2009 GMAC Bowl
Tulsa (10-3) vs. Ball State (12-1)
Jan. 6, 8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
Payout:
$750,000 Location: Ladd-Peebles
Stadium, Mobile AL
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2009 GMAC Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More
 |
|
National
Rankings |
|
Ball State |
Tulsa |
|
Total Offense |
|
11th 459.38 ypg |
1st 565.08 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
54th 347.92 ypg |
83rd 391.15 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
16th 36.62 ppg |
2nd 47.38 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
19th 18.62 ppg |
85th 29.08 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
24th 192.69 ypg |
7th 254.85 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
65th 141.77 ypg |
44th 133.46 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
22nd 266.69 ypg |
7th 310.23 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
56th 206.15 ypg |
103rd 257.69 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
22nd 0.62 |
96th -0.62 |
|
Ball State
Neastern W 48-14
Navy W 35-23
at Akron W 41-24
at Indiana W 42-20
Kent St W 41-20
at Toledo W 31-0
at W Kent. W 24-7
East Mich W 38-16
No Illinois W 45-14
at Miami Un W 31-16
at CMU W 31-24
WMU W 45-22
Dec. 5 MAC Champ
Buffalo L 42-24 |
Tulsa
at UAB W 45-22
at N Texas W 56-26
N Mexico W 56-14
Central Ark. W 62-34
Rice W 63-28
at SMU W 37-31
UTEP W 77-35
UCF W 49-19
at Arkansas L 30-23
at Houston L 70-30
Tulane W 56-7
at Marshall W 38-35
C-USA Champ
East Carolina L 27-24 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
B |
5
highest
1 lowest |
T |
|
5 |
Quarterbacks |
4 |
|
5 |
RBs |
4 |
|
4 |
Receivers |
4 |
|
4 |
O
Line |
3.5 |
|
3 |
D
Line |
3 |
|
3 |
Linebackers |
3 |
|
3 |
Secondary |
2 |
|
4 |
Spec
Teams |
3 |
|
4.5 |
Coaching |
5 |
|
Forgetting that there’s a cloud
of overall disappointment and
strangeness to the game, this
really should be a nice opening
act to the big band coming up
two nights later.
From the way Tulsa gagged away
the Conference USA championship
game with seven turnovers
against East Carolina, to the
way Ball State gagged away the
MAC championship game with five
turnovers, to the name of the
bowl itself, to the timing of
the game, seeming a bit out of
place after the New Year’s Day
bowls, everything about the game
is a bit off. But fortunately,
the matchup itself should be
fantastic.
Tulsa, not Oklahoma, led the
nation in total offense,
averaging 565 yards per game,
with the Gus Malzahn offense
striking a tremendous balance
finishing seventh in the nation
in rushing and seventh in
passing. On the other side, Ball
State is loaded with offensive
firepower, finishing first in
the MAC in scoring and total
yards averaging 459 yards and
close to 37 points per game.
While this looks like a
can’t-miss game with lots of fun
and lots of fireworks between
two teams that probably
should’ve won their respective
conference titles, that hasn’t
always been the case with this
bowl.
Last year, Tulsa and its No. 1
offense took on Bowling Green in
what was supposed to be a
firefight; Tulsa won 63-7. After
Marshall’s epic comeback to beat
East Carolina in the 2001, 64-61
classic, this game has been
among the worst of the bowl
season with five straight
decided by 17 points or more.
Tulsa started off the year 8-0
with its high-powered offense
blowing through everything in
its path, but outside of a 63-28
win over Rice, there weren’t any
wins of note. And then came the
prove-it game against Arkansas,
and one 23-20 loss later, the
team tumbled down the tree when
it came to national respect. Two
weeks later came the 70-30 loss
to Houston, and the once-great
season suddenly looked like it
was going into the tank.
Fortunately for the Golden
Hurricane, Tulane and Marshall
were up next to ease the pain of
the two losses, and then came
the disaster, at home, to ECU in
the title game. Now, considering
the only win over a bowl team
was against Rice, Tulsa needs
this win to legitimatize an
otherwise strong year.
Ball State, even with the
stunning loss to Buffalo, came
up with the most impressive year
in the program’s history. There
was a nice win over Navy, a
blowout of a Big Ten team, even
if it was Indiana, and win after
win with 11 of the 12 coming by
11 points or more, and the one
close battle a 31-24 victory at
Central Michigan that dethroned
the two-time MAC champion. It’s
not like the Cardinals went in
the tank against UB; they put up
503 yards of total offense and
held Buffalo to just 301.
