Dirty South Looks At The Music City Bowl

((HT: Dirty South Sports Report))

The HQ would like to welcome and add the resources of the Dirty South Sports Report to our stacks from this moment on...

The reason...???

Well, one of the Dirty Southerners, Jackson Martin, is a protege of the HQ and we're glad to see him grow...

He's a regular...

So, to start, he went after the locals, the Music City Bowl...

Two 7-5 teams coming off disappointing losses to hated in-state rivals doesn’t sound like the setup for an exciting bowl game, but this year’s Music City Bowl might just be a thrilling shootout that keeps us glued to our TVs until the final whistle. Or it might be a lackluster slapfight between two teams just ready for the offseason (and two coaches who are ready to play golf).

Mississippi was dreaming of something greater this year. After an impressive recruiting haul, head coach Hugh Freeze looked to turn those offseason wins into victories on the field. The Rebels won a nailbiter in Nashville on the first night of the season to get things started right, but never put together the string of wins needed to truly contend for the SEC West title. Quarterback “Dr.” Bo Wallace had an up-and-down year that culminated in his fumbling away the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State. That overtime loss to the Bulldogs moved the Ole Miss season from 8-4 and optimistic to 7-5 and wondering what went wrong.

Georgia Tech has been stagnant for three years now. Paul Johnson’s triple-option offense is no longer producing the wins it initially did in the ACC and the Yellow Jackets are once again mediocre, as they have been every year since winning the ACC in 2009. This is a matchup of two even teams, but Ole Miss may have the advantage after getting a month to prepare for the triple-option. Tech doesn’t fare well in bowl games — last year’s Sun Bowl win over USC was the first since 2004 for the Yellow Jackets.

Bias Report
In this section, I’ll tell you who I’m rooting for in each matchup and why. My reasons will range from true fandom to whoever has the best uniform and I want to give you a glimpse of what I like and dislike about every bowl team.

I’m a Georgia fan. I don’t like the Yellow Jackets, and I especially don’t like Paul Johnson. There are two things I like about Georgia Tech:

Calvin Johnson


and Reggie Ball


Hoddy Toddy.

Numbers to know

F/+ Rankings: Tech 31, Ole Miss 34
Spread: Ole Miss -4
Over/Under: 55

Picks

To help you figure out exactly who will win each game, we’ve assembled a panel of experts to pick each game. Our panel features myself, Ben Weinrib of The Knuckleblog, our resident gambling expert Jake Kearns, @turntuptina (who makes NFL picks over at The Knuckleblog occasionally), my dad, and a decision on which mascot would win in a fight.

Jackson Martin: Ole Miss

Ben Weinrib: Ole Miss

James Francis Kearns III: Ole Miss

@turntuptina: Ole Miss

Dad: Georgia Tech

Mascot fight: Ole Miss now uses a black bear as its mascot, which I’m pretty sure is the natural enemy of bees.