Wake Forest upends heavily favored Temple in Military Bowl
This bowl is for all our Vets and active military!
Annapolis, Maryland – The unranked and young Demon Deacons of Wake Forest (7-6) allowed No. 23 Temple to score the first time it had the ball, but QB John Wolford led the offensive attack to a 31-7 lead into the third period while the defensive charge led by LB Thomas Brown with seven tackles, a sack, a key break-up, and a forced fumble held Temple (10-4) to -20 yards rushing to take home the exciting, well-played victory, 34-26. Brown was chosen as the game’s MVP. For collegefootballfan.com, this was our first of four bowl games in five days. We stayed overnight in Delaware on the way up to New York City to drive early in the morning to attend the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium Wednesday.
Pre-game tailgate at MB boosting Dan from the Tailgate blog: Jason, Dave, Air Force Jay, Navy Al, Brian Donnelly, Wake Forest grad Jim Harton, and yours truly
Jahad Thomas (5) and Ryquell Armstead both ran for 918 yards this season. The Demon Deacon defense put a stop to that allowing -20 yards rushing at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.
Deja vu’ at Yankee Stadium: Northwestern upends Pitt in the Pinstripe
New York – We saw our second upset within 24 hours as Northwestern (7-6) surprised No. 21 Pitt (8-5), 31-24, again with good defense, but also behind the running skills of RB Justin Jackson who impressed with 224 yards and three TDs to take game MVP honors. It was a seesaw battle, one in which we expected to see Pitt’s James Conner have a big rushing day. Instead, the Wildcats held him in check before he left the game with a head injury with only 32 yards and never to return.
Justin Jackson (21) fights for extra yards to keep a scoring drive alive.
As Guest Game Analyst Bob “Cat” Marcello (King’s College, PA) noted during the game, “Neither team (Panthers nor Wildcats) was dogging it.” No pun intended by him, but I interpreted him that way. It was a great game on a cold afternoon that Cat sat through with a bad, head cold. He’s CFF.com’s MVP for this one while introducing us to Foley’s Bar on 33rd street in Manhattan between Penn Station and the D Line subway to Yankee Stadium. The place is like a museum packed with sports memorabilia. You gotta check it out some time when you visit New York.
As Cat said, neither team was dogging it as Wildcat QB Clayton Thorson threw this one down field.
At 6 AM Thursday morning, we caught a flight for Nashville. No live football for us on Wednesday, women’s college basketball instead. One of my former Little League players, Lindsey Sabo, the only girl I ever managed, plays point guard for D-3 Castleton State of Vermont. She and her Spartans just happened to be playing in The Music City Classic here this week. They fell to highly ranked Ohio Northern today and play Marymount of Virginia in their second game tomorrow (Friday). However, I’ll be at the Music City Bowl for Tennessee vs. Nebraska on Friday at the same time she and her Spartans are playing nearby. Hope they can finish on a positive note with a win to make their trip memorable.
That will be followed by an early morning drive to Atlanta on Saturday to meet up with my Auburn connections Charlie and Lynda Murren for the CFP semi-final Peach Bowl between No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Washington. I predicted Temple and Pitt would both win by multiple touchdowns. I’m going to predict the same for Alabama. Let’s see what happens! Stay tuned for more insight and game action.
Pitt sideline action.