BOWLNANZA!: The Gator Bowl

Georgia Tech (9-4) vs. #11 West Virginia (10-2)

Georgia Tech has the baddest man on the planet, wide receiver Calvin Johnson (67 rec, 1013 yards, 13 TD.) They have a quite underrated running back in Tashard Choice (1304 yards, 10 TD.) Heck, they even have the #20 defense in the country, both in scoring and yardage. So why are the Yellow Jackets 9-4? Quarterback Reggie Ball, who is inconsistently, ineffective most of the time anyway, immensely frustrating, and somehow a four year starter. The coaches are also somewhat to blame, as they sometimes seem to forget that Calvin Johnson is in fact on their team, but still, the story of GT's year is that Reggie Ball really sucks. And due to missing a final or something (if he overslept like Chris Rix, those parallels are tremendous,) Reggie's career is over. So -- spoiler for the last paragraph -- Georgia Tech actually has a chance.

West Virginia is #4 in yardage per game, and the only team in the top 10 to do it more with the run than with the pass. And that's what they are, pretty much the Texas Tech of running, and one of only two teams to run for more than 300 yards per game. They're technically led by RB Steve Slaton (1733 yards, 16 TD), but the scary thing is that QB Pat White (1074 rushing yards, 17 rushing TD) is probably the better runner. Still, the Mountaineers have showed some signs of slowing down -- the team struggled against South Florida, and that was a rare occasion when White couldn't throw WVU to a victory when the running game failed. WVU also ended the year with a hard-fought but less than dominant win against Rutgers, but that was behind backup QB Jarrett Brown.

Normally, this would look like a mismatch -- West Virginia basically runs on everyone, and Georgia Tech has struggled against teams like UNC, Maryland, and Miami, among others. But two factors give the Yellow Jackets hope. One, GT has the #11 defense in the country against the run (one behind West Virginia, in fact.) Two, the source of many of those struggles, Reggie Ball, is out for the game. Still, while the Jackets may be improved on offense, I don't know if the defense can contain White and Slaton -- Clemson annihilated the Georgia Tech run D, and the other top running team they faced, Virginia Tech, had moderate success running the ball, but was forced to pass in a come-from-behind effort. Ball may have been bringing down GT more than we thought, but West Virginia's probably the better team.

My Pick: West Virginia
Confidence (out of 5): 2