Well, here we are. After the drafts, the trades, the waiver wire pickups, the injuries, the agonizing losses, the awesome wins, alllllll the lucky bullshit in between, 12 teams started with a goal, to become this year's Wane McGarity Bowl Champion, and after 15 weeks, 10 teams will have to wait until next year for that opportunity. But for Leland and Kenny, their as close as close can get to achieving their goal. For Leland, it'll be a return to glory. Leland's been here before, he's 2-0 in Finals Appearances, and he'll try to win a record 3rd this season. For Kenny, it's the opposite, He's been here twice as well, both on the losing end, including last year's heartbreaker to Mark. Armed with an even better team than last year, he'll hope the 3rd time is the charm for that elusive championship. Who's dreams will be coming true? Will Kenny finally break through, or will Leland be setting records. All questions that will be answered at
Wane McGarity Bowl VIIII
No Soup For You (Leland)
vs
Scott's Tots (Kenny)
Leland Lawrence (No Soup For You)
Finals Appearances: 3rd
Finals Record: 2-0 (Won in 2012 vs Albert, and in 2015 vs Mark)
Regular Season Record: 8-5 (1st Place)
Regular Season Points Leader
How Leland Got Here: Leland's journey started out very shaky, as he started out 0-3. Ironically this is 2nd time he's started out 0-3 and made the finals. David Johnson was looking like a bust of a pick and it was looking like another possible disappointing season for Leland. He quickly turned it around though, and started scoring points in bunches, while also ripping off a 7 game winning streak. A trade for Zeke rejuvenated his team, and it started to look like there was no way Leland was going to lose again. Then..disaster struck, first the Kareem Hunt fiasco cost him huge as he lost his arguably 1st or 2nd best player to suspension. A few days later, he would lose Emmanuel Sanders to injury as well. Rex Burkhead's reemergence also has killed James White's value and to add more insult to injury, it looks like Leland will be without Tyler Boyd, the guy he traded David Johnson for, as well, add that to the uncertainty of Aaron Rodgers and Leland has a lot of question marks in route to the finals. He still finished with the #1 seed and points title, but lucky for him he got away with a subpar performance in the semis because of Matt's team's inexplicable meltdown. It's not often Leland finds himself as the underdog, but in this championship final that's exactly what he is.
Kenny Bybee (Scott's Tots)
Finals Appearances: 3rd
Finals Record: 0-2 (Lost to Me in 2013, Lost to Mark in 2017)
#3 Seed
2nd in Points Scored
How Kenny Got Here: Just like Leland, Kenny's season started off frustrating. His team was scoring points but he kept losing because his points against was just so sky high. This was exactly why we changed the 6th seed to points based. Kenny not only hit perfectly on keeping Antonio Brown and Christian McCaffrey, but after week 1 he picked up a guy who would be critical to his run to to the title. Phillip Lindsay. Lindsay has been the waiver wire pickup of the year, providing top end scoring. Kenny's super deep roster has paid off dividends as he ended the season on a tear, not even needed the 6th seed rule to make the playoffs. He easily dispatched of both Eugene and me and now heads into his 3rd Wane McGarity Bowl as once again a heavy favorite. He was a heavy favorite last year too, but fell just short in his quest for a title (thanks in part to an untimely Antonio Brown injury). Will fate once again be against Kenny? Or will he finally be able to breakthrough and become champion?
Head to Head Record
Leland won the regular season matchup 1-0, beating Kenny 159.38-85.22 in Week 7
Official Predictions
Yahoo Says: Kenny wins
I Say: Kenny wins. Neither team has looked particularly well the past couple of weeks, but there's a lot more uncertainty on Leland's side than Kenny's side at this stage of the season. Maybe this would be an epic clash if Leland's team was full strength, but unfortunately it's not. Although the way this season has gone, nothing would surprise me, I just think it's Kenny's time and he's due. I really believe the 3rd time will be a charm and I honestly think Kenny wins this pretty easily. I hope am wrong and it's at least semi competitive, but I just can't see Kenny's team as a whole underperforming as bad as it's been the last couple of weeks, and even then, he still won both of his matchups with ease. It's going to take a lot of wild card blowup performances for Leland, and I just think it's going to be too much to overcome. I believe Kenny should be the 2018 Wane McGarity Bowl Champion.
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