Boise Wins Fiesta AGAIN!!! Antoine Turner Gets A Ring

((HT: KTVB-TV))

Bryan Harsin, the new Boise State head coach, went into the Chris Peterson playbook for a good dose of irony in their 38-30 win over Arizona in Glendale on New Year's Eve.

He even pulled out the reverse "Statue of Liberty" play for a TD in a handoff to Jay Ajayi for ther second of his three runs for score on the day.

The point was made that Boise is the Gonzaga of college football- it doesn't matter who they play, the Broncos get their pounds of flesh in whatever bowl game they play, regardless of opponent.

But one of the cool stories for Boise is that of Antoine Turner- the homeless junior college star that ended up getting a competitive waiver from the NCAA to be able to have a roof over his head, enroll in school and get playing for the university.

A great young man and a greater story...

Here's the interview with Turner off the win at the end of the longest season of football he has ever had...

Blake Bortles Nails His NFL Audition, If He So Chooses

You've got to think Central Florida quarterback Blake Bortles might be thinking about going pro.

Especially after his performance Wednesday night in front of a national TV audience in the Fiesta Bowl.

Bortles completed 20 of 31 passes for 301 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for a career high 93 yards and a touchdown in UCF's 52-42 Fiesta Bowl win over Baylor.

Thanks UCF Knights




"It's awesome to be a part of this." Bortles said. "We came in together.  We're all within one year of each other.  We weren't highly touted guys out of high school.  We came to UCF on a mission."

Bortles would win Fiesta Bowl MVP honors.

"I think he came back and made some big plays with his legs and also turned some plays that could have been very bad for us, into really good plays getting the ball downfield." UCF head coach George O'Leary said.

"He [Bortles] deserved it [Fiesta Bowl MVP Award]." O'Leary added, "I think he played very well."

What was important about Bortles performance against Baylor was that he was able to keep pace with Teddy Bridgewater and Johnny Manziel (should he choose to go pro) in jaw-dropping performance's in the collegiate finale's.

Those who evaluate talent for the NFL Draft (and those of us in the OSG HQ tend to stay out of that business) see a work in progress with Bortles.

Blake Bortles' conflict: media/mock drafts = top 10, NFL advisory panel = 2nd RD. 5th pick = 4yrs/18M, 40th pick = 4yrs/4M. #toughcall
— Phil Savage (@SeniorBowlPhil) January 2, 2014

Bortles is a special talent at quarterback and UCF Knight fans would love to see him stay for one more year.

The NFL lure might be to great though.

How About A "Try Safety...?"

Sure, okay...

The HQ will bite on this one...

Let's see... if a point-after attempt is blocked, you recover it in your endzone, try to advance it, and get tackled... this is what happens...
((HT: ESPN on ABC/youtube))


A one-point safety... and both in the history of the NCAA happened to Brad Nessler...
Well played, sir...

Here's the other... November 26, 2004...
((HT: ABC Sports/youtube))

Your Ticket Oak Update: Want To Go Bowling...???

The HQ figured, with the holidays approaching, that we would give you a quick update on ticket prices for your favorite upcoming bowl game...

We'll do this alphabetically... and, remember, this does not include the idea of getting tickets through the schools themselves...
((HT: Stubhub))

The title game: Surprisingly enough, you can still get in the door for $1,195...parking passes are $30 and FanZone tickets are $20

Fiesta Bowl: $155 to get in the door...

Orange: The Northern Illinois-FSU game is $5 upper deck and the HQ is debating getting tickets- just to say we got tickets for the Huskies Bee-Cee-Ess appearance

Rose: $150 in the upper sections

Sugar: Terrace Level for $62, but it is Florida-Louisville

Alamo: $50 in the upper level endzone

Armed Forces: There are $19 endzone seats, but $45 from there...

BBVA Compass: Strangely enough, there aren't any tickets... the HQ guesses it's Ole Miss speaking there...

Beef O'Brady's: $43 gets upper deck

Belk: A lot of $19 upper deck tickets

Buffalo Wild Wings: $21 upper deck

Cap One: Upper-level corner for $24

Chick-fil-A: $38 upper level

Cotton: Standing Room for $101, if you want to sit it's 3x that...

