Good Sunday morning, Uni Watchers. It’s Bowl Season!
Yesterday the first seven Bowls of the 2023 season were played (Myrtle Beach Bowl, Celebration Bowl, New Orleans Bowl, Cure Bowl, New Mexico Bowl, LA Bowl and Independence Bowl). The Cure Bowl, pictured above, between App State and Miami (Ohio) was played in an absolute monsoon at times, with a field that ended up partially submerged, and which led to some comedic moments on the field itself. Not that the paint would have had time to dry anyway…
At halftime of the #CureBowl, one of the most rain-soaked football games I’ve ever seen, Miami University and Appalachian State have combined for seven fumbles (the RedHawks have five). pic.twitter.com/HnwLXymtiV
— Jack Schmelzinger (@jackschmelznger) December 16, 2023
The ball was, um, slippery.
EIGHT fumbles in the #CureBowl (3 lost)
REAL BALL!!! pic.twitter.com/rNNkFw8cS7
— Video from: @TSV__1 (@TSV__1) December 16, 2023
That’s just a taste of the action from Day 1 of Bowl Season. Mi compadre, and long-time SMUW guru TJ Duroncelet will now take you through the first set of Bowls. It’ll be a shorter than normal SMUW (or “SMBW”) today, as Jimmer and the trackers have the weekend off. Next weekend is Christmas weekend, so everyone (except me) will have next weekend off, and the entire SMUW crew will return to recap all the College Bowl Games for New Year’s Weekend.
Here’s TJ with your…
by Terry Duroncelet, Jr.
Myrtle Beach Bowl
|Ohio vs Georgia Southern| We kick things off with some BFBS, WHERE! <strike>The</strike> Ohio University Bobcats wore white helmets and pants with… black jerseys. I am currently making this face as I type. They faced off against the Georgia Southern University Eagles, who wore their navy blue helmets, with white jerseys and pants, echoing heavy elements of a certain Tuscaloosa-based University.
Celebration Bowl
|Florida A&M vs Howard| Florida A&M really lived up to their team name and said “RATTLE ‘EM, BOYS!” In a 4th quarter rally that proved victorious, the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Rattlers wore a rather Canes-esque white/green/white combo in their bowl game against the Howard University Bison, who wore silver/white/silver.
New Orleans Bowl
|Louisiana vs Jacksonville State| Wait, when was the last time this game was played in the afternoon? Here, we have the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (and for those that are about to come for me saying “IT’S JUST ‘UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA’ NOW!!!1!1!”, that is still their full name technically, and we all know the tradition of using a school’s whole government name by now) in white/red/red, with those sick almost neon script-style decals. They faced off against the Jacksonville State University Gamecocks, who are still fresh on the FBS scene. They wore red/white/red. Despite the rather… straightforward color of the day, it was Louisiana who was seeing red, as Jax State pulled off the victory and held their heads up high. Also, does anyone else feel like this logo looks/feels fake? I can’t put my finger on what it is, though.
Cure Bowl
|Appalachain State vs Miami (OH)| Pinktober reloaded. Here, we have the Appalachian State University Mountaineers in all-black, facing off against the Miami University RedHawks, who wore white/white/red, and as an added bonus, both teams dressed up for the occasion, in what’s probably the (literal) sloppiest game all year.
New Mexico Bowl
|Fresno State vs New Mexico State| The Bulldogs of the California State University, Fresno wore all-red, while the New Mexico State University Aggies wore all-white. Th– that’s it, that’s all I can type.
LA Bowl
|Boise State vs UCLA| This is basically a home game for the B1G’s newest convert. We have the Boise State University Broncos in the seemingly-rare orange/blue/orange combo, and the Bruins of the University of California, Los Angeles in the classics.
Independence Bowl
|Texas Tech vs Cal| Much like UCLA from earlier, this will be Cal’s last year in the Pac 12. The University of California, Berkeley Golden Bears wore navy/white/gold (my favorite road combo for them). They would ultimately lose to the Texas Tech University Red Raiders, who wore black/red/red. Easily the Contrast Matters winner for this week.
Guess the Game from the Scoreboard: Game 7 of the 1956 World Series? The last World Series game in Brooklyn. Yankees won 9-0 I think.
Since the Dodgers are already up 3-0 in the pic, I am guessing this is incorrect.
