Tag: Bowl Game

Brian Kelly’s streak of 10-win seasons ends with LSU loss to Florida

Now who’s laughing?

While Notre Dame is fighting to stay in the College Football Playoff conversation, that dream already was dead for Brian Kelly and LSU. They still could get into a decent bowl game though if they ran the table for the rest of the regular season. That won’t even happen now.

The Tigers suffered a 27-16 loss to a Florida team simply trying to get back to .500. That brought their losing streak to three, and they most certainly will drop out of the rankings now. There’s even more to this though.

With this loss, Kelly’s personal streak of seven 10-win seasons will come to an end. The last time Kelly failed to earn that distinction was during the Irish’s dreadful 2016 season in which they finished 4-8.

Kelly’s decision to bolt for Baton Rogue is looking more foolish all the time. This is the second time in three years Kelly has lost four games with the Tigers, something he didn’t do once over his final five seasons with the Irish. Does he still think he put himself in a better position to win a national championship?

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Tale of the Tape: Notre Dame defense vs. Florida State offense

Notre Dame has a dominant defense, and that has been the case the entire season. In fact, it’s been the case for a long time now, and there’s no reason to think that will change as long as Marcus Freeman is in charge. Hopefully, Freeman will be in …

Notre Dame has a dominant defense, and that has been the case the entire season. In fact, it’s been the case for a long time now, and there’s no reason to think that will change as long as [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] is in charge.

Hopefully, Freeman will be in charge for a long time so that the Irish’s defense remains among the best in college football. That’s not to say the Irish won’t have a great defense beyond his tenure, but he gives the fan base peace of mind in that regard.

The Irish should have no problem handling Florida State’s offense. While the Seminoles’ defense isn’t beyond awful, the same cannot be said for their offense, which nationally ranks near the bottom of several major statistical categories. It’s a large if not the primary reason the Seminoles have a 1-8 record and won’t be playing in a bowl game.

Here’s how the Irish’s defense and Seminoles’ offense match up:

Duke officially qualifies for the college football bowl schedule with its sixth win

With their sixth win of the season on Friday night, the Blue Devils secured a spot in the college football postseason.

The Duke Blue Devils stacked yet another iconic win onto its 2024 resume on Friday night, this time beating the Florida State Seminoles for the first time in school history.

Between the defensive triumph, Duke’s 20-point comeback over the North Carolina Tar Heels, and overtime victory over the Northwestern Wildcats, first-year head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his team officially have a place in the college football postseason. Friday’s victory over FSU improved the Blue Devils to 6-1 for the year, securing at least a .500 record and clinching bowl eligibility.

After a combined 10-25 record with no bowl appearances from 2019-21, Duke has now won at least six games in each of the past three seasons. Before this most recent stretch, the Blue Devils hadn’t made a bowl game in three consecutive seasons since 2012-15.

With Wake Forest and NC State left on the schedule, two teams with a combined 5-8 record, there’s a reasonable chance that Diaz win eight games in his first year with the program. If he does finish with an 8-4 record or better, it would be the first time Duke wins at least eight games in three straight seasons since that same 2013-15 stretch.

ESPN predicts this bowl game for Florida football ahead of 2024 season

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach foresees Florida facing Army in the 2024 Birmingham Bowl this winter.

The opening kickoff of the 2024 college football season is right around the corner and a pair of ESPN’s sports writers have already submitted their postseason outlooks.

It is a well-known fact that the Florida Gators are facing what is seemingly a Sisyphean task of making it back to the .500 mark for this fall. Playing in possibly the most competitive conference in the sport as well as facing a schedule gauntlet no person would wish even on their worst rival, making a bowl game feels more like a massive accomplishment than an annual tradition.

ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach presented their postseason prognostications for both the College Football Playoff and the winter bowl games. Only the latter foresees the Florida Gators playing in December — specifically against the Army Black Knights inside Protective Stadium for the 2024 Birmingham Bowl on Friday, Dec. 27.

Bonagura, on the other hand, picked the James Madison Dukes vs. Kentucky Wildcats in the same game.

Florida’s season opener for 2024

The Florida Gators and No. 19 Miami Hurricanes square off on Aug. 31 in Gainesville, Florida to open their schedule for the 2024 season. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ABC Sports.

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Wisconsin faces SEC power in Action Network bowl prediction for 2024 season

Wisconsin faces SEC power in Action Network bowl prediction for 2024 season

The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy released his final preseason bowl predictions for the 2024 college football season on Monday.

His postseason picks come with Week 0 taking place on Saturday.

McMurphy has Wisconsin facing Texas A&M in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee. While it would mark the Badgers’ 23rd consecutive year in a bowl game, it would certainly be an underwhelming result knowing the dynamic created by the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

Wisconsin has appeared in the Music City Bowl once before, falling to Auburn 28-14 in December of 2003. Last season’s matchup in the game was between Auburn (6-6) and Maryland (7-5), so that’s roughly where McMurphy expects Wisconsin’s record to fall in the regular season.

Luke Fickell and his squad have a rather challenging schedule in 2024, facing upper-echelon programs Alabama (home), USC (road), Penn State (home) and Oregon (home). The Badgers enter the season as underdogs in seven games, so McMurphy’s prediction isn’t a slight toward Wisconsin by any means.

Wisconsin’s 2024 campaign shapes up to be a memorable one thanks to the high number of of marquee matchups on the schedule.

Wisconsin QB Tanner Mordecai had one of the nation’s best bowl performances

Wisconsin QB Tanner Mordecai had one of the nation’s best bowl performances

Wisconsin quarterback Tanner Mordecai closed his Badger career on a high note in the ReliaQuest Bowl against LSU. He completed 27/40 passes for 378 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the Badgers’ first 300-yard passer since Jack Coan in 2019.

