Record: 1-1

You had to be really impressed with Wyoming yesterday. Here’s a team that has to know they’re overmatched. Fresno State scored twice as many points in the regular season and had one of the best, yet unknown, running backs in the country. But almost from the opening gun (you could even argue pre-game warm-ups), Wyoming looked far more ready to play then Fresno State did.

I thought the Bulldogs struggled to match Wyoming’s intensity all afternoon, that’s why they lost that game. Austyn Carta-Samuels was excellent, throwing for 3 touchdowns and making some huge plays down the stretch. Running back Alvesta Alexander, who failed to surpass the 85 yard mark in any game this season had 137 on 12 carries. The only reason Fresno State was in this game was the insane pure talent mismatch. I mean, they practically slept walked through the first half and went into the locker room tied….Came away really impressed with Wyoming and down on Fresno State.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl- Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee- The Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders have won six consecutive games. After a horrible two week stretch in which they put up a combined 13 points in losses to Troy and Mississippi State, the Blue Raiders put up at least 27 points a game for the rest of the year. Quarterback Dwight Dasher put up some impressive numbers. Not only did Dasher throw for over 2000 yards and 21 touchdowns, but he also ran for 953 and scored on the ground 11 times. That’s right. Dasher was responsible for 32 touchdowns in Middle Tennessee’s 9-3, 7-1 campaign. Thanks to a 31-7 head to head loss in week five, Middle Tennessee finished one game behind Troy in the Sun Belt.

Southern Mississippi finished 7-5 and 5-3 in Conference USA. They’ve won four of their last six, falling to East Carolina by five in the final week of the year. In a loss to Houston on Halloween, the Golden Eagles scored 43 points. Pretty impressive, given that Houston was ranked 18 in the country at the time and gave up roughly 28 points per game this season.

The most striking thing about Southern Mississippi is that they don’t turn the ball over. Quarterback Martavous Young threw one interception this year; it came on October 17th against Memphis. Young, who missed three games at the beginning of the year, threw 13 touchdown passes, including four against Tulsa in the team’s last win.

I’ll go with the hotter team in this one, Middle Tennessee. Statistically, they have a little better defense and I think Dwight Dasher is going to give Southern Mississippi problems.

The Pick: Middle Tennessee