Better Know a Bowl Game: R + L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Note: Yes, I know the game has already started. I am watching it. I started this earlier though, before the 2 1/2 hour hell-drive home, and want to get it posted.

Like you expected anything less…

Only one bowl on the schedule today:  The New Orleans Bowl, sponsored by R + L Carriers, a trucking and freight company best known for…sponsoring the New Orleans Bowl.

Kind of like this, only less cool. They have boats too, though. You like boats, right?

While a little older than the EagleBank and St. Petersburg Bowls, the New Orleans Bowl is still somewhat of a baby, having only been around since 2001. It is one of the few to directly and officially tie together football and religion (and crepes!), as the bowl held a “Gospel Brunch” this morning.

Two teams, as of tonight, hold the record for most appearances in this game. as Conference USA representative Southern Mississippi plays its fourth New Orleans Bowl tonight, it will tie North Texas for the record.

Southern Mississippi’s opponent this evening [er, right now] will be/is Middle Tennesse State, from the Sun Belt. This is the Sun Belt’s only guarantted bowl, though Troy will play on Jan. 6 in the GMAC bowl.

I picked Southern Miss to win this one, and right now it doesn’t look like that will change. They’re up 14-0 with no sign of letting up on their Sun Belt rivals.

No liveblog tonight, as I’m going to spend my time watching the game and celebrating not being hit by a truck on the way home. Or a convoy of them.

I may post updates on Twitter, though obviously without picture and video accompaniment. Should you need to sate your desire for New Orleans Bowl news, follow me at @Tmo87. Enjoy.

St. Petersburg Bowl (A Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Liveblog)

Things are already underway in St. Petersburg (thanks, Wyyoming, for screwing up my picks from the get-go and making me late for bowl 2), so I’ll just get right to it.

7:19: Rutgers already up by a score. Since it’s now a commercial, here’s some Irish music for you:

This liveblog is now 100% more Irish than Beef ‘O’ Brady’s. You’re welcome.

7:21: This Beef ‘O’ Brady’s commercial is a frighteningly accurate picture-representation of American obesity statistics (roughly half).

7:26 Apparently the best part about Hodges from UCF is that he’s studying forensics. This leads ESPN to believe he’s a fan of CSI. If real life were TV, ESPN, Tim Tebow really would be Jesus.

And so it begins…(New Mexico Bowl Liveblog)

Pregame:

The Setting: My living room. Piled with boxes of books and records. A lone futon against the wall and a Walmart coffee table between the futon and 27in television from the Clinton-era. In order to better survive this experiment I’ve created a no drinking before the 6 p.m. games rule, so I’m doing this one WoW-nerd style, with Mountain Dew and cheese popcorn. Yes, I am alone.

The game: The New Mexico Bowl, featuring Fresno State and Wyoming. It would appear that this one is going to be all Fresno. We’ll see.

As I get ready to truly get into the heart of this experiment, I’m not sure how I feel. Watching two football games today doesn’t seem like it will be a big strain, and there’s only today and tomorrow before the first day off. But, as I look at the schedule around New Year’s, I am certain of one thing: I am probably going to die.

That’s a long time off, however, and right now I’m ready to get this thing started. Stay tuned here as I liveblog the New Mexico Bowl, including game updates, thoughts on the experiment, and other eccentri.

It’s going to be a long ass ride, but hopefully a worthwhile one.

Terrible Restaurant Bowl I: St. Petersburg Edition

As a part of this experiment, I will be posting previews of each and every bowl. Since I will be making my picks in separate posts, these will focus on the bowls themselves, with minimal notes about the teams in the games. Here is number two of 34.

Football. Florida. Fried Mozzarella.

No, it’s not the Outback Bowl. That’s a New Year’s festivity. No, kids, it’s the St. Petersburg Bowl. Presented by none other than Beef ‘O’ Brady’s.

What is Beef ‘O’ Brady’s, you ask? (I sure as hell asked) Why, it’s only the finest chain of Irish retaurants in all the fat parts of the United States! Except, they don’t appear to serve Irish food. In fact…

…that looks about as Irish as this:

Top o' the mornin' to ya, motherfuckers.