Despite the final drive, the senior’s performance deserved to be complemented with a win. It was by far the best game of his Wisconsin career, and on the short list of his best games ever.

ProFootballFocus recently released its top-graded offensive bowl game performances and Mordecai fell at No. 9 with a grade of 85.7.

He was only surpassed by the following performances:

  • Washington QB Michael Penix Jr: 29/38, 430 yards, two touchdowns
  • Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart: 25/40, 379 yards, three touchdowns, eight carries, 14 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown
  • Iowa State WR Jayden Higgins: nine receptions, 214 yards, one touchdown
  • USC QB Miller Moss: 23/33, 372 yards, six touchdowns, one interception
  • Oregon QB Bo Nix: 28/35, 363 yards, five touchdowns
  • Oklahoma State QB Alan Bowman: 34/49, 402 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions
  • Oregon WR Tez Johnson: 11 receptions, 172 yards, one touchdown
  • Notre Dame WR Jordan Faison: five receptions, 115 yards, one touchdown

In Honor of Pop-Tarts Bowl – Which Pop-Tarts are the Best?

In honor of the @poptartsbowl – which is your favorite flavor?

Back in June it was announced that the bowl game formerly known as the Cheez-It Bowl was changing its title sponsor to Pop-Tarts.  It is a game that Notre Dame played in previously when it was the Champs Sports Bowl and then again when it was the Camping World Bowl.

Notre Dame doesn’t play in it this year, instead that battle is between Kansas State and North Carolina State and takes place tonight.

When the news came down that the sponsor changed this past summer however, I sent a message to the team here at Fighting Irish Wire asking their pick for best flavor Pop-Tarts.  Here is what we came up with:

Sun Bowl: Ticket Prices High on Secondary Market

Who out there is headed to the game?

The 2023 Sun Bowl pits two teams that have met just twice all-time, both in bowl games, together.  Notre Dame will serve as the home team in El Paso as they take on Oregon State.

Oregon State has won the previous two meetings between programs – the 2001 Fiesta Bowl and the 2004 Insight Bowl.

Notre Dame coming to a rare sight for the Fighting Irish helped make this game a sellout in rather short order.  However, the secondary market remains possible for tickets if you plan to be near El Paso next week.

You can get into the game with tickets on SeatGeek for just $14.  That will get you an end zone seat.

[afflinkbutton text=”See Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl tickets” link=”https://seatgeek.pxf.io/LXy7mo”]

If you have significantly deeper pockets, $700 will get you a seat on the 50-yard line roughly halfway up behind the Notre Dame bench.

The current capacity of the Sun Bowl is listed at 46,670 and you can bet that nearly all of those will be filled on December 29.

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Notre Dame All-Time Bowl History

What is your favorite Notre Dame bowl memory?

Notre Dame has played in 41 bowl games all-time, a number that might seem low considering they’ve been playing football for over 130 years.  However, Notre Dame didn’t play in bowl games out of their belief in amateurism for over 40 years which means for a lot fewer bowl appearances than several other blue-blood programs.

There have been great triumphs and incredible heartbreakers both over those 41 games.

Legends were made, thrilling wins were had, and heartbreaking losses also occurred.

Check out the game-by-game history of Notre Dame in postseason bowl games below.

More Bowl Game History from the College Wire Network:

Alabama / Aub / Fla / LSU / Tenn. / UGA // Mich. / Mich St. / Ohio St. / Wisc. // Okla. / Texas // ND // USC

What excites Greg Schiano most about Rutgers football going to a bowl game?

Greg Schiano is most excited about one thing about Rutgers football’s bowl eligibility.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers football is heading to a bowl game, but Greg Schiano doesn’t really care where his team ends up.

What matters, he says, is that his young Rutgers team continues to practice.

It is usually thought that going to a bowl game is equivalent to 15 extra practices. For young players in particular, this is valuable time beyond the twelfth game of the season.

Rutgers is bowl-bound by virtue of their sixth win, which they secured in mid-October. That means that the only downside of their current three-game losing streak is that affects their bowl placement.

And in what is his fourth season back with Rutgers, Schiano will be afforded the chance to fully plan out a practice agenda for his team. Rutgers enters the final season of the regular season at 6-5 (3-5 Big Ten).

Conventional wisdom and most projections have Rutgers heading to the Pinstripe Bowl (Bronx, New York) for a Dec. 28 game against an ACC opponent. With one game left in the regular season, Schiano said he isn’t looking at the projections.

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Instead, one thing excites him about a bowl game, and it is the most Schiano answer ever.

“I don’t really look at that very much. The thing, as you guys know, I get excited about bowl games because we get more practice,” Schiano said on Monday.

“You know, one of the things that allows winning teams to continue to be winning teams is additional practice opportunity, so that’s what excites me the most. I want the kid to always have a great time in the bowl and we’ll talk more about that next week. But yeah, that’s about the extent that I think about it. There’s other people that work for us that handle that stuff and they do a good job.”

As for this weekend, getting a seventh win in the regular is something that Rutgers hasn’t achieved since 2014. That was their first season in the Big Ten.

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Maryland, the opposition for Rutgers this Saturday at SHI Stadium (3:30 PM ET, Big Ten Network), is a strong team. Offensively, they are top four in the Big Ten.

On defense, they are a solid middle-of-the-pack unit that boasts speed.

“So we know what we’re in for and it’s going to be a battle. We both find ourselves in a similar position at 6-5,” Schiano said.

“And a lot of respect for what they do – and looking forward to playing the game.”