This year’s Holiday Bowl pits Colt McCoy and his Texas Longhorns against Rudy Carpenter and his Arizona State Sun Devils at Qualcomm Stadium in sunny San Diego. Both terams expected their passing game to be more involved in the offense this season, but both quarterbacks have had their issues which have limited their passing plays as the season wore on.

McCoy, for his part, has made far too many bad decisions which have led to 18 INTs on the year. Of course, there were many tipped balls that ended up being intercepted – eight, to be exact – and he actually had only one INT throwing out of the pocket. So, perhaps the O-line and his receivers should handle at least a significant portion of the blame.

Carpenter has simply hung onto the ball too long, leading to the Sun Devils 51 sacks allowed; more than all but two other teams in the nation.

The Yardstick for the Holiday Bowl favors ASU by just one point, and this should be a close game that could very well depend on Carpenter’s ability to avoid the sack and find his receivers against a relatively weak Texas secondary.