Farewell, sweet bowls: Saluting the wildest, wackiest minutes of bowl
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Ryan McGee
- , ESPN Elder WriterJan 4, 2024, 09:05 AM ET Close Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
- 2-time Sports Emmy winner
- 2010, 2014 NMPA Author of the Year
“I’m up to my a– in bowls, bowls, all types bowls.Chips and mints and seashell bowls.My mama’s got bowls for everything.Potpourri and nuts and everything.Bowl on the toilet.Bowl on the shelf.Bowl of M&M’s and I can assist myself …”–“Back Home Baller,”Leslie Jones With all due respect to Mom, nobody loves bowls more than us. Considering that my beloved Myrtle Beach Bowl began on the teal
grass of Conway, South Carolina, 3 weeks earlier, we’ve been bowling like Pete Weber, from New Orleans and New Mexico to the Big Apple and San Francisco. A Santa’s bag of college football filled with whatever from goal passes and sleek new uniforms to astonishing returns and intestine-blowing portions of sideline french fries dipped in mayonnaise.Even for us, the folks who live for bowls, it can be a lot to track. After all, there were 42 games played over a period of 16 days. So now, as we await the last contest on the calendar Monday night, here’s a look back at the very best and worst of the 2023-24 bowl season.Yes, we understand the Rose Bowl went to OT. Heck, I was basing on the sideline. However, when it pertains to pure home entertainment, it is tough to top the show put on by the
Tigers and Wildcats, who punched through the first half however then scored a combined 42 points in the fourth quarter with 5 lead modifications, consisting of 3 in the last 4:20, eventually won by Clemson with 17 seconds remaining.If history reviews the Dawgs’demolition of TCU at the start of 2023 as the minute that spurred College Football Playoff expansion, then perhaps it will also remember their last game of the very same year as the contest that validated that growth. There’s no concern Georgia deserved an area among the country’s best teams in the postseason, and there’s likewise no question Florida State’s mass exodus after the Seminoles were excluded was an outcome of the exact same feelings. In either case, the Orange Bowl was over in 10 minutes and we were all forced to view Trademark vacation motion pictures with our households whom we had actually been ignoring all month.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Best bowl performance: Jason Bean, QB, Kansas In the Surefire Rate Bowl, aka the Hey, Didn’t You Both Used To Be In The Bottom 10 All The Time? Bowl, in between Kansas and UNLV, the Jayhawks quarterback threw for 449 lawns and six touchdowns after throwing only a lots TD
passes throughout the regular season. He secured the 49-36 win over the Rebels even with a trio of INTs and a tremendous 18 group charges, consisting of four personal fouls, adding up to 210 backyards. He likewise added 21 lawns hurrying. It was the best holiday season efficiency for a Mr. Bean this side of the department store clerk in “Love Really.”Worst bowl performance by somebody not called Florida State: Treat Bowl– Miami(Ohio)and Appalachian State The RedHawks fell to the Mountaineers 13-9 in the midst of a Noah’s ark kind of rain. The teams combined for 13 fumbles, the most in any bowl game considering that the 1977 Self-reliance Bowl. In associated news, the football from the 2023 Cure Bowl stated self-reliance from gloves.Most explosive bowl performance: Self-reliance Bowl Mentioning the I-Bowl, that game ended with more fireworks than New Year’s Eve at Disney World. To be clear, that’s not a metaphor. I’m speaking about real fireworks. Best bowl perk: Charlotte Motor Speedway NASCAR hot laps, Duke’s Mayo Bowl Yeah, I know, I write this every year. However it’s still true.Of all the bowl player advantages this is still the very best.
https://t.co/Ra233bCNF3!.?.!— Ryan McGee(@ESPNMcGee)December 24, 2023 A lot of meta bowl
perk: bowl bowlers bowling This “Creation “-like trend began early as the Myrtle Beach Bowl groups went bowling. Then it peaked with the Armed force Bowl presented by GoBowling.com.
Speaking of the Armed Force Bowl … Best name from a bowl: Slade Nagle was handed the interim head coach reins for the Armed force Bowl after Tulane head coach Willie Fritz bolted for Houston.
Not just does Slade Nagle’s name seem like it comes from somebody who simply suplexed Brock
Lesnar to win the WWE world heavyweight championship, the guy is huge, has a fire-red beard and utilized to be the quarterbacks coach for the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors. When” Yellowstone “is done, I totally anticipate Taylor Sheridan to make a motion picture about Slade Nagle.Best reminder that rivalries never ever stop: Jerry Eliminate’s post-New Mexico Bowl rant The only aspect of bowl season more explosive than the Independence Bowl’s toolbox was Kill’s temper. The head coach of the New Mexico State Aggies took umbrage with what he thought was unjust treatment from bowl host and archrival New Mexico and utilized some curse words to express those sensations. The Rio Grande Competition never ever sleeps! In his tirade, Eliminate threatened to stop coaching and go to Mexico to” drink margaritas.”The next week he indeed stepped down. No word yet on the margarita situation.THREAD At end of NM Bowl presser, NMSU head coach Jerry Kill went on tirade talking about
Diego Pavia’s occurrence @ UNM facility, saying he was punished for it. Eliminate then went on to call
out UNM AD Eddie Nunez for not enabling NMSU to practice in indoor facility this week. pic.twitter.com/HlUhf6rT7b!.?.!— Colin Deaver(@ColinDeaverTV)December 17, 2023 Greatest temper WTH: Eastern Michigan after the 68 Ventures Bowl EMU’s Korey Hernandez disrupted South Alabama’s post-victory university minute when he encountered the field and decked Jags defensive back Jamarrien Burt. A brawl broke out as the band played on. Hernandez has actually because asked forgiveness. In the end, anyone ever considering fighting requirements to thank Hernandez. Why? He gave all of us a tip that no matter how mad you are, you never begin
a battle when surrounded by 60 guys wearing the exact same uniform as the guy that you just sucker punched! play 0:44 Postgame fight breaks out after sucker punch from Eastern Michigan player Eastern Michigan’s Korey Hernandez encounters the field and sucker punches South Alabama’s Jamarrien Burt in the back of the head.Best postgame food bath: egg nog,
Holiday Bowl Thank or blame the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, however postgame food showers are now the postseason norm, from french fries and Frosted Flakes to UTSA head coach Jeff Traylor, after being asked about his memories from the Roadrunners ‘win over Marshall in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl, stating,” I’ll constantly bear in mind that coffee running down my back.”However the brand-new kid on the supermarket(dispose the) pail list has actually emerged from among the earliest games, the Holiday Bowl, which unapologetically now disposes “nog on the noggin'”of the winning coach. When they published a slo-mo video of Lincoln Riley’s splashdown, it wound up coming off like a scene from a”Saw”movie.Congratulations, coach Riley-your benefit is the ritualistic #HolidayBowl
egg nog! pic.twitter.com/VPOfmiYiCe!.?.!— DIRECTV Vacation Bowl (@DIRECTV_HB)December 28, 2023 Finest postgame food bath tribute
: Duke’s Mayo Bowl If you are mad that we slighted the OG water bucket food dump event, do not fret. These West Virginia fans have you covered. They likewise have their kids covered. In mayo.Let’s go Mountaineers !!!
