The bowls, part 1

John Beilein and Michigan basketball will have to wait.  This is not a good team.  Right now the bowls are more exciting.

Who ever heard of the Heart of Dallas Bowl?

If you have the channels, it is an event topping the Final Four for sure.   It has been going on for almost two weeks now.  Now, approaching the new year, the teams are getting better.  Army over 5-8 North Texas?  No prima donnas or 5-stars here.


Unbelievably Jerry Kill is back, at Rutgers, as offensive coordinator.  Tracy Claeys, his long-time staffer and successor at Minnesota, has survived with a win.  The Golden Gophers end at 9-4 and Claeys is 2-0 in bowls.

It is hard to believe with so many of them out there, but it has a lot to do with coaches.  Maybe it is a lesson that everyone is expendable.  Anyway, there seems to be less turnover as the teams and bowls get better.

New Mexico (9-4) and Bob Davie won; Houston (9-4), no Tom Herman or Big 12, lost.  Elsewhere, D.J. Durkin is playing with fire--there's talent there and there's going to be more--and getting burned so far.  Hawaii finished 7-7 by winning their bowl.  Indiana lost their coach, Kevin Wilson, and the Foster Farms Bowl to Utah.

Lane Kiffin is a head coach again.  Willie Taggart (USF) will attempt to master the unique positioning of selling speedy shoes and winning football games.  And Baylor has, so far, wiggled out of it with the hire of Matt Rhule (and they won their bowl game).

The coaches make the headlines but the games really are fun to watch.  The fans...  Who would go there?

Oh yes, Lane Kiffin.  And, still on coaches, there's Jim Leavitt;  $1.15million as an assistant to replace Brady Hoke, that's why he didn't stay for the Colorado bowl.