1st Marquee Bowl game\Ray Ray\Duron Carter\Rob Rose

Tonight on ESPN at 8:00 est, Oregon State faces off aganist BYU, in the first marquee game of the bowl season. Inside The Shoe has lost 2 of the last 3 bowl games due to Wyoming upsetting Fresno. We will post our new record when our featured games have been played.

In other news, The Buckeyes will be without punt return star Ray Small, with reasons unspecified. Meanwhile Duron Carter and Rob Rose are gone as well. This could mean bad news, as Small and Carter could have had a bigger impact then most people realize. With Small out, Posey or Dane might take over the duties. Laamar Thomas and Saine will probably be back at kick return. Carter seems to have had bad grades, as we said earlier in our posts. Jim Tressel will have to mix and match with the players to isolate the Oregon defense. Speed is key.

Bowl Season Week 1

It's the first week of Bowl Season, and it's the best time of the year. As Christmas gets closer and closer, fans are making their wishes that their confrence and teams can bring home the bacon. This season starts out with Fresno St. and Wyoming, and of course, all these games will add to the Inside The Shoe game record. With that, Happy Bowling!

Saturday, December 19th

New Mexico Bowl: Fresno State vs. Wyoming – 4:30 pm (ESPN)

Fresno State comes rolling with an 8-4 record playing aganist a 6-6 Wyoming team. Fresno State is led by star running back Ryan Matthews who was first in all of FBS in rushing yards per game. Although their defense is something to turn away from, Wyoming should be kept in check, as Fresno wins this one 31-14.

St. Petersburgh Bowl: UCF vs. Rutgers – 8:00 p.m. (ESPN)

UCF doesn't have to travel to far to get here, and Rutgers will be led by speedy WR Tim Brown who had 1,051 yards receiving. The Knight's also have a talented running back, Brynn Harvey, who looks to have a great game as the Scarlet Knights take this one 28-7.

Sunday, December 20th

New Orleans Bowl: Middle Tennessee v. Southern Miss – 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)

The only college bowl game this week to play on NFL Sunday, the Eagles are riding in on their high flying passing attack while Midd Tenn looks to go funky on them with QB Dwight Dasher. With all that added in, including Southern Miss's pretty awful defense, i still like them winning this one in a close one of 17-14.

Tuesday, December 22nd

Las Vegas Bowl: BYU v. Oregon State – 8:00 p.m. (ESPN)

This bowl match-up will feature two teams you might have actually followed the whole year, and will look to be a good one. Jaquizz Rodgers looks to open up his Heisman candiadcy with a good game aganist the BYU Cougars. Keep in mind that this team almost made it to the Rose Bowl and upset Oregon, so look for them to be a little upset, and win 35-21.

Wednesday, December 23rd

Poinsettia Bowl: Cal v. Utah – 8:00 p.m. (ESPN)

This game is Inside The Shoe's game of the week right here. The day before Christmas Eve is when College Football gives you your Christmas present. Cal looks to extend their hopes for next year's Pac 10 fight, and Utah will be trying to make it an impressive 9 win bowl streak. Sadly, stud RB Jahvid Best will be out for this game, due to the freak accident, and Cal will have to rely heavily on the arm of Sophmore QB Kevin Riley. Utah meanwhile, is trying to get their freshman QB ready for another BCS run next year. It will help him to have his junior tailback next to him, and expect him to have a fairly succesful game. It boils down to which defense will step it up under the lights, and we think Utah will pull this one out in a squeaker 14-10

Merry Christmas!

National CFB Games This Weekend.

It's time again for the weekly games to come. This is really the last regular season week, and to look back on it, this has been the fastest year of college football of my life.We the Buckeyes have had our ups, (Penn St. Iowa) and our downs (USC, Purdue). Overall though, most Buckeye fans realized that we would be headed to the Rose Bowl, due to losing to Penn St. and USC, just like last year. Well, USC came and went, but we lost to Purdue, but won out. So really, expectations were met this year. Now for the rest of the BCS, it really counts tonight and this weekend. After last week, we at Inside The Shoe are now 10-4. So! Let's get to it.

National Games

Today – #14 Oregon State at #7 Oregon – 9:00 p.m. (ESPN)

This match-up will deciede who Ohio State faces in the Rose Bowl. Oregon comes in off a double overtime win @ Arizona, with QB Jermiah Massoli, and running back(s) LeMichal James and LeGarette Blount(?). Oregon State will look to win the Civil war, although most Buckeye fans agree Oregon would be the "sexier" opponet. I think that Oregon faces trouble ahead, but will eventually come up victorious 37-21.

Saturday - #5 Cincinnati at #13 Pittsburgh – 12:00 p.m. (ABC)

After last week's debacle aganist WVU, I lost a lot of faith in Pitt. They don't seem to be very consistent, and Brian Kelly and Co. won't have any of it as UC will take this one, and try to head to the BCS, 28-13

SEC Championship Game: #1 Florida vs. #2 Alabama – 4:00 p.m. (CBS)

This one is being dubbed as the defacto BCS Championsip game. That's terrible. I honestly believe that Florida is overrated, and Alabama is a national title contender this year. As long as the Defense holds up for Bama, then they will win this thing fairly easily, 24-10.

ACC Championship Game: #10 Georgia Tech vs. #25 Clemson – 8:00 p.m. (ESPN)

Georgia Tech's triple option is one of the best I have seen in a long time, but i have to go with Clemson and my man, C.J. Spiller, 17-6.

