Bowl Preview: Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl
LP Field, Nashville, Tenn.
Vanderbilt vs. Boston College
Date: Dec. 31
Time: 4:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Line: Boston College -3.5

About Vanderbilt: The Commodores were an absolutely AMAZING team this year, fielding one of the best Vanderbilt squads ever! They went 6-6. And their bowl game is 20 minutes from their campus. Yeah, congrats. At least they can play defense.

Intangibles:
Students dress like prom dates for football games: -4
Fancy, schmancy degree: +3
Couldn't even beat Tennessee: -5

About Boston College: The Eagles just keep rolling along, slightly above mediocrity and happy to be there. I like BC. They play hard, they're not fancy and they know their place as an 8-4 team, with variations going from 7-5 to 9-3 without huge coaching upheaval. It could be beacuse nobody in Boston cares.

Intangibles:
Clam Chowdah: +2
Flutie pass beating Miami: +7
Flutie pass stealing Heisman from Keith Byars: -98
Red Sox fans: -7

Impact Player: Boston College Dominique Davis took over about midway through the year after an injury to starter Chris Crane. Davis has been alternately decent and absolutely awful. Like in the ACC championship game when he threw something like 14 straight incompletions. Not making that one up.

Little Known fact: Ha. you totally said "Gaylord".

The Pick: Boston College 22, Vanderbilt 16

Flutie frozen in time

Can Doug Flutie really look big?

Boston College has at least found a way to make the Heisman Trophy winner look larger than life as they unveiled a statue of Flutie outside of Alumni Stadium commemorating his legendary Hail Mary pass to beat Miami on Nov. 23, 1984.

The statue is well deserved. What I can't believe is it took them almost 25 years to acknowledge one of the greatest plays in college football history.

What's important to remember is Gerard Phalen caught the pass. So when does he get a statue?

I still remember this game like it was yesterday. My dad went to the game without me. I was mad at the time, but as I watched the game on TV and saw the rain I thought it was better to be at home.

As a Hurricanes fan I was none too pleased by the play, but it would be cool to tell folks I was there. Oh well.

Still, nice statue and very much deserved. Also a good weekend for BC football as the Eagles appear on their way to defeating Notre Dame for the sixth consecutive time.