The Bowl Bonanza that'll consist of 28 games gets started tonight in Lafayette, La., when Southern Miss (6-5 straight up, 5-5 against the spread) and Arkansas State collide at Cajun Field for the New Orleans Bowl. Obviously, the history of this bowl game has always entailed a trip to the Crescent City and the Superdome, but that's not an option this year due to Hurricane Katrina.
Therefore, these schools won't get the standard reward of time spent in N'awlins, but perhaps that allows for a better football game with the players dealing with fewer distractions. For our purposes, there are still numbers available for the side and total, and that's all that matters for this ho-hum affair anyway.
Most sports books are listing the Golden Eagles as 17-point favorites with a total of 49. The Indians are plus 550 (risk $100 to win $550) to win outright.
Jeff Bower's 15th year in Hattiesburg has been his most challenging. While Tulane and LSU garnered most of the attention following Katrina, there were similar circumstances impacting the Golden Eagles, who also saw their home base nearly obliterated by the storm.
The Golden Eagles had two of their games postponed and had to play their last nine games in a nine-week stretch without a break. Plus, they had to prepare for their opener at Alabama while living out of a hotel in Memphis for more than a week.
Nevertheless, Southern Miss is back in a bowl game for the fourth straight season and the eighth time in nine years. Bower's bunch is 4-3 in its last seven post-season appearances, including last year's 31-10 win over North Texas in the New Orleans Bowl.
This is Arkansas State's (6-5 SU, 4-6 ATS) first bowl bid during Steve Roberts' four-year tenure. The Indians won four of their last six games to wrap up the post-season berth, including a 31-24 win at North Texas as two-point underdogs in their regular-season finale.
Arkansas State had to rally from a 17-7 deficit at intermission to beat the Eagles. Antonio Warren finished with 105 rushing yards and scored the game-winning touchdown on a one-yard dive with 30.4 seconds left.
North Texas, which suffered through a 2-9 season, had represented the Sun Belt Conference in the first four New Orleans bowls. But the Indians captured this year's berth by winning the tiebreaker after finishing atop the league standings with Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Arkansas State will be making its first appearance in a bowl game since the 1970 Pecan Bowl. Granted, the Indians played in Division I-AA from 1981-'92, but they haven't even been to the I-AA playoffs since 1987.
"We're representing a lot of groups," Roberts told the Associated Press. "We're representing all the underdogs, the state of Arkansas and the Sun Belt Conference. We're also representing a lot of frustrated fans for the last 30 years or so that haven't been to a bowl game."
Senior quarterback Dustin Almond will be playing his last college game after serving as the Southern Miss starting signal caller the last three years. Almond threw for 2,607 yards and 21 touchdowns this season despite losing his favorite target (Antwon Courington) at the mid-point of the year.
The Golden Eagles rushing attack has moved at a pedestrian pace all year long. Larry Thomas lead the team with 638 rushing yards, but he's only averaged 3.8 yards per tote.
Defensively, the Golden Eagles are led by C-USA's Defensive Player of the Year, Kevis Coley. The senior linebacker registered 144 tackles and five sacks.
Coley will be looking to slow down the Indians' ground attack, particularly Warren, who rushed for 1,046 yards and six touchdowns. Warren averages 6.3 yards per carry and has gained more than 3,000 yards during his career. Senior RB Shermar Bracey also gets plenty of touches, rushing for 659 yards and five touchdowns. In fact, Bracey has a better YPC average (7.1 yards) than Warren.
ASU senior QB Nick Noce doesn't have sparkling stats, but he did improve his numbers from his junior year to this season. The JUCO transfer completed just 52.1 percent of his throws in 2004 with a touchdown-interception ratio of 13/16. In '05, Noce has connected on 55.5 percent of his attempts with an 11/9 TD-INT ratio.
Southern Miss junior center Robby D'Angelo was limited by a sprained knee late in the season, but he returned to practice last week and will play. OG Ricardo Clark (cracked bone in wrist) will also play, although his contact work was limited in preparations for tonight's tilt.
ASU linebacker Chris Littleton was arrested Saturday and charged with two misdemeanors, but he's expected to play nonetheless. On the other hand, junior DE Jonathan Njam (knee) and sophomore DB Montis Harrison (shoulder) are "out."
Arkansas State owns a 2-4 spread record as an underdog, posting a 1-2 ATS mark as a double-digit 'dog. Southern Miss is 0-2 ATS as a double-digit 'chalk,' losing 34-17 at Tulsa as a 12-point favorite and winning 26-7 in a 'non-covering' triumph against Tulane as a 20-point favorite.
There hasn't been a total on an Arkansas St. game this year, but Southern Miss has seen the 'over' cash at a 3-1 clip.
The weather report is calling for a slight chance of rain and mostly cloudy skies. Temperatures are expected to fall into the upper 30s.
Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern with ESPN providing television coverage.
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