Idaho Potato: $45 can get you in, but you can go lower level for another $20

Gator: Upper corners at the Gator Bowl are $3 and $4, but it is Miss State and Northwestern

GoDaddy: Very few tickets remain and parking passes are even more expensive than getting in the door...

Heart of Dallas: $62 gets you, actually, in the lower corner...

Holiday: $53 and $54 for the corners...

Independence: Lower endzones are $23, but I would think the Louisiana-Monroe folks will snap those up pretty quickly...

Kraft Fight Hunger: Endzone bleachers are $63

Liberty: A lot of tickets between the 20's are in the $50 for Iowa State and Tulsa

Little Caesars: Lower level endzone is $59

MAACO Las Vegas: Corners for $32

Meineke/Texas: Loge in the 500-levels are $24, but parking passes for Reliant are more...

Military: Nothing left for San Jose State and Bowling Green (good for them...)

Music City: Upper level in the 300's are $6,7 and $8... and there are over 5,000 tickets left

New Mexico: Upper level tickets at the 50 are in the neighborhood of $20

Outback: Mid-level corner seats are $90 and $100 and there are less than 2,000 seats left...

Pinstripe: Bleacher seats are $93 and then there are $97 seats that are actual seats...

Poinsettia: Upper levels are $50 and endzones are $65

Russell Athletics: Upper-level corner seats are $6 and there are, apparently, a lot of them...

Sheraton Hawai'i: Lower-level sideline are available for $41

Sun: Endzone seats for $21 and sideline seats start at $25

Happy shopping... we'll keep you posted...

Your 2012 Bowl Rundown

Gildan New Mexico
Nevada vs. Arizona Albuquerque, N.M.
University Stadium Dec. 15
1 p.m. ESPN

Famous Idaho Potato
Toledo vs. Utah State Boise, Idaho
Bronco Stadium Dec. 15
4:30 p.m. ESPN

S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia
BYU vs. San Diego State San Diego
Qualcomm Stadium Dec. 20
8 p.m. ESPN

Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg
UCF vs. Ball State St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tropicana Field Dec. 21
7:30 p.m. ESPN

R+L Carriers New Orleans
East Carolina vs. Louisiana-Lafayette New Orleans
Mercedes-Benz Superdome Dec. 22
Noon ESPN

MAACO Las Vegas
Washington vs. Boise State Las Vegas
Sam Boyd Stadium Dec. 22
3:30 p.m. ESPN

Sheraton Hawaii
Fresno State vs. SMU Honolulu
Aloha Stadium Dec. 24
8 p.m. ESPN

Little Caesars Pizza
Western Kentucky vs. Central Michigan Detroit
Ford Field Dec. 26
7:30 p.m. ESPN

Military Bowl Presented By Northrop Grumman
San Jose State vs. Bowling Green Washington, D.C.
RFK Stadium Dec. 27
3 p.m. ESPN

Belk
Cincinnati vs. Duke Charlotte, N.C.
Bank of America Stadium Dec. 27
6:30 p.m. ESPN

Bridgepoint Education Holiday
Baylor vs. UCLA San Diego
Qualcomm Stadium Dec. 27
9:45 p.m. ESPN

AdvoCare V100 Independence
Ohio vs. Louisiana-Monroe Shreveport, La.
Independence Stadium Dec. 28
2 p.m. ESPN

Russell Athletic
Rutgers vs. Virginia Tech Orlando, Fla.
Florida Citrus Bowl Dec. 28
5:30 p.m. ESPN

Meineke Car Care of Texas
Minnesota vs. Texas Tech Houston
Reliant Stadium Dec. 28
9 p.m. ESPN

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces
Rice vs. Air Force Fort Worth
Amon G. Carter Stadium Dec. 29
11:45 a.m. ESPN

New Era Pinstripe
West Virginia vs. Syracuse Bronx, N.Y.
Yankee Stadium Dec. 29
3:15 p.m. ESPN

Kraft Fight Hunger
Navy vs. Arizona State San Francisco
AT&T Park Dec. 29
4 p.m. ESPN2

