Georgia Bulldogs slip past Nittany Lions
After watching Terry Godwin execute the trick play in practice, Georgia interim coach Bryan McClendon was having second thoughts about calling it in the bowl game.
His players and coaches convinced him otherwise.
It may have been the best decision of McClendon’s short-lived coaching career.
Godwin threw a 44-yard touchdown pass that got the Bulldogs going and caught a 17-yarder later, doing a little bit of everything in Georgia’s 24-17 win over Penn State in the TaxSlayer Bowl on Saturday.
“It’s why you have to trust the people that are around you,” said McClendon, tabbed to fill in after fired coach Mark Richt opted not to stick around for the bowl game. “They said it was there.”
It was. And it helped the Bulldogs (10-3) win their fifth consecutive game to close the season, send McClendon out a winner in his head-coaching debut and give the senior class its 40th career victory.
“There definitely was a lot of motivation,” Georgia linebacker Jordan Jenkins-said. “We really felt for BMac. He was thrown into the fire, thrown into a situation that he didn’t expect to get thrown into and it was just something that we really wanted to ban together and fight for. He was in the same position we were.”
Incoming coach Kirby Smart was in attendance for part of the game and had to like what he saw. Despite a makeshift coaching staff Georgia used different offensive and defensive coordinators — the Bulldogs turned in one of their most complete performances since September.
It helped that Penn State (7-6) played more than half the game without star quarterback Christian Hackenberg.
Hackenberg left in the second quarter with a right shoulder injury, hurt when linebacker Roquan Smith tackled him. Hackenberg stayed in the game and threw four more passes, but grabbed his shoulder between plays.
He headed to the locker room after an incompletion and returned for the second half in street clothes. He said he wanted to play, but team officials told him no.
Hackenberg declared for the NFL draft after the game.
Hogs get the win
Alex Collins ran for 185 yards and three touchdowns and Arkansas capped its late-season surge with a 45-23 victory over Kansas State on Saturday in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
Ranked 18th to open the season, Arkansas stumbled through a 1-3 start that knocked the Razorbacks out of the Top 25. The Razorbacks (8-5) turned things around and won six of their last seven games.
Collins overwhelmed Kansas State’s defense in front of a sellout crowd of 61,136, the fourth-largest crowd in the game’s 57-year history.
Kansas State (6-7) finished a season below .500 for the first time since Bill Snyder began his second stint as coach in 2009.
Rebels rout Cowboys
Mississippi’s Chad Kelly was throwing touchdown passes and Laquon Treadwell was catching them in the Allstate Sugar Bowl late Friday night. No surprise there. But that touchdown run by 305-pound left tackle Laremy Tunsil, who nimbly grabbed a lateral and jogged untouched into the end zone? That caught a few people off guard — including an overwhelmed Oklahoma State defense that had no answer for the Rebels.
No. 12 Ole Miss cruised to a 48-20 victory over No. 16 Oklahoma State to help the Southeastern Conference improve to 6-2 in bowl games this season with three teams still playing.
The Rebels (10-3) showed plenty of playbook moxie during the win, jumping out to a 34-6 lead at halftime by mixing their standard offense with a few trick plays that kept the Cowboys reeling all night.
“We had a blast,” an emotional Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said on the field after the game. “They really prepared well — I was super confident all day.”
Kelly, who was selected the game’s most valuable player, threw for 302 yards and four touchdowns, including three to Treadwell.
“We all came together and played really, really well today,” Kelly said.
Kelly’s four touchdown passes and Treadwell’s three touchdown catches tied Sugar Bowl records. Kelly completed 21 of 33 passes and ran for 73 yards on 10 carries.
No. 16 Oklahoma State (10-3) lost its final three games after 10 straight wins. The Cowboys fell into a 41-6 hole midway through the third quarter and never mounted a legitimate challenge.
Mason Rudolph was 18-of-31 for 179 yards for Oklahoma State. Ole Miss outgained Oklahoma State 554-366 in total yards.
“It became kind of a runaway train for us,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. “I think they’re a really, really good football team.”