College Football Bowl Projections 2019, Week 12: LSU up, Alabama down

December 28

Camping World Bowl: Notre Dame vs. Kansas State
12 p.m. ET, ABC – Orlando, Fla.

December 30

First Responder Bowl: North Texas vs. Nevada*
12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN – Dallas, Texas

Music City Bowl: Miami (FL) vs. Kentucky
4 p.m. ET, ESPN – Nashville, Tenn.

Redbox Bowl: Iowa vs. Arizona State
Time TBA – Santa Clara, Calif.

December 31

Belk Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Wake Forest
12 p.m. ET, ESPN – Charlotte, N.C.

Sun Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Cal
2 p.m. ET, CBS – El Paso, Texas

Liberty Bowl: Iowa State vs. Tennessee
3:45 p.m. ET, ESPN – Memphis, Tenn.

Alamo Bowl: Texas vs. USC
7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN – San Antonio, Texas

Arizona Bowl: Utah State vs. Arkansas State
Time TBA – Tucson, Ariz.

The Skinny

Speaking of miraculous in-season turnarounds, Virginia Tech has looked like a totally different team since an embarrassing 45-10 home loss to Duke on the final weekend of September. The Hokies are 4-1 since that loss with the one defeat coming by a single point on the road against Notre Dame.

It was fair to question whether Virginia Tech’s NCAA leading bowl streak was going to come to an end earlier in the season, but now Justin Fuente’s team controls its own destiny in the ACC Coastal Division race. The winner of the Virginia Tech/Virginia game might decide the division and the ACC’s Orange Bowl representative.

Tennessee is another team that has turned things around during the season. Not that .500 seasons are going to always get it done in Knoxville, but Jeremy Pruitt’s Vols have come a long way since opening the season with consecutive home losses to Georgia State and BYU. Tennessee has won four of its last five games with the lone loss coming at Alabama. The Vols just need to split their remaining two games against Missouri and Vanderbilt to get bowl eligible.