FROM THE PRESS BOX / By JOE HALE | Weekend bowl games were good, bad, sometimes ugly, but it all builds to the title
No, honestly, I don’t have a hangover watching most of the eight bowl games, beginning Friday morning in the run-up to the College Football Playoff semifinals this afternoon.
With next season’s expanded playoff format, I wonder what happens to all these bowl games? Maybe you cut back, but I wouldn’t want to do away with all of them. Before the Name-Image-Licensing (NIL) and all this opting out for the NFL Draft, playing in a bowl game was a reward for players, their families and fans.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney talked prior to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl about not selling this year’s Tigers short because he knew in his heart of hearts his team that rallied to beat Kentucky, of the Southeastern Conference, 38-35 for its 9th win of the season, could finish strong.
This was one of the best games of the bowl season with 42 points scored, five turnovers and five lead changes in the fourth quarter alone. The final touchdown wasn’t scored until 17 seconds were left to play.
Certainly not the Clemson teams that won the 2016 National Championship with Deshaun Watson at quarterback or the 2018 crown with Trevor Lawrence, but not bad for a team that started the season 4-4.
Granted I was a little disappointed in the Good Year Cotton Bowl, not that Mizzou won 14-3 over THE Ohio State, but that it was all but scoreless until the fourth quarter. ‘Nuff on that, since we had a crew there covering the contest.
The Peach started us off on Saturday, matching a couple of 10-win opponents, the SEC’s Ole Miss and the Big Ten’s Penn State. Lane Kiffin’s Rebels recorded their first 11-win season-ever with a 13-point win, 38-25. The Nittany Lions have finished third behind Michigan and Ohio State the last twoseasons in the Big Ten. With a new membership role next season, including newbies USC and UCLA, among others, in the conference, Penn State coach James Franklin has questions to answer.
First two out: Despite everything the Seminoles, their fans and some Florida politicians wanted us to believe, Florida State and Georgia in the Orange Bowl wouldn’t to be pretty or competitive.
And, it wasn’t. With some of your gullible fans believing the unfathomable idea the Associated Press could even consider splitting this year’s National Championship between your ‘Noles, if they somehow beat Georgia, with the CFP winner on Jan. 8.
Spin that however you like coach Norvell. Cherish the fact Florida State had a great season and won the Atlantic Coast Conference. Injuries to key players and subsequent opt outs would hurt any team.
The group of Georgia seniors that hung around to play won for the 50th time. That’s a record. So is the final score (63-3), eclipsing last year’s winning margin over TCU (65-7) in the finals. And the 673 yards of total offense. It could’ve been worse, but Kirby Smart was clearing his bench from early-on all the way through.
Like it or not, the CFP committee’s selection was correct.
Although I didn’t see it, the Toledo-Wyoming game in the Arizona Bowl it must have been good with Wyoming coming-from-behind to secure its 9th win of the season, 16-15.
Today, LSU and Wisconsin on ESPN2 at 11 a.m. in the ReliaQuest Bowl, Iowa and Tennessee at noon on ABC in the Citrus Bowl and unbeaten Liberty and Oregon at noon in the Fiesta Bowl on ESPN should whet your NYD2024 appetite for the CFP Semifinals: Beginning at 4 p.m. with No. 1 Michigan and No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl, followed by No. 2 Washington and No. 3 Texas in the Sugar Bowl at 7:45. I believe both will be good games. I certainly hope so. My picks: Roll Tide and Hook ‘Em Horns.
Follow Joe on Twitter/X: @joeyballgamejh
Members of the Texas Longhorns run onto the field prior to the Big 12 Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Longhorns meet Washington Monday night at 7:45 p.m. at Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, La., the second of two College Football Playoff semifinal games tonight on ESPN. No. 1 Michigan faces No. 2 Alabama in the first semifinal in the Rose Bowl, at 4 p.m. (File photo by ALEX NABOR – ETBLITZ.COM)