D’oh, didn’t pay enough attention to the scoreboard…
Game 5 of the 1955 World Series that Brooklyn won 5-3 over the Yankees, a series the Dodgers would win in 7 games, for their first World Series championship. This photo is of Yogi Berra’s single off of the Ebbets Field right field wall in the 4th inning, fielded by Carl Furillo. Roger Craig of the Dodgers was the winning pitcher, Bob Grim of the Yankees was the losing pitcher.
GTGFTS: Game 5, 1955 WS. Brooklyn 5, NYY 3. Oct 2. The names on both rosters are just ripe with HOFers.
11/13/1966: Steelers 30, Cardinals 9. Pictures is in the inimitable Terry Nofsinger
A bowl promoting cancer treatments, sponsored by another country’s agricultural product, played in a quasi-tropical storm, between 2 schools that even an ordinary fan would be hard to place on a map, featuring players that will never be heard from again, in front of a 3/4 empty stadium.
It may be just me, but maybe there are a few too many bowls now?
Way too many bowls. They’re even letting teams with sub .500 records in now. The first week-plus of Bowls are all about TV. Most of them are played in either typically non-football arenas, in less-than-pleasant-for-this-time-of-year climes, and/or between teams that are barely FBS-level (and with the transfer portal, many squads lose their best players). For better or for worse, the 12-team playoff may end up culling some of the smaller bowls altogether, but watch any bowl game this week and you’ll see half-to-three-quarters empty stadiums stocked only with die hard fans (and some schools bands).
Bowl season used to be a “reward” for players and a chance for coaches to expand practices (and maybe evaluation of future starters) but it’s all about TV advertising dollars for ESPN, legalized sports betting, and a cash payment for schools now. NIL and the transfer portal been great for some players, but they’ve really rendered the bowl season moot for 95% of the teams.
Even the lowest tier bowls post very high ratings compared to anything else that could go on at that time. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t exist. There’s an audience for them.
wait a minute – I get it, we are all less than enamored with the early Bowl games, but that’s not reason to make stuff up – ‘most games in the first week or so are played in arenas that are not typically used for football’? That is simply not so – every game thus far has been played in a football stadium, with three games already at sites that host the Super Bowl, and a fourth will be added to that list this week.
who edits these comments???
Perhaps I didn’t word my statement very well, or you misunderstood — that was just *part* of the equation, I was grouping non-football stadia WITH “less than pleasant” (for this time of year) AND teams that really have no business playing in Bowl games — not that there are MANY games not played in non-football stadiums (though there are some, like Fenway and Yankee Stadium) or the Bahamas Bowl (although that’s been moved for this year) or the Frisco Bowl, which is a soccer stadium, etc. And you have games like the Potato Bowl that can sometimes have crowds in the 100s due to poor weather. My point is the games are made for TV, and oftentimes the locations/stadiums/teams don’t lend themselves to attracting large in-person audiences. But the gate doesn’t matter, because the advertising revenue more than makes up for it.
Call if a mis-wording if you must – or just take accountability for a completely mis-leading and made up statement – as you specifically said: “The first week-plus of Bowls are all about TV. Most of them are played in either typically non-football arenas,…” – and that is completely untrue.
We all know these are about TV ratings. and we all know crowds are small and overall it can be frustrating – but not as frustrating as members of the media who make things up and than dance like a fifth grader in the principle’s office when they are called out.
Way, way too many bowls. But fans watch (not at in-person, but on TV). TV drives everything, so the number of bowls isn’t going to shrink. A few may move to different locales, but they’re here to stay in some form.
I hate the way the bowl names have changed. For example, let’s say there was a Tulip Bowl. That was its name. Simple. But eventually, that became the Tulip Bowl by Walmart. Then the Walmart Tulip Bowl. Now, its simply the Walmart Bowl.
It’s not just you. Most years, they barely have enough teams that are bowl-eligible to fill all the slots. 84 teams aren’t worthy of postseason football. Everyone can’t be above average.
GTGFTU: 9/23/1962 – Green Bay Packers 17, St. Louis Cardinals 0, at County Stadium in Milwaukee. Pictured is Sam Etcheverry, nicknamed “the Rifle” for his passing prowess (although that prowess had largely faded by the time of this photo). Etcheverry was a star QB for the University of Denver before playing professionally for the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL from 1952-60. He set numerous passing records (including the single-season professional passing yardage mark) on his way to a Canadian Football Hall of Fame career.
He signed with Cardinals as a 31-year-old NFL rookie ahead of the 1961 season. He enjoyed moderate success his first year in St. Louis before falling off the table in 1962 (a 2-10 TD-to-INT ratio in four starts) and hanging up his cleats with a lingering shoulder injury.
