Lesser Bowls Roundup

People like them. An annual event seems to be the bashing of all the lesser bowls. The loudest voices are who don't cover college football exclusively. But for your college football diehards and for the supporters of lesser bowl participants, the bowls are loved. The Motor City Bowl drew 60,624. The Liberty Bowl Drew 63,816. The Texes Bowl drew 62,097. The fact is these games are profitable and therefore will stick around. Additionally, they are a great opportunity to celebrate you school and have a good time. I found out first hand that the UConn fans really enjoyed themselves in Charlotte.

SEC Defense. Given that you can't turn around twice without being reminded of all the speed on SEC defense, you'd expect the conference to turn out some great defense efforts during the bowls. The reality is that you got a mixed bag out of SEC defenses. Mississippi State (5th in SEC total defense) held UCF to 219 yards, including only 119 to Kevin Smith. The Auburn defense (2) shut down one of the ACC's best offenses in Clemson (293 yards). Georgia (3) did an amazing job in holding Hawaii to 306 yards and 10 points. Tennessee (11) did a surprisingly good job in holding Wisconsin to 17 points. However, for the four good performances, there were four bad ones. Alabama (6) gave up 322 passing yards to Colorado and almost blew the game in the process. Kentucky (10) gave up 480 yards to an offensively challenged FSU squad. Arkansas (8) got embarrassed by giving up 38 points to Missouri and 281 rushing yards to Tony Temple (2nd best bowl effort ever). Florida's defense (7) struggled the most in giving up 524 yards to Michigan. Chad Henne went four season in the Big Ten without having a passing day like he did against the Gators, going for 373 yards.

Moutain West. The conference that has shown the best in the bowls is the Mountain West. They went 4-1 behind the strength of their defenses. Utah held Navy under their season averages in pulling out a tight win. New Mexico ended the nation's longest streak of not being shutout when they beat Nevada 23-0. TCU held C-USA's second best offense to 13 points. BYU held UCLA to 16 points. The Mountain West appears to play at level closer to the BCS conference, rather than their fellow mid major conferences.

Carr. The most memorable moment of the bowls so far involved Lloyd Carr's exit from his post at Michigan. In dramatic fashion Carr did something that he has struggled doing in the waining years of his career, win a bowl. With "Hail to Michigan" playing in the background, a teary eyed Carr closed the curtain on his career. The win will help put a much deserved positive spin on his legacy in Ann Arbor.