The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Bowl Week 3

We have entered January, and the bowl season is officially behind us. The Mountain West had some respectable results, finishing the bowl season with a 4-3 record. Let’s take a look at how the last few bowl games panned out for the Mountain West.

The Good:

Wyoming

Unlike Nevada, Wyoming was probably a better football team than their record indicated. Levi Williams got the start at quarterback for the Cowboys, and while he was a bit inconsistent in the passing game, his ability to get it done in the running game took Wyoming’s offense to the next level. Wyoming did exactly what they should have done in the Arizona Bowl and beat an opponent that had no business being on the same field as them.

Ohio

A 6-6 MAC team has no business beating a 7-5 Mountain West team, but it happened twice this bowl season. Ohio came into the Potato Bowl well prepared and were clearly the more disciplined team. They were able to run the ball with relative ease and probably should have won in a blowout. But, kudos to Frank Solich and his Ohio squad for a solid performance; I hope he enjoyed his french fry bath.

The Bad:

Meaningless January Bowl Games

Watching some of these bowl games this past week, I came to a conclusion. There shouldn’t be any non-playoff games after January 1st. The teams involved did not look all that motivated, there is a rust factor early in the games, and the crowds are completely dead. Most casual football fans were done and had no desire to watch Ohio and Nevada play one of the final bowl games of the year.

The Ugly:

Nevada

You could see this result coming a mile away. The Nevada football team was easily the most confusing team to identify this season. One week they would look good; the next week they would look awful. The Wolf Pack were playing without some of their biggest contributors on defense thanks to suspensions following the UNLV game. Nevada looked undisciplined and unprepared for the majority of the Potato Bowl. I’m not sure where this program is headed, but they need consistency at the quarterback position and changes by the new defensive coaching staff. This Nevada football team was not as good as their record indicated.

Georgia State

No disrespect to Georgia State, but this was a perfect example of two teams that didn’t deserve each other. Wyoming was far and away the better football team. It was clear that Georgia State was going to have plenty of struggles on defense when they could not stop a Wyoming squad that looked inept on the offensive side of the ball for the majority of the season.

That’s it for this edition of “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly.” Next week I will be looking back at some of the predictions I made going into the 2019 season and how they turned out.