 8-4 (5-3) 4th Sun Belt |
Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl Tropicana Field St. Petersburg, FL 7:00 pm CST TV: ESPN |
 6-6 (5-3) 2nd C-USA East |
Here's a fun fact about the participants of the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl: both of these teams beat Louisville (gotta love that Big East auto bid.) In Florida International's case, it was easily their best win of the year. Marshall, however, also knocked off 11-2 Southern Miss who they finished behind in the C-USA East. FIU is a four point favorite in this contest (what's gotten into you Sun Belt?). FIU AD Pete Garcia has the money quote leading up to this game:
"At 8-4, we don't only have the best record in FIU history, we have the best record in the state of Florida."
Enjoy that amazing LOL for a minute. Sure, they're playing crappy Sun Belt teams, but they have a better record than Florida, FSU and Miami. Times is good to be an FIU fan. Enjoy it while you can y'all.
Oddly enough, FIU has the 16th best scoring defense in the country with their defense giving up 19.4 points per game. Their four losses were to the three teams ahead of them in the Sun Belt (Arkansas State, Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette) and Duke. It's a minor miracle Marshall is in a bowl period. They needed an overtime win over East Carolina to get bowl eligible in their last game. Statistically, they aren't very good: 74th in passing offense, 92nd in rushing offense, 98th scoring offense and 84th scoring defense. 6-6 is good enough for a bowl these days though, so there you go.