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Let’s track postseason standouts on both ends of the spectrum.
We’re in the thick of college football’s bowl season. The slate of 40 FBS games got underway Dec. 15, and the sport’s lower-division playoffs are all done or nearly done.
This post is a running collection of who’s made out well and who hasn’t. Every game has a winner and a loser, so consider this a compilation of extra special winners and losers.
Loser: The Pac-12
The worst Power 5 conference missed the Playoff for the third time in the five-year history of the event. Then it began its underwhelming bowl schedule with Arizona State losing (and losing unimpressively) to the Mountain West’s Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Fresno comfortably covered a 6-point spread despite having a near-touchdown turn into a touchback when a fumble at the pylon went through the end zone. The Sun Devils did not seriously threaten to win. It’s the second year in a row the Pac-12’s lost in Vegas, after Oregon fell to Boise State in 2017, both times by double digits.
Winner: The Mountain West
In addition to Fresno State cruising past Arizona State, Utah State put an absolute whomping on North Texas at the New Mexico Bowl. The Aggies won 52-13 for their 11th win of 2018, equaling their best win total in history. They set that in 2012 under Gary Andersen, who’ll be their head coach again in 2019, now that Matt Wells is at Texas Tech. Boise State’s still on the board with a great chance to beat the ACC’s Boston College in the First Responder Bowl. So it’s shaping up like a really smooth bowl slate for the MWC.
Loser: North Texas
UNT quarterback Mason Fine getting hurt against Utah State was a big shame. His teammates weren’t able to keep things close without him. What we’d pegged as one of the best matchups of bowl season turned into a rout. The good news, though: UNT head coach Seth Littrell surprised a bunch of people by not leaving for Kansas State, Texas Tech, or any other open coaching job. The Mean Green should be a Conference USA contender in 2019.
Winner: North Carolina A&T
A&T beat Alcorn State in the Celebration Bowl to win HBCU football’s national title, 24-22. That makes three in four years (and in the Celebration Bowl’s history) for the Aggies, who have beaten up on the MEAC and SWAC and started this season by topping FBS East Carolina in Greenville. The team’s lost two games in two years. Rod Broadway built the Aggies up before retiring after 2017’s Celebration Bowl win, and first-year successor Sam Washington is now one-for-one.
Winner: Valdosta State
The Blazers won Division II’s national title — their fourth ever, also their fourth since 2004, and first since 2012— by surviving Ferris State in a truly wild championship game. QB Rogan Wells threw for five touchdowns in the title game and caught another, setting that game’s record for touchdowns responsible-for. VSU finished a sterling 14-0.
Loser: South Dakota State
The poor Jackrabbits have the misfortune of being rivals with North Dakota State. They’ve been unable to get over the NDSU hump for years, as their northern neighbors have become the most dominant program in the country at any level. The Bison blew them out in an FCS playoff semifinal in Fargo to continue both teams’ trends.
Winner: FCS call-ups
- Georgia Southern completed one of the year’s best turnarounds by beating Eastern Michigan on a 40-yard field goal at the buzzer of the Camellia Bowl. The Eagles’ 10 wins are their most since they made the jump to FBS in 2014, and they come a year after the program cratered to 2-10. Things started to turn around midseason last year, when Chad Lunsford took over for the fired Tyson Summers and went 2-4 after an 0-6 start. Now? GaSo looks as good as ever. When the Eagles are running the option, they’re good.
- Appalachian State won impressively against Middle Tennessee at the New Orleans Bowl. The Mountaineers, who have hovered around the top 15 for most of the year in S&P+, are just really good. The Sun Belt champs showed out and did their conference proud, and they did it in their first game without Scott Satterfield, their coach who left for Louisville. Satterfield had transitioned the Mountaineers, like GaSo, from FCS blue-blood status to FBS startup. Things seem even better at App right now than they do at Southern.
- So, hey, let’s count the Louisville as a winner in this group. The Satterfield hire already looked good, but it looks better now that App State’s had a good bowl and Mountaineer defensive coordinator Bryan Brown’s agreed to join Satterfield in Louisville. Meanwhile, there’s no reason new App coach Eliah Drinkwitz can’t win right away there.
- Cheers to Kansas State, too, in a similar vein. The Wildcats’ new coach, outgoing NDSU boss Chris Klieman, is on to another FCS final. The drawback there is that K-State needs to sign some recruits. On another hand, it’s good to hire championship coaches.
Winner: Mary Hardin-Baylor
The Cru beat Mount Union (the closest thing Division III has to its own North Dakota State) in a dramatic Stagg Bowl. UMHB’s now won two national titles in three years. That’s a hell of a thing for any program at any level, but it’s especiallycool given this one’s newness. The school’s only been playing football for 21 years, starting in 1998. It was a playoff team by 2001, a regular contender after that, and now the best DIII team of the last three years.
Winner: Tulane
The Green Wave hadn’t won a bowl since 2002. They hadn’t been in a bowl since 2013. They were 5-6 entering a Week 13 game against Navy, and they put their bowl eligibility on the line when they went for a 2-point conversion with 1:27 left in a 1-point game there. They got it and won, and then they went to the Cure Bowl and beat UL Lafayette by 17. Willie Fritz has gradually built the Wave up and now has some postseason success to show for it.