The Orlando bowl games are getting announced Sunday and will feature two marquee programs as the Florida Gators will face Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.
The Florida Gators will play the Michigan Wolverines in a marquee matchup of traditionally powerful programs in the Jan. 1 Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, Florida Citrus Sports announced.
Baylor will play North Carolina in the Russell Athletic Bowl on Dec. 29 in a matchup of two high-powered offenses (albeit trending in different directions).
The Sun Belt Conference announced Georgia State would be headed to Orlando on Dec. 19 for the inaugural AutoNation Cure Bowl. The 5-7 San Jose Spartans will travel cross country to play the Panthers.
The Florida-Michigan game will undoubtedly steal all the headlines for the Orlando bowl games. The two teams last played each other in the 2008 Capital One Bowl where Michigan upset the Tim Tebow-led Florida squad between its two national championships.
A lot has changed for both teams since the Wolverines carried Lloyd Carr off the field in victory.
Michigan has gone through three coaches before hiring Jim Harbaugh this year. Both Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke failed to stoke sustained success or the kind of buzz Harbaugh has for the Wolverines faithful.
Florida too has gone through plenty of transition since then. Will Muschamp took over for Urban Meyer and the team struggled for consistency, missing a bowl game in 2013 for the first time since the late 1980s. They hired Jim McElwain and shocked many by winning the SEC East this year.
Both teams though have had their struggles this year and are built on strong defenses. According to Football Outsiders’ S&P+ ratings, Michigan has the second best defense in the country and Florida the fifth.
More notably, Florida’s offense has struggled of late and this could be a game where it becomes which offense cracks these two elite defenses first.
The Russell Athletic Bowl will have the exact opposite problem. The bowl game will pit Baylor against North Carolina, two teams that have had no problem scoring this year.
The Tar Heels have the 11th best scoring offense in the nation with 40.9 points per game and the Bears are first with 48.0 points per game.
North Carolina quarterback Marquise Williams had 2,829 yards passing with 21 touchdowns to go with 867 rushing yards and 11 rushing touchdowns. Receiver Mack Hollins caught eight of those touchdown passes. And North Carolina had a 1,000-yard rusher in Elijah Hood.
North Carolina surprised many by winning its division to reach the ACC Championship Game. The Tar Heels might have a legitimate beef not getting to the New Years Six even after Saturday’s loss.
Baylor was part of the College Football Playoff picture for much of the season. Injuries at quarterback though slowed Baylor’s offense some.
Both Seth Russell (2,104 passing yards, 24 touchdowns) and Jarrett Stidham (1,265 passing yards, 12 touchdowns) were out Saturday with injuries as Chris Johnson took over. That was before he suffered an injury and Baylor had to play Texas without a quarterback. The Bears still nearly defeated the Longhorns.
If one of those quarterback could get healthy before the Russell Athletic Bowl, the fireworks could fly as there should be a lot of offense in this game.
The inaugural Cure Bowl had some luster taken from it with the necessity to bring in a 5-7 team in San Jose State. Still, for two mid-major conference teams, this should provide an intriguing matchup.
Georgia State needed a win over rival Georgia Southern in the final week of the season to reach bowl eligibility. The Panthers are the opposite of their rivals, the Eagles. They throw the ball.
Nick Arbuckle threw for 4,160 yards and 26 touchdowns with Penny Hart and Robert Davis each eclipsing 800 yards receiving.
Georgia State’s defense had a tough time all year and San Jose State could continue to give some problems.
The Spartans this year scored about as many points as they gave up. They rely more on their ground game with Tyler Ervin rushing for 1,469 yards and 13 touchdowns for San Jose State in its five-win season.
San Jose State beat bowl-bound New Mexico behind Ervin’s 260-yard rushing day.
This is a clash of contrasting styles for sure and should make for an exciting early bowl season game at the Citrus Bowl.
In all, Orlando should get three competitive bowl games for its holiday calendar. The Russell Athletic and Cure Bowls will have plenty of offense to go around for what should be a classic slobber-knocker of two talented, storied programs in the Citrus Bowl.
