Tag: Cheez-It Bowl

The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl mascot wanted everyone to know it isn’t edible and college football fans had jokes

The mascot was CONCERNED for its safety.

While there are legitimate arguments to be made that expanding the College Football Playoff will take away from the non-CFP bowl games, those people are grossly underestimating a brand’s capacity for meme-worthy weirdness.

Bowl season will be fine when you have mascots being sacrificed (and eaten) and others fearing for its life.

The Pop-Tarts Bowl made for amazing television, and it had almost nothing to do with Kansas State’s win. It was weird, and the game’s mascot was lowered into a toaster and eaten as part of K-State’s celebration. So, on Monday, the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl mascot was not taking any chances.

The mascot held up a sign to let everyone know that it was not an edible mascot.

I mean, after the Pop-Tarts Bowl’s display, the Cheez-It mascot’s days are probably numbered. I’d fully expect it to be edible next season.

But until then, college football fans had jokes about the sign.

Tennesee Vols’ Ramel Keyton is ultimate Cheez-It Bowl promo

A tasty promotion by a Tennessee player in the Cheez-It Bowl

This might be the one gimmick the Pop-Tarts Bowl whiffed on.

Tennessee WR Ramel Keyton has an NIL deal with Cheez-It, sponsor of the eponymous Cheez-It Bowl.

So, what better way to promote the deal and bowl game, which will take place on Jan. 1 in Orlando, FL, than to have Keyton a Cheez-It “baked” into his hairstyle?

Pure genius.

Three Oklahoma Sooners to watch on offense against Arkansas State

Taking a look at three Oklahoma Sooners to watch on offense vs. Arkansas State.

Saturday will mark the start of year two for Jeff Lebby as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator. While the Sooners posted some solid numbers last year, it always felt like they could’ve done more. That sentiment is something players and coaches alike have echoed throughout the offseason. Situational football was emphasized, along with consistency.

However, some significant pieces from last year’s team are no longer in Norman.

OU’s rushing attack ranked No. 10 in the country, averaging 219.4 yards per game. The offensive line responsible for that lost three starters in [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag], and [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag]. Harrison was a first-rounder to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Morris was a third-rounder to the Kansas City Chiefs. Starting running back [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag] went off and posted the ninth-best season on the ground in program history last year. He’s with the New York Giants.

[autotag]Brayden Willis[/autotag] and explosive star receiver [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag] will be missed in the passing game. Willis is with the San Francisco 49ers, and Mims was a third-round pick by the Denver Broncos. The two combined for 1,597 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. That’s an insane amount of production lost and presents a massive hole in the passing game.

The challenge in the offseason for Lebby was finding replacements for the names lost. Additionally, he and the offensive staff had to help develop the guys coming back this offseason. The time to prove it starts on Saturday.

With that in mind, here’s our look at three offensive players to watch for the season opener against Arkansas State.

Up Next: An Ascending Offensive Linemen

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Four Sooners in College Sports Wire’s preseason top 25 players in the Big 12

College Sports Wire included four Sooners in their preseason Top 25 list.

Oklahoma’s final season in the Big 12 is expected to be memorable as the Sooners look to leave on top ahead of the move to the SEC. Coming off of one of their worst season in 20 years, Oklahoma is looking to remind return to conference title contention.

To do that, The Sooners hope their returning players take another step in their development. They return five starters on offense and six on defense from a year ago.

A few of those starters are considered some of the best players in the conference. Patrick Conn of College Sports Wire believes they fit comfortably among the top 25 players the Big 12.

Oklahoma vs. Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl one of CBS Sports’ best of bowl season

The Sooners Cheez-It Bowl loss to Florida State ranked as one of CBS Sports’ best bowl games in 2022.

The Oklahoma Sooners took a loss in their final game of the 2022 regular season, a 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl. If you were an independent observer, the game was an entertaining matchup of two of college football’s best programs.

The game didn’t end like we would have liked it, but it was an entertaining game from start to finish. Oklahoma’s defense was up to the task in the first half, but the Seminoles tall and athletic wide receivers were too much for the Sooners’ secondary to match up with in the second half.

CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli ranked each of the bowl games this season, and Oklahoma’s loss to Florida State came in at No. 4.

For the Sooners, you can’t spin the 2022 season as anything other than a failure. It’s the first time the Sooners finished with a losing record since going 5-7 in 1998, the season before Bob Stoops was hired. Still, this game showed plenty of signs for how good the Sooners can be next year.

Offseason narratives aside, the game itself was just a lot of fun. It was high-scoring with a lot of exciting plays, and the fourth quarter was nonstop drama. Oklahoma took a 25-18 lead early in the quarter; the Noles responded right away to tie the game at 25-25 and then took a 32-25 lead a few minutes later. It was then Oklahoma’s turn to respond with a 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the game one more time at 32-32. Finally, with the game on the line, Florida State drove into field goal range, and Ryan Fitzgerald kicked the game-winning 32-yarder with 55 seconds left to send the Noles home with all the Cheez-Its. – Fornelli, CBS Sports

For the Sooners, this game was a microcosm of much of the 2022 season. They had a good defensive half but couldn’t sustain that level of play for four quarters. With four offensive linemen missing in action due to NFL draft opt-outs and injury, they couldn’t pass block well enough to give Gabriel the time to make plays down the field.

