Best of bowl season: Weddings, fake punts, dog races and (of course) Pop-Tarts

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  • Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior WriterJan 13, 2025, 08:00 AM ET

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    • Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
    • 2-time Sports Emmy winner
    • 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year

Mid-January is always a period of great adjustment. That icy time when we hopefully have finally started ending dates with ’25 instead of ’24 and also finally stopped awkwardly wishing people “Happy New Year” even when the year is no longer all that new.

However, for college football fans, the entrance into 2025 has been more of a challenge than in years past. Why? Because gone are the days when the national champion was decided on a single-digit January date. And as we officially begin to look toward the first College Football Playoff title game at the tail end of the inaugural 12-team bracket, let’s pause to take a look back. As we grab a Pop-Tart, heat up a mug of Scooter’s Coffee, kick back in the home we bought through Union Home Mortgage and before firing up our TaxSlayer app on our Cricket Wireless phone, why not spend a moment reminiscing about the games those sponsors proudly backed?

For as much as was made about the new CFP overshadowing and overrunning bowl season, for all the sky-is-falling worry about opt-outs and teams no longer wanting to make non-CFP postseason trips, what we received was a month-long holiday gift of gridiron greatness, goofiness and good times.

So, before we become all-consumed with Notre Dame versus Ohio State for all the college football marbles, let’s make our annual trip through the Best of Bowl Season for 2024-25.

Best performance by a game winner: Kyle McCord, QB, Syracuse

McCord arrived at the Holiday Bowl as the nation’s leading passer and he added to his Orange legend by throwing for 453 yards and five touchdowns against Pac-2 rep Washington State. On Syracuse’s first play of the second half, he launched a 50-yard pass to Darrell Gill Jr., who made an amazing over-the-shoulder snag, a play that pushed McCord past Deshaun Watson as the ACC’s all-time single-season passing leader, finishing with 4,779 yards — accomplished in 13 games vs. Watson’s 15 in 2016. McCord is so awesome that he has never been late to anything, or at least he has everyone convinced he has never been late to anything …

Best performance in a losing effort: Demond Williams Jr., QB, Washington

The Huskies trailed Louisville by two touchdowns entering the fourth quarter of the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, but Williams threw two touchdown passes on UW’s final two drives, the second coming with only nine seconds remaining. Alas, his would-be game-winning 2-point conversion toss was batted down and Washington lost 35-34. Williams finished the day 26-of-32 passing for 374 yards and 4 TDs after entering the game with only two career TDs. He’s a freshman, so this won’t be the last time you read about him.

Best bowl bargain: Free football

Four bowl games reached overtime and each of those games wasn’t decided in the first extra session. The headliner was the CFP Quarterfinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, where Texas advanced after outlasting Arizona State (and outsmarting targeting rules). But there have been few four-day bowl season stretches more glorious than Dec. 23 to Dec. 26.

It started when Northern Illinois defeated Fresno State in double OT in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. That was followed 24 hours later by a Christmas Eve 5-OT Hawai’i Bowl victory for South Florida, which traveled 4,682 miles to play San José State. Then, after a day off to let Santa do his thing, Toledo won a de facto home game, Detroit’s GameAbove Sports Bowl (the artist formerly known as the Motor City Bowl), but needed a bowl-record six overtimes to do it … after the team stormed the field thinking it had already won. Twice. Not bad for a game, played next door to the Detroit Tigers’ ballpark, that ended the first quarter with a baseball score (6-2).

Best bowl coaches: Special teams

From wacky kick return formations and suddenly diverse 2-point conversion playbooks to kickers attempting passes and punters whipping underhanded shuttle shoves, as a special teams coordinator texted me in mid-December: “All that stuff we spend all season practicing and trying to convince the head coach to do, he’ll finally say yes in the bowl game.”

Best nuptials: Cheez-It Citrus Bowl

Remember how horrifying the Red Wedding was in “Game of Thrones”? Well, imagine if we replaced all the knives with foam headwear, replaced the blood with soda and mixed in a lot of orange with all that red. I was at the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl to watch Illinois, South Carolina and, of course, the antics of Ched-Z the Cheez-It. But even the mascot being launched through the uprights like a paper desktop football took a backseat to what occurred during a first-half TV timeout.

That’s when Erin Doolin and Erik Yakes were wed in a “Two-Minute Drill” marital ceremony while riding atop a trailer being towed around the playing field as Ched-Z and 47,129 fans served as witnesses. After exchanging orange rings, they spent the remainder of the game holding their reception with family and friends just off a corner of one of the end zones, complete with a dance floor and orange wedding cake.

Best postgame food bath: Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock

Stuff dumped on the heads of coaches this winter included iced coffee, eggnog and Frosted Flakes. When you beat CFP finalist Notre Dame, win eight games, earn your second consecutive bowl victory and get a bucket of fries dumped on your head at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, you can say whatever you want in the postgame interview.

Best celebrity postgame food bath: Duke’s Mayo Bowl, BOI!!!!

