The final day of bowl season gave us two extremely dramatic games as TCU managed to pull off an historic comeback against Oregon and win the Alamo Bowl in triple overtime, while West Virginia outlasted Arizona State in a wild Cactus Bowl. In the less exciting of the bowl games, Georgia had no problems handling Penn State while Arkansas, with Alex Collins, ran all over Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl.
#15 Oregon (9-4) 41 #11 TCU (11-2) 47 (Alamo Bowl): TCU manages to come back from going 31-0 to force triple overtime and win the game with a Bram Kohlhausen 8-yard touchdown run. The Ducks lost quarterback Vernon Adams after going up 28-0, scoring just three points in regulation after he left. Kohlhausen, playing for the arrested Trevone Boykin, started out poorly, but finished with two touchdown passes and two touchdown runs. The comeback is tied for the biggest in a college football bowl game, with Texas Tech beating Minnesota in 2006 (Insight Bowl) being the first. It’s tied for second in a college football game (FBS), trailing the 35-point comeback by Michigan State against Northwestern in 2006.
Penn State (7-6) 17 Georgia (10-3) 24 (TaxSlayer Bowl): A comfortable win for the Bulldogs, leading 24-3 before easing up a little bit, to begin their era without Mark Richt. Greyson Lambert threw a touchdown pass and so did Terry Godwin, while Sony Michel ran for a touchdown himself. Christian Hackenberg had a poor finish to a mixed college career with one costly interception, as Penn State seemed to have gone nowhere this season in terms of development.
Kansas State (6-7) 23 Arkansas (8-5) 45 (Autozone Liberty Bowl): Arkansas finish the season with five wins on their final six games while the Wildcats seem to find the new Big 12 difficult to deal with. Brandon Allen threw a touchdown pass while Alex Collins had a huge day on the ground with 185 yards and three touchdowns. The Razorbacks outgained Kansas State 569-242, as Collins broke the school record for touchdowns in a season with 20.
West Virginia (8-5) 43 Arizona State (6-7) 42 (Cactus Bowl): Despite something of home field advantage, Arizona State couldn’t avoid a disappointing finish to their disappointing season, losing a 42-36 lead they had with less than five minutes to go, as Skyler Howard found David Stills for a 15-yard touchdown with 2:19 to go to cap off a wild game of lead changes and 0 defense, in which we got 676 yards of offense from the Mountaineers, with Howard throwing five touchdown passes and two interception, getting 555 yards of offense on his own.
All that’s left now is to wait for the national championship game of the college football playoff between Alabama and Clemson on January 11, a Monday, taking place in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.