Peach Bowl game features ultimate coaching carousel
The undefeated, 10thranked Central Florida Knights(12-0, No. 12 CFP) will play No. 7 Auburn (10-3, No. 7 CFP), the Southeastern Conference runner-up, Jan. 1 in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Peach Bowl announcement Sunday was overshadowed by news concerning the coaches involved in the game.
Coach Gus Malzahn is staying at Auburn, putting an end to the questions about his future. The Tigers coach agreed to a new sevenyear deal to remain after a strong late season.
Complete financial details were not immediately available but it is reported Malzahn will make more than $7 million in the final year of the contract.
Malzahn led the seventhranked Tigers into the SEC championship but had faced repeated questions about whether he was interested in the vacant Arkansas job in his home state.
Central Florida coach Scott Frost was hired by Nebraska shortly after UCF won a 62-55, double overtime shootout with Memphis to capture the American Athletic Conference title.
Frost officially was announced as Cornhuskers coach Sunday and reiterated that he would coach the Knights in the bowl game. “I don’t want to leave the players down there without a coach.”
UCF actively is targeting former Texas A&M and Houston coach Kevin Sumlin to be its next coach, according to sources.
West Virginia
For the first time, West Virginia will play a football bowl game in Dallas as the Mountaineers have been invited to play in the Heart of Dallas Bowl against Utah at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 26 at Cotton Bowl Stadium. WVU finished the season 7-5, 5-4 in Big 12 play, but lost its final two games of the regular season after losing starting quarterback Will Grier to a broken finger/hand. The Utes amassed a 6-6 record, 36 in the Pac-12. The two teams have met just once before, a 32-6 Utah victory in the 1964 Liberty Bowl in Atlantic City, N.J. This matchup will take place in the 92,00-seat Cotton Bowl.
Georgia
Linebacker Natrez Patrick was arrested on misdemeanor marijuana charge, his second of the season and third of his career, hours after starting in the Bulldogs’ Southeastern Conference championship victory against Auburn. Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said that Patrick was charged with possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana. With three violations of Georgia’s drug policy, Patrick could be dismissed from the team.
Florida State
No one in Tallahassee is happy about the way this season turned out, not with the Seminoles’ hopes for making the College Football Playoff dashed by October. The Seminoles’ game against Southern Mississippi (8-4) in the Independence Bowl Dec. 27 in Shreveport, La., Dec. 27, will mark their 36th consecutive bowl, breaking its tie with Nebraska, which went to 35 bowls from 1969-2003.
New Mexico State
In Las Cruces, N.M., they’re partying like it’s 1960. That’s how long it has been since the Aggies have played in a bowl. Football Bowl Subdivision’s longest bowl drought ended when New Mexico State (6-6) accepted an invitation to play Utah State (6-6) in the Arizona Bowl Dec. 29. Utah State was the same opponent that New Mexico State beat in the 1960 Sun Bowl to finish a perfect season. “I’m confident Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the United States,” Aggies athletic director Mario Moccia said. “That puts it in an historical context, doesn’t it?”