Top bowl games

Draft Wire editor Luke Easterling updates his early projections for the NFL draft following the conclusion of the regular season. It seems Robert Kraft laid down the gauntlet for Bill Belichick. The same problems Wentz had in Philadelphia reared their ugly head for much of the season in Indianapolis.

Here are the decisions the Colts have to make, and their timeline to make them. Kirby Smart put in Broderick Jones midway through the second quarter to change the momentum of the national championship game. Steve Young couldn't understand Sean McVay's second-half thought process in the Week 18 regular-season finale between the Rams and 49ers.

Per a report, two assistant coaches could be moving on from Georgia. They should get one for the NFC divisional round Jan. Dan Graziano says there are 3 candidates emerging as early favorites in the Bears head coach search. And they all have something in common. Georgia DB Latavious Brini is entering the transfer portal. Here's a quick update on the DB position for the season at the moment. Should the Broncos interview any of these coaches?

The Houston Texans fired coach David Culley. Here are four logical places for Culley as his post-Texans tenure begins.

Read full article. Pete Fiutak. Story continues. Recommended Stories. Gators Wire. Roll Tide Wire. The Guardian. Fighting Irish Wire. Draft Wire. Patriots Wire. Wolverines Wire.

Yahoo Sports. UGA Wire. Touchdown Wire. Green Bay Press-Gazette. Bears Wire. NBC Sports Boston. San Diego State Dec. Wyoming Dec. ESPN Tulsa vs. Old Dominion Dec.

ESPN Marshall vs. Louisiana Dec. Los Angeles p. ABC Utah State vs. Oregon State Dec. ESPN E. Liberty Dec. UAB Dec. Fresno State Dec. Kentucky vs. ESPN2 N. Illinois vs. Toledo Live updates See New Posts. See More. See All Newsletters. Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. There was an error processing your subscription. Potential No. National Championship Indianapolis. Semifinal winners. I had not thought about that night and how hard I laughed about it until I watched Alabama beat Cincinnati in the Cotton Bowl.

I'm not saying Cincinnati was drunk or picked a fight it shouldn't have. I'm just saying it felt like Alabama was sitting on top of Cincinnati for a few hours, waiting for the clock to run out. Pregame ranking: 2 Unfortunately, as you'd expect in a bowl game between a team that nearly won its conference against a team that didn't win enough games to go bowling during the season and accepted the invitation on short notice, it wasn't worth watching for long.

Rutgers hung tough early, but Wake was the much better team and put things on cruise control in the second half. Wake's Sam Hartman finished his career with yards passing and three touchdowns as A. Perry caught 10 passes for yards. Rutgers only had yards as a team. Pregame ranking: 9 Western Michigan 52, Nevada 24 : There was never any drama in this one. Nevada was without most of its coaching staff, while stud QB Carson Strong and leading receiver Romeo Doubs opted out.

It should not come as a shock to anybody that Nevada can't afford to lose its NFL -caliber QB and still play as well as it did during the regular season. The Broncos led after the first quarter and just kept building their lead from there as running backs Sean Tyler and Jaxson Kincaide balled out. The duo combined for yards rushing on only 31 carries, as WMU averaged nearly 7 yards per carry as a team.

Pregame ranking: 26 Minnesota 18, West Virginia 6 : Did you stay up late for this one? Did you regret doing so? I know I stayed up late, but I didn't regret it because even ugly games need love, too. And this one was quite ugly. Minnesota won by 12 points, but it was never that close, in reality. The Gophers missed a field goal on their first possession and fumbled the ball away inside the red zone on the next. Meanwhile, West Virginia had 11 possessions, and only three of them lasted more than five plays.

One was their lone touchdown drive, one ended in an interception and the third in a turnover on downs. The Mountaineers finished the night with only yards of offense, 43 yards fewer than Minnesota had rushing -- including this 2-yard bulldoze from offensive tackle Daniel Faalele.

Pregame ranking: 24 Georgia State 51, Ball State 20 : Every Christmas gathering had that one relative who kept making their way near a television to watch a college football game nobody cared about, and that game was the Camellia Bowl.

At my Christmas gathering, I was that person. If you were the person at yours doing the same, high-five! I suppose these teams did us a favor by not playing a competitive game and forcing us not to continue ignoring our friends and family.

Grainger threw for yards, led the Panthers in rushing with yards and had four total touchdowns. You see, it was played on a Monday morning and was the only bowl game featured that day.

It gave me something to watch during a time when I usually wouldn't have had anything to watch, and that's the kind of value that can't be adequately quantified. So if you think this is too high, that's fine; you just don't have an appreciation for a football game being there in somebody's time of need. That need being "something to do besides what I probably should be doing.

While the first half was close, Tulsa scored 16 unanswered points between the very end of the first half and the early fourth quarter to put things out of reach. There was a whole lot of defense and very little offense. Every yard felt like a struggle. On the one hand, it made the game feel a lot more exciting than it really was because neither team could pull away from the other.

On the other hand, the game felt over once Clemson went up late in the third quarter. When Mario Goodrich picked off Brock Purdy for a pick-six less than a minute later, it definitely was.

Of course, even if the game wasn't that exciting, it did give us an all-time bowl sponsor mascot. Pregame ranking: 10 The most royal coin toss of them all. While it never did, at least the Ducks made the second half more fun to watch as both teams traded touchdowns. The problem is Oregon didn't do anything in the first half. Oklahoma jumped out to a lead at halftime. That point deficit was the largest halftime deficit of any bowl game this season.

