Another day of some minor bowl action, this time with two games: Toledo winning the battle of the former undefeated teams against Temple in the Boca Raton Bowl, while Akron win a bowl game for the first time in school history against Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
#24 Temple (10-4) 17 Toledo (10-2) 32 (Boca Raton Bowl): An impressive win for Toledo who being a new chapter in the program’s history, as Matt Campbell departs for the Iowa State job and Jason Candle takes over. The ranked Owls suffer from a slightly disappointing finish to a good season because of their losses in key games, scoring their first touchdown of the game with 2:50 left on the clock, and all game long struggling to contain Phillip Ely (two touchdown passes) and Kareem Hunt (two touchdown runs).
Akron (8-5) 23 Utah State (6-7) 21 (Famous Idaho Potato Bowl): Terry Bowden needed quite some time to start winning games with Akron, but gets to be the head coach to lead the Zips to their first ever bowl game win, with their defense holding strong against the Aggies to make it a first winning season under Bowden, getting most of their offense from Robert Stein with three field goals, but also a touchdown pass from Tyrell Goodman to Thomas Woodson and a touchdown run later in the game to take the lead back for good by Donnell Alexander.
Bowl season is a getting a little busier with Christmas just around the corner, although it’s still not the real thing, which comes in New Year’s. Maybe the most interesting matchup of the two upcoming games is between Boise State and Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, followed by Georgia Southern butting heads with Bowling Green in the GoDaddy Bowl that will be played in Mobile, Alabama.