The Front Porch - Online Edition

Well, Bowl Season is officially over.  I could go on and on about the what if’s and might have been’s that plagued my picks, but then many of you suffered the same stories.  Whether it was your coach getting canned, your favorite player missing the game, a bad call from the ref or “insert your gripe here“, these are the ups and downs of the College Bowl System.  In the end, we hope you all had fun following the games with us and can’t wait to compete again next season.

For now, let’s breakdown our final standings.  In the Strong Rock Office Competition, Rebecca came out on top in our closest race in the history of the contest.  Rambo and Bacon gave it their best shot, but both came up a little short this year.  Rebecca finished at 20-14, Rambo at 19-15 and Bacon at 18-16.

The overall winner of our competition was camp friend Rick Reeves with an amazing 24-10 record.

In our top camper bracket, we had a 3-way tie for first place between Karina Papanicoalou, Collier Eberlin, and Allison Russell at 21-13.  To break the tie, we had to turn to the tie-breaker question, which put Karina in 1st, Collier 2nd and Allison 3rd.  All three of these ladies will win a gift certificate from the camp store this summer.

Our top staff winner this year was Nurse Jenny.  She also tied with the three mentioned above at 21-13.  Great job Jenny!  Peeps and Pivot finished a close second with a record of 20-14.

Here are the rest of the standings for those who finished tied or ahead of the lowest record in the office pool (Bacon 18-16).

(20 - 14) - Ryan Jimenez, Mike Caffrey, Sarah Collins, Cayla Doolittle, Derek Doolittle
(19-15) - Kelsey Weed, Daniel Jimenez, Paige Fierbaugh, Grits
(18-16) - Caitlin Weed, Cali Gaynor, Marie Baldwin

Notables - Last place in our contest is also a special place to be.  If you don’t place above the office staff, the only way to get mentioned is to finish last.  Holding that honor this season are 2 very special staffers - Jackie ‘Snaps’ Burch and Ben ‘Dill’ Helton.  Snaps doesn’t care at all since her Crimson Tide took home the title.  Dill is a little disappointed but as a UK Basketball fan he is already reveling in a great start to the basketball season.

Thanks again to all who participated.  Let’s do it again next year!!

Only 1 game last night as we had the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets match up against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Orange Bowl.  About 85% of us thought that Georgia Tech would come out on top in this game, but the Hawkeyes made the most of their time off to come up with quite a game plan.  Georgia Tech is known for their triple option offense and have proven throughout the season that they are for real.  But, I guess if a team like Iowa gets a full month to prepare for that threat, there are some great ways to stop it.  Iowa’s defense flat out smothered the Jackets who struggled to put any offensive points on the board.  I don’t think any of us saw the game going down this way, but anything can happen in Bowl Season.

Here is another update for you:

Rambo (18-14)
Bacon (17-15)
Rebecca (18-14)

Leader (22-10) - Rick Reeves
2nd Place (21-11) - Allison Russell
3rd Place (20-12) - Nurse Jenny
Notables - There are several of you bottled up in 4th place, so these final two games could be crucial.

Only a few games left in Bowl Season, so we are winding down the contest.  Lots of movement in the standings over the last week since there were so many games around New Years.  With only 3 games left, some of us are destined to lose.  But for the lucky few who are still in the race, here is an update of our standings.

Rambo (18-13)
Bacon (16-15)
Rebecca (18-13)

Leader (22-9) - Rick Reeves
2nd Place (20-11) - Allison Russell, Nurse Jenny
3rd Place (19-12) - Derek Doolittle, Cayla Doolittle, Collier Eberlin, Sarah Collins, Paige Fierbaugh
Notables - Former Staffer Ben “Dill” Helton has plummeted to the bottom of the standings.

Happy New Year!!

We had several more great football games today.  There were some great story lines as Bobby Bowden coached his last game, Tim Tebow played his last game, and of course all the drama surrounding coaches Urban Meyer and Brian Kelly.  We also saw coach Joe Paterno claim another Bowl victory as he continues to cement his legacy in the college football world.

To recap the games, let’s first look at Auburn / Northwestern.  Though almost all of us picked Auburn to win, it took a gutty effort and a little luck for the Tigers to pull off an Overtime win in the Outback Bowl.

Next we saw 2 coaching greats and 2 solid programs match up in the Capital One Bowl.  This slug-fest promised to be a good game and turned out to be no disappointment.  These teams ground it out in what looked like a mud pit in Orlando.  In the end Penn State won with a last minute field goal.

The Gator Bowl was a sentimental favorite as Coach Bowden was ushered out into the sunset with a great victory.  Like Florida State or not, most of us can at least respect what Bowden has meant to FSU and to the college football world.  It was great to see the Seminoles step it up and play well in this final farewell to Bowden.  FSU wins convincingly 33-21.

The Rose Bowl featured the high powered Oregon offense against the sensational Ohio State QB Terrell Pryor.  Oregon was hot at the end of the season and finished atop the Pac-10.  Given that momentum, most of us gave the Ducks the nod on this matchup.  However, the Sweater Vest and Pryor would not be denied on this day and took home the hardware in the “Granddaddy of Them All.”

