Texas A&M and Northwestern will kick off the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas on Saturday at noon ET at Reliant Stadium in Houston, but here’s a look at what the Aggies have to do to grab the win. 1. Be extra careful in those third quarters. It seemed like a fluke at first. Clearly, it was not. Every time, it seems like it’s been something different. The common denominator in most of the second-half meltdowns, though, has been turnovers. Limit those in the second half, and Texas A&M should be fine.
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Car Care Bowl: Three keys for Texas A&M
Filed under Football by on Dec 30th, 2011. Comment. 
Texas A&M and Northwestern will kick off the New Year’s Eve action in Houston with a noon ET kickoff at Reliant Stadium in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Here’s a bit of what to expect: WHO TO WATCH: Cyrus Gray, RB, Texas A&M. The Aggies’ backfield has been banged up this year, and it already lost top back Christine Michael to a torn ACL. Gray was sorely missed in a season-ending, heartbreaking loss to Texas after suffering a stress fracture in his shoulder against Kansas.
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Car Care Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Northwestern
Filed under Football by on Dec 30th, 2011. Comment.
Both Northwestern and Texas A&M entered the season with strong senior classes and lofty expectations. Both repeatedly fell victim to blown leads. As a result, both squads finished 6-6 and will square off Saturday at Houston’s Reliant Stadium. Let’s take a look at the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: WHO TO WATCH: Northwestern quarterback Dan Persa. The senior wraps up a record-setting career, and he might be the healthiest he has been all season following more than a month off.
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Meineke Bowl: Northwestern vs. Texas A&M
Filed under Football by on Dec 30th, 2011. Comment.
Here’s a few things to keep an eye on in the bowl games involving teams from the Big 12 this year. 1. The headless Aggies. A team playing in a bowl after firing its coach is a bit of a rarity, but that’s where the Aggies are as they prepare to face Northwestern on Dec. 31 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas. Defensive coordinator and interim head coach Tim DeRuyter is leaving to become the coach at Fresno State. Former coach Mike Sherman served as their offensive coordinator, too, and it’ll be interesting to see what Texas A&M looks like without him.
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What to watch in the Big 12 bowls
Filed under Football by on Dec 15th, 2011. Comment.
Texas A&M will face Northwestern at Reliant Stadium in Houston for the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Houston, the university announced on Sunday afternoon. The game kicks off on Dec. 31 at noon ET. Wildcast quarterback Dan Persa, aka PersaStrong, will face the very talented, but underachieving, Aggies who are now without a head coach after firing Mike Sherman earlier this week. Tim DeRuyter will handle the interim coaching duties. Who are you taking in this matchup?
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Texas A&M headed to Houston for bowl
Filed under Football by on Dec 4th, 2011. Comment.
The Big Ten isn’t the nation’s best conference this year, but it doesn’t lack for excitement. Week 10 brought two more upsets — Iowa over Michigan and Northwestern over Nebraska — and shook up the Legends Division race. As a result, the bowl projections also shuffle a bit. Iowa became bowl eligible with its sixth victory, and Northwestern’s bowl hopes received a huge boost after the win in Lincoln. These projections remain largely a crap-shoot as the final three weeks of the regular season are sure to bring more surprises. But as always, we’ll give it our best shot. We’re projecting Michigan State (Legends) and Penn State (Leaders) to reach the inaugural Big Ten championship game Dec. 3 in Indianapolis. Not sure if the Land Grant Trophy will make an appearance, but the Spartans and Nittany Lions certainly can get to Naptown. We’re projecting Michigan State to win and earn the Big Ten’s automatic BCS bowl berth, while Penn State, like many title game losers, won’t get an at-large berth. We project Penn State to win its next two games but fall at Wisconsin, which will win out. The Outback, Insight and Gator bowls will have some appealing choices as Michigan, Ohio State and Nebraska will be in the mix for the spots. Nebraska has arguably the toughest remaining schedule of the three. Iowa and Illinois trade places on this week’s projections, and Northwestern re-enters the mix as it faces a favorable schedule down the stretch. Purdue’s recent road struggles combined with wins by both Iowa and Northwestern leave the Boilers on the outside looking in. OK, enough chatter. Here are the projections: Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO: Michigan State vs. BCS team Allstate Sugar Bowl: Wisconsin vs. BCS team Capital One Bowl: Penn State vs. SEC team Outback Bowl: Ohio State vs. SEC team Insight Bowl: Michigan vs. Big 12 team TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl: Nebraska vs. SEC team Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Iowa vs. Big 12 team TicketCity Bowl: Illinois vs. Big 12 team Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Northwestern vs. MAC team
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Big Ten bowl projections: Week 11
Filed under Football by on Nov 7th, 2011. Comment.