Still, 79 points and over 1, yards of offense isn't the worst way to spend a few hours on a Wednesday evening, so I can't knock the game too much. But I'm not going to put it any higher than this since Oklahoma led by at least two scores for 50 minutes. OK, so I might've bumped it up a few more spots if this touchdown counted.

Pregame ranking: 21 As called on Oklahoma radio: pic. Wisconsin 20, Arizona State 13 : Nobody will blame you if you admit to falling asleep during this one. Sure it was close, and that's worth something. But hardly anything happened during it. Wisconsin won with 20 points and only yards of offense. Arizona State had only And while the final score suggests it was close, Wisconsin sucked up the entire fourth quarter. Seriously, the Badgers finished the game with an play, yard drive that took 10 minutes off the clock.

Arizona State punted the ball away with 10 minutes left, thinking it could trust its defense to get the ball back, and Wisconsin just laughed at it. The Badgers slowly salted the game away, 3 yards at a time. Running back Braelon Allen finished with yards rushing because what else could he do? He's a year-old in Las Vegas. He isn't allowed to do anything worth doing while there except run the football.

Pregame ranking: 11 Once that happened, the game became nothing but a reason to debate whether players should opt out of bowl games. Even the broadcast seemed lost once Corral left, as if they'd spent hours preparing to talk about him. When he was gone, they realized there was a game to call. Still, while Ole Miss fans will tell you the result doesn't matter because Corral was injured, I would point out that Ole Miss hadn't done anything with Corral, either.

The Rebels didn't score while Corral was in the game, and he finished 2 of 6 passing for 10 yards passing and threw a pick.

The sack that knocked him out of the game was the third time he had been sacked in the quarter. Baylor would pick up seven more sacks on backup Luke Altmyer. Still, my favorite stat from this game is that Baylor QB Gerry Bohanon was 7 of 17 for 40 yards with a touchdown and an interception -- and he was the winning QB.

At times I wondered if Baylor would've been better off just putting Abram Smith 25 carries, yards in a wildcat formation. Pregame ranking: 5 Not only did the Chips get a bigger bowl payout in the process, but they picked up a win over a Pac team, too! However, things did get a bit tense as Central took a lead into halftime and Wazzu spent the second half working its way back into the game.

How about that turnaround? The Huskies have an excellent running game and are looking for their first bowl win since The Cougars ended the season in the top 15 of the College Football Playoff rankings and are in this game via an agreement with the Independence Bowl before moving to the Big The Cougars are going to be big favorites.

The Black Knights run a crisp, consistent triple-option offense. Missouri has one of the worst run defenses in the country, but that unit played much better down the stretch. At least Mizzou has three weeks to prepare. East Carolina won four of its last five games after starting the season The only loss in that stretch came to Cincinnati in the final game of the regular season.

UNC started the year ranked No. South Carolina is in its first season under Shane Beamer and exceeded expectations to get to a postseason game. And with this bowl game in Phoenix, so far away from either school, there may not be many fans in attendance. Virginia Tech fired coach Justin Fuente but got a rivalry win over Virginia to get bowl eligible.

The Hokies struggled on offense for much of the year, but found a rhythm running the ball over the last month of the season. Maryland started but needed to beat Rutgers in its last game to get bowl eligible for the first time under Mike Locksley.

UTEP has had a fantastic season to get to a bowl game but went in its last five games. Old Dominion did not play football in and started the season with a record, only to rally and win five straight to get bowl eligible in Year 1 under Ricky Rahne.

Tulsa also rallied to reach a bowl, winning its last three games, including a road upset over SMU, to get to Wyoming was a tough team to figure out.

The Cowboys won four to start the season then lost four before alternating wins and losses in its past four games. Kent State won the MAC East with a record in the conference but was overmatched outside the conference and lost to the three Power Five teams it played. Liberty is coached by a familiar face Hugh Freeze and has an NFL draft prospect Malik Willis at quarterback, but enters the bowl game on a three-game losing streak. Eastern Michigan is looking for its first bowl win since The Eagles have played in three bowl games under Chris Creighton, but lost them all.

Welcome to the bowl game created so every team could go to a bowl game this season. The Frisco Football Classic effectively replaces the canceled Redbox Bowl and accommodates a North Texas team that won five straight at the end of the season to get to a bowl game and a Miami team that started the season before winning four of six down the stretch. Toledo was a preseason favorite in the MAC, but finished third in its division.

The Rockets finished the season winning three of four, however, and are looking to win their first bowl game since MTSU needed a come-from-behind win in its last game to get bowl eligible. The Blue Raiders are just in bowls under head coach Rick Stockstill. Georgia State has won six of seven entering bowl play while Ball State has lost three of its past five. Breaking down the best potential candidate and a few alternatives for the seven current head coach openings in the NFL. Draft Wire editor Luke Easterling updates his early projections for the NFL draft following the conclusion of the regular season.

The Knicks have made the first big trade of , acquiring Cam Reddish from the Hawks. It seems Robert Kraft laid down the gauntlet for Bill Belichick.

After learning that the Pistons voided the Bol Bol deal, Motiejunas spoke out about the situation. Six years later, I am still here and have many years to go," The same problems Wentz had in Philadelphia reared their ugly head for much of the season in Indianapolis. Here are the decisions the Colts have to make, and their timeline to make them. Steve Young couldn't understand Sean McVay's second-half thought process in the Week 18 regular-season finale between the Rams and 49ers.