I simply cannot sit here with a straight face and tell you to watch the Music City Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
This is the biggest day of the college football season, after all, with playoff semifinals kicking off and a Sugar Bowl featuring Alabama and Kansas State. Yet as much fun as it’ll be to watch Nick Saban play a game he (probably) doesn’t care about against a team he recently trashed in a futile effort to boost the Crimson Tide’s playoff resume, I cannot devote my full attention to that contest.
Not when Iowa and Kentucky will be playing one of the most chaotic games of the season in Nashville.
The powers that be at the Music City Bowl may have banked on attracting two rabid fanbases to their exhibition game by selecting the Hawkeyes and Wildcats, but in doing so they entered pure Sickos territory: pitting two of the worst offenses in the Power 5 against each other, on network television, as starters for both teams continue to opt out or enter the transfer portal.
The Music City Bowl will feature:
– Two offenses outside the top 100 in scoring
– Two top-15 scoring defenses
– Iowa's 3rd string QB
– Kentucky's backup QB
– Few first-string receiversThis game is going to be a beautiful mess.
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) December 7, 2022
Getting even more excited. https://t.co/HbFmZG4sv5
— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) December 8, 2022
With a few weeks to go before kickoff, the rosters are already looking pretty lean. Kentucky quarterback Will Levis is sitting out to prep for the NFL Draft and his top running back, Chris Rodriguez, won’t play either.
On the Iowa side, quarterback Spencer Petras (shoulder) has been ruled out following surgery and backup Alex Padilla has entered the transfer portal.
No other QB on the roster has recorded any stats for the Hawkeyes this season.
All of that leads to a point total over/under that has hovered around 31 since the matchup was announced.
It may get even lower before kickoff the way things are going. The lowest point total in college football history also included this year’s Iowa team during a November game at Minnesota. The line was set at 31.5. The final score was 13-10, hitting the under by more than a touchdown.
Now consider the Under has hit in four of Kentucky’s last five games. Iowa’s last five games have produced the same result for the Under.
The Music City Bowl might even make the Army-Navy game look like an offensive showcase.
Of course I’m going to be glued to this game. How could you not be?
Iowa and Kentucky emptying their playbooks with second- and third-stringers leading the way is exactly the energy I want to take into the new year.
Will I enjoy this game? To be determined! But I know for sure I won’t be able to look away.