Finally, in the only game that mattered (to Bacon), the Florida Gators met 12-0 Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.  Love them or hate them, you had to believe Tebow and the Gators would come out looking to make a statement in the final game for many Florida greats.  The Gators absolutely dominated the first half of this game taking a 30-3 lead into the locker room.  Things settled down a bit in the second half but Tebow put up the best game of his career and the Gators took care of business sending a strong message to the rest of the football world.  You have to hate it for Cincinnati losing their coach and their perfect season, but these guys held their heads up and played a respectful second half when many teams would have simply given up.  Great season for the Bearcats, but an even greater farewell to the Gator Seniors.

Here’s an update of our standings:

Rambo 14-11
Bacon 13-12
Rebecca 14-11

Leader (18-7) - Rick Reeves
2nd Place (16-9) - Paige Fierbaugh, Allison Russell
3rd Place (15-10) - Mike Caffrey, Karina Papanicoalou, Cayla Doolittle, Derek Doolittle, Pivot, Nurse Jenny
Notables - Snaps has officially claimed last place in the contest with an 8-17 record.  I have a feeling she’s disappointed but she won’t care a bit if her Crimson Tide Roll in the Championship Game.

Just two games today as we gear up for the New Year’s Eve / New Year’s Day bowl marathons.  One nail-biter and one blowout.

I honestly did not watch a whole lot of the Humanitarian Bowl, but I did have the pleasure of watching the last 2 minutes.  It was crazy.  First of all, both teams put up a lot of points in this matchup.  With less than a minute to go Bowling Green completed what appeared to be a game winning touchdown.  The extra point was good and they took a 7 point lead.  I pretty much conceded that I had lost this pick.  However, Idaho bounced right back and answered with a quick touchdown of their own.  With 4 seconds on the clock, the Vandals could kick the extra point to tie the game or go for 2 to win.  Idaho opted for the 2 point conversion and the win.  The attempt was successful to cap off an exhilirating 2 minutes of football.

The late game featured Nebraska and Arizona in the Holiday Bowl.  From the opening quarter, Nebraska came out ready to play and simply out-matched Arizona all night.  The Huskers defense stood out as expected, but the offense put up some impressive numbers as well.  Most all of us picked Nebraska, so this game pretty much went as expected.  I anticipated it would be closer, but the Corn Huskers decided to make quite a statement.

So, at the end of the night, here are our current standings:

Rambo - 8-7
Bacon 9-6
Rebecca 9-6

Leader (12-3) - Rick Reeves
2nd Place (10-5) - Paige Fierbaugh, Chris Jimenez, Allison Russell
3rd Place (9-6) - Kelsey Weed, Teressa Munday, Sarah Collins, Houston, Bennett Davidson, Maggie Davidson
Notables - The next 2 days should provide lots of movement.  Good luck to everyone.  BTW, Scuttle is up to 4 victories, so some might say she is making a comeback.

Well, there have been about 5 games since the last update, so we have a lot to catch up on.  I’ll keep it brief but try to bring everyone up to speed on the current status of the Bowl Picks Contest.

Clemson was the hands down favorite among the entries in our contest for the Music City Bowl.  It seems the Strong Rock Nation doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the football prowess of the Kentucky Wildcats.  Though this game was not as lopsided as you may have thought, the Tigers did come out on top with a solid victory and CJ Spiller had a great night in his final college game.

In the Independence Bowl predictions, we pretty much had a split with even a few Bulldog faithful choosing A&M.  However, Georgia showed up in a big way and seemed somewhat like a different team than we have seen all season.  The Bulldogs pulled away for a huge victory and sent many of us to bed with a blemish on our Bowl Picks.

In the sleeper Eagle Bank Bowl, most of you sided with Bacon and chose UCLA to come out on top.  It’s a good thing you did.  However, Temple gave a big scare as they took a 21 - 7 lead early in the game.  UCLA finally woke up and scored 23 unanswered points to take the victory.

Finally, in the Champs Sports Bowl, most of us chose Miami to come out on top.  This game was not as close as the final score indicates, but Miami did bring some last minute magic to give many of us some short-lived hope.  Wisconsin put huge pressure on the Miami quarterback all night and smothered the Miami offense.  Wisconsin played a solid game all around and probably should have won big, but a few key turnovers kept Miami in the game.  At the final buzzer though, the Badgers were able to take a knee to run out the clock.

With all that said, here are the current contest standings:

Rambo 7-6
Bacon 7-6
Rebecca 7-6

Leader (10-3) Rick Reeves - impressive record!
2nd Place (9-4) Paige Fierbaugh
3rd Place (8-5) Teressa Munday, Chris Jimenez, Allison Russell, Maggie Davidson
Notables Three campers are tied for last place at 2-11.  I’m happy to report that all of our staff have finally made it out of last place, though Scuttle is only 1 step ahead at 3-10.