Pizza and Poinsettias

Today's News Links:

Freshman QB Shane Morris will start for Michigan in Saturday's Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl against Kansas State.  He replaces Devin Gardner, a redshirt junior, who suffered a foot injury.  Full story here.

Massachusetts has fired head coach Charley Molnar.  In his two seasons at UMass, Molnar accumulated a 2-22 overall record (2-14 MAC).  Full story here.

Michigan State has suspended senior linebacker Max Bullough for violating team rules.  He will not play in the upcoming Rose Bowl Game against Stanford.  Full story here.

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Today's bowl games are in two locations on opposite sides of the country.  At 6:00PM Eastern at Detroit's Ford Field, The LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA BOWL (formerly the Motor City Bowl) will feature the Pittsburgh Panthers (ACC) and the Bowling Green Falcons (MAC).  Three weeks ago, at the same location, Bowling Green won the MAC Championship over Northern Illinois.  Though the Falcons denied Northern Illinois an opportunity to go to a BCS-level bowl for the second consecutive season, Bowling Green's ability to win here will depend on how well their defense plays against a team from one of the five power conferences.   In their two games against power conference opponents (Indiana and Mississippi State) the Falcons' defense, which averaged 14.8 points per game in 2013, gave up a combined 63 points.  The Panthers' offense in 2013 has averaged 33.25 points per game against non-ACC opponents.  Since PITT's defense has given up an average of 27.2 points per game, it may be difficult for them to hold off Bowling Green's formidable offense, which is led by sophomore QB Matt Johnson.  In this season alone, Johnson threw for 3,195 yards and accumulated 23 touchdowns.  If Johnson and his offensive line play like they have for most of the season, then the Falcons should win.  ESPN's Mark Schlabach picks Bowling Green to win by 8 points (Final score:  24-16). 

At 9:30 PM Eastern at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, the SAN DIEGO COUNTY CREDIT UNION POINSETTIA BOWL features Utah State (MWC) versus #23 Northern Illinois (MAC).  Interestingly, this game pits two teams that lost their respective conference championship games.  The runner-up from the Mountain West, Utah State, finished their first season in that conference with a 7-1 record (8-5 overall).  Their offense averaged 32.6 points per game with crushing victories over Air Force (52-20), Weber State (70-6), and San Jose State (40-12).  Despite losing five games, two of those losses were only by a margin of four points or less.  In fact, those narrow losses were against PAC-12 teams (Utah won 30-26, USC won 17-14).  But, the question here is whether or not the Aggies defense, which averaged 17.3 points per game for 2013, can hold off Northern Illinois, whose powerful offensive line has averaged almost 42 points per game.  ESPN's Mark Schlabach predicts Northern Illinois winning by 14 points, with a projected final score of 34-20.  However, based on the offensive yardage and the points that both teams have put up this year (Northern Illinois - 223.1 passing, 312.5 rushing; Utah State - 242.1 passing, 178.8 rushing) and the fact that Northern Illinois's defense has given up an average of 25.4 points per game, a shootout is a likely scenario.