We’ve all grown to love the postgame dumping of mayonnaise on the winning coach’s head after the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, unless you’re Shane Beamer, who still might be concussed from his celebratory moment three years ago. But even Minnesota’s coach P.J. Fleck, a man who never needs help getting fired up, was sent to a different level of energy when surprise celeb Flava Flav emerged from behind the curtain to unleash this year’s mayo mess.

Best celebrity everything else: (Insert Famous Person) Bowl

Gronk hoisting wrestling belts. Matthew McConaughey wearing “Rusty,” his way-too-worn leather tassel jacket at Longhorns games. Snoop Dogg not just on the TV mic (“He stood over him because it’s business he’s standing on”) but with his name painted in giant letters on the playing field. Who do these people think they are, a Herbstreit dog?

Best canine celebrity: Hudson the Bahamas Bowl Racer

OK, we all know that Ben and Peter Herbstreit have been the Tail-or Swifts of college football. And it was amazing to see Myrtle Beach Bowl champs UTSA carry Fredo the Frenchie around like he was Sean Astin at the end of “Rudy.” But Hudson the hound stole the show at the Bahamas Bowl when he raced a bunch of kids on the track that surrounds the playing field where Buffalo rolled over Liberty in the last non-CFP game of bowl season.

Best new trend: The decline in highest-profile opt-outs

When their regular seasons ended, Beamer and Deion Sanders grinned through their disappointment at not being part of the CFP and pledged that their stars and seniors would be on the field for their bowl games. Meanwhile, multiple players on other teams promised the same, most notably at Ole Miss and Alabama. Were there still a lot of opt-outs? Yes, most were powered by the insanity of having transfer portal deadlines in the middle of the postseason. But with an adjustment to that timetable seemingly inevitable, as well as contracts tied to revenue sharing, the hope is that more teams will be loaded for future bowl appearances.

Worst trend: Opting out midgame (bonus category)

I needed to include one “worst” in this list because it’s not right to mention the best trend without pointing out the worst. Miami said the plan was to have Cam Ward sit out the remainder of the Pop-Tarts Bowl once he threw three touchdown passes to break the NCAA career record at 158. Do I think it was the worst crime in the history of the sport? Of course not. But the image of the Heisman Trophy finalist standing on the sideline perfectly healthy having achieved an individual record and watching his team lose to Iowa State by one point was a terrible look for Ward, Miami and college football.

Best trend that digs at the worst trend: Cal Band trust fall

“You can’t trust Fernando Mendoza [the Cal QB who transferred to Indiana]. But you can trust the Cal Band to be there at the LA Bowl tonight.”

Best postgame shoutout: Kansas State Pride

Speaking of bands, how about Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman acknowledging the K-State Pride making the 20-hour bus ride to provide the soundtrack for the Wildcats’ win in the Rate Bowl (aka what used to be the Copper, Insight.com and Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl)!

Best pregame perk: Becoming Phil Knight

From NASCAR ride-alongs to gift suites packed with tech and bling, there has never been a shortage of fun and free stuff for bowl participants, but the Las Vegas Bowl stepped things up. USC and Texas A&M players got to custom design their own Nike Air Force 1s.

Best pregame move: Boston College honoring an Eagle hero

As soon as BC coach Bill O’Brien knew his team was going to New York for the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium, he reached out to Alison Crowther, mother of BC alum Welles Crowther. Known by many as the Man in the Red Bandana, Welles was an equities trader and a volunteer firefighter who helped first responders rescue victims of the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center before dying when the towers collapsed. He saved as many as 18 people. Members of the BC football team met Crowther’s mother at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum before their game against Nebraska.

Best stadium feature living up to its name: Pesky’s Pole

Speaking of football played in baseball stadiums, how two basketball schools — North Carolina and UConn — playing football in a baseball stadium. And how about the famous Fenway Park right-field foul pole, named for Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky, being … well … pesky?

Best wardrobe: Puffy pirate shirts

As Jerry Seinfeld will testify, it takes a certain level of confidence to pull off a puffy shirt. Well, Andre Ware, who won a Heisman Trophy, and Anish Shroff, just named North Carolina sportscaster of the year, displayed that confidence in the broadcast booth of the Gasparilla Bowl, which is named for a Tampa Bay pirate ship and festival. Whether they pulled it off is up to you.

One Pop-Tart taunted the back judge. All the Pop-Tarts crashed the postgame field rush. Strawberry returned from the Great Toasted Beyond, popping out of the top of the giant end zone scoreboard like Michael Jackson at halftime of Super Bowl XXVII at the Rose Bowl. Then, Cinnamon Roll made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of football glory, being baked and devoured by Iowa State as the Cyclones hoisted their trophy, which is also a working toaster. All of the above was framed by a special NCAA-approved sideline that was painted to look like it was covered in sprinkles. God bless America.

Best season: Bowl season

Always. See you next year.

This article was originally published by Espn.com. Read the original article here.
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