Liberty Bowl: The Semi-Liveblog

FIRST HALF UPDATE:

OK, first things first ... what's the deal with ESPN. I flip on the game and I have to listen to the commentary of Craig James and Doug Flutie??? Both of whom were considered enemy combatants back in the 80s: Flutie for the 1985 Cotton Bowl, James for his time spent with SMU's Pony Express backfield. Clearly, this is a sign of ESPN's immeasurable anti-Coog bias, right?

It gets worse.

Halftime report comes up and I've got to see Hans Moleman Lou Holtz giving the breakdown. This is a twofer here ... Holtz being an enemy combatant for his time spent at Arkansas, PLUS the fact that he used to coach at South Carolina.

Criminy, where's the balance here? Nobody could have gotten Bill Yeoman to even things out just a tad? Hell, what's Dana Dimel doing these days?

Anyways, I'd suspected something was amiss in the pregame articles about this game. On the one hand, it seemed everyone was bragging about the shoot-em-up qualities of both offenses - and rightfully so. But then there'd be the usual predictions of a final score like 27-17. Maybe it's my Run & Shoot bias here, but that doesn't sound like a razzle dazzle kind of game if you ask me. As luck would have it, both sides have put the issue to rest. Three minutes left in the first half = four touchdowns, two a side.

My sense was that the first team to 30 might win this one. I might have to upgrade that to 50 now. Kolb looks like he wants it, but the SC QB looks pretty sharp, too. And maybe it's just this one game, maybe it's the commentary by a legitimate NFL-grade RB like Craig James pointing this out too much, but Anthony Alridge doesn't impress me much as a RB. I hate to say that, but if you consistently cannot beat one-on-one competition, you're clearly in the wrong position. Not sure what our need is for 5'9/170 receivers, but with his speed he's nowhere near unimportant ... just miscast. I realize he's averaging over 10 yrds per carry and 900+ yards for the season, but I'm suddenly curious what that suggests of C-USA talent more than anything else. I dunno, maybe he can move to defensive back and light the world on fire for all I know. Just sayin' for now. Jackie Battle on the other hand ....

OK, back to Craig James to pretend to be unbiased in covering a team that once beat his.

SECOND HALF CONCLUSION:

Ugh!