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Las Vegas (16-2) vs Utah (17-1)
The 2 top seeds and winningest teams of the regular season. GL Koz.
The Bees are going to be making max use of our tackle depth for the first time this year, sliding Geoff Keisel in to play guard.
We had a few oddball injury situations to deal with and looking back, I guess I didn't actually address it. The kicker is the high-risk, no-IR injuries on my TE1 and punter. With my top guard hampered by a no-risk turf, IR-able turf toe, I figured I can move depth around and get another guy, but a backup TE or punter didn't feel good enough.
Instead, the new guy is Devin Sibley of the Dakota Leadership Academy, and I feel really weird now that I'm doing the reverse Foosball. However, Sibley gets rid of a nagging conflict issue on defense and adds three pretty good affinities. The Las Vegas attack is nothing short of deadly, and I want all hands on deck in my def front-7.
STORYLINES: LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas has returned to the electric Kurt Poston - currently inexplicably the winningest quarterback in OSFL history who has more than 2 starts under his belt at 24-3-1.
The last time we saw Poston, he filled in and stole the job from a 50s-rated veteran starter, posting a 106.0 QBR in half a season. That was 2025, when Poston posted 116.2 in the playoffs and led Vegas to a Stevens Bowl .... against Utah.
The job was handed back to Herb Bowers in 2026, who did OK, but it's Poston's show once more and he is NOT disappointing. This guy is the Kaepernick to Bowers' Alex Smith. Las Vegas rolls into this Bowl Rematch at 14-2. Poston averaged 9.35 attempts and threw 37 touchdowns in the regular season, and has a 129.4 QBR through the playoffs so far.
Another developing storyline here is that Las Vegas has made two transactions for the bowl, signing two considerably good ST specialists. Las Vegas is already pretty loaded on STs and Koz is the pioneer and the legend of FOF special teams coverage play. Gulp. We're down one of our top ST guys and it's at a position that I am pretty sure the game hard-codes into ST plays. Double gulp.
Utah has enjoyed some of the league's best ST coverage & return units for the past several years. I'd say it has played a huge part in our consistent success. Your offense and defense don't have to do too much when you're #1 in Opponent PR, #1 in Opponent KR, #2 in KR, and #1 in PR, and those have not been untypical numbers for us. But we're running into a buzzsaw here and that advantage is going to probably be nullified.
STORYLINES: UTAH
Utah's Randy Boone is one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of the league. Of QBs with substantial starting time under their belts, only Bobby Tubbs is better. He's Casey Baumgartner, Jay Nori level good...the legendary winning QBs in the OSFL.
And it's really these last two seasons that have pushed him to that level. Utah has never fared worse than ten wins with Boone at the helm - and I had never won more than 9 without him - but 2022 aside, ten wins was a pretty standard season. The Bees won 14 in 2026, though, and Utah continued with 15 this year. Boone's playoff record is 16-4.
But where has he been in the bowl games? The guy who lights up scoreboards week-in, week-out, has a pretty unflattering history under the biggest of spotlights.
year | yards / ypa / QBR
2022: 187 / 4.45 / 14.8 (L)
2023: 166 / 5.93 / 80.3 (L)
2024: 184 / 7.08 / 86.0 (W)
2025: 233 / 6.85 / 74.7 (W)
2026: 250 / 5.43 / 68.2 (L)
His cumulative TD-INT ratio is an appalling 2-6 in the Big Game. A Utah linebacker won player of the game honors the last time the Bees won a bowl.
No small part of his legacy is at stake here. If Randy blows it in another OSFL championship, he'll always be That Guy. On the other hand, he could be That Guy and still have three rings. Which wouldn't be so bad. It'd be like Brady
Oh, and because of the injury-juggling shenanigans, we're playing our backup fullback at TE2. And letting kicker Troy Parrish try to cover punting duties. So hopefully we don't have to punt much.
LATEST LINE Utah -2
WEATHER Sunny, 43 F (???!?), winds 4mph.
