Tag: Holiday Bowl

Lincoln Riley confirms that Caleb Williams won’t play in Holiday Bowl, Miller Moss gets his turn

The news is now official.

So there you have it. The word has come down. The reality is now official, and no longer a matter of presumption or speculation. Caleb Williams, the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner and the likely top pick in the 2024 NFL draft, will not play for the USC Trojans in the 2023 Holiday Bowl against Louisville. Lincoln Riley confirmed as much on Monday morning.

This likely brings Williams’ USC and collegiate playing career to an end. While Williams has not yet declared for the 2024 NFL draft, it seems like a foregone conclusion that he will. The NFL scouting combine is not that far away. Given that the Holiday Bowl is not a New Year’s Six bowl and does not have especially high stakes, it is entirely unsurprising that Caleb won’t play. The decision also opens the door for Miller Moss to get the starting assignment, and for Malachi Nelson to also get some work heading into 2024.

Lincoln Riley has visited transfer portal quarterback Will Howard — formerly of Kansas State — in recent days. Riley needs to see if Moss and Nelson can be legitimate QB1 options, or if a portal quarterback is needed for the USC quarterback room in 2024, as the Trojans move into the Big Ten.

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Lincoln Riley and Jeff Brohm carved out very different paths at USC and Louisville

It is noticeable how different Lincoln Riley and Jeff Brohm have been at their current schools.

The fact that the USC Trojans are facing the Louisville Cardinals in the Holiday Bowl gives us the chance to study both Lincoln Riley and Jeff Brohm, the two head coaches in this game.

More precisely, USC-Louisville enables us to look at the coaches together and consider how they are the same and yet how they are also very different.

Their similarities jump off the page. They are brilliant play designers. They really pay attention to the details of creating an offense and prying open opportunities for receivers and running backs. You won’t find many play-callers better than these two men.

Yet, we also have to notice how different these coaches are — not in terms of personality or temperament, but in terms of the paths they have followed and the way their current tenures have developed at USC and Louisville.

Lincoln Riley did briefly spend time as an assistant at East Carolina, but for the most part, he has coached Cadillac programs: Oklahoma, then USC.

Jeff Brohm has coached Volkswagen programs, economy cars called Purdue and now Louisville. These coaches have lived on different sides of the tracks in terms of prestige, national reputation, and resources.

Within that difference, there’s another specific difference between the two: Lincoln Riley’s successful first season at USC was based on offense and, more specifically, having an elite quarterback, Caleb Williams. Riley couldn’t have done anything in 2022 at USC if Caleb or another elite transfer quarterback hadn’t come to Los Angeles.

Jeff Brohm, despite being an offense-first coach like Riley, won at Louisville in his first season (this season) with a strong defense. Louisville’s defense was exceptionally good in first and fourth quarters this season. It gave UL leads (with the exception of the Pittsburgh loss) and protected them (with the exception of the Kentucky loss). The defense did what it reasonably could against Florida State in the ACC Championship Game but got no help from Brohm’s offense.

Brohm was a magician in getting 10 wins out of this Louisville team. Jack Plummer, the mediocre quarterback who transferred from Cal to UL, held the Cardinals back at times. The defense was good enough to overcome that limitation.

It’s notable that Riley needs what Brohm has — a defense — and Brohm needs what Riley has had, a top quarterback.

Imagine Riley having Louisville’s defense this year. Imagine Brohm having Caleb Williams in any year.

Both coaches will have a lot to talk about in San Diego at Holiday Bowl media events.

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Jeff Brohm vs Lincoln Riley is a matchup of elite play designers in Holiday Bowl

If you love Xs and Os, you’ll love the Holiday Bowl.

The Holiday Bowl is not a high-stakes game. USC is ending a failed season. Louisville has already overachieved but missed out on both an ACC championship and a New Year’s Six bowl invitation due to the highly controversial snub of Florida State from the College Football Playoff.

If one team wins, it’s a moderately satisfying conclusion to the season, but a loss will not sting either program. The focus in many ways is already on 2024 for both the Trojans and Cardinals. What, you might ask, really matters in this game?

For USC, what counts is getting the quarterbacks some work with Caleb Williams likely to sit out. For Louisville, the developmental process for 2024 is also important.

Given that this game is not make-or-break in any larger sense for these two schools, why should you tune in to watch? The best answer: Two of the five or six best play-designers in college football will both be in this game.

Lincoln Riley and Jeff Brohm, the head coaches and offensive masterminds in this matchup, are simply elite play-designers. They draw up amazing plays with intricate components and wrinkles. Watching these men operate at the height of their powers — when Riley guided Oklahoma to the College Football Playoff, and when Brohm orchestrated upsets of top-five teams while he was at Purdue — is a profoundly enjoyable experience for the football connoisseur.

