Phil Steele crunched the numbers and determined just how good the teams were that won the two major Orlando bowl games. They were among the best.
Phil Steele has become a guru of college football predictions and analysis. His magazine is almost the bible for college football aficionados — he believed in UCF to make a bowl game this year, at least.
When he crunches his numbers, you tend to pay attention.
His latest analysis looked at the bowl games to determine which games featured the best team performances. Both the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl and Russell Athletic Bowl had two of the very best.
Baylor’s astonishing win over North Carolina at the Russell Athletic Bowl was the third best team performance of the bowl season, trailing only Clemson’s win over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and Boise State’s win over Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl.
The Bears were down three quarterbacks and so elected to go with a complete run-option offense and ran up North Carolina’s defense in impressive and record-breaking fashion. The team set the bowl record for rushing yards in a game.
Michigan’s blowout win over Florida in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl was the eighth best team performance, according to Steele.
The Wolverines’ dismantling of the Gators’ defense was extremely impressive overall. Michigan scored 34 unanswered points and just got whatever it wanted with Jake Rudock leading the charge.
There was a ton of attention and interest on the game both locally and nationally. And the Wolverines put on a show.
Overall Orlando’s bowl games, while not too competitive at the end, were still incredibly entertaining. The record performance and the resurgence of Michigan proved to be great storylines that brought attention to these games and the Orlando area.