The Big Ten went 8-2 in Week 4, and the two teams that lost, Minnesota and Indiana, probably aren’t going anywhere for the holidays. Aside from Illinois, the Big Ten’s top teams took care of business in convincing fashion Saturday. So not surprisingly, we don’t have too many changes in this week’s bowl projections. Remember, schedules have a lot to do with where we’re slotting certain teams. Michigan and Illinois both are undefeated and have fairly favorable routes through the Big Ten. Michigan State and Ohio State, meanwhile, will be tested multiple times in the coming weeks, beginning with their clash against each other this coming Saturday at The Shoe. We expect these projections to have a different look a week from now. Don’t book your flights just yet, but here’s how we see things shaking out at this moment in time … Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO: Wisconsin vs. BCS team Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. BCS team Capital One Bowl: Michigan vs. SEC team Outback Bowl: Ohio State vs. SEC team Gator Bowl: Illinois vs. SEC team Insight Bowl: Michigan State vs. Big 12 team Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Penn State vs. Big 12 team TicketCity Bowl: Iowa vs. Big 12 team Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Northwestern vs. MAC team
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Big Ten bowl projections: Week 4
Filed under Football by on Sep 25th, 2011. Comment.
We’re three weeks in now, and though we didn’t expect the bowl picture to be clear at this very early stage, it’s especially tough to predict right now. With Ohio State and Michigan State losing where do you put those teams? We moved Illinois up after the Illini beat Arizona State. Michigan also takes a jump up. Do we necessarily think those two teams are better than Ohio State and Michigan State? Not necessarily. But Illinois and Michigan have accomplished more so far, and they also have slightly easier schedules (and we are free to change our minds frequently between now and December). The projections: Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO: Wisconsin vs. BCS team Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. BCS team Capital One Bowl: Illinois vs. SEC team Outback Bowl: Ohio State vs. SEC team Gator Bowl: Michigan vs. SEC team Insight Bowl: Michigan State vs. Big 12 team Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Penn State vs. Big 12 team TicketCity Bowl: Iowa vs. Big 12 team Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Northwestern vs. MAC team
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Big Ten bowl projections: Week 3
Filed under Football by on Sep 18th, 2011. Comment.
We’re three weeks in now, and though we didn’t expect the bowl picture to be clear at this very early stage, it’s especially tough to predict right now. With Ohio State and Michigan State losing where do you put those teams? We moved Illinois up after the Illini beat Arizona State. Michigan also takes a jump up. Do we necessarily think those two teams are better than Ohio State and Michigan State? Not necessarily. But Illinois and Michigan have accomplished more so far, and they also have slightly easier schedules (and we are free to change our minds frequently between now and December). The projections: Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO: Wisconsin vs. BCS team Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. BCS team Capital One Bowl: Illinois vs. SEC team Outback Bowl: Ohio State vs. SEC team Gator Bowl: Michigan vs. SEC team Insight Bowl: Michigan State vs. Big 12 team Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Penn State vs. Big 12 team TicketCity Bowl: Iowa vs. Big 12 team Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Northwestern vs. MAC team
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Big Ten bowl projections: Week 3
Filed under Football by on Sep 18th, 2011. Comment.
After one week of games, we’ve figured out exactly where every Big Ten team is going bowling. (Insert guffaw here). Sure, we’re still doing a lot of speculating and projecting here, but it’s fun to do. We didn’t see a whole lot in Week 1 that changed our minds about our preseason bowl picks, except we erased Purdue as an at-large bowl team. Not that the 1-0 Boilermakers can’t win at least five more, but we want to see a little more evidence that they’re capable of that. On to our ridiculously early bowl picks: Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO: Wisconsin vs. BCS team Tostitos Fiesta Bowl: Nebraska vs. BCS team Capital One Bowl: Ohio State vs. SEC team Outback Bowl: Iowa vs. SEC team Gator Bowl: Penn State vs. SEC team Insight Bowl: Michigan State vs. Big 12 team Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Michigan vs. Big 12 team TicketCity Bowl: Illinois vs. Big 12 team Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Northwestern vs. MAC team
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Big Ten bowl projections: Week 1
Filed under Football by on Sep 4th, 2011. Comment.