But Ball State needs to be extra
sharp all the time to get any
respect, mainly because of the
MAC tie-in. This year, with
Central Michigan losing to
Florida Atlantic in the Motor
City Bowl, Northern Illinois
losing to Louisiana Tech in the
Independence Bowl, Western
Michigan getting bombed on by
Rice in the Texas Bowl, and
Buffalo getting run over by
UConn in the International Bowl,
Ball State needs to come up with
a win just to save a little face
for the league that might dip
below the Sun Belt in overall
pecking order.
There are only two games left in
the college football season, and
then it’s on to bigger and
better things … and looking
ahead to the 2009 campaign. In a
few weeks, you’ll be mad if you
missed this game; it’ll be
exciting enough to make it
appointment television on a
January Tuesday night.
Players to watch:
Is this it for Nate Davis?
The Ball State star has said he
plans on staying in school for
his senior year, and he would
likely be the top quarterback
prospect for the 2010 NFL Draft,
but it might be too tempting to
not think about coming out
early. He didn’t have to be the
entire focus of his offense this
season, he had a nice running
game to work with, but he came
through with a solid season
throwing 26 touchdown passes and
just seven interceptions, while
running for four scores. While
he might not be huge, he has a
live arm, decent mobility and
running skills that he doesn’t
use nearly enough, and he has a
total command of the offense. If
this really is going to be a
shootout, then Davis should be
able to handle the pressure of
the game without a problem.
Tulsa’s David Johnson
only got to start for one year,
after working behind Paul Smith,
and he made the most of his
opportunity throwing for 43
touchdowns and for 3,866 yards.
However, he had a problem with
interceptions, throwing 18 on
the year and five in the loss to
East Carolina. He’s a smart,
tough, accurate passer who
doesn’t have the liveliest of
arms, but he’s great at getting
the ball to his receivers on the
move and he’s unstoppable when
he gets on a roll.
While Johnson got most of the
headlines for the Tulsa offense,
it was senior Tarrion Adams
who great into the special
playmaker for the ground game.
He was in the midst of a strong
season, and then he ripped off
323 yards and a score against
Tulane and followed it up with a
123-yard, three touchdown day
against Marshall. On the year,
the speedy north-south back
finished with 1,316 yards and 11
scores with six of those
touchdowns coming in the final
three games.
Adams isn’t necessarily a
thumper, but at 210 pounds he
brings the power. On the other
side is Ball State RB MiQuale
Lewis, a diminutive runner
who ran for 1,701 yards on the
year with 22 scores, and caught
34 passes for 311 yards. While
he’s not going to run over
anyone, he’s amazing when he’s
able to break through and get
into space. Give the 5-6 junior
a few inches, and he’ll rip off
yards in chunks.
Ball State will win if...
the Tulsa turnovers start
flowing. Ball State was stingy
all year long until the Buffalo
fiasco, and it has the defense
to be able to force a few
takeaways. Tulsa had turnover
problems all season long with
30, but 15 of them came in the
three losses. It’s not a stretch
to say that Tulsa would’ve
beaten East Carolina and
Arkansas had it been better at
hanging on to the ball, while
the Houston game turned into an
ugly blowout because of the
mistakes. The Ball State passing
game should be able to do
whatever it wants to against the
mediocre Tulsa secondary, so if
Davis gets time against the
aggressive Golden Hurricane
defensive front, and if the
defense wins the turnover
battle, the MAC will finally get
its bowl win.
Tulsa will win if... it wins
the battles on the lines. The
pass rush has been fantastic all
season long, but the run defense
has been mediocre, even if the
stats don’t say so. Everyone
spends so much time throwing on
the secondary that they forget
to pound the ball, but Ball
State has a good enough
offensive line to control the
game from the start and get
Lewis going. The Tulsa offensive
line has had a fantastic year,
helped by the offense that works
on getting the ball out of
Johnson’s hands in a hurry.
However, in this game, there
shouldn’t be too much worrying
about a Cardinal pass rush, so
Johnson might have even more
time than usual to work. That
extra half second should be a
very, very big deal if the Tulsa
offensive line can provide it.
What will happen:
Malzahn will be off to Auburn as
its offensive coordinator, but
he’ll stay on through the bowl
game. Even so, the offense isn’t
going to explode on a Ball State
defense that never got enough
credit with all the attention
going to the offense. Davis will
outplay Johnson and Lewis will
run for 150 yards as the
Cardinals get their first ever
bowl win in five tries.
CFN Prediction:
Ball State 38 … Tulsa 30 …
Line: Ball State
-2.5