I'll be perfectly honest. . .I'm not a big fan of Beef 'O' Brady's. I've never found the food to be particularly good, and the couple of times I've been there with friends or co-workers the service has been anywhere from not great to atrocious. But, they are sponsoring a bowl game this evening, and hopefully that game will be better than the restaurant chain that bears its name.
↵The 2010 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl. . .formerly known as the St. Petersburg Bowl. . .will take place this evening in St. Petersburg, Fla., and it will match up the Louisville Cardinals (6-6, 3-4 Big East) against the Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi (8-4, 5-3 Conference USA). The game will kick off at 7:00 p.m. Central time, and just like nearly every other bowl game, you'll be able to find it on ESPN.
↵Louisville's record is a bit of an anomaly. . . it's better than the 6-6 mark that they carry right now, with five of its six losses having come by eight points or less. It's also had injury issues at the quarterback position, but backup Justin Burke has really stepped up in the absence of starter Andy Froman. Both quarterbacks are healthy for this one, but Burke will get the call to start. He'll likely be doing a lot of handing off to running back Bilal Powell, who was second in the Big East in rushing and found the end zone 10 times on the ground.
↵Southern Miss comes in with a pretty balanced offensive attack, led by quarterback Austin Davis. The Golden Eagles pass for about 255 yards a game, and run for just over 200. But Louisville's defense is very good against the run, so this one will more than likely fall on Davis' shoulders. It the Cardinals can remain solid against the run, they should be able to control things on both sides of the football.
↵In the end, despite coming in with the worse record, I think that Louisville has too much for Southern Miss, and should leave St. Petersburg with a bowl trophy.
↵SB Nation Minnesota Prediction: Louisville 34, Southern Miss 27
SB Nation Minnesota Record Thus Far: 2-1