It ended in another close loss for the Sooners in their first losing season since 1998.

Oklahoma took some positive things out of the game like the play of their true freshmen running backs, Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk. Jalil Farooq continued to display his versatility as a pass catcher and runner on jet sweeps. He looks primed for a breakout 2023 season if Marvin Mims heads to the NFL.

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Florida State 35, Oklahoma 32 Cheez-It Bowl What Happened, What It All Means

Florida State 35, Oklahoma 32: Cheez-It Bowl what happened, player of the game, and what it all means

Florida State beat Oklahoma to win the Cheez-It Bowl. What happened, who was the player of the game, and what does it all mean?

Florida State 35, Oklahoma 32 Cheez-It Bowl What Happened, Player of the Game, What It All Means

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Cheez-It Bowl What Happened

– In a fun back-and-forth battle, Jordan Travis threw two touchdown passes and Treshaun Ward ran for two scores to help Florida State keep the pace, but it took a 32-yard Ryan Fitzgerald field goal with 55 seconds to play for a 35-32 lead. The Seminole defense was able to close.

– Oklahoma was missing a whole bunch of offensive parts, but the attack worked. Dillon Gabriel threw a touchdown pass and ran for another, and he engineered a 75-play fourth quarter scoring drive for a 32-25 lead. FSU answered with Travis’s second touchdown pass to tie it, and the two teams drafted field goals in the final four minutes.

– Florida State’s final drive went 61 yards in six plays, highlighted by a phenomenal one-handed catch by Johnny Wilson. The Noles weren’t able to wind down the clock all the way, but it was enough to give Fitzgerald a shot to hit his game-winning field goal.

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Cheez-It Bowl Player of the Game

Jordan Travis, QB Florida State
He completed 27-of-38 passes for 418 yards and two touchdowns with a pick, and he ran seven times for 50 yards.

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Cheez-It Bowl Fun Stats

– Oklahoma QB Dillon Gabriel completed 14-of-24 passes for 243 yards and a score, and he ran for 17 yards and a touchdown. Star RB Eric Gray didn’t play, but Javontae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk each ran for over 100 yards and combined for 208 yards and two scores.

– Florida State WR Johnny Wilson caught eight passes for 202 yards. Treshaun Ward ran ten times for 81 yards and two scores.

– Total Yards: Florida State 587 – Oklahoma 496

Cheez-It Bowl What It All Means

Florida State started the season strong, had a hard time in the middle, and closed with a bang. It would’ve been nice to have put this Cheez-It Bowl away earlier – Oklahoma really was down a ton of good players – but it was a strong win to keep the momentum going after closing out the regular season with five straight wins.

The win is a big deal. It’s the program’s first bowl victory since the 2017 Independence, and this closed out the first ten-win season since taking down the 2016 Orange. With the win, Florida State is 9-3 in bowls since 2007.

It might be a loss for Brent Venables and Oklahoma, but it sure doesn’t feel like it. The Sooners should’ve been blown out. They were missing enough guys in what amounted to a Florida State home game in Orlando. Even so, they battled to the final drive, the offense worked even with the new guys, and now there’s some positive momentum to build on.

Even so, Oklahoma lost four to its last five games in what turned out to be a losing season. After winning two straight bowls, now OU is 2-4 in its last six and 3-6 in its last nine.

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– 2022-2023 Bowl Schedule, Predictions

Florida State coach Mike Norvell gets doused in Cheez-It after bowl win

Florida State coach Mke Norvell wore the Cheez-It quite well

Florida State outlasted Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl on Thursday.

To the victorious coach goes the Cheez-It — yes, the plural remains Cheez-It — and Mike Norvell received a dousing.

 

Anton Harrison, Marvin Mims top 60 selections in The Draft Network’s latest 2023 mock draft

Anton Harrison and Marvin Mims both come off the board in the top 60 in The Draft Network’s two-round mock draft.

As the college football season winds down, the influx of mock drafts is about to increase exponentially. The Oklahoma Sooners have several players that should hear their names called in the 2023 NFL draft. A couple of them could go in the top 60.

Two of the Sooners’ more high-profile draft prospects, [autotag]Marvin Mims[/autotag] and [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag], continue to receive buzz after a summer that saw them projected as top 100 picks in mock drafts. It should come as no surprise that in the latest mock by The Draft Network, each player is taken in the top 60.

Harrison lands with the Kansas City Chiefs in this particular scenario. This is not the first time a mock draft has him joining the Chiefs.

Two former Sooners occupy spots on the offensive line in Kansas City. [autotag]Creed Humphrey[/autotag] and [autotag]Orlando Brown Jr.[/autotag] have done excellent jobs keeping Patrick Mahomes upright this year.

