SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
For those following the college football bowl games, Georgia wasn’t exactly on their minds no matter how the late Ray Charles sang it. No, it was a menu that highlighted the likes of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Notre Dame, and with the spotlight also featuring red-hot, 6th-ranked Oklahoma, 5th-ranked Texas A & M and its failure to land among the top four in the playoffs, and 7th-ranked Cincinnati among the few left with unblemished records.
No Georgia, except for a quick check of results already in. After the 11th-ranked Bulldogs put an end to Cincinnati’s unbeaten record, 24-21, on a late 37-yard field goal New Year’s Day at the Peach Bowl in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the state could now boast of going perfecto as unranked Georgia Southern first stomped on Louisiana Tech, 38-3, at the New Orleans Bowl played in the Superdome, and Georgia State followed by trouncing Western Kentucky, 39-21, in the Lending Tree Bowl contested in Mobile, Ala.
Three games, three wins, with no other state winning more than once. Georgia Southern, which finished fourth in the underrated Sun Belt Conference, concluded at 5-5 and handed Louisiana Tech (5-5) its initial loss in its last four bowl games. Georgia State finished at 6-4 for its best mark in five years, and left Western Kentucky at 5-5. And the Southeastern Conference Bulldogs went 9-2 and left only Alabama and Ohio State undefeated while dropping Cincinnati to 9-1.
Only the W mattered, with all three Georgia schools coming in as underdogs and outscoring their opponents 101-45. and In the more key tilt between the Bulldogs and Bearcats, a tough tussle was won via Jack Podlesny’s season-best field goal. Georgia fought back after trailing 21-10 in the fourth quarter. Its defense clamped down on Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder and its own QB JT Daniels helped rally his side and finished with 392 yards through the air.
Podlesny’s field goal that sailed right through the uprights brought a 22-21 lead, and Ridder was sacked by Azeez Ojulari, for a safety on the final play and brought the celebration before a limited COVID-19 turnout. For Ojulari, it was his third sack of the contest and Georgia set a program record with eight sacks that slowed down the usual Bearcats offensive machine. Ridder did complete 24 of 37 passes for 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and Jerome Ford added a career-long 79-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, but neither team could take command.
Cincinnati was motivated to use the Peach Bowl to gain national respect, and had hoped to gain the Final Four and be judged evenly with power 5 teams in the future. But Georgia spoiled this despite rushing for only 45 yards. Ridder threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Alec Pierce in the first quarter and added an 11-yard scoring throw to Josh Wyle just before halftime. Daniels, in turn, was good for 181 passing yards on 27 for 42 attempts, ran for one short touchdown and passed for another.
In the CFP semifinals, a grand total of 124 points were manufactured. Both games were close for awhile but turned into routes when first Alabama triumphed 33-14 and Ohio State followed by rolling past stunned Clemson, which won last year’s test between the two, 49-28. The Crimson Tide (11-0) mixed its usual high-scoring offense and potent defense to handle the challenge of 19 and one-half point underdog Fighting Irish (9-2), and the Buckeyes, which won all of their six outings, was a 5-point underdog that gained a school-record six touchdown passes and one run into the end zone from quarterback Justin Fields.
The previous day, Oklahoma 9-2) won its eighth in a row by rattling the 10th-ranked Florida Gators in a 55-20 record final that was the third setback in the last four starts for Gator Land, and it finished at 7-4 with other losses to LSU, Alabama and 6th-ranked Texas A & M. The Sooners were unranked after losing back-to-back early games to Iowa State and Kansas State, then became No. 22 and just continued to move up the charts. Now they will see where they wind up in the final national polls.
The Big 12 also won behind 20th-ranked Texas’ 55-23 rout over Colorado in the Alamo Bowl played in San Antonio, Tex., 21st-ranked Oklahoma State getting past No. 18 Miami, 37-34, and West Virginia’s 24-20 late win over Army in the Liberty Bowl played in Memphis, Tenn.
Today, 9th-ranked Iowa State of the Big 12 takes on 25th-ranked Oregon of the PAC12 in the Fiesta Bowl, No. 7 Indiana of the Big 10 against the SEC’s Mississippi in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., No. 5 Texas A & M of the SEC versus No. 14 North Carolina of the Atlantic Coast Conference at the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, and 24th-ranked North Carolina State of the ACC versus Kentucky of the SEC in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.
In the college championship on Jan. 11 in Miami Gardens, it will be top-ranked Alabama favored over 3rd-ranked Ohio State.
So the Big 12 could wind up 4-0. The Big 10 is at 4-0 with victories by Ohio State, Iowa, Northwestern and Wisconsin, and will have Indiana a 2-touchdown pick over Ole Miss of the SEC. As for the SEC, it stands at 3-3 on wins from Bama, Mississippi State, and Georgia, with the Aggies having to face PAC12 champion Oregon, the lone team from its conference that has gone bowling.
Of the schools minus Power 5 credentials, bowl victories came from Hawaii, Buffalo, Liberty, Louisiana-Lafayette, Ball State, Brigham Young, Nevada, and Memphis.
Liberty handed 9th-ranked Coastal Carolina its lone defeat, Ball State did the same in bringing San Jose State its first loss, Buffalo handed Marshall its second-straight setback, once-beaten Louisiana had its Sun Belt Conference title game with Coastal Carolina cancelled, but did turn back University of Texas San Antonio, 31-24, in the ServPro Bowl in Dallas, Tex., while 13th-ranked BYU rolled over Central Florida, Nevada rallied to defeat Tulane, and Memphis had no problem disposing of Florida Atlantic.
Not to Mississippi State’s 28-26 tussle in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Tex, that resulted in a post-game brawl that emptied both sidelines with fists flying, kicks, pouncing on players and coaches underneath big pileups, several players and coaches being a bloody mess, some with concussions, some removing their shirts to battle, and that went on for approximate 30 minutes, although no one was able to time it with all that was happening. But it was brutal as Mississippi State and 22nd-ranked Tulsa both wound up at 8-3. And in the Armed Forces Bowl no less.
