach Jim Leavitt. A win here would give them double-digit wins for the first time in the programs history. QB Matt Grothe opened up many people’s eyes with his efforts throughout the regular season. He’s a dual threat that threw for 2473 yards with a TD/INT ratio of 13/12, and he also rushed for 850 yards and hit pay dirt 10 times. The offense exploded this season with him at the helm as the 36 PPG they averaged this season was 13-points higher than their average of a year ago.

If only Dixon didn’t hurt himself….you’ll hear that a lot from the Duck faithful, but you do have to ask yourself what might have been if he didn’t screw his knee up against ASU on to have Arizona finish the job off. Their lone loss up until that point was against Cal in a game they handed away, and with the Top 10 in the polls changing on a weekly basis, they had an excellent opportunity to play in the BCS Championship Game with games against UCLA and Oregon State only left on the docket.

I question the Ducks mindset here greatly whereas South Florida is still looking to build the foundation of its young program that only started playing D1 A ball back in 2001. Lay the points…..

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