Riley versus Brohm is the best reason to watch this game. If D’Anton Lynn is actively coaching the USC defense, that might be the other top-tier reason to watch on December 27.

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Holiday Bowl will reunite USC with a former Pac-12 quarterback

Jack Plummer meets USC again.

The wait is over. USC knows its bowl destination and opponent. The Trojans are heading to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl against Louisville. USC gets to play a 10-win team which reached its conference title game. Louisville made the ACC Championship Game before losing to unbeaten Florida State. The Cardinals finished their regular season 10-3. They were 10-1 before losing to Kentucky and then Florida State.

Louisville’s quarterback is Jack Plummer. He faced USC last year when he was with the Cal Golden Bears.

We remember it well:

“It did come as a surprise that the Trojans made California Golden Bear quarterback Jack Plummer look like Aaron Rodgers for much of the game, especially the fourth quarter.

“It did come as a shock that Cal’s bad offensive line and generally unreliable offense were able to move the ball so easily against the Trojans.”

USC’s defense was coached for most of the 2023 season by Alex Grinch, but we will see if new coordinator D’Anton Lynn is actively involved in the Holiday Bowl defensive game-planning process. The more Lynn is involved, the less likely it is that Plummer will repeat his 2022 performance against USC.

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USC to the Holiday Bowl against Louisville

USC won’t have to travel to El Paso or Las Vegas. The Trojans stay closer to home in San Diego.

The USC Trojans will play in the 2023 Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The Trojans will face the Louisville Cardinals, who lost to Florida State in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday night and won 10 games this season. Louisville coach Jeff Brohm did a brilliant job in Year 1, winning big despite having Jack Plummer at quarterback.

The game will be played on Wednesday, December 27, just after 5 p.m. local time in Southern California. The game will be televised by Fox Sports.

The announcement of USC’s opponent was supposed to happen earlier on Sunday afternoon, but it was delayed due to an ACC bowl scramble. The ACC was counting on Florida State making the College Football Playoff. When FSU was controversially snubbed, Louisville — which expected to make the Orange Bowl — had to look for another bowl slot, and the ACC’s whole bowl structure was basically blown up. A reset occurred in which ACC tie-in bowls had to reorganize.

USC’s bowl game will be important for two main reasons: Getting quarterbacks Miller Moss and Malachi Nelson some work, and giving new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn a live look at his defensive personnel.

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USC-Clemson Holiday Bowl emerges as possible postseason scenario for Trojans

This would be incredible!

The USC Trojans did not have a good regular season. Bowl projections have put USC in the Sun or Las Vegas Bowls, but now a third destination has emerged, and it is a lot better than the other two.

It isn’t a New Year’s Six bowl, and it won’t make the season any better, but it would represent a more interesting bowl scenario than Vegas or El Paso.

The Athletic thinks a USC-Clemson Holiday Bowl is a distinct possibility. Lincoln Riley versus Dabo Swinney would be quite a coaching matchup. USC versus Clemson would be a high-profile game as well.

Here’s the best part, however: If USC does face Clemson in a bowl game, Lincoln Riley would be coaching against his brother, Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley.

Remember: One year ago, there was a possibility that USC and TCU would meet in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The Riley brothers could have met then.

Maybe they will meet this December. This would be something.

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USC will need to win the Pac-12 title to avoid the Holiday or Alamo Bowl

Playing in the Holiday Bowl would be a disaster for USC. Avoiding that means winning the Pac-12. Time for guys to step up.

Don’t get me wrong: The Holiday Bowl is a great bowl. It is one of the most fun, entertaining, and historically important non-January bowl games in college football.

It’s a game meant for BYU, however, not USC.

It’s a game meant for Arizona or San Diego State or Oklahoma State, not USC.

The Trojans are looking at the Holiday or Alamo Bowl right now. How do they change that? They have to win the Pac-12 championship and get a New Year’s Six bowl as a result.

If USC loses to Washington and Oregon, it will miss the Pac-12 title game and finish no better than 9-3. That’s an automatic Holiday or Alamo resume.

If USC makes the Pac-12 Championship Game with a 10-2 record but then loses, it would be 10-3. That’s not going to get a New Year’s Six at-large bid. Holiday or Alamo would be the destination.

USC has to win the Pac-12 to get a New Year’s Six bowl. NY6 bowls matter to other top programs.

