Jason Radowitz gives his predictions for Saturday’s Afternoon Championship Games featuring the AAC, SEC, Mountain West
CFB Season Record: 41-25 – 62%
Cincinnati Bearcats (10-1) vs Memphis Tigers (11-1) on Dec 7, 3:30pm EST
The Bearcats will travel to Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium to play against Memphis on Saturday for the AAC Championship. This will be a re-match from last week’s matchup where Memphis defeated Cincinnati at home by the score of 34-24. The winner of last week’s game was going to host the Championship game, therefore, Memphis will have the home game again.
Brady White of Memphis had an awesome junior season throwing for 32 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He was 15th in QBR amongst Division 1 quarterbacks with 78.8. White paced Memphis to their win last week with 233 yards passing and two touchdowns. His main target was Damonte Coxie, who is nearing 1000 yards receiving after a 6 reception, 145 yard performance last week.
It’s always tough to beat a team twice, especially back-to-back, though. The Bearcats had played tremendous defense before allowing 34 to Memphis. Their only other loss came against Ohio State, which isn’t surprising at all. Memphis has played in the conference championship in the last two seasons and couldn’t get the job done against UCF. Memphis finally gets a different opponent in Cincinnati.
The main thing is, this game will be a one score game. The line is inflated due to the fact that Memphis won by 10 last week. It’s going to be a lot closer. The Bearcats might even win. I’ll take the points with the Bearcats.
Georgia Bulldogs (11-1) vs LSU Tigers (12-0) on Dec 7, 4:00pm EST
The LSU Tigers will look to continue their perfect season as they travel to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium to take on the Georgia Bulldogs for the SEC Championship.
This has been a dream season for the LSU Tigers after defeating Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and a highly ranked Texas team in the beginning of the season. Now they’ll look to continue to take down the best of the best against Georgia.
LSU’s quarterback, Joe Burrow, is more than likely going to win the Heisman award after throwing for 4,366 yards and 44 touchdowns. He’s only thrown six interceptions all year. LSU dropped to the second spot in the CFP Rankings after there were questions about the defense not being able to hold leads. LSU played their most complete game last week against Texas A&M and look to continue that momentum against Georgia.
Georgia, after losing to South Carolina at home this year, didn’t expect to be in the CFP right now. But here they are, as the fourth best team in the nation, after defeating Georgia Tech 52-7.
LSU had questions about their defense and Georgia had questions about their offense. They both delivered. However, in this College Football, offense usually rules the defense. Just look at what happened in the Alabama/Auburn game (even though there were two pick-sixes. That won’t happen in this game. I’ll take LSU to win big.
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (9-4) vs Boise State (11-1) on Dec 7, 4:00pm EST
A championship game on the blue turf! Boise State will look to defeat Hawaii for the Mountain West Championship. Hawaii defeated Army last week by a score of 52-31. Their offense exploded on a windy Saturday night.
Hawaii’s quarterback Cole McDonald came into this year as one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the country. He didn’t disappoint with 3,401 yards passing, 29 touchdowns and a QBR of 70.7. He also led Hawaii to the Championship game. He’ll go up against Hank Bachmeier, the freshman.
Is the stage too bright for the freshman quarterback having to face a veteran quarterback? Hawaii is surging right now after winning four straight games to finish with a 9-4 record.
If Boise State can win this game, they’ll look at a potential New Year’s 6 Bowl. I believe they’ll win this game, I just don’t believe they’ll cover the spread.
Give me the veteran QB with all the points. Boise State might commit some turnovers and mistakes with this young offense.
