KSR Bowl Preview 2.0: Things are heating up

Bowl season is nearly a week old, and there have been some entertaining games on television. UTSA-Troy provided some dramatics on day one, Oregon State housed Florida in Las Vegas, Frank Gore Jr. ran for a thousand yards in Mobile, Chris Creighton got a fry bath, and WKU’s offense put on a show.

However, that was just an appetizer. Things will get heated up after Christmas.

Beginning on Tuesday, we will have 11 games over three days leading into the beginning of New Year’s Six season and the start of some of the marquee matchups. However, there are some pretty good ones on the slate for this week.

KSR is back to set the table for the next six days with 15 games on the slate beginning on Friday.

The Slate

— Independence Bowl (Friday): Louisiana vs. Houston (3:30 pm ET, ESPN)

— Gasparilla Bowl (Friday): Wake Forest vs. Missouri (6:30 pm, ESPN)

— Hawai’i Bowl (Saturday): Middle Tennessee vs. San Diego State (8:00 pm, ESPN)

— Quick Lane Bowl (Monday): New Mexico State vs. Bowling Green (2:30 pm, ESPN)

— Camellia Bowl (Tuesday): Georgia Southern vs. Buffalo (Noon, ESPN)

— First Responder Bowl (Tuesday): Memphis vs. Utah State (3:15, ESPN)

— Birmingham Bowl (Tuesday): Coastal Carolina vs. East Carolina (6:45, ESPN)

— Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Tuesday): Wisconsin vs. Oklahoma State (10:15, ESPN)

— Military Bowl (Wednesday): UCF vs. Duke (2:00, ESPN)

— Liberty Bowl (Wednesday): Kansas vs. Arkansas (5:30, ESPN)

— Holiday Bowl (Wednesday): North Carolina vs. No. 15 Oregon (8:00, FOX)

— Texas Bowl (Wednesday): Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss (9:00, ESPN)

— Pinstripe Bowl (Thursday): Syracuse vs. Minnesota (2:00, ESPN)

— Cheez-It Bowl (Thursday): Oklahoma vs. No. 13 Florida State (5:30, ESPN)

— Alamo Bowl (Thursday): No. 20 Texas vs. No. 12 Washington (9:00, ESPN)

Rock Chalk Beale Street

The wait is finally over. Kansas football will be participating in the postseason for the first time since 2008. There will be a big KU party on Beale Street centered around their 6-6 football team.

Awaiting the Jayhawks in Memphis will be an Arkansas team with an identical 6-6 record and a similar statistical profile to Lance Leipold’s second Kansas team.

Both of these defenses rank sub-90 in points per drive and EPA. The Hogs will be without defensive coordinator Barry Odom who was hired by UNLV earlier this month. Meanwhile, both offenses have a top-20 passing attack and haven’t had any issues scoring with QB1 in the lineup.

Both Jalon Daniels and KJ Jefferson are expected to be full go at the Liberty Bowl. We should get points in bunches and a great crowd powered by what should be a rowdy Kansas fan base. A lot of good things are adding up in this matchup.

The contest between a pair of .500 teams is one of the best matchups this bowl season.

Another potential Holiday Bowl shootout

For as long as I can remember, the Holiday Bowl has long been one of the best games to watch during bowl season. Finding its home in San Diego, there have been numerous shootouts in this bowl game’s luxurious history with nine winners since 2000 reaching the 40-point threshold.

That should be 10 winners after Wednesday night.

Drake Maye and Bo Nix will each be Heisman Trophy candidates in the offseason as both offenses are powered by star quarterbacks. Meanwhile, both the Ducks and Tar Heels rank sub-100 in EPA, success rate, and points per drive on defense. Both offenses in this matchup rank inside the top 20.

There will be points scored.

It is worth noting that there will be an interim offensive coordinator situation for each team as Kenny Dillingham has left Oregon to be the head coach at Arizona State, and Phil Longo will now call plays at Wisconsin. That is a big unknown variable for each team, but it might not matter at the end of the day.

With a total of 73, we should see some action in this year’s Holiday Bowl.

Shootouts everywhere

You should be picking up a trend here in the second week of bowl season. We got some really good matchups between power conference programs, and many feature two good offenses going against each other.

The Alamo Bowl will be no different.

We will get a ranked vs. ranked matchup in San Antonio as Washington will put their 10-2 record on the line against 8-4 Texas. With a pair of play-calling head coaches, there should be some fireworks on Thursday night.

Michael Penix Jr. will be another Heisman Trophy candidate in the offseason after throwing for 4,354 yards on 8.7. yards per attempt with 33 total touchdowns for an offense that scored over 40 points per game. Former No. 1 overall recruit Quinn Ewers paces a Texas offense that scored over 35 points per game.

With a Washington defense that ranks No. 100 in points per drive and No. 110 in success rate, there should be plenty of scoring opportunities for Texas. Meanwhile, the Huskies’ explosive offense should be able to keep up.

We should get a shootout at the Alamodome.

Luckett’s Notebook

— There is a game on Christmas Eve night. The Hawai’i Bowl will be delivering the goods while you wrap those last minutes presents before Santa comes down the chimney. Middle Tennessee and San Diego State will face off in a battle between two bad offenses. Might want to take a look at that under.

— Battle of the Carolinas in Birmingham? What could be better? A proud East Carolina program will be playing in its first postseason game since 2014 and will face a Coastal program with an interim head coach and without its star quarterback. The Pirates should have a great shot at recording its eighth win of the season.

–Want backup quarterbacks? Turn on the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in the after dark window on Tuesday. Oklahoma State will be without Spencer Sanders, and Graham Mertz is now a Florida Gator. This game could go in 100 different directions.

— Quietly, the UCF-Duke matchup could be very fun in the Military Bowl on Wednesday afternoon. Both of these teams have top-25 rushing attacks, and there could be some good motivation for each side. Mike Elko has a chance to record nine wins in his first season at Duke, and Gus Malzahn has a shot to get UCF to 10 wins before making the move to the Big 12. Both these teams have had good seasons and could give us a fun day game.

— Down in Houston, there should be a fired-up Texas Tech fan base after a surprise 7-5 season under first-year head coach Joey McGuire. Meanwhile, Ole Miss comes into this game reeling having lost three straight games. But the Rebels could have a bump for the Texas Bowl after signing Lane Kiffin to a contract extension. That could make for a fun night game on Wednesday.