December 21: MIAMI BEACH BOWL; Western Kentucky (11-2) versus South Florida (8-4); 2:30 PM ET; ESPN … Fans looking for a little football something to help get warmed up before this evening’s potentially epic NFL Monday night game between Detroit and New Orleans might want to check out the Miami Beach Bowl which promises to be one of the better early games on this year’s bowl schedule. The best reason to watch is WKU QB Brandon Daughty (#12, 6-2, 210), one of the most productive passers in college history. Indeed, the 6th year senior figures to pass the 12,000 career passing yard mark sometime early in the first quarter this afternoon. That figure includes almost 4,600 yards this season, second only to Bowling Green’s Matt Johnson, while his 45 passing TDs lead all of big-time college football. And while Doughty is still only considered to be a middle round prospect for the upcoming draft as he lacks a huge arm and has had a bit of an injury history, he is the kind of athletic, accurate passer – he completed 72% of his throws this year and has a career completion mark just under 70% – that NFL teams like to bring in as a developmental type QB. Daughty hopes to have TE Tyler Higbee (#82, 6-5, 250), another mid-to-late round prospect who caught 38 passes this fall, available this afternoon, but he will likely be a game-time decision because of an injury. Whether Higbee is able to go or not, Daughty should have plenty of targets including veyteran wideouts Jared Dangerfield (#21, 6-2, 205) and Antwayne Grant (#3, 6-0, 195), both of whom are late-round or free-agent types. The best of the bunch though is explosive junior WR Taywan Taylor (#2, 6-0, 195) who caught 79 passes to date for 1,400 yards. At the same time, the WKU defense has several potential free-agent candidates of its own in DTs Jontavius Morris (#3, 6-3, 305) and Bryan Shorter (#94, 6-2, 280) and LB Nick Holt (#10, 6-0, 230). The Hilltoppers’ D also has a pair of decent veteran corners who if nothing else lead the league in unique names in Wonderful Terry (#5, 5-9, 190) and Prince Charles Iworah (#30, 5-10, 200). For its part, South Florida also has several free agent candidates including productive TE Sean Price (#12, 6-3, 250) and FS Jamie Byrd (#2, 5-10, 185), along with P Mattias Ciabatti (#49, 5-11, 190).
