Tag: Las Vegas Bowl

CBS Sports includes Florida in bowl projections after LSU upset

With Florida just one win away from becoming bowl eligible, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has included the Gators in his latest bowl predictions update.

Florida’s path to a bowl game has been in doubt all season long, but an upset win over the LSU Tigers on Saturday has the Gators just one win away from securing bowl eligibility.

As a result, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has included the Orange and Blue in its post-Week 12 bowl predictions. Palm projects Florida to matchup with Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 27 at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Should that prediction come true, it would provide Billy Napier and the Gators a chance at redemption after falling, 30-3, against the Oregon State Beavers in the 2022 Las Vegas Bowl. Adam Mihalek’s fourth-quarter field goal kept Florida’s now 458-game scoring streak alive, but the rest of the game was a complete disappointment.

The Gators finished the 2023 season 5-7 and failed to reach bowl eligibility, so any postseason appearance would be a sign of improvement for Napier and Co. Of course, Florida must win one of its final two games against Ole Miss and Florida State to reach the six-win mark.

Florida is projected to beat a 1-9 Florida State team in the regular-season finale, especially with true freshman quarterback [autotag]DJ Lagway[/autotag] back in the fold.

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Jayden Daniels, who the Badgers defeated in 2021 Las Vegas Bowl, named Washington starting QB

Wisconsin has a history with Washington’s new starting QB

Former LSU and Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels was named the Washington Commanders’ starting quarterback on Monday.

The news comes as no surprise. Daniels excelled since the Commanders had selected him at No. 2 in the 2024 NFL draft.

Related: Every former Wisconsin Badger currently on an NFL roster entering 2024 training camp

We tend to make a Wisconsin connection to the big news of the day, which is why it’s time to revisit the time the Paul Chryst-led Badgers defeated Daniels, then at Arizona State, in the 2021 Las Vegas Bowl.

The game was the final one for the 2021 Wisconsin defense — one of the best in program history. It went out in style, holding the Sun Devils to 219 yards and 13 points.

Daniels, a future Heisman winner (2023, LSU) threw for 159 yards and an interception while adding 40 rushing yards.

Wisconsin iced the contest with a classic 10-minute, 0-point clock-killing drive late in the fourth quarter. It was one of the final wins of the Paul Chryst era, which then ended after a Week 4 loss to Illinois the following season.

In hindsight, the Badgers defeated one of the best quarterbacks in the sport. Daniels transferred to LSU before the 2022 season. His breakout 2023 campaign ended in a Heisman Trophy.

He is starting Week 1 for a Commanders team looking for a new direction under new head coach Dan Quinn. It’s safe to say Daniels has improved greatly since the meeting with the Badgers almost three years ago.

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What the experts are predicting: Sun Bowl

What’s your pick for this game?

Notre Dame and Oregon State will face each other in a Sun Bowl that already is giving a real boost to the economy of El Paso, Texas. The least these teams can do is give the locals a thriller in a sold-out stadium. With so many regulars on both sides missing, that might happen purely on accident. This will be a must-watch.

There are plentiful predictions for this game. Here are some of them:

Bryson Barnes and Utah offense get smothered in Las Vegas Bowl, score just 7 points

Utah’s season ended with a thud.

The Utah Utes were playing shorthanded all season long, primarily at quarterback. Cam Rising never took the field for Kyle Whittingham’s team, leaving Bryson Barnes and Nate Johnson — mostly Barnes — to handle the offense.

One of the things which attracted USC to new defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn is that when Lynn’s UCLA defense went up against Utah’s limited offense, Lynn pounced on the opportunity. UCLA’s defense allowed only seven points to Utah’s offense. Utah scored 14 points, but seven of them were on a pick-six thrown by quarterback Dante Moore, who has since transferred to the Oregon Ducks. That 14-7 Utah win over UCLA was a selling point for D’Anton Lynn.

Utah’s offense looked a lot like that UCLA game when it played the Las Vegas Bowl against Northwestern on Saturday night. Bryson Barnes and the Utes’ offense were smothered in this game. They didn’t score in the first three quarters and managed only one touchdown for the game. Utah’s defense was — as usual — excellent, limiting Northwestern to just 14 points.

Utah’s offense was not able to exceed that modest point total. Northwestern 14, Utah 7.

