Belk Bowl
Thursday
December 27th, 18:30 ET (23:30 GMT)
Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte , North Carolina
The Belk Bowl
has been played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, since 2002, it was inaugurated
by the NCAA as the Queen City Bowl went
by the name of several different sponsors before Belk acquired the title
sponsorship in 2011. Who are Belk? Well I’m glad you asked, Belk is a chain of
department stores created in Monroe ,
North Carolina
Anyway,
back to the game.
It
currently features a match-up between the fifth best team in the Atlantic Coast
Conference (ACC) and the third best team in the Big East Conference. Last year’s game was
billed as a close affair, dominated by two good passing attacks, but not so
this year.
The Bearcats (9-3) finished
in a four-way tie for first place in the Big East with Louisville, Rutgers and
Syracuse, the fourth time in the last five years they've captured at least a
share of the title, but Louisville earned a spot in the BCS Sugar Bowl against
the excellent Florida Gators (stay tuned for that preview) by virtue of its
extra non-conference win. The Bearcats have been very successful defensively,
holding their last four opponents to an average of 11.8 points and 130 rushing
yards on the season, but they made a midseason quarterback change with Brendon Kay taking over for the struggling, yet brilliantly named Munchie Legaux last month. The senior is rising to
the occasion and he’s only 34 yards short on 1000 on the season, getting his
first opportunity for extended playing time late in his collegiate career (although
he'll be back next season after the NCAA granted him an extra year of
eligibility). Travis Kelce, a tight end who threw a scoring pass to Kay in their defeat of
UConn on a trick play also caught a
touchdown pass from RB George Winn. Kelce leads the Bearcats with 599
receiving yards and seven TD catches, while George Winn has powered the ground game. The senior led the
Big East with 1,204 rushing yards, 100.3 per game and scored 12 TDs good for
the 32nd best rushing offense in the country.
A 6-6 season may not be special for most programs (Auburn would’ve grabbed a
record like that this season) but at basketball powerhouse Duke the football
team has been woeful and suffered through 17 consecutive losing season. It had
almost gotten to the point where Mike Krzyzewski (Sha-shev-ski) was going to be football
Head Coach as well as basketball supremo. The Blue Devils, went 37-158 (.190)
from 1995-2011, including goose-egg campaigns in 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2006.
This will be their first bowl appearance since the Hall of Fame bowl at the end
of the 1994 season,
That's why Duke's 6-2 start eventually earned ACC coach of
the year (not that hotly contested an award) David Cutcliffe a contract
extension through the 2018 season, however they’ve limped into Bowl season,
losing their last four games. Sean Renfree is this offense, the third-year
starter had one interception over his final four games and an impressive eight
for the season considering they’ve faced Stanford ,
Florida Arkansas 7-6 in the
Cotton Bowl on Jan. 2, 1961. The only problem with that statement is they’ll
have to do it with a defense that ranked 103rd against a pretty good
Bearcat rushing game that averages nearly 200 yards a game. Not the best
position to plot Bowl success from.
FOR CINCINNATI
TO WIN
Run the ball straight at Duke, they’ve been weak against the
run and Cincinnati
has picked up a ton of yardage on the ground, so why move away from a gameplan
that is clearly working. Once the running game is punishing Duke, they can
search for the long ball, and no doubt more trick plays.
FOR DUKE TO WIN
Erm, try to recapture their form from the first half of the
season, because the crap they’ve shown in the last 4 games is going to hand
them a beating. They have to find a way to shut down the Bearcat running game,
and that might be difficult as neither defense has anything to write home
about. The only solution might be to air it out, early and often.
VERDICT
I expect Cincinnati to dominate this one, yes it’s nice to see Duke back
bowling after such a long absence, but they struggled once they secured their
eligibility and the sheer scale of the task at hand in this one means I’ve got
to go with the Bearcats. Oh and if Cincinnati
ADVICE
Over 60.5 points
DRINKING GAME
1 drink: Every time the 17 years of Duke losing records is
mentioned
2 drinks: Every time a player other than a Quarterback
completes a pass.
Finish it: When the TV coverage show an aerial shot of BoA
Stadium and SouthPark Mall.
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