BOWLNANZA!: The Orange Bowl

#5 Louisville (11-1) vs. #18 Wake Forest (11-2)

West Virginia was picked as the preseason favorite in the Big East, but Louisville was close behind, led by QB Brian Brohm and RB Michael Bush. Both struggled with injuries; Brohm looked good in the 10 games he played in (2738 yards, 16/5 TD/INT,) but Bush broke his leg in the season opener and was forced to miss the year. Still, the running back by committee worked well for the Cardinals, led by Kolby Smith (790 yards, 7 TD) and Anthony Allen (395, 12 TD.) Louisville is staggeringly well-balanced on offense; they're in the top 10 in both passing yards and rushing yards per game, and have the #3 scoring offense and #2 yardage offense in the country. The defense is pretty good too, ranking in the top 20 in scoring, even in the yardage numbers rank mediocre to decent. Louisville may not have been the dominant team in the Big East -- they lucked out with turnovers by West Virginia, and Rutgers outplayed them about as close as the score showed -- but the Cardinals, overall, played about as well as anyone all season.

Wake Forest seemed like a hard luck team going into this year. They've been better than their mediocre/losing records over the past few seasons, but were stuck in the competitive ACC. After last season, 2005 ACC Player of the Year Chris "yes, the 2005 ACC Player of the Year" Barclay graduated at running back, so it looked like another long year for the Demon Deacons and coach Jim Grobe, called by many the best coach you've never heard of. And then two strange things happened: The ACC sucked and Wake got lucky. The Deacons squeaked by on turnovers, missed field goals, and general luck against a number of opponents, including Duke, UConn, NC State, UNC, and Boston College. It may not have been pretty, but hey, here Wake Forest is, probably the most surprising BCS team.

I feel happy for Wake Forest; again, the Demon Deacons have unfairly suffered for quite a few seasons now, and it's nice to see everything fall their way. That said, Louisville's one of the top handful of teams in the country, and I don't think Wake's in their league. I feel about the same way concerning this as I did about Oklahoma against Boise, and I know how that turned out, but still. If anything, I'm due?

My Pick: Louisville
Confidence (out of 5): 3