They earned Pro Bowl nods for their efforts this season. Brown is in the last year of his contract. While he has done well, the Chiefs could opt to let him walk in free agency, draft an offensive tackle and allocate those financial resources elsewhere. The Draft Network staff had this to say about their selection:

Whether the Chiefs decide to franchise-tag Orlando Brown Jr. or not, they must figure out their long-term plan at LT. Anton Harrison will not be a perfect prospect on day one, but his mix of length, movement skills, and balance are the foundation for a player who could be developed into a mainstay on the left side of Kansas City’s offensive line. – Jamie Eisner, The Draft Network

A round later, Marvin Mims comes off the board and gets to play for his hometown team, the Dallas Cowboys.

Mims hails from Frisco, Texas, where the Cowboys’ indoor practice facility is located. Landing with the Cowboys at pick No. 58 fills a need for Dallas. It has received inconsistent production from wideouts not named [autotag]CeeDee Lamb[/autotag]. While Lamb is having a career year, he’s doing it without much help on the other side of the field, and the Cowboys lack a speed element to their passing game. Lamb’s job would be even easier with a vertical threat that teams have to respect.

The Cowboys are currently panicking at the receiver position by adding T.Y. Hilton and continuing to flirt with Odell Beckham Jr. Drafting Marvin Mims in the second round of this NFL mock draft would address that need. – Justin Melo, The Draft Network

Mims has some juice and has shown proficiency over his three years at Oklahoma to take the tops off collegiate defenses. He’s led the Sooners in receiving each of the last three seasons and had his first 1,000-yard season in 2022.

If Mims declares for the draft, he’ll undoubtedly hear from the Cowboys front office, who hasn’t been shy about scouting Oklahoma players. Being from the Dallas area and playing high school games at The Star in Frisco, the Cowboys brass is no doubt familiar with the Sooners’ star wide receiver.

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‘He’s made up of all the right stuff’: Gavin Sawchuk electric in first extended action for Sooners

Getting his first extended opportunity of the season, true freshman running back Gavin Sawchuk impressed for the Oklahoma Sooners.

One of the more intriguing storylines in the buildup to the Oklahoma Sooners [autotag]Cheez-It Bowl[/autotag] matchup with the Florida State Seminoles was how the Sooners would handle their running back rotation without [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag].

Gray opted out, choosing to prepare for the 2023 NFL draft, and [autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag] was out, still nursing a leg injury that kept him out of action late in the regular season. That left [autotag]Jovantae Barnes[/autotag] as the only runner with significant experience on the depth chart.

But that also created an opportunity to see what fellow true freshman running back [autotag]Gavin Sawchuk[/autotag] brought to the table. The Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff took advantage of the Cheez-It Bowl stage to give the former two-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year action. And Sawchuk was a star.

Sawchuk carried the ball 15 times for 100 yards and caught one pass for eight yards, displaying great quickness, agility and speed. He didn’t look like a player with only two collegiate carries on his ledger coming into the game. He was physical and patient. His 15-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter helped Oklahoma take a 25-18 lead.

“He has a tremendous future,” head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] said after the loss. “He’s made up of the right stuff. Tremendous character, great work ethic, incredibly humble, intelligent, tough. It (would have) been easy for a guy like him to kind of check it in and not get better, but he showed up every day and got better all season long. (Dillon Gabriel and DaShaun White) would attest to that. He’s been a great teammate and he was ready for his opportunity when it presented itself. Really excited for him. Some of his production tonight, outstanding. He’s going to be a lot better going into next year because of it. Kind of like Jaleel (Farooq) in our bowl game a year ago.”

According to Pro Football Focus, Sawchuk averaged four yards per carry after contact in the game. He forced three missed tackles and had two runs of 15 yards or more in the contest, including the touchdown run.

Sawchuk and Barnes combined for 42 carries and 208 yards rushing. Barnes continued to show why he became the backup behind Eric Gray during the season with another strong performance. In his first extended action, Sawchuk was equally impressive. With the two-headed monster at running back, the Sooners have a fantastic 1-2 punch heading into 2023.

The speed that Sawchuk put on display in the Cheez-It Bowl will be a huge weapon for the Sooners in 2023. [autotag]Jeff Lebby[/autotag]’s going to have a great time imagining all the ways he can use his star running backs in the future.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today. You can also follow John on Twitter @john9williams.

5 takeaways from Oklahoma’s 35-32 loss to Florida State

Oklahoma loses a nail-biter to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl. Here are five takeaways from the game.

Oklahoma’s season ended on Thursday night with a 35-32 loss to the No. 13 Florida State Seminoles in the Cheez-It Bowl — yet another one-possession loss this season.

While the final result is far from desirable, the performance the Sooners put forth, given the circumstances, was very commendable.

The Sooners started fast, going up 14-3 in the second quarter. Their fast starts have been a consistent theme this season. The Seminoles responded with a strong second-half push. Oklahoma answered after falling behind 32-25 to give themselves a chance, but it couldn’t put anything together on its final drive as it tried to earn a last-second field goal try.

With the loss, Oklahoma finished under .500 for the first time since 1998. Here are five takeaways from the Sooners’ performance.