Sport View

By Brad Greer

The college football bowl season came to a end just as quick as it got started it seems, and thankfully the latter stages of the bowl games gave us sports junkies some excellent showdowns.

One in particular was LSU’s Fiesta Bowl win over last year’s mythical self-proclaimed “National Champion” Central Florida 40-32 with Tiger quarterback Joe Burrow throwing for 394 yards and four touchdowns after taking a vicious blindside hit in the first quarter.

Kentucky and Penn State got after each other in the Citrus Bowl with the Cats coming out on top. Even the Outback Bowl between Iowa and Mississippi State could have gone either way.

Ohio State sent retiring head coach Urban Meyer into the sunset (as of now) with a Rose Bowl victory over Washington.

Those games came on the heels of Florida and Auburn’s beatdown of Big 10 opponents Michigan and Purdue to kick off big games outside the College Playoffs.

So without further ado here are some of the big winners and not-so-winners of the bowl season:

Winners:

Texas– From kickoff to the final horn, the No.15 Longhorns played like a team that wanted to actually be in the Sugar Bowl by rolling over fifth-ranked Georgia who looked like they had stayed a little to long on Bourbon Street.

Even one hour before kickoff, Georgia fans knew it was going to be a long night when their mascot UGA was almost gored by Bevo, the Texas 1,500-pound brahma bull who was not impressed by the cuddly bulldog.

Army – Unless your a Houston fan, its hard not to crack a smile about the Black Knights season after capping off its first 11-win campaign with a 70-14 win over the Cougars in the Armed Forces Bowl. To add insult to injury, Houston fired head coach Major Applewhite three days later.

Gus Malzahn – After losing to Tennessee at season, Auburn fans were ready to derail the “Gus Bus” and run him off of the Plains. But after a 63-14 thumping of Purdue, which saw the Tigers put up a bowl record 56 first-half points, the hot seat  talk has calmed down for now.

Losers:

Anyone who was forced to watch something called the Cheez-It Bowl that saw TCU win 10-7 in overtime over California. Just to give a microcosm on how bad it was consider this: the teams combined for nine interceptions and 15 punts. When the carnage had cleared, TCU quarterback Grayson Muehlstein threw for a sizzling 24 yards.

But hey, at least they played the Cheez-It Bowl. The first annual First Responder Bowl in Dallas between Boise State and Boston College was canceled due to lightning in the first quarter after the Eagles took a 7-0 lead.

Last and certainly not least is Notre Dame’s 30-3 loss to Clemson in one of the national semi-final games. Even though unbeaten on the season, there was some speculation on the Irish’s legitimacy in being one of the top four teams in the playoffs.

The Tigers put the debate to a quick end with a decisive victory and thus proving Notre Dame is nothing but a fraud.