Ugh. that blue field again . . .
The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl features the unremarkable matchup of the unranked Utah State Aggies (6-6) against the unranked Washington State Cougars (6-6). I'm going with the Cougars as 3½-point underdogs out of sympathy for what remains of the PAC-12. The Cougars and the Oregon State Beavers are currently the only teams left in the conference, although I do understand that a bunch of Mountain West teams, including the Aggies, will be moving over there in the next season or two.
Utah State lost this bowl, 45-22, to Georgia State two years ago. That, and my deep-seated mistrust of Mormons, also compels me to pick the Cougars here.
A tradition in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is to shower the winning coach with a basketful of French fries. That's a missed opportunity. I think the game would be so much more interesting if instead they poured a vat of the hot deep-frying oil used for the fries over the head of the losing coach. Imagine how hard each coach would push their team to avoid that fate, even taking the ball themselves or Woody Hayes-ing opposing players with punches to the neck. That would make the bowl an unmissable, must-see-TV spectacle, but instead we'll get this mediocrity on a blue field.
This is the only game today, but we have three tomorrow.
UPDATE: Washington State won easily, 34-21, and the game was even more lopsided than the final score suggests. Since I had the Cougars as underdogs, I improve to 5-7 on my picks.
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