College Football Confidential

Wendell's New Year's Day bowl picks

Cotton Bowl: Missouri 31, Arkansas 28.

The Tigers and Chase Daniel have a little too much for the Razorbacks. And interim coaches (like Reggie Herring for Arkansas) haven't been successful during bowl season.

Outback Bowl: Wisconsin 21, Tennessee 20.

The Badgers should have just enough to get past the Vols.

Capital One Bowl: Florida 27, Michigan 20

The Wolverines think Gators QB Tim Tebow isn't anything special. They'll find out they're wrong.

Gator Bowl: Texas Tech 45, Virginia 28.

The Red Raiders' spread offense usually gives its bowl opponent a difficult time.

Rose Bowl: USC 42, Illinois 28.

The Trojans want to prove they're one of the best teams.

Sugar Bowl: Hawaii 38, Georgia 35.

Why not another upset by a BCS buster from the Western Athletic Conference?

Prediction record so far: 9-12.

Your Turn: Give us your prediction for the New Year's bowls by leaving a comment below.

-- Wendell Barnhouse

Pass the Pepto

Less than 3 hours from 2008 and channel flipping (a quiet New Year's Eve at home with the wife and kid) brought two stomach-turning reasons to change channels.

First, we were watching Dennis Miller's talk show on Versus when he brought on Pete Rose to talk about the Mitchell Report (kinda like Al Capone talking about the IRS).

A few clicks up the dial brought us to ESPN and the Chick-fil-A Bowl. The Worldwide Leader, as is its wont, over-produces everything so they brought in a guest for a telephone interview. The interviewee? That paragon of the NCAA rule book, new UCLA coach Rick Pitino.

The next stop, appropriately, was Law & Order. Seemed appropriate.

_ Wendell Barnhouse

Postgame quotables, Winning Coach version

What Cal head coach Jeff Tedford had to say after Monday's Armed Forces Bowl victory:

Offensively, I felt like we moved the ball pretty much the way we wanted to all game long. Kevin obviously came in and gave us a spark. Our receivers played well. Our offensive line played unbelievably. They were very physical up front.

On Kevin Riley being named MVP: I mean, he's a guy who plays very hard every week in practice. In practice, he pays attention and coach Daft gets him ready to play. It was obvious today that he came in ready to play and knew what he was doing. Really gave us a nice spark.

On a winning season: Oh, it's great. Especially for our seniors. We talked last night about our seniors and that they wanted a winning season. Everybody rallied, so it was great.

Postgame quotable, MVP version

What Cal quarterback Kevin Riley had to say after Monday's 42-36 victory over Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl:

On his pass protection: Unbelievable. I got hit once at first and that was it the whole game. It was an unbelievable job by the linemen. They were just clicking on all cylinders.

How important was it to get DeSean Jackson and Robert Jordan back in at receiver: They're playmakers. They've been making plays all year and they made plays today. So it was good ... they picked everybody up.

Milestone run for Riley

Cal quarterback Kevin Riley just punched in a one-yard touchdown - his first rushing touchdown of his career - to give the Golden Bears a 42-30 lead over Air Force with 6:31 left here at the Armed Forces Bowl.

Big injury

Air Force quarterback Shaun Carney was just helped off the field by trainers with an apparent injury to his right leg.

This could spell major trouble for the Falcons. Carney is 5-8 for 68 yards passing with a touchdown, but more importantly he's carried the ball 15 times for 108 yards and a touchdown.

Update: Carney is out with a right knee sprain. He will not return.

First FG of the game

Air Force kicker Ryan Harrison kicked a 29-yard field goal to put the Falcons up 24-14 on the Golden Bears of Cal with 10:29 remaining in the third quarter.

First-Half Observations

For a team called Air Force, the Falcons sure do love their ground game. Quarterback Shaun Carney is 2-3 passing for 17 yards and a touchdown. On the ground, he has 13 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown. The Falcons have 197 yards rushing in the first half.

More points for Cal

After a slow start, the Golden Bears' offense seems to be gaining some steam.

With 4:09 left in the first half, Cal scored on a 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kevin Riley to Lavelle Hawkins. Riley is 7-8 for 100 yards and two touchdowns so far.

The Golden Bears moved 70 yards in 10 plays, with 4:12 time of possession for the touchdown.

Look who showed up...

DeSean Jackson, Cal's big-play receiver, is back in the game after getting punished for some pre-bowl transgression. Jackson, starting wideout Robert Jordan and starting safety Thomas DeCoud all didn't start but appear to have returned after Cal fell in a 21-0 hole to Air Force. Jackson just caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Kevin Riley to pull the Bears within 21-7. What timing.

--Troy Phillips