@espn @WestVirginiaU @WVUfootball @DukesMayoBowl pic.twitter.com/1wmrzpkYez!.?.!— RoadRunner(@wvu011)December 28, 2023 Finest usage of food-related prop: the turnover kabob Arizona upset Oklahoma in the Valero Alamo Bowl thanks in no little part to six takeaways– 3 fumbles and 3 interceptions. After every turnover, the Wildcats stack another flattened football with their challengers’ logo onto a cactus-shaped sword.pic.twitter.com/c3PeW4ULag!.?.!— no context college football(@nocontextcfb)December 29, 2023 Worst noise: Gronk’s anthem If you think that nog audio was bad, then whatever you do, DO NOT hit play on Rob Gronkowski singing” The Star-Spangled Banner”at the Starco Brands LA Bowl Hosted By Gronk.For the first time ever … @RobGronkowski sings the National Anthem at Starco Brands #LABowl Hosted By Gronk pic.twitter.com/H2Nfyk5wXK!.?.!— Starco Brands LA Bowl Hosted By Gronk(@LABowlGame )December 17, 2023 The E. King Gill 12th Guy award: Sam Mathews, Texas A&M Just two years back
, Mathews was tailgating with his buddies in College Station when they persuaded
him to try out for the Aggies football team. Not just did he make
the group however when he was pushed into service since of a flu break out in 2022, he tape-recorded 6 deals with against Florida. So this season the group chose to bestow upon him the desired No. 12, in honor of the school’s famous 12th Male tradition. When these post-Jimbo Fisher Aggies appeared shorthanded for the Texas Bowl due to opt-outs, Mathews began. And even in a loss, his interception will go down in
A&M 12th Guy lore.THE 12TH GUY WITH THE INTERCEPTION! ESPN pic.twitter.com/ocqTvcPEFj!.?.!— Texas A&M Football(@AggieFootball)December 28, 2023 Finest return: Western Kentucky, Famous Toastery Bowl The Hilltoppers routed Old Dominion by 28 points in the opening minutes of the second quarter and were down 21 at the start of the fourth, however came back to tie the game with 19 seconds staying and won in OT. They were caused the toasted promised land by quarterback Caden Veltkamp, who had already decided to move at season’s end after being informed by WKU coaches he need to relocate to tight end. Instead
, he came off the bench in Charlotte to toss for 383 yards and 5 TDs and was brought off the field by his colleagues, a la Rudy. Now he’ll be back on the Hill overlooking Bowling Green,
Kentucky, next season.Best return of a different sort: Davis Brin, QB, Georgia Southern Brin won the Myrtle Beach Bowl MVP in 2021 as the quarterback at Tulsa. Then he kipped down a great( albeit losing)effort in the 2023 Myrtle Beach Bowl as QB of Georgia Southern, tossing for 350 backyards and two touchdowns against Ohio. This marks the greatest
return efficiency in Myrtle Beach because my high school schoolmate Dirty McCall won back-to-back shag dancing contests at the Magic Attic and made two totally free airbrushed T-shirts and a container of saltwater taffy.You the genuine MVP of bowl season MVP award: the Pop-Tart The legacy of edible mascots throughout bowl season goes back to the Blooming Onion, who utilized to stalk the sidelines of the Outback Bowl, which is now the distinctly less oily ReliaQuest Bowl. However with the greatest respect to Spuddy Buddy, the bushy-eyed container of Duke’s Mayo, the Cheez-It who made it very clear he was not to be consumed, or any other would-be delicious furry football hero, no one stole hearts and headlines like the Pop-Tart. It danced, it carried out, it descended into a huge toaster and was prepared so that it might be devoured by the Pop-Tart Bowl winning Kansas State Wildcats. RIP
Pop-Tart. Thank you for your bowl season service.added some music. it only
felt right.rest simple, sweet prince. https://t.co/Y6AhJ6zr9U pic.twitter.com/BTj6DyITHy!.?.!— TransPerfect Music City Bowl(@MusicCityBowl) December 29, 2023 Till next year, keep on bowling, y’ all.They’re taking down the objective posts at Petco Park. Just a wild scene. pic.twitter.com/LBmrsosjHh!.?.!— Bernie Wilson( @berniewilson) December 28, 2023