St. Petersburg Bowl: Rutgers over Central Florida

New Orleans Bowl: Middle Tennessee State over Southern Mississippi

Las Vegas Bowl: Oregon State over Brigham Young

Poinsettia Bowl: Utah over California

Hawaii Bowl: Nevada over Southern Methodist

Little Caesars Bowl: Ohio over Marshall

Meineke Car Care Bowl: North Carolina over Pittsburgh

Emerald Bowl: USC over Boston College

Music City Bowl: Clemson over Kentucky

Independence Bowl: Georgia over Texas A&M

EagleBank Bowl: UCLA over Temple

Champs Sports Bowl: Wisconsin over Miami (FL)

Humanitarian Bowl: Bowling Green over Idaho

Holiday Bowl: Arizona over Nebraska

Armed Forces Bowl: Houston over Air Force

Sun Bowl: Stanford over Oklahoma

Texas Bowl: Navy over Missouri

Insight Bowl: Minnesota over Iowa State

Chick-fil-A Bowl: Tennessee over Virginia Tech

Outback Bowl: Northwestern over Auburn

Gator Bowl: West Virginia over Florida State

Capital One Bowl: Penn State over LSU

Rose Bowl: Oregon over Ohio State

Sugar Bowl: Florida over Cincinnati

International Bowl: South Florida over Northern Illinois

Papajohns.com Bowl: South Carolina over Connecticut

Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma State over Mississippi

Liberty Bowl: Arkansas over East Carolina

Alamo Bowl: Texas Tech over Michigan State

Fiesta Bowl: TCU over Boise State

Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech over Iowa

GMAC Bowl: Central Michigan over Troy

National Championship: Texas over Alabama

Brand New- Daisy

Brand New has always been known for changing their sound from album to album. It is more obvious than ever on Daisy. The album starts with “Vices”, a violent screamer that is easily their hardest song to date. From here, the tempo changes drastically and we are given “Bed”, a ballad featuring some impressive drumming, and “At the Bottom”, a dark and depressing tune. “Gasoline” picks up the tempo with more screaming and talks of loneliness and deceit. “You Stole”, my favorite, is a long religion-infused ballad which features an impressive guitar solo. “Be Gone” and “Sink” are two songs with sounds strongly influenced by Delta blues. Next, we get “Bought a Bride”, a catchy fast-tempo rocker. “Daisy” and “In A Jar” are both songs which seem to talk about being unsure in one’s faith. The album ends with “Noro”, another long song which ends with the repeating of the line “I’m on my way to hell”.

As with The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, there seems to be a religious flavor in a number of the songs. There is neither an attack or defense of religion, but rather a questioning of what exactly someone believes in. Musically, this album is diverse and turned out to be a pretty good fit for the band.

All in all, Daisy is my second favorite BN album behind Devil and God and my number 1 album of this year. I’d also encourage everyone to listen to Thrice’s Beggars, Paramore’s brand new eyes, and The Mars Volta’s Octahedron. This year has been great as far as new releases go and those are a few of my other favorites so far.

I picked up the Hardened Edition of MW2 on PS3 on Tuesday. The game came in a steelbook and was bundled with a concept art book and Call of Duty Classic. Call of Duty Classic is a PS3/360 remake of the original COD for PC and includes multiplayer and 38 trophies/achievements.

I beat MW2’s campaign in just under 6 hours, so it’s a short game. However, those were an intense 6 hours. I feel it has more action and WTF moments than COD4 had. My favorite missions are ones during the Russian invasion of Washington D.C.  The game also introduces vehicles to the Modern Warfare series (another sequel is strongly hinted at). Both snowmobiles and boats are drivable and, surprisingly, they aren’t painful to control. Spec Ops mode is a new addition and includes 25 challenges for solo or co-op play including driving, stealth, and survival missions. The AC-130 and Prypiat missions from COD4 make appearances in 2 of these challenges. The multiplayer is as good as what we’ve come to expect from Call of Duty. Additions include accolades, third person modes, and the ability to pick your kill streaks. Infinity Ward added a bunch of bandwidth servers yesterday and the online play has been super smooth since I started playing it.

Overall, this game is very good. The graphics are some of the best I’ve seen outside of Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2. The campaign is exciting and I see myself playing the multiplayer for a long time to come. 9.3/10

We’re getting late in to the season now, so it’s time for me to make some “expert” projections.

ACC- Georgia Tech

Big East- Cincinnati

Big Ten- Penn State

Big 12- Texas

Conference USA- Houston

MAC- Central Michigan

Mountain West- TCU

Pac 10- Oregon

SEC- Florida

Sun Belt- Troy

WAC- Boise State

I didn’t really go out on a limb on many of those, but the cream has already risen to the top.