The 2 top seeds and winningest teams of the regular season. GL Koz.
The Bees are going to be making max use of our tackle depth for the first time this year, sliding Geoff Keisel in to play guard.
We had a few oddball injury situations to deal with and looking back, I guess I didn't actually address it. The kicker is the high-risk, no-IR injuries on my TE1 and punter. With my top guard hampered by a no-risk turf, IR-able turf toe, I figured I can move depth around and get another guy, but a backup TE or punter didn't feel good enough.
Instead, the new guy is Devin Sibley of the Dakota Leadership Academy, and I feel really weird now that I'm doing the reverse Foosball. However, Sibley gets rid of a nagging conflict issue on defense and adds three pretty good affinities. The Las Vegas attack is nothing short of deadly, and I want all hands on deck in my def front-7.
STORYLINES: LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas has returned to the electric Kurt Poston - currently inexplicably the winningest quarterback in OSFL history who has more than 2 starts under his belt at 24-3-1.
The last time we saw Poston, he filled in and stole the job from a 50s-rated veteran starter, posting a 106.0 QBR in half a season. That was 2025, when Poston posted 116.2 in the playoffs and led Vegas to a Stevens Bowl .... against Utah.
The job was handed back to Herb Bowers in 2026, who did OK, but it's Poston's show once more and he is NOT disappointing. This guy is the Kaepernick to Bowers' Alex Smith. Las Vegas rolls into this Bowl Rematch at 14-2. Poston averaged 9.35 attempts and threw 37 touchdowns in the regular season, and has a 129.4 QBR through the playoffs so far.
Another developing storyline here is that Las Vegas has made two transactions for the bowl, signing two considerably good ST specialists. Las Vegas is already pretty loaded on STs and Koz is the pioneer and the legend of FOF special teams coverage play. Gulp. We're down one of our top ST guys and it's at a position that I am pretty sure the game hard-codes into ST plays. Double gulp.
Utah has enjoyed some of the league's best ST coverage & return units for the past several years. I'd say it has played a huge part in our consistent success. Your offense and defense don't have to do too much when you're #1 in Opponent PR, #1 in Opponent KR, #2 in KR, and #1 in PR, and those have not been untypical numbers for us. But we're running into a buzzsaw here and that advantage is going to probably be nullified.
STORYLINES: UTAH
Utah's Randy Boone is one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of the league. Of QBs with substantial starting time under their belts, only Bobby Tubbs is better. He's Casey Baumgartner, Jay Nori level good...the legendary winning QBs in the OSFL.
And it's really these last two seasons that have pushed him to that level. Utah has never fared worse than ten wins with Boone at the helm - and I had never won more than 9 without him - but 2022 aside, ten wins was a pretty standard season. The Bees won 14 in 2026, though, and Utah continued with 15 this year. Boone's playoff record is 16-4.
But where has he been in the bowl games? The guy who lights up scoreboards week-in, week-out, has a pretty unflattering history under the biggest of spotlights.
year | yards / ypa / QBR
2022: 187 / 4.45 / 14.8 (L)
2023: 166 / 5.93 / 80.3 (L)
2024: 184 / 7.08 / 86.0 (W)
2025: 233 / 6.85 / 74.7 (W)
2026: 250 / 5.43 / 68.2 (L)
His cumulative TD-INT ratio is an appalling 2-6 in the Big Game. A Utah linebacker won player of the game honors the last time the Bees won a bowl.
No small part of his legacy is at stake here. If Randy blows it in another OSFL championship, he'll always be That Guy. On the other hand, he could be That Guy and still have three rings. Which wouldn't be so bad. It'd be like Brady
Oh, and because of the injury-juggling shenanigans, we're playing our backup fullback at TE2. And letting kicker Troy Parrish try to cover punting duties. So hopefully we don't have to punt much.
LATEST LINE Utah -2
WEATHER Sunny, 43 F (???!?), winds 4mph.
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