Music City Bowl, Kentucky vs Florida St.
Andre Woodson looks for a repeat Music City Bowl winning performance.
Kentucky Wildcats 7-5 (3-5), 4th Southeastern - East
VS
Florida State Seminoles 7-5 (4-4), 4th Atlantic Coast - Atlantic
The Music City Bowl in Nashville Tennessee on New Year’s Eve is going to a huge wildcard this year. That is because a major academic scandal involving 36 players from the Florida State football team will be ineligible to play. It’s one of the biggest academic scandals of its kind leaving the Seminoles devastated heading into the bowl game.
Though it would appear that Kentucky has the game in the bag going in, the Wildcats have not played their best football in the second half of the season. After winning five straight games to start the season, the Wildcats finished off 2007 with a 2-5 record. Though, many of the losses came against top SEC teams in Florida, Tennessee and Georgia, after their stunning upset of LSU, many expected the Wildcats to be in a BCS bowl game come January. For senior quarterback Andre Woodson, this will be his second appearance at the Music City Bowl, after leading the Wildcats to the victory last year over Clemson. Woodson who was an early Heisman candidate is expected to be first round draft pick in next year’s NFL entry draft.
To say that the Seminoles are in disarray would be huge understatement. Coach Bobby Bowden has just 43 scholarship players traveling to the game. The most devastated part of the lineup will be on the defensive side of the ball. A starting linebacker, cornerback and 3 defensive tackles will not be with the team. With an offense that scored just 24 touchdowns the entire season over 12 games, coach Bowden is hoping that they can buck the trend on gameday.
The line for the game is OTB, or off the board as they say in Vegas. With all the recent turmoil over players suspended and who will be and who won’t be playing, it’s hard to put a line, suffice to say that Kentucky will be a big favorite heading in. The gameplan for the Seminoles pre-suspensions was to slow the air attack of Woodson and Kentucky. Now that most of his best defensive players will not be there, the Seminoles will look to grind out ground yards 3 at a time and try to maintain possession of the ball. If the Wildcats manage to score 3 or more touchdowns, they will win the game running away.
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