Bowl Season Begins

Well, Bowl Season has finally begun. I say this because we have our first upset of the season in Honolulu. Thankfully for Notre Dame fans, this upset did not involve Charlie Weis keeping his job for another year until Urban Meyer is more "available." No, this upset actually took place on the field, as Notre Dame upset the Hawaii Warriors in a game that was a de facto home game for the Rainbow Warriors. By the way, how on earth did any football coach ever get rid of the nickname "Rainbow Warriors?" It's brilliant. Rainbows inspire fears of leprechauns, prisms, and Armageddon-- all three keep me awake late at night.

What impressed me most about this victory was the way Jimmy Clausen, a former five-star recruit on Recruits and current 3 star "Grieco Prospect" on hotchickswithdouchebags.com, played on Tuesday night. He was 22-26 for 401 yards, 5 TDs and no picks. It was a stunning performance by a kid who had been off and on all year. It also shows one of the most exciting and frustrating aspects of bowl season: watching young players develop. The extra 3-6 weeks of practice, depending on the date of the bowl game, allows some young players to transform into veterans. As a Michigan fan, believe me, watching Vince Young suddenly realize at halftime of the 2005 Rose Bowl that he was a man among boys and was going to single handedly own the sport for the next year. This game has the potential to be that type of moment for Clausen, the moment where he realizes his potential to be one of the top pro-style passers in college football.

So, who else is going to wow us with their sudden development in the next two weeks? I have two names.
1) Terrelle Pryor. Pryor has been a starter for the second half of the season for the Buckeyes, has been a decent passer this fall. He had one game where he through for over 200 yards against Penn State, but has really only average about 100 yards through the air. Instead, Pryor has primarily been a runner, and an effective one. He has a terrific coach in Jim Tressel that has already transformed Troy Smith from a runner into a Heisman Trophy winning thrower, so I'm really interested to see how Pryor has grown since Thanksgiving.
2) Mossis Madu. Madu is the backup running back behind injured Demarco Murry for the Sooners. Madu was a four-star recruit out of high school with 4.4 speed out of high school. OU is desperately searching for the next Adrian Peterson, so I can't wait to see how Madu performs on the biggest stage in the sport.

Who all are you looking forward to watching?