I’m not sure what’s notable about this particular game other than it being another notch in the belt of the juggernaut Packers on their way to their first NFL title under Vince Lombardi. It was in the middle of a 4-year era during their early days in St. Louis where the Cardinals had plain white sleeves before adding their more familiar sleeve stripes on their white road jerseys for the 1964 season.
Correction! This was the Packers’ second title under Lombardi. (They wone it all in 1961, too.) The ’62 team is on the shortlist of greatest teams ever, though, with a 13-1 regular-season record and having outscored their opponents by an average of 19 points per game.
It’s notable for Chris because he loves that Cardinals uniform.
I could have sworn this photo was already used a few months ago.
“I could have sworn this photo was already used a few months ago.”
It’s quite possible. I am usually *very* good about not accidentally re-running GTG stuff and this one was saved in my e-mails with a “star” (which I remove once I’ve run something). Other times I’ll know I’ve already downloaded something because when I go to save it, it will give the file name with a “(1),” and this didn’t have that. So I didn’t *think* I used it already. Apologies if it was a double-post!
It’s a re-run…but those Cardinals uniforms are always worth another gander!
Very close to what they’ll be wearing today-a great look home and away I’d say.
I too tend to inundate Phil with entries.
Great background on Etcheverry, BvK.
And right you are, Jim…right you are!
Jim’s right. This photo ran back on 9/30/23: link. Somehow, I missed it then. But it’s a great photo, so no complaints from me!
Aha! Thanks, Kary. And I was likely at the summer place that weekend, which would explain why *this* PC didn’t record it as having been uploaded. Makes sense! (And sorry for the re-run)
Back to Etcheverry for one moment and his single-season passing yardage record: more specifically, he became the first pro QB to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a season in 1956 – eleven years before Joe Namath accomplished the feat in the AFL in 1967 and 23 years before Dan Fouts became the first QB to surpass that total in an NFL season in 1979. Etcheverry’s 4,723 passing yards in 1956 stood as a professional record for 25 years until both Dieter Brock in the CFL (4,796 yards) and Fouts in the NFL (4,802 yards) broke it in 1981.
Any Winnipeg residents still have their Brock Busters gear?
Dieter Brock had played in Winnipeg since 1974, but had a desire to get out after many season there. This led to the type of trade you would rarely ever see. Midseason trade in 1983 featuring an exchange of starting Canadian football HOF QBs. Brock shipped to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in exchange for Tom Clements. They would meet in the 1984 Grey Cup with Clements and Winnipeg winning. Of course, Brock was a really experienced “rookie” NFL QB the next season in ’85 with the LA Rams.
Make UCLA facemasks grey again
I will say this again tomorrow, the Bengals look pretty good in their semi-mono styling. As did the Texan when they did it (red, blue, blue).
Patriots, Lions, and Saints… not so much. I can’t figure out why.
It’s attributable to two things, IMO. One, teams who go mono below the neck ONLY look good if the helmet is at least as dark as the mono (Texans, for example). Two: Mono below-the-neck looks especially bad if a team has a metallic helmet (Pats & Lions: silver; Saints: gold). The Saints also fail because they have no stripes on their pants, giving them that special yoga pants look.
The funny thing is, I really liked it when the CU Buffs went gold/black/black back in the late 80’s.
Noticed that Etchevarry’s helmet was the old Wilson? type with the ear pads protruding from the helmet, and the Cardinals logo shaped to fit around them.
That aspect of the logo was was of those ‘feature, not a bug’ things, just like the head feathers were designed to be seen from the rear :
link
Love both of those quirks!
IMO, last night, Boise looked like what a BRONCOS team should look like
It would be more correct to state that the Miami Hurricanes wear FAMU-esque uniforms. UM wore green and gold until the late 60’s whereas FAMU has had that green and orange color scheme longer.
Oh yeah, don’t forget October 6, 1979 when FAMU beat the ‘Canes 16-13 link
Howard Schnellenberger didn’t realize he had a HOF QB until he decided to give him his first start at Penn State later in October 1979. Canes upset the Lions and the rest is history.
Howard Schnellenberger didn’t realize he had a HOF QB until he decided to give him his first start at Penn State later in October 1979. Canes upset the Lions and the rest is history.
Ohio U. has some of the best uniform sets in CFB and they have to go ruin it by wearing that monstrosity.
I did not like the look of the teal turf at the Myrtle Beach Bowl