I'm 1-3!

 

Oh, that's right, now I remember - I suck at this!

Four games into the 2025 bowl season, I'm 1-3 on my picks. I won my first game with the Washington Huskies over Boise State, but it's been nothing but losses since then. First Troy going down to Jacksonville State on Tuesday in whatever they're calling the Camelia Bowl now, and then last night, back-to-back losses by South Florida and Louisiana.

I really thought I had a sure win in The Cure Bowl with South Florida. The Bulls were second in the FBS in points (43.0) and yards (502) per game, scoring over 48 points in seven of their games. They beat Florida during the regular season and briefly held the lineal championship belt and Georgia's 2021 and 2022 championship rings before losing to Miami. Sure, their QB opted out of the game, but so did Old Dominion's, and yes, their head coach left for Auburn, but still, Old Dominion? 

As it turned out, South Florida got shut out the entire second half and their normally sure-fire kicker, Nico Gramatica, went 1-for-3 on field goal attempts. South Florida QBs got sacked four times and threw four interceptions, and before I knew it, I was 1-2 on my picks this season. 

Then it got worse. I picked Louisiana in the '68 Ventures Bowl as 3-point favorites. The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens were in their first FBS season and their biggest win this year was probably against UConn (9-3). They lost to Colorado (3-9) and only got invited to the '68 Ventures because there weren't enough other 6-6 teams in the FBS to qualify for bowls. Sure, Louisiana lost their last three bowl appearances, but they beat the spread in one of those and they won the three bowls before that. Surely, they'll return to their winning ways in Mobile, right? 

Right?

Wrong. Louisiana trailed, 20-3, midway through the third quarter, but completed a field goal to make it 20-6 heading into the fourth. They added a TD in that quarter to make it 20-13 with 8:00 left. They started their final drive all the way back on their own 7-yard line with 1:41 remaining, and advanced the ball down the field on a drive that included a 32-yard completion and an interference call on Delaware. A TD would have tied the game and force an OT, but of course, if they scored they would have gone for the two-point conversion to win the game (but lose to the spread). So even as I cheered that final drive, I knew that I had already lost. Louisiana reached the 7-yard line, and then threw a pass into the end zone. Incomplete. On third down with 0:02 left, another pass into the end zone got broken up by Delaware.

1-3.

I've had it with these Sun Belt and Conference USA teams. I'm a Georgia Bulldogs and SEC man and don't spend a lot of time thinking about Monarchs and Blue Hens, or 'Cocks and Trojans. Give me some Power 5 and ranked teams and I'll know what I'm talking about, not these coin-toss decisions between schools I haven't watched since the last bowl season. 

I'll be back, you see? Down but not out. Someday, we'll look back at these times and laugh.