Valero Alamo
Texas vs. Oregon State San Antonio
Alamodome Dec. 29
6:45 p.m. ESPN

Buffalo Wild Wings
TCU vs. Michigan State Tempe, Ariz.
Sun Devil Stadium Dec. 29
10:15 p.m. ESPN

Franklin American Mortgage Music City
NC State vs. Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn.
LP Field Dec. 31
Noon ESPN

Hyundai Sun
USC vs. Georgia Tech El Paso, Texas
Sun Bowl Dec. 31
2 p.m. CBS

AutoZone Liberty
Iowa State vs. Tulsa Memphis, Tenn.
Liberty Bowl Dec. 31
3:30 p.m. ESPN

Chick-fil-A
LSU vs. Clemson Atlanta
Georgia Dome Dec. 31
7:30 p.m. ESPN

TaxSlayer.com Gator
Mississippi State vs. Northwestern Jacksonville, Fla.
Everbank Field Jan. 1
Noon ESPN2

Heart of Dallas
Purdue vs. Oklahoma State Dallas
Cotton Bowl Jan. 1
Noon ESPNU

Outback
South Carolina vs. Michigan Tampa, Fla.
Raymond James Stadium Jan. 1
1 p.m. ESPN

Capital One
Georgia vs. Nebraska Orlando, Fla.
Florida Citrus Bowl Jan. 1
1 p.m. ABC

Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio
Wisconsin vs. Stanford Pasadena, Calif.
Rose Bowl Jan. 1
5 p.m. ESPN

Discover Orange
Northern Illinois vs. Florida State Miami
Sun Life Stadium Jan. 1
8:30 p.m. ESPN

Allstate Sugar
Louisville vs. Florida New Orleans
Louisiana Superdome Jan. 2
8:30 p.m. ESPN

Tostitos Fiesta
Oregon vs. Kansas State Glendale, Ariz.
U. of Phoenix Stadium Jan. 3
8:30 p.m. ESPN

AT&T Cotton
Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma Arlington, Texas
Cowboys Stadium Jan. 4
8 p.m. FOX

BBVA Compass
Pittsburgh vs. Ole Miss Birmingham, Ala.
Legion Field Jan. 5
1 p.m. ESPN

GoDaddy.com
Kent State vs. Arkansas State Mobile, Ala.
Ladd-Peebles Stadium Jan. 6
9 p.m. ESPN

Discover BCS National Championship
Notre Dame vs. Alabama Miami
Sun Life Stadium Jan. 7
8:30 p.m. ESPN

What say you, college football fan...???

Junker Accepts Plea Deal...

((HT: ABC15 Phoenix))

Looks like, if you pay attention to the attorney for former Fiesta Bowl CEO John Junker, that the guy is going to take a plea deal for his involvement in the budgetary shenanigans in and around the bowl game that he once was boss for...

As far back as 2000, it was alleged that Junker made a point to reimburse other bowl game workers for their political donations out of the bowl coffeurs...

That and the whole idea of Junker taking other non-bowl folks on junkets is apparently resulting in the guilty plea on one federal charge.

Here's the video version...


The HQ knows that there are some bowl games that do, in fact, do some good with their budget overages and the like- charity donations and such. But until further notice, the HQ thinks bowl games are rackets for those who put them on and inventory for the networks that air the games on the telly.

And we don't think it'll change all that much...

Former Fiesta Bowl Exec Indicted In Cover Up

((HT: KPNX-TV/Azcentral.com))

Natalie Wisneski, former COO of the Fiesta Bowl, has been indicted in Arizona federal court for her role in an alleged cover up regarding illegal political contributions by bowl employees, filing false financial and/or tax records as well as conspiracy.

Read the indictment of Wisneski hyah...

The indictment alleges Wisneski made campaign contributions in other people's names, and made false statements to the Federal Election Commission.

Wisneski allegedly asked for campaign contributions from employees for candidates running for office and arranged to reimburse them for the contributions with Fiesta Bowl money once the contributions were made...

She allegedly denied in tax returns that the bowl had any lobbying expenses or political expenditures.

Here's the video version with Brahm Resnik...