Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, Louisville Vs. Southern Miss: Try The Blarney Egg Rolls!

The 2010 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl is the fourth contest of the 2010 college football postseason, and the first game on tap this week. And oh, do I ever resent how many times I'm going to be typing those chintzy apostrophes over the next few days. Per the restaurant chain's actual website, the correct punctuation is, in fact, Beef 'O' Brady's. With the demise of the PapaJohns.com Bowl, the annual St. Petersburg throwdown (full name: St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef 'O' Brady's) is your current clubhouse leader for "most irritating game name to type."

This Tuesday night tilt will feature the traditional conference tie-ins (or as traditional as you can get with a three-year old bowl game), with the Louisville Cardinals repping the Big East against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles out of Conference USA. Neither squad has ever made an appearance here in the two-year history of the contest.

The Cardinals, in the inaugural season of first-year head coach Charlie Strong, finished 6-6, third from the bottom of the Big East, and are the conference's last bowl-eligible team. A tough out-of-conference schedule for a Big Six school helped do them in -- two of the losses came to in-state rival Kentucky in Week 1 and then-No. 25 Oregon State in Week 3. Of their four conference losses, only the Pitt game was a decisive one (20-3). All the rest (to Cincinnati, South Florida, and West Virginia) came by a margin of eight points or less. Louisville closed out the season on a pleasant and eligibility-securing note, in a laughable 40-13 road win over Rutgers.

The Golden Eagles recorded an 8-4 2010 season, but being a mid-major, this is their lot. Their four losses were neatly spaced over three months, including a nasty spill against future division champ South Carolina in Week 1, and shootout defeats against East Carolina and UAB. The final stumble was a 56-50 loss to Tulsa in their last regular-season game. The Golden Eagles finished second in C-USA East, behind overall conference champs Central Florida.

The 2010 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl kicks off at 8 p.m. EST on Tuesday, December 21. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Stay tuned to this StoryStream right up through game time, as we review key unit matchups, odds, bowl history and more, and connect with Louisville fans at SB Nation's Card Chronicle. For a complete list of bowl games, browse our 2010 college football postseason schedule.