Big XII Championship Game: #3 Texas vs. #23 Nebraska – 8:00 p.m. (ABC)

All i have to really say about this game is, Welcome to the NC since 2005 Texas, 35-14.

Rose Bowl Future at stake.

The time has come to decide who we will play in this years Rose Bowl. Tommorow on ESPN, #7 Oregon will take on Oregon State for the invitation to the Rose Bowl. at 9:00 est. Everyone who is a Buckeye fan will most likely watch. Oregon is Inside The Shoe's favorite, although Oregon State has almost nothing to lose, except the Rose Bowl. Enjoy you viewing needs.

Thanksgiving Weekend CFB Games.

It's Thanksgiving, and i can't think of a better way to spend it then with family, friends, and football. There is a lot to be thankful for, especially if your an OSU fan. You get to watch college football without worrying about who your playing this week, and they beat the hated rival, AND, they get a trip to the Rose Bowl to either face Oregon or Oregon State. We here at Inside The Shoe are now 8-2, those darn Bears, even without Jahvid Best, made the win come to them with a late INT giving them the win.

National Games

Thursday – #2 Texas @ Texas A&M – 8:00 p.m. (ESPN)

I looked at this, and i thought, really? Along with having a pretty decent defense, and a stud Heisman running QB, Texas comes in aganist a rival that, well, has been frefalling into the depths of the college football landscape. I honestly don't even expect a very large crowd. Texas will win this one, despite suspicions about it, 35-10.

Friday – #8 Pittsburgh at West Virginia – 7:00 p.m. (ESPN2)

In my opinion, i will clearly tell you this is the game of the week. Note that i said week, not weekend. This is really Déjà vu because in the 2007 season, West Virgina was ranked 2nd in the nation, and they came into the Backyard Brawl and got upset by Pitt. Now, it's flipped, only Pitt is just trying to keep their BCS dreams alive.This is going to be real high energy game, and i have to say it's the toughest game I've had to decide in awhile. I'm going Pitt 21-17.

Friday – Illinois at #5 Cincinnati – 12:00 p.m. (ABC)

This is one of those games that probably end up being the game you watch and realized you shouldn't have. Illinois goes to the Queen City, trying to get Juice Williams his final win in a topsy turvy season. This is the first time this season the Bearcats will play a Big Ten team, and they should be able to handle it with the Two-Headed Monster that's Pike/Collaras. UC will face Pitt next, but for this, it will be 33-7

#18 Clemson at South Carolina – 12:00 p.m. (ESPN)

The Clemson Tigers are on a roll thanks to running maniac C.J. Spiller. South Carolina will give them a good game, but Clemson will take over late, 28-21.

Well, that's all that we have for you, we could have added FSU-FU, but didn't feel the need to smooch all over the Gators, although upset could happen easily. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at Inside The Shoe.

Recapping National Games.

Recapping on our predictions last friday, we now have a 7-3 record due to the 2 upsets that occured. Ole Miss got the win, when they ran over, around, and through the LSU defense. The last 3 minutes of that game were absoulety crazy, and it resulted in a 25-23 upset of #8 LSU.

Meanwhile, down in Stanford Cal caught them off-guard thanks to back up running back Shane Vereen who for a career-high 193 yards and three touchdowns on 42 carries. He certainly did his part and lead the upset of 17th ranked Stanford, 34-28.

In the heart of Tucsan, Arizona layed a stadium full of jam packed fans despretaly wanting an upset of Oregon. The celebration came early when Arizona scored, but Oregon struck back quickly under the calm quick hands of Jermiah Massoli. It ended up going to double overtime, resulting in a 44-41 win that gave Oregon the best chance at the Rose Bowl. Oregon State also has a chance, and whoever wins that game, and wins out, will be heading to the Rose Bowl.

Overall, it was an exciting weekend in CFB, and we here at Inside The Shoe plan on covering the bowl games as well as this upcoming week.

Countdown To The Rose Bowl.

(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Well, the new uni's didn't bring bad luck as the Buckeyes, (10-2, 7-1), took care of the matter at hand. I was a little worried when Michigan scoreed and made it 10-7 that they had overlooked them and was looking forward to the Rose Bowl, but in front of what seemed like a home crowd, the Buckeyes took control making it 21-10 the final.

In the first quarter, the Bucks had 0 rushing yards, and the porus UM defense looked to have confused Tressell there for awhile. Eventually, we got it, and i have to say I was pretty impressed by Tressell's play call when it was 2nd down near the red zone, and he ran a tricky misdirection play that had the cameraman fooled. Saine went on to score on that run, and again we went up. I say I was nervous, but honestly, Michigan didn't lead once. Our defense played outstanding football, causing Tate Forcier to throw 4 INT's and cause a fumble that resulted in a TD. Thaddeus Gibson intercepted Denard Robinson with just under five minutes remaining with the Buckeyes leading 21-10.  Dan Herron had 96 yards rushing, Brandon Saine ran for 84 yards and the Buckeye rushing attack had their 5th straight game in which they've rushed for 225+. The seniors had to feel good about this one, as it made them undefeated aganist the school's most hated rival. Kurt Coleman had 2 INT's, one coming off a ricochet off of the UM receiver.

Overall, this team played fairly well, but with Oregon getting the overtime win in Arizona, the Buckeyes will be challenged at the Rose Bowl, if Oregon can get past Oregon State. As for now, though, Terrelle Pryor and the offensive line need to step up and practice to get better. The defense needs to be ready as well. As i said though, it's time taken for Buckeye fans to relax. Stay tuned for storys over the course on the road to the Rose Bowl.