Holiday Bowl Preview: Horns and Bears face off

http://www.bevoball.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/holiday-150×150.jpgOn Wednesday Night the 2011 version of the Bridgepoint Holiday Bowl will be played in San Diego between the Texas Longhorns and the California Golden Bears. This will be the 5^th meeting between these two teams, but the first since 1970.Texas is 4-0 in those previous meetings with Cal, and looking to make that mark 5-0 at Qualcomm stadium.

Texas is playing in its 13^th bowl game under Mack Brown and has won 7 of their last 9 games in the Mack Brown Era.Texas is 8-4 under Mack Brown in Bowl games. There are a group of 26 seniors that will be playing their final game in a Texas uniform.  As a group this senior class is 37-14. This includes a Fiesta Bowl championship, Big XII title and a National Championship appearance. This is an impressive run for a class, especially considering this was a down year to most fans.

Texas needs to win this game to have another season with at least 8 wins, but that is a far cry from a few weeks back when the team looked like a 9 win squad. Hopefully the extra practices and time on the field will benefit this team going forward, but it can be lost in a minute with a loss against a tough Cal squad.

Cal will be bringing in their own woes to the Holiday Bowl, but they are bringing in an All American Defensive player and Pac 12 defensive player of the year in Mychal Kendricks, who hopes to bolster his stats against a struggling Texas team.Cal is coming off a down year much like the Horns and has had a decade of success under their coach Jeff Tedford.

There are a lot of comparables that can be seen between the two schools and I am sure that neither team will fail to show up and impress in the final game of the year. However I don’t see Cal being able to outscore Texas and anticipate they will suffer their 5^th defeat to the Longhorns.