Technical Tidbits 12/8

As you've undoubtedly heard by now, Georgia Tech has accepted an invitation to play in the Orange Bowl against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, one of the best teams in the nation, on New Year's Eve (check out the FTRS write-up right here). This promises to be one of the best match-ups of what could be the most entertaining bowl season in years, but it certainly won't be an easy win for the Jackets. Mississippi State will have nearly a month to prepare for Tech's rushing attack and have been great at stopping the run all season anyway (No. 25 in rush defense nationally); their defensive front seven is the core of their very talented and very athletic team to begin with.

Whatever the outcome may be, you can be sure that millions will flock to watch the Jackets take on their second "Bulldogs" opponent in three games. In fact, it was named the fifth best bowl of the entire season by Yahoo! Sports, coming in behind only the playoff games and the Cotton and Peach Bowls, respectively. While I personally feel that Georgia Tech vs. Michigan State would have been a much more compelling match-up (Sparty would have been just the second B1G opponent faced by Paul Johnson, as compared to Mississippi State being about the 9,001st from the SEC), I'm definitely not complaining. Any season which offers a chance to go 2-0 against top 10 SEC teams sounds like a win to me.

My favorite part of all of this playoff insanity is that the entire point of integrating such a system was to prevent all of the crazy anger which often (always) arose from the BCS, but it instead multiplied it by about four. The whole TCU and Baylor situation captivated us all for about 15 minutes (although we heard about it nonstop for about a week) and ended with both being upended by Ohio State, which swooped in at the last minute to thoroughly troll the two Big 12 schools. God bless you, Art Briles. Your passion is as infectious as your accent is southern.

Meanwhile in Athens, dwag faithful are going nuts. I mean come on, this was a Hutson Mason-led team which was supposed to blow out Alabama and win it all by a landslide, right? And now they are doomed to life of misery in the Belk Bowl with Louisville? It's tragic, especially when you consider that uga won't be able to continue its extra-conferencial affair with Nebraska for a third straight season. If only there was a way for the dwags to be forever linked to the Huskers, maybe by firing Mark Richt and hiring a certain former head coach of theirs...

Phew, this may need to be a week of bowl-related Technical Tidbits posts. So many good stories to follow...

Are you disappointed in drawing Mississippi State? Is there another team which you'd have preferred?

Have a great Monday!