Takeaways from the first day of college football bowl season

Saturday marked the first day of the postseason with five bowl games. Here are our takeaways from those games and what they may mean for the programs involved moving forward.

By Sam Cooper and Nick Bromberg

Year 1 of Arizona State’s ‘New Leadership Model’

After winning seven games last fall, Arizona State made the decision to fire Todd Graham. ASU won 28 games in Graham’s first three seasons as head coach, but went 6-7, 5-7 and 7-6 in the subsequent three seasons.

“Our athletic department, university and community expect our football program to compete on the field for Pac-12 titles and qualify to participate in major bowl games on a regular basis. In evaluating Todd’s body of work over a four-year period, it became clear that a change is necessary,” ASU athletic director Ray Anderson said.

To move on from Graham, the school paid his $12 million buyout and Anderson — out of seemingly nowhere — hired Herm Edwards as Graham’s successor. In hiring Edwards, who hadn’t coached since being fired by the Kansas City Chiefs after the 2008 season, Anderson touted a “New Leadership Model” where Edwards would essentially serve as a “CEO” and “central leader” of ASU football. Most observers of the sport were, to put it lightly, skeptical of the move.

After Saturday’s 31-20 loss to Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl, the first year of the “New Leadership Model” ended with the same record as Graham’s final season: 7-6.

It’d be shortsighted to write off the Edwards hire after one season. It takes time for a new coach to put an imprint on the program. But with quarterback Manny Wilkins graduating and star receiver N’Keal Harry moving on to the NFL, it’s hard not to wonder if things could start to trend downward in a hurry.

In appreciation of Jeff Tedford and Fresno State

It’s hard to overstate how good of a job Jeff Tedford has done at Fresno State. When he arrived two seasons ago, the Bulldogs had just endured a 1-11 season. In the two seasons since, the Bulldogs have gone 22-6, including two bowl games and the Mountain West title.

The second of those two bowl wins came Saturday, with the Bulldogs beating Arizona State 31-20 in the Las Vegas Bowl. A 70-yard pick six by Anthoula Kelly was the highlight of the first half for Fresno. In the second half, Ronnie Rivers took over with two touchdown runs, including a 68-yard burst. Rivers finished the game with 212 yards to earn MVP honors.

The win was Fresno’s 12th of the season, a program record.

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Tulane’s first bowl win since 2002

Back in October, things weren’t looking good for Willie Fritz and Tulane. After a 27-23 loss to SMU on Oct. 20, the Green Wave dropped to 2-5 on the year and looked well on their way to another losing season — the 15th in the last 16 seasons.

But things turned around. From there, Tulane won four of its final five games to clinch bowl eligibility before capping off that turnaround with Saturday’s 41-24 triumph over Louisiana in the Cure Bowl. The win marked Tulane’s first bowl victory and second winning season since 2002, giving Fritz some much-needed positive vibes headed into the offseason.

A big part of Tulane’s second-half surge was Fritz’s decision to put Justin McMillan, a graduate transfer from LSU, into the starting lineup at quarterback. McMillan, who will be back next season, completed 11-of-18 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 72 yards and another score. To put the game out of reach, McMillan converted two pivotal fourth downs in the final minutes, including a 16-yard touchdown run.

Georgia Southern goes from 10 losses to 10 wins

Tyler Bass drilled a 40-yard field goal as time expired to give Georgia Southern a 23-21 Camellia Bowl win over Eastern Michigan.

Georgia Southern got the ball for a final possession after EMU took a 21-20 lead after a fourth-quarter touchdown. QB Shai Werts converted a huge fourth down with a fantastic run, but the decision to put the game in Bass’ hands coud have easily been second-guessed. Georgia Southern let 30 seconds run off the clock before calling timeout to set up Bass’ field goal attempt.

Bass is the best kicker in the Sun Belt and had made 18-of-20 field goal attempts before the game winner. But no matter how good your kicker is, playing for a field goal of that length in college football is always a tad risky.

Georgia Southern was 2-10 in 2017 and hired Chad Lunsford as the team’s permanent head coach. Lunsford led a crazy turnaround as the Eagles finish the season 10-3. It’s the same type of turnaround Fresno State had from 2016 (1-11) to 2017 (10-4).

