DEC 28 BOWLS

December 27, 2015

MILITARY BOWL: PITTSBURGH (8-4) vs NAVY (10-2); 2:30 PM; ESPN …

Pitt and Navy will play in the Military Bowl in Annapolis in a renewal of an old-time eastern football rivalry. What makes this version of Pitt-Navy a bit unusual is that it is the 10-2 Midshipmen, who came within a game of possibly qualifying for a January 1st bowl, are the ranked team coming in. Even more odd is the fact that Navy make actually have the better draft picks than Pittsburgh. The Panthers, though, have the top prospect in this game in junior WR Tyler Boyd (#23, 6-1, 200), one of the more dynamic playmakers in college football. However, Boyd is coming off an up-and-down season which got off to a rocky start because of some off-field issues that has seen his draft grade slip from a potential top 10-15 prospect into the middle of the second round range. Boyd, though, is Pitt’s only lock to be drafted, although a number of other Panthers including DE Ejuan Price (#5, 6-0, 250), an odd-sized edge rusher who had 11.5 sacks this past season, TE J.P. Holtz (#86, 6-3, 250), C Artie Rowell (#57, 6-1, 300), DT Darryl Render (#91, 6-2, 300), OLB Nic Grigsby (#3, 6-0, 220) and CB Lafayette Pitts (#6, 5-10, 195) are either later round or free agent candidates. Draft prospects from the academies, of course, are always limited by their future military commitments, but Navy has at least a couple of players that NFL teams will be looking at including star QB Keenan Reynolds (#19, 5-11, 195) and FB Chris Swain (#37, 6-0, 245). Reynolds, in fact, was one of the top players in all college football this past season and in a perfect world should have at least been invited to the Heisman trophy presentation after he ran for over 1,200 yards and 21 TDs this season while passing for another 1,000 yards. Reynolds needs three rushing TDs against Pitt to reclaim the all-time career rushing TD mark that he set earlier in the season, but then lost to Louisiana Tech RB Kenneth Dixon last week. In fact, while nominally a QB, Reynolds will be scouted as a RB this winter.  Meanwhile, Swain is a bowling ball type FB who ran for over 90 yards this season. NFL teams will also take a look at a couple of Navy defensive linemen in DE Will Anthony (#90, 6-1, 255), an explosive edge rusher who had 7.5 sacks this season, and stumpy DT Bernard Sarra (#77, 6-0, 300).

QUICK LANE BOWL: MINNESOTA (5-7) vs CENTRAL MICHIGAN (7-5); 5 PM; ESPN2 …

This is another one of those games that make the case (for those that want to make it) that there really are too many bowls. I mean does anybody really want to be in Detroit the last week of December to watch a sub.500 Big Ten team battle a 7-5 MAC team. But that’s what one gets with Minnesota against Central Michigan in a game that doesn’t even get on ESPN’s main network. At least, Minnesota has some definite draft possibilities on the defensive side of the ball including veteran CBs Briean Brody Calhoun (#29, 5-10, 190) and Eric Murray (#31, 5-11, 200), both of who have at least some second-day potential, along with DE Thieren Cockran (#55, 6-5, 260), OLB De’Vondre Campbell (#26, 6-4, 240) and SS Antonio Johnson (#11, 5-11, 200) who led the team in tackles this fall with 99. To a large degree, defense is also the name of the game at Central Michigan where SS Kavon Frazier (#5, 6-0, 215) is the team’s only real draft prospect, although veteran C Nick Beamish (#54, 6-3, 310) and TE Ben McCord (#89, 6-3, 240) are possible free agent targets.