Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback #15: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Welcome to the fifteenth episode of Shelbee’s Sunday Morning Quarterback! Turning it over now to my husband, the Sunday Morning Quarterback with a recap of yesterday’s games.

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The greatest time of year is upon us. No, I do not mean Christmas. I’m talking about college football bowl season! Although if you really think about it, it is like having a three week Christmas celebration, 40 games in 23 days with the National Championship to close it out.  It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Autonation Cure Bowl

Tulane Green Wave 41 – Louisiana-Lafayette Rajun Cajuns 24

This game featured the Sun Belt Conference runner up going against the 6-6 Green Wave. The Rajun Cajuns would score first on a Raymond Calais 38 yard touchdown run but would allow Tulane to score on their next four possessions to find themselves trailing 24-7 with 10:14 to go in the first half. Louisiana would add a 43 yard Kyle Pfau field goal as the half ended to go to the locker room down 24-10. The Cajuns would open the second half with a Elijah Mitchell 3 yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 24-17. Following a Tulane field goal, an Andre Nunez touchdown pass would bring the game to within three points but the Green Wave would score two more touchdowns in the final four minutes to put the game out of reach.

New Mexico Bowl

Utah State Aggies 52 – North Texas Mean Green 13

After losing a tough game to Boise State in the Mountain West Conference Championship and the loss of their head coach to Texas Tech, the Aggies came out with something to prove yesterday and prove they did. Utah State scored on six of their first half possessions en route to a 38-7 halftime lead. The big plays are one of the things that did North Texas in. The Aggies had two touchdown passes of over 60 yards and a third one from 37 yards out. North Texas has continued to improve as a football team after going 1-11 in 2015 but has yet to win a bowl game in three staight appearances.

Mitsubishi Motors Las Vegas Bowl

#21 Fresno State Bulldogs 31 – Arizona State Sun Devils 20

The Bulldogs running back had a career day rushing for 212 yards and two touchdowns in his team’s bowl win. Arizona State, with first year coach Herm Edwards, started off the bowl season with a loss for the PAC-12 which had the worst conference record in bowl games last year going 1-8. Two issues really hurt the Sun Devils in this game: getting turnovers on three straight drives that they could only turn into three points and star receiver N’Keal Harry who sat out the bowl game in preparation for the NFL draft. Without Harry in the line up, Arizona State was unable to stretch the field and only had 129 yards passing. The Bulldogs will finish the season with the highest ranking ever and one of the most memorable seasons in school history.

Raycom Media Camellia Bowl

Georgia Southern Eagles 23 – Eastern Michigan Eagles 21

Georgia Southern put an amazing cap on their season as Tyler Bass kicked a 40 yard field goal as time expired to give them their 10th win of the season. This is a complete turnaround from a team that lost ten games last season. Using a triple option attack, Georgia Southern ground out 331 yards on the ground but needed one final drive to win the game.  Eastern Michigan took over with 9:49 to go down 20-14 and engineered a 16 play 75 yard drive that ended on a 4th and 4 touchdown pass from Mike Glass III to Arthur Jackson with 3:33 to go. Georgia Southern wasn’t done though and would drive 52 yards in 9 plays helped by a 29 yard run on 4th and 10 by quarterback Shai Werts that would set up the game winning kick.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Appalachian State Mountaineers 45 – Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders 13

Like most teams going against Appalachian State, the Blue Raiders were completely overmatched by the Mountaineers. The Raiders would take a 3-0 lead into the second quarter before the Appalachian State offense began to roll. And once it did, there was no stopping it. The Mountaineers would score on four possessions in the second quarter to head into halftime leading 24-6. It was more of the same after halftime as the Mountaineers would outscore MTSU 21-7 to give former Appalachian State player and interim coach Mark Ivey his first career coaching win. The Mountaineers should be a force again next year losing only four starters combined on both sides of the ball. I’m just glad that my Nittany Lions don’t have to open the season against them next year.

Stay tuned for recaps of next week’s bowl games including Army vs. Houston in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. Until then…

We Are…

Keeping it on the edge,

Jeff (and Shelbee)

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