Heard Russ Mitchell on Sports 56 yesterday with some interesting commentary.

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The guys on there were asking him about different bowl games and someone made the comment about some team "ought to be up for this bowl game". Mitchell's response was interesting to me. He basically said other than the two teams in the national championship, there aren't many coaches who really care about bowl games. It's all about the extra month of practice they get. The actual game is just trivial and an exhibition for the players to have fun.

 

[57stratdawg]

Probably really depends on who theyre playing too.

 

[bonedaddy401]

If we loose to Rice its going to really hurt the momentum we have...

we had to beat two mediocre teams in OT to get that momentum. Losing to Rice in your own backyard would elicit more than a "it was just an exhibition game 17 it" response from me.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

That's what I've heard too. Several years ago, Colorado used bowl practice to implement a new offensive philosophy for the following seaon. They lost the bowl game but they used that extra month to become more familiar with it.

 

[YardBarker]

The guys on there were asking him about different bowl games and someone made the comment about some team "ought to be up for this bowl game". Mitchell's response was interesting to me. He basically said other than the two teams in the national championship, there aren't many coaches who really care about bowl games. It's all about the extra month of practice they get. The actual game is just trivial and an exhibition for the players to have fun.

I'm sorry but if you have one competitive fiber in your body then you want to win at anything you do. Of course coaches and players care and want to win. Hell when I was in school I wanted make a higher grade than my friends or lift more weight, etc. Today I want to produce more and better quality work than my co-workers.

 

[121Josey]

If that were the case, then I think that you'd see more underclassmen getting reps in the bowl games. The bowl game still counts as a W or L, so "trivial" and "exhibition" might not be the best descriptions.

 

[rabiddawg]

Sherrill always seemed to have this attitude to me. We got beat by Air Force, NC State, and North Carolina during the Natron Means days before he really started to show interst in bowl games. We then beat Clemson in the Peach and someone else before getting hammered by Ricky Williams post-Heisman win and UT in Cotton.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

Timeline is a little off. Cotton Bowl loss was before Peach and Independence wins.

 

[rabiddawg]

Ah OK. Little fuzzy time of my life there

 

[RocketDawg]

I can't speak for the Alabama football team, but I know my friends who are Alabama fans aren't all that pumped about playing in the Sugar Bowl. About the only thing they seem to care about is the NC, and if they're not in that then even a BCS bowl doesn't mean much. This game could end up like the one with Utah a few years ago.

It's hard to imagine State fans having the same attitude, but perhaps it would come with continued success.

 

[Joe Schmedlap]

I can believe that

Mullin didn't seem 100% interested in defeating Wake in the Music City Bowl. Left 3 sure points on the board just before halftime and has to hang on for dear life at the end to defeat a team State should have dominated. Then last year he kept sending out Russell for int after int. That sure as heck didn't look like our coach cared about winning the game.

 

[TulsaLawDawg]

Yeah but he went for the throat in Gator Bowl I. E.g., Going for it on 4th and 10 with the lead.

 

[was21]

I remember Sherrill commenting that basically he considered bowl games a reward to the players, and that it was really about "fun". If the game was lost, it was no big deal to him.

 

[The Peeper]

I see, kind of like the Egg Bowl is to the Black Bear players..............

The actual game is just trivial and an exhibition for the players to have fun