Music City Bowl Preview

This Friday, Mississippi State will play Wake Forest in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN. Many have marked Mississippi State's season a disappointment. Mississippi State started the year ranked top 20 in most polls. Injuries on the offensive line and close games have lead the Bulldogs to a 6-6 season. And while, yes, it was a disappointing season, most everyone will tell you that reaching this bowl game was a rather large step for MSU in the long run. This marks only the 4th time in school history that the Bulldogs have reached back-to-back bowl games and the first time since the 2000 season.

The Bulldog's opponent, Wake Forest (6-6), is in the process of getting back on top. The Demon Deacons received a BCS-bowl bid in 2006. They lost in the Orange Bowl to Louisville 26-14. This is the Demon Deacons first bowl bid since the 2008 season.

Mississippi State has been somewhat of a mystery this season with performances that range from a dominant victory against Ole Miss to a blowout loss to Arkansas.However, Wake Forest has played fairly consistent this season. With a win against ranked (at the time) Florida State and a near win against BCS-bound Clemson. Both of these teams will be looking to claim a winning season.

Wake Forest plays a unique style of a 3-4 defense. This defense has many different schemes and blitzes. Look for Miss. State to take advantage of  linebacker-wide receiver mismatches during this game. Screen passes and quick throws will neutralize this blitz-happy defense.

On offense,Wake Forest will use an air attack that the Bulldogs haven't seen since Arkansas (and that didn't turn out too well for MSU). Lead by Tanner Price ( 2803 yards, 20 TDs, 6 INTs), WF will test Mississippi State deep through the air early and often . And MSU better keep an eye on WR Chris Givens, a Mississippi native who is having a very special season ( 1276 yards, 74 receptions, 9 TDs).

With all of that said, let's look at my keys to this game.

Wake Forest's Keys to the Game

• Test the MSU secondary DEEP early and often.
• Get the passing game going early, and it will open up the ground game.
• Blitz Bulldog quarterbacks Chris Relf and Tyler Russell and force them to make costly mistakes.

Mississippi State's Keys to the Game

• Take advantage of any Linebacker-WR mismatches.
• Use screen passes and quick throws to slow down WF's Defense
• Play assignment football on defense. Lock down the passing game and WF won't be able to do much on offense.
• Run the ball down hill at the defense. WF is a speedy team. Don't go around them, go through them.

Prediction: I just pointed out what each team will have to do to win this game. I think it will be easier for MSU to beat WF for one reason: They have a team that is battle-tested because they have already played the best teams in the nation. One of those top teams (Arkansas), thrashed the dogs. If WF can match Arkansas's offensive firepower, it could be a long day for MSU.  Not Happening.  MSU 41, WF 24.

A competition.

In anticipation for bowl season, I have created a group for ESPN's College Bowl Mania. Winner gets a shout out on the blog!

Click here to be taken to the group homepage. The password for the group is goodwin.

The End (And the Beginning of Something Special)

Basically, football season is over. Yes, there are bowl games, championships, all-star games, and even coaching controversy,but nothing will ever replace the empty void left in me on Friday nights and Saturdays. And since I must acknowledge this, I will recap this past season to help cope with the emptiness that is the end of football season.

High School Football

I had the pleasure of going to all but one of the Madison Central football games(missed the Greenville game), and I have never been more proud of being a Jag. The Jags DESTROYED teams on the ground by essentially running about 5 plays. It is tough to not make it past the North State Championship game for the 4th year in a row, but the Jags will recover and regroup this offseason like they always do. This season was not short of drama for MC. The Jags started off 0-2, beat rival NWR 52-20 in a hyped-up, televised game, and lost a close game against the eventual 6A state champions, Olive Branch, in the North State Championship game. But let me tell you one thing. If you thought the Jags were talented this year, wait till next year. The Jags sophomore class is as talented as any in the school's history. The sophomore class has won its conference the past three years with a combined record of 24-0. Olive Branch will have lost most all talent by next year. South Panola will be just as much of a non factor next year. Look for the Jags to make a run at their first 6A championship ever.

College Football

Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State had disappointing seasons. The good news for Ole Miss? The season is over and you have hired a new coach who has pumped new life into the nearly dead football program. So the question posed to you, Ole Miss fans, is: Are Hugh Ready?(PUN. NY) State's disappointing season was highlighted earlier in the season with a close loss to Auburn. There were several games decided by very few points. Who knows? A few different outcomes on plays, and State might be a 8-4 team.

Southern Miss football was not a disappointment. Recording the schools most victories in a season and a C-USA championship had Larry Fedora's name popping up like Dan Mullen's at nearly every school without a coach. Since then, Larry Fedora has accepted the job at the University of North Carolina.

Conclusion

Thanks for following my blog with me the last couple of weeks for football and other things. I hope this was as much fun for you as it was for me. I'm looking forward to next year and possibly expanding the blog's coverage to more schools than just MC.  It's time to shift gears to basketball and baseball. Hopefully I will be covering MC in these sports as well (as often as possible).

Finally, it will be tough to continue to write here (seeing as baseball and basketball are not exactly the king sports in Mississippi). I will try to write as often as possible. However, lots of information will be passed through twitter. So as soon as you're done reading this go to twitter and follow me @GOODWIN_SPORTS.

A proposition. If you are at all interested in writing for the blog (no matter the opinion), contact me on twitter. If you would like to write for your high school sports team, I would be more than happy to use that on my blog. I would love to make this a place for eveyone's opinion and not just mine.

And on a personal note, I would like to thank everyone for their continued support. The thoughts and comments have meant a lot to me. Continue to read and develop your own personal opinion of all things in the world. Thank you so much.