Tomorrow is the big day – a press conference marking the beginning of PingWi-Fi bowl season, the “most bestest” time of the year. This year we start early, with the first of all the bowls – The Gildan New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque on Saturday (Dec. 21). Toward the end of December, we will also hit the Heart of Dallas Bowl, The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl and possibly one or two more as we work out the details.
You may recall (and we will not let you forget) that the PingWi-Fi team was the very first to tweet an entire bowl game from a press box, with our play by play from Fort Worth’s Armed Forces Bowl a few years back … We will be, of course, checking the Wi-Fi hotspots in all these stadiums … and pumping out the social media from the press boxes … shooting from the sidelines … live action (to borrow a phrase).
But … the business at hand … The Gildan New Mexico Bowl will feature The Pac-12’s Washington State Cougars against the Colorado State Rams from the Mountain West Conference.
This is our first visit to The New Mexico Bowl, but with good reason. It is The Washington State Cougars first bowl appearance since 2003, and the first bowl game in several years for the craftiest coach in football. No one … and we mean no one does more with less than Mike Leach.
Leach — mad scientist/pirate that he is — has found a home in the Pac 10, compiling a season with notable upsets, impressive wins, and a near miss in upsetting Auburn. Auburn!
Of course Leach is no stranger to bowl games, although it has been a while. His former Red Raider Air Raid compiled some of the most exciting bowl games for a decade during his Texas Tech tenure.
Now, his charges — his Cougs — are sometimes known as the Pirates of The Palouse … and once again they are in the hunt for bowl game booty.
More on Washington State:
The 2013 game marks Colorada States second appearance in The New Mexico Bowl and at 7-6, CSU Coach Jim McElwain’s Rams have their best regular season since 2003.
More on Colorado State:
(BTW, interesting to note that an old friend of mine once held the NCAA record for longest field goal, as a Colorado State Ram. It was a 63-yarder against Arizona in ’75. Shout out to CK. I digress …)
So, the PingWi-Fi road team — a team of one this time — trucked from Fort Worth to Albuquerque today in record time, with a quick pitstop in Coach Leach’s old stomping grounds … Lubbock/Texas Tech … and yes we snuck a peak through the fence as Coach Kliff Kingsbury’s Red Raiders were airing it out at practice in 30 m.p.h. winds. Ah Lubbock … (KK and Co. prepping for a date with another Pac-12 team, the Arizona State Sun Devils in The Holiday Bowl …)
Interesting day to be driving … with the “big news” about Duck Dynasty … Imagine listening to that story on talk radio for an eight-hour drive.
Let the bowls begin!
Know what I sayin?