Fighting Irish Wire editor Nick Shepkowski said this about Notre Dame’s bowl destination this season:

“The Louisville game will be a pain regardless of how things go from here out, but as a longtime college football fan and observer, a 10-win regular season still means something to me. So does making a New Year’s Six bowl.  Winning one would be especially big, seeing as Notre Dame hasn’t since January of 1994.”

If USC wants to avoid the Holiday or Alamo Bowl, it’s time for guys to step up and show they really care.

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Follow Fighting Irish Wire for more on Notre Dame after the Irish beat USC.

Follow Buffaloes Wire for complete coverage of Deion Sanders and Colorado.

Follow Ducks Wire for coverage of Oregon football after the loss to Washington.

Oklahoma fans were right about Lincoln Riley, at least for this specific season.

USC assistants need to be coaching for their jobs against Utah and into November.

Lincoln Riley did not assemble an elite 2023 roster, which surprised us and a lot of other observers.

Is USC ready to win in 2024 with Miller Moss or Malachi Nelson at quarterback? Lincoln Riley has to be honest about how he answers that question.

Brent Venables is coaching Oklahoma far better this year than Lincoln Riley is coaching USC. It’s up to Riley to change that reality against Utah.

Notre Dame football: Another way-too-early, but fun bowl projection

An opponent Notre Dame has never beat…

Notre Dame’s 2023 season could go a variety of ways.

Perhaps Sam Hartman exceeds the hype, the offense goes wild and defense is better than assumed, and the Irish win 11 games and end up in the College Football Playoff.

Or perhaps things don’t go as planned and six or seven wins becomes the reality – and Tyrone Willingham memories will be come to mind.

Or maybe there is a middle ground that sees the Irish short of the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six but still having won nine games or so.  If that’s the case where would Notre Dame end up?

Athlon Sports released their college football preview magazine and in it they had Notre Dame going 9-3.  The bowl game they have the Irish headed to?

The Holiday Bowl in San Diego to take on Oregon State.

Notre Dame checked in 14th in the Athlon Sports preview rankings while Oregon State was No. 19.  See the full rankings 1-40 here.

Oregon State won both games against Notre Dame – the 2001 Fiesta Bowl in blowout fashion and the 2004 Insight Bowl where the Irish were playing following the firing of Tyrone Willingham.  Neither was particularly competitive.

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Holiday Bowl files lawsuit against UCLA and Pac-12 for 2021 cancellation

UCLA pulled out of the 2021 Holiday Bowl in Petco Park at the last minute vs NC State. That’s what this is about.

UCLA is moving to the Big Ten, but the Bruins have one more Pac-12 headache to deal with, and it’s also something the Pac-12 itself will have to deal with.

The Holiday Bowl is reportedly suing UCLA and the Pac-12 for the cancellation of the 2021 Holiday Bowl at Petco Park in San Diego. That was the game in which UCLA came to San Diego but then pulled out of the game at the last minute due to COVID-19 roster concerns. The Holiday Bowl is seeking $3 million in damages for lost revenue.

Notably, the Holiday Bowl has not yet paid Oregon for its appearance as the Pac-12 representative in the 2022 Holiday Bowl game in San Diego versus North Carolina. That has been a point of contention between the Pac-12 and the Holiday Bowl. This move by the Holiday Bowl deepens the divide between the bowl and the Pac-12.

All of this is happening while the Pac-12 scrambles to find a media rights deal which will provide enough revenue for its members to stay and not bolt for other conferences.

It is never dull in the Pac-12, but beyond that point, the Pac-12 continues to face obstacles which stand in the way of long-term stability. One wonders what San Diego State, for instance, thinks about this Holiday Bowl story.

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Bowl game projections for each Pac-12 team after spring ball

Even though there are 4 months before the college football season, it’s never too early to look at what Pac-12 bowl game matchups could look like.

Now that spring football is over, we have a better idea of what each college football team will look like next season. While there are still 4 months before the first game is played, the college football world is making plenty of predictions about how the next season will end up.

Earlier this week, 247Sports released its predictions for every 2023 bowl matchup. In the Pac-12, they project eight teams to make it to a bowl game, and of those eight, USC and Washington are expected to play in New Year’s Six games.

The Pac-12 is slated to be an offensive powerhouse next season, although many of the top teams have burgeoning defensive units as well. With several top QBs in the conference, much of that offense will come in the air, which should make for exciting interconference play all season.

This year will be USC and UCLA’s last as members of the Pac-12, and it could be one of the most competitive seasons the Pac-12 has seen in a while. There are four or five teams that could wind up as conference champions, and whichever team does, could find itself in the College Football Playoff.

Below are the bowl projections for each Pac-12 team.