Emerald Bowl

Utah (6-5) vs. Georgia Tech (7-4)

SBC Park, San Francisco, California

Line: Georgia Tech -9

Doug: Georgia Tech -9

Kind of a strange bowl game since it's played in a baseball stadium. Guess it was the only way to squeeze a bowl game into the San Francisco market.

Although I think Georgia Tech is clearly the better team and will win this game, the spread is kind of a crapshoot. When in doubt, I’ll go with the better team and hope for the rout. Utah has not had one impressive moment this season. That program is spiraling back down to earth now that Urban Meyer is gone, and Georgia Tech is hands down the best team they’ve played all season. On the other hand, Georgia Tech has been underrated all year, and probably deserved a better bowl. Reggie Ball is a playmaker at QB, and has that whole “I’ve been at Georgia Tech for about nine years” thing going for him. If the Yellow Jackets show up in this game, I see them blowing out Utah.

Since I don’t really have much to add about this game, I’ll just say that I am already about excited about seeing Barry Bonds show up at spring training about 25 pounds lighter. I wish I could be a fly on the wall in the equipment room when Bonds shows up to complain about his hat being too big.

I’m sure the media will joke around about it with some lame jokes, but I would love to see somebody actually call the guy out and put his feet to the fire.

"Excuse me, Barry. You say you accidentally used steroids one time? Well, why is it that the first year that you will be tested for steroids, you showed up looking like Randy Winn? Seems suspicious. You care to explain this?"

My guess is that no one in the media has the guts to do it.

If Bonds ever breaks the all time home run record, it will be a sad day for baseball.


Georgia Tech 31 Utah 14


Matt: Georgia Tech -9

Another one of those games that has most of America yawning while those diehards in Utah and Atlanta analyze the punt protection of the opponents and count down to kickoff. I don't know if it really relevant to the outcome of the game or not, but i'm giving Utah two more years of 6-5 or 7-4 before they go back to 4-7 on a regular basis with an occasional 6-5 record and Emerald Bowl appearance. It just seems like a tough place to win and I think they caught lightning in a bottle with Urban Meyer, the hype he brought from Bowling Green and his spread offense.

As for the game, let's not forget that Georgia Tech went in to Jordan - Hare and beat Auburn this year. Add up all the wins in the history of the Utah program and they might approach how big of a win that was. Utah has not really had an impressive win, doesn't have a true playmaker on offense like a Calvin Johnson, and doesn't have an experienced qb like Reggie Ball. Add it all up and this one is an M+M'er as my idol Dickie V would say.

And if you're not convinced, their coaches name, Kyle Whittingham, is just a little too close for comfort to Ty Willingham. I'll take a former Cowboys coach in Chan Gailey.

Georgia Tech 36 Utah 17