Notre Dame routs Iowa St.; Penn St. romps
So much for the notion that No. 14 Notre Dame didn’t have anything to play for in the Camping World Bowl in Orlando.
A year removed from an appearance in the CFP national semifinals, the Fighting Irish closed out another double-digit win season with arguably their best all-around performance in a 33-9 victory over Iowa State on Saturday.
“I’m just so proud of our football team. 2019 will be one that I’ll always remember, for a group of guys that just loved to play the game. They had such a strong brotherhood,” coach Brian Kelly said.
“They did not listen to what the naysayers had to say about them. The negative tone, the negative people out there. All they cared about was playing the game,” Kelly added. “It was clean. It was about competing. Always looking to better themselves.”
Ian Book threw for 247 yards and a touchdown, Tony Jones Jr. scored on an 84-yard run and game MVP Chase Claypool had seven receptions for 146 yards and a TD for the Irish (11-2, No. 15 CFP), who finished on a six-game winning streak after losing to Michigan to tumble out of contention for a playoff berth in late October.
Notre Dame also lost to Georgia in September; however, Kelly said the team remained focused and continued to focus and get better.
“Even this week. ‘Notre Dame is not ready to play.’ They used that as another form of motivation to show people wrong, They just read this team wrong,”
Kelly said. “It’s just so satisfying that this group has been rewarded with 11 wins. … They overcame adversity, lived the life lessons of it. They’re not perfect. They never pretended to be perfect and never wanted to be, but always strived for excellence.”
Book completed 20 of 28 passes without an interception, including a 27-yard TD throw to Claypool, who went over 1,000 yards receiving for the season and also recovered a fumble on special teams to set up an early field goal.
Iowa State (7-6) lost to four ranked teams — Iowa, Oklahoma, Baylor and Oklahoma State — by a combined 11 points this season and was hoping to end its fourth season under Matt Campbell with a signature win for a once-downtrodden program.
“You know, when we got here … there wasn’t even a thought that we could compete with teams like this. There was no thought that we could compete with the best teams in our conference,” Campbell said.
Cotton Bowl — No. 13 Penn State 53, No. 15 Memphis 39: Journey Brown ran for 202 yards with two long touchdowns, Garrett Taylor returned an interception 15 yards for a score after another big play by All-America linebacker Micah Parsons and the Nittany Lions beat the Tigers in the highest-scoring Cotton Bowl ever.
While Penn State (11-2, No. 10 CFP) gave up its most points and yards all season against the big-play Group of Five Tigers, Parsons was pulling down quarterback Brady White, who flipped the ball right into the hands of Taylor. That put the Nittany Lions up 45-36 in the final minute of the third quarter, only three plays after Brown had been stopped short on a fourth-and-1.
American Athletic Conference champion Memphis (12-2, No. 17 CFP) played its first game under coach Ryan Silverfield. The offensive line coach was promoted when Mike Norvell left after four seasons to become Florida State’s coach earlier this month.
White was 32-of-51 passing for 454 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns. Patrick Taylor Jr. and Kenneth Gainwell both had rushing touchdowns for the Tigers, but the rest of their points came on a Cotton Bowl-record six field goals by Riley Patterson, including a recordlong 51-yarder.
The Tigers finished with 542 total yards, but White was sacked a season-high six times and didn’t throw a touchdown for the first time since the season opener. Two of those sacks were by Parsons, who finished with 14 tackles.
Freshman running back Noah Cain added 92 yards and two touchdowns rushing for Penn State, which won for the 30th time in its 50 bowl appearances.
The Nittany Lions had 529 total yards. Brown got his 202 rushing yards on 16 carries, including a tackleshredding 32-yard touchdown early and a 56-yard score when he went up the middle virtually un
touched.
LATE FRIDAY
A Holiday Bowl — No. 19 Iowa 49, No. 22 USC 24: Ihmir Smith-Marsette scored on a 6-yard run, a 98-yard kickoff return and a 12-yard reception — all in the second quarter — as the Hawkeyes ripped the Trojans at San Diego.
Senior Nate Stanley threw two touchdown passes and the Hawkeyes (10-3) won their fourth straight game.
USC freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis, who threw two touchdown passes, was knocked out of the game with an apparent arm injury early in the third quarter.
The Trojans (8-5) had their three-game winning streak snapped.