There's nothing like an undefeated start being followed by a defeated ending. That's what the Illinois Fighting Illini accomplished with a 6-0 start and an 0-6 end to both their regular season and their head coach, Ron Zook's coaching career. So why not put them in a bowl game with another team with no head coach? They had to file paperwork just to be allowed to play another game of the season since, well, they couldn't win half of the ones already on their schedule, Ladies and gentlemen, the 6-7 UCLA Bruins.
But at the end of the day, a game must by played and the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl has to figure out a way to prevent its title from reverting from the positive nature of fighting hunger to a punch-line of two teams starving for some level of success.
Illinois sports a defense ranked 21st in the country, allowing 20.1 points per game but offensively, they've struggled to put points on the board and currently sit 91st at 22.8 points per game. In the Fighting Illini's last six games, they've only managed 11 points per game. Oh, they lost all of them. See a trend?
The UCLA Bruins have been outscored 99-31 in their last two games. Now, mind you, they were against USC and Oregon but still, that's pretty ugly. Aside from a four-point loss to Houston in the first game of the season, the Bruins have lost by 29, 26, 36, 25, 50 and 18. When they lose, they lose big. The running game is decent behind junior Johnathan Franklin (947 yards, five touchdowns) and senior Derrick Coleman (726 yards, 11 touchdowns). Both players average over 5.0 yards per carry.
And that's pretty much the best way to sum up the Fired Coaches Bowl aka The Extra Regular Bowl. Have fun folks!