Utah will have Cam Rising for 2024 in the Big 12 Conference. USC will be glad to not face Rising ever again (unless the teams somehow meet in a 2024 bowl game).

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SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: How to watch Northwestern vs. Utah on TV or live stream

Northwestern will be the first Big Ten bowl team to play this bowl season. Here’s how to watch the Las Vegas Bowl on TV or live stream.

The bowl season may already be underway, but the Big Ten is ready to join the postseason fun on Saturday night. Northwestern, one of the more pleasant surprises in the conference this season, will open up bowl season for the Big Ten when it faces Utah in the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl in Allegiant Stadium. The Wildcats will be an underdog against the soon-to-be-former Pac-12 school (Utah is leaving for the Big 12 after this season), but Northwestern has been an underdog all season long, so why stop now?

Here is how you can watch Northwestern look to record the first Big Ten bowl victory of the year on Saturday night.

Fox Sports, CBS peg Trojans to Las Vegas Bowl vs Maryland

Vegas wouldn’t be that exciting in these circumstances.

The bowl projections are going to be busy in the week leading up to the conference title games. The USC Trojans will be relegated to a smaller game after a 7-5 season and a massive disappointment in Lincoln Riley’s second year with the school.

A couple of outlets had the Trojans slotted to face Maryland in the Las Vegas Bowl, with both Jerry Palm of CBS and Bryan Fischer of Fox Sports having the Trojans-Terrapins matchup.

What’s interesting here is that USC-Maryland would be a future Big Ten matchup with the Trojans heading to the conference in 2024 amid all the shuffling across college football.

Maryland finished the year 7-5 after the Terps defeated Rutgers on Saturday. Those expecting a star QB battle between Caleb Williams and Taulia Tagovailoa won’t likely see that, with Williams expected to sit out in preparation for the 2024 NFL draft.

The Trojans went from contending for the College Football Playoff and Pac-12 title game in October to likely a spot in either the Las Vegas Bowl or Sun Bowl.

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Badger Countdown: Former number 91 successful away from football

The start of the Badger football season is now only 91 days away and we continue our countdown to the opener Sept. 2 against Buffalo.

The start of the Badger football season is now only 91 days away and we continue our countdown to the opener Sept. 2 against Buffalo at Camp Randall. Bryson Williams wore number 91 with Wisconsin, wrapping up his four-year collegiate career with the team’s 2021 Las Vegas Bowl win over Arizona State.

Williams was an interior defensive lineman from 2018-2021, recording 27 career tackles and a pass deflection. What makes him special is his story off the field.

After he was rejected from the Business School as a sophomore, Williams had to buckled down in class and he was admitted on his second attempt. He didn’t just relish in his admittance, he secured an internship with Morgan Stanley, the American multinational investment bank and financial services company.

Although his football career didn’t continue past 2021, the Lincoln, Nebraska native was hired out of school by Morgan Stanley and moved out to New York City.

Part of the reason why Williams chose Madison was because of the excellent Business School and he certainly took advantage of the academic advantages that UW provides.

Florida’s Las Vegas Bowl one of the worst bowl games of 2022, per CBS Sports

The Las Vegas Bowl, which saw the Florida Gators lose to Oregon State, is towards the bottom of CBS Sports’ list of 2022 bowl games

With just the national championship hanging in the balance, CBS Sports has released its ranking of all 41 bowl games played this postseason. The SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl saw Florida fall to Oregon State, 30-3, with CBS Sports ranking it as the second-worst bowl game of the season.

The Gators were down over 20 players due to players opting out to prepare for the NFL draft or leaving the program via the transfer portal.

The first half saw the Gators put up a bit of a fight against the top-15 Beavers. Defensively, Florida held Oregon State to seven points in the first quarter, and a few big hits made waves on social media. The second quarter is when the wheels started to fall off, with the Gators recording just two yards of offense in the second quarter.

The second half was difficult to watch. After taking a 10-0 lead into the half, Oregon State put its foot on the gas. It scored two touchdowns in the third quarter and had its way with the Florida defense.

Offensively, Florida never jelled. Its three points came with less than a minute to play. If the Gators had been shut out, it would have been their first time since 1988. Their scoring streak extends to 436 consecutive games. The streak is the longest in NCAA history and 57 games longer than the closest team.