Lunsford’s celebration after the game was incredible.

Utah State dominates with a short-handed staff

Utah State trounced North Texas in the New Mexico Bowl, 52-13, tying a school record with 11 wins on the year. And the Aggies did so without the majority of their coaching staff.

Matt Wells, USU’s head coach the past six seasons, left the program for Texas Tech, taking much of his staff with him. That left assistant Frank Maile as the interim head coach — one of apparently just four full-time coaches who remained with the Aggies on Saturday. One coach who was on hand was offensive coordinator David Yost.

Yost has already signed on to join Wells with the Red Raiders, but called the game for USU one last time on Saturday. Texas Tech fans had to be impressed with what they saw as Yost’s offense scored more than 50 points for the seventh time this season.

North Texas’ rough day

The New Mexico Bowl was expected to be one of the more competitive games of the early bowls, but an injury to North Texas quarterback Mason Fine changed things. Fine appeared to pull his hamstring while running the football in the first quarter. He tried to return to action, but was too hobbled to continue.

That sent UNT head coach Seth Littrell into scramble mode, looking for any quarterback to run the offense. In all, four quarterbacks attempted a pass for the Mean Green. Combined, they completed just 17-of-34 throws for 193 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions.

It was a rough afternoon for North Texas, a team that was hoping to reach the 10-win mark for the first time in program history. Though it was an unfortunate way to end the season, Littrell, after being courted by Kansas State, will return in 2019. Fine, who admitted to pondering a graduate transfer, will be back for his senior season.

No coach, no problem at Appalachian State

App State’s post-Scott Satterfield era was a rousing success. The Mountaineers demolished Middle Tennessee State 45-13 to win the New Orleans Bowl.

The Mountaineers finish the season at 11-3 and will be led by NC State OC Eliah Drinkwitz in 2019 as Satterfield is now Louisville’s head coach.

Middle Tennessee led the game 3-0 after the first quarter but App State exploded for 24 points in the second and a 24-6 halftime lead. The blowout continued into the third quarter as the fourth quarter was simply a formality of running out the clock. The team’s first punt came with 3:03 left in the final quarter and it was a 60-yard bomb that was downed at the Middle Tennessee State one-yard-line.

Eastern Michigan still searching for first bowl win since 1987

EMU is now 1-3 in bowl games after losing to Georgia Southern. The school’s lone bowl win came in the 1987 California Bowl when EMU beat San Jose State 30-27.

Saturday’s Camellia Bowl is also a first — that we could find anyway. Both schools are nicknamed Eagles and we could not find another bowl matchup between two teams nicknamed Eagles. If you find something that we missed, please let us know.

A positive first year for Billy Napier at Louisiana

Not much was expected from Louisiana in Billy Napier’s first year. The Ragin’ Cajuns were picked to finish fourth in the Sun Belt West in the conference preseason poll. Instead, ULL won its final three regular season games to clinch bowl eligibility and win the division.

The Ragin’ Cajuns lost to Appalachian State in the Sun Belt title game before losing to Tulane on Saturday, so the season didn’t end the way they wanted it to. But this was certainly a positive debut for Napier, who was hired to replace Mark Hudspeth after stints as an assistant at Alabama and Arizona State.

With the Sun Belt’s top recruiting class set to sign next week, things are looking good in Lafayette.

FCS final set: It’s North Dakota State vs. Eastern Washington

North Dakota State beat South Dakota State on Friday night and Eastern Washington blew out Maine on Saturday to set up the FCS title game on Jan. 5. The game will be NDSU coach Chris Klieman’s final game with the team before he becomes Kansas State’s head coach. NDSU announced earlier in the week that defensive coordinator Matt Entz would take over after Klieman.

The Bison are going for a seventh title in eight seasons. Eastern Washington won the FCS title in 2010, the season before North Dakota State started its crazy run.

Elsewhere in college football, Valdosta State beat Ferris State for the Division II title, Mary Hardin-Baylor won the Division III title and Morningside won the NAIA title game.

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