Essentially, it’s a TGI Friday’s that went to Ireland and only ate pizza. Or something. And I’m pretty sure that commercial is narrated by Guy Fieri in a fake Irish accent that makes Speedy Gonzalez sound not racist at all.

The New Meixco Bowl, sponsored by…

…no one.

Well, quite a few places, actually, but they’re mostly local entities who didn’t want to pony up the cash to slap their name on it. You would think that’s a shame, given all the free advertising that a company would receive, since this is the defacto kickoff of bowl season. Until you realize that not even ESPN, who is airing the thing and actually owns it, doesn’t even care about it and would rather spend all morning discussing the NFL and the MNC. So, I guess by default that makes the sponsor the state of New Mexico itself. According to YouTube, the video that best represents New Mexico is, naturally, of Elizabeth Lambert trying to straight kill some Mormons, so here you go.

I bet Alford was behind this, that sneaky fuck.

Picks…1-10

Okay, so there are 14 picks here, but you get the idea

Outside of wanting Iowa to win, and hoping that the Big XI can manage to pull it together somewhat this year, I don’t really have a stake in many of these games. Nor do I have anything resembling a clue about some of them. Still, in the interest of sports-bloggery (and because I set a pick ‘em sheet on Yahoo) I decided to formulate picks for all of the games. Here are the first ten.

Note: I am horrible with the spread, even when I have a slight clue about what’s going on with the teams involved. So, I’m not going to deal with spreads. These are straight-up picks. Also, I’m not dealing with confidence rankings. Anyone not affiliated with Ohio or Marshall (having seen We Are Marshall doesn’t count) cannot reasonably pick such a game with any degree of confidence.

Without further ado, here are my first 10 picks (in bold), with reasoning/mockery included. All times Central.

#1: Dec. 19, 3:30 p.m.: The New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State vs. Wyoming)

Reason: Fresno damn near beat Wisconsin, made it look decent against Cincy, and their lineman caught a 2-pt. conversion against Illinois. Wyoming lost to Colorado. I’d say that about seals it for the Bulldogs.

#2: Dec. 19, 7 p.m. The St. Petersburg Bowl, presented by Beef ‘O’ Bradys (UCF vs. Rutgers)

Reason: Honestly, I couldn’t give less of a fuck about this bowl. It’s amusing because their sponsor makes the Outback Steakhouse look like Ruth’s Chris, but other than that I don’t care. Rutgers used to have Ray Rice, and UCF generally fields 22 starters. That pretty much covers my knowledge of this game. So, Rutgers, I guess.

#3: Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m.: R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee)

Reason: A 7-5 C-USA team against a 9-5 Sun Belt Team. Siding with the 7-5 C-USA team solely on the basis of them being the favorites.

A man. A mission. A blog.

First, the man.

I’m a writer and college student by day. Sports fan by day and night.

I wasn’t raised in a sports-dominated household like most diehards are. My dad has been a lifelong fan of the Celtics and Patriots, and the Iowa Hawkeyes – though, to my knowledge, he has never actually been to Boston and he never attended the University of Iowa. My mom picked the losing end of the 1998 home run race (and baseball life in general, it seems), and has remained a stoic supporter of baseball’s most disappointing team ever since. I was a mediocre little leaguer, known only for my ability to be hit by pitches and turn triples into doubles with my turtle-esque running.

I was never much of a sports fan until college. I didn’t have any allegiances to teams handed down to me by my parents, and never really wanted to watch sports, unless The Mighty Ducks counts. I was always more likely to have my nose shoved in a book or to watch movies and play video games instead. I watched the Super Bowl every year, saw the I-Cubs often, and would catch various games from time to time, but I was never really hooked.

My general apathy towards the sporting world continued until I reached college here at the University of Iowa. Cheap football tickets, coupled with several programs that seemed on the up-and-up got me started. After a disappointing first two years of football (Western Michigan? Really?) my faith in my school started to wane. We’re not even going to discuss basketball. Despite that, my love of sports increased. I kept up with the media, began watching more and more games of all varieties, and even spent a year covering high school sports for a small town paper.

Thus far, 2008 and 2009 have been my best years as a sports fan, because they’ve been the only truly significant ones. As such, my journey as a sports fan hasn’t been all that exciting. Until now.