Here is what CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli had to say about the Las Vegas Bowl:

The saddest field goal of all time occurred in this game, but it didn’t do anything for its ranking. Florida came into the game with a streak of 436 consecutive games scoring points, not having been shut out since the 1998 season. It was the longest such streak in the nation — 57 games longer than any other program. It’s the kind of streak that only the team that holds it cares about, and darn it, Billy Napier was going to make sure the streak was extended.

That’s why he sent Adam Mihalek out with 37 seconds left to kick a 40-yard field goal to save his team from the embarrassment of losing 30-0. Losing 30-3 looks so much better! As for Oregon State, it was an emphatic statement to end a fantastic season that saw the Beavers win 10 games for the first time since 2006.

The fact that the majority of Fornelli’s analysis of the game was providing context to the only points the Orange and Blue scored was indicative of the game itself. The game also had the starkest difference between its pregame expectations and its actual production. Before the 2022 bowl season, the Las Vegas Bowl came in at No. 7 in CBS’s ranking of most anticipated 2022 bowl games.

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Here’s ESPN’s takeaway from Florida’s Las Vegas Bowl loss

Here’s ESPN’s takeaway from Saturday afternoon’s embarrassment.

Florida football took a beating on Saturday afternoon in the Las Vegas Bowl at the hands of the Oregon State Beavers, who nearly shut the Gators out for the first time since 1988. While the 30-3 final score was far more lopsided than most predicted, the outcome of this game could have been even worse.

Throughout the bowl season so far, ESPN’s staff updated its takeaway tracker following the conclusion of each postseason game. Writer Alex Scarborough offered his take on what the nation saw in Las Vegas between the Gators and Beavers on behalf of his crew, as noted below.

A week after signing a six-year deal worth $30.6 million, Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith led his team to a dominating triumph over Florida, securing the Beavers’ first 10-win season in 16 years and their first-ever victory against an SEC opponent. It was a balanced, all-round effort for Oregon State, which threw for 189 yards and rushed for 164 yards — 107 of which came from junior running back Deshaun Fenwick. The defense allowed only 1.2 yards per rush. A 40-yard field goal by [autotag]Adam Mihalek[/autotag] with less than a minute remaining avoided the shutout and extended the Gators’ streak of scoring in games to 436. — Scarborough

The loss sunk the program to its second-straight sub-.500 finish for the first time since the 1978 and 1979 seasons — the latter being the Swamp’s nadir following a 0-10-1 campaign in head coach Charlie Pell’s first season. The good news, based on that historical trend, is that brighter days are ahead in Gainesville… or at least, they should be.

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Pac-12 Bowl Report: Oregon State walks all over Florida in Las Vegas

The Oregon State Beavers crushed the Florida Gators in the Las Vegas Bowl. It was a sweet moment for Jonathan Smith and the rest of the Pac-12.

The first day of bowl games for the Pac-12 provided two games which were complete opposites. Washington State scored just six points in a loss to Fresno State in the L.A. Bowl. However, on the other side of the coin, the Oregon State Beavers marched into Sin City and handled the Florida Gators, who were without star QB Anthony Richardson, in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Pac-12 Co-Coach of the Year Jonathan Smith finished a magnificent season with a 30-3 victory on Saturday.

The Gators’ only points came on a field goal with less than one minute left in the game as the Beavers dominated from start to finish.

Beaver QB Ben Gulbranson was named the MVP of the game after going 12-19 for 165 yards and a score and adding another touchdown on the ground. Gulbranson looked like a competent passer after struggling markedly as a downfield thrower for much of the Pac-12 season, including the regular season-ending 38-34 win over Oregon in which the Beavers’ last four touchdowns came without a single completed pass on any of those scoring drives. This day against Florida was different.

Do-it-all player Jack Colletto also did his usual business in his best effort to replicate Tayson Hill for Oregon State.

The Beavers rushed for three touchdowns on the game in another superb effort and finished the year 10-3, including a four-game winning streak and a victory against Oregon in the Civil War game to put a giant exclamation point on the season.

Gators QB Jack Miller III went just 13-22 for 180 yards in his debut, and the loss of future NFL QB Anthony Richardson was more evident than ever before as Billy Napier’s team fell to 6-7 on the season.

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