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Sunday Morning Quarterback

Sunday Morning Quarterback

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

SMQ BOWL BLITZ: TO WATCH OR NOT TO WATCH?
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GMAC Bowl: It's progress, at least, when your game's title doesn't have to tell people where it's being played anymore...

Mobile rolls out its recently dry cleaned and only slightly frayed red carpet for one of its two big national postseason appearances (the other, of course, is the very important Senior Bowl). Fun Mobile football-related drinking game: down one shot for every ESPN cut-away and intro featuring the U.S.S. Alabama in Mobile Bay.

Who: Toledo (8-3) vs. Texas-El Paso (8-3)
Where: Oft-visited SMQ haunt Ladd-Peebles Stadium, fiberglass bleacher monster of Mobile, Alabama. Also the home of the Senior Bowl and the annual Mississippi-Alabama High School All-Star Game, and site of a tale involving a game program, a hotel elevator, a small town cheerleader and an immature SMQ which resonates with high school friends nearly a decade hence.
Watch Because: The GMAC has a history of thrills: the outrageous, lord have mercy comeback by Marshall in 2001, the breaking news that John L. Smith was bailing on Louisville during halftime of the Cards' 2002 beatdown at the hands of the Thundering Herd and SMQ's own Golden Eagles' last second triumph over TCU way back in 2000. The game's also featured some major studs: namely, LaDainian Tomlinson, Byron Leftwich, Ben Roethlisberger and DeAngelo Williams, to keep it short. Bruce Gradkowski and Jordan Palmer are good quarterbacks in high powered offenses, so they say.
Don't Watch Because: You really haven't seen a team from the MAC or C-USA all year, and what's the point in starting now? Neither of these mid-season championship favorites was even good enough to finish the job in its watered-down, mediocre league. Plus one of the coaches is disturbingly, Mangino/Majerus-level fat. The other is an alleged pervert.
What Else is On: You have no life. But the GMAC Bowl isn't your only option to fill the void eroding your inner soul:
CBS, 7 p.m. CST - A Home For the Holidays
60 mins. The seventh annual event to raise awareness for adoption. Performers include Yolanda Adams ("I Believe I Can Fly"), Sheryl Crow ("Always On Your Side"), The Goo Goo Dolls ("Better Days"), Jesse McCartney ("Beautiful Soul") and Kelly Rowland ("Do You Hear What I Hear?"). Also appearing are Jamie Lee Curtis, Darryl Hannah, George Lopez, Virginia Madsen and Victoria Rowell.

Food Network, 8 p.m. CST - Behind The Bash: Fantasy Zoo Wedding
30 mins. A wedding is held at the Santa Barbara Zoo. The menu include watermelon-and-beet soup; heirloom-tomato salad; and a "chocolate fondue fountain."

Arts & Entertainment, 8:30 p.m. CST - Inked: The Trouble With Quinn
30 mins. Quinn's behavior disturbs Monica, and a rumor spreads that Quinn will be fired. Also, Monica has a car accident.

The History Channel, 9 p.m. CST - Giganto: The Real King Kong
The history of gigantopithecus, a pre-historic ape-like creature, examines the myths that arose from its discovery.







Another generic bowl game featuring mid-major runners up...or this dude?
Watchability Rating (click here for the SMQ Watchability Scale): This is more than a passable mid-week highlight, pitting two teams which each actually led their respective conferences in winning percentage, yet failed to secure a championship game spot. This conselation prize should be reward enough for coming close...until, say, the middle of the second quarter.





SMQ's Pick: Points, baby, score score score! Toledo 42, UTEP 36

THURSDAY: SMQ looks westward for the highly-anticipated Poinsettia and Las Vegas Bowls.
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e-mail Sunday Morning Quarterback at sundaymorningqb@yahoo.com

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PREVIOUSLY FROM SMQ:

2006 Preview
Anatomy of an Underdog
BlogPoll: 1-10/11-25/Roundtable
The ACC
The Big Ten
The Big XII
The Sun Belt

Running Departments
The Rap Sheet
July 29/Aug. 1/Aug. 9/Aug. 16/Aug.19/Aug. 25/Sept. 28/Oct. 4/Oct. 5/Oct. 18/Oct. 26/Nov. 2/Nov. 7/Nov. 8/Nov. 28/Dec. 2/Dec. 8/ Dec. 11/Dec. 18/Dec. 21/Feb. 6/Feb. 10/April 7/April 14/April 21/April 29/May 6/May 12/May 19/May 26/June 2/June 10/June 16/June 24/June 30/July 8/Aug. 4

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SMQ-APPROVED
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PAGES
News from the Big Guys
ESPN/ College Football News Wire
Sports Illustrated
FOX
CBS Sportsline
USA Today
Opinion: Columnists and bloggers
Around the Oval (Ohio State)
Badger Sports (Wisconsin)
The Blue-Gray Sky (Notre Dame)
Block U (Utah)
BoiFromTroy (Southern Cal)
Bruins Nation (UCLA)
Burnt Orange Nation (Texas)
The Corporate Headquarters of the San Antonio Gunslingers
Dave Sez (Virginia)
Dawg Sports (Georgia)
ESPN: Ivan Maisel/Pat Forde
Every Day Should Be Saturday (Florida)
FOX: Pete Fiutak
Golden Tornado (Georgia Tech)
Heisman Pundit
I'm a Realist (Georgia)
Journalism is for Rock Stars (Alabama)
Mark May Be Wrong
MDG CFB (Fresno State)
Mountain Lair (West Virginia)
MGOBlog (Michigan)
Orange::44 (Syracuse)
Paradigm Blog (Michigan)
Paul Westerdawg (Georgia)
Pitch Right (Navy)
Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (Alabammer)
Section Six
Sexy Results (Virginia)
SI: Stewart Mandel/John Walters
Sporting Fools (Florida State)
Straight Bangin' (Michigan)
Texas A&M and Baseball, In No Particular Order (Texas A&M)
The 614 (Ohio State)
The House That Rock Built (Notre Dame)
The Sporting Gnomes (Clemson)
Tiger Pundit (Clemson)
We Must Ignite This Couch (West Virginia)
The Wizard of Odds

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The Blog Poll

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WANNA DO SOME RESEARCH? NERD! HERE'S SOME QUICK REFERENCES:

College Football Data Warehouse
College Football Research Center
College Football News
cfbstats.com
Football Commentary
THE STANDINGS
THE POLLS

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Passing
Receiving
All-Purpose
Scoring
Tackles
Sacks
Interceptions
Tackles For Loss
Field Goals
Punting
Kickoff Returns
Punt Returns
TEAM STATISTICS
Rushing Offense
Passing Offense
Total Offense
Scoring Offense
Rushing Defense
Passing Defense
Total Defense
Scoring Defense
Turnover Margin

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Past Seasons
2005
Thursday Morning Quarterback
Sept. 29/Oct. 6/Oct. 20/Oct. 27/Nov. 3/Nov. 10/Nov. 17/Nov. 24/Dec. 1
Sunday Morning Quarterback
Oct. 2/Oct. 23/Oct. 30/Nov. 6/Nov. 13/Nov. 27
Stat Relevance Watch
Part One/Part Two/Part Three
SMQ Bowl Blitz
New Orleans/GMAC/Las Vegas/Poinsettia/Motor City

SMQ's [Hurricane-Abbreviated] 2005 Preview
Top 25 Countdown/Methodology
All-America Team
ACC
BIG EAST
BIG TEN
BIG XII