Notre Dame’s receiving corps will be severely depleted when it takes the field this postseason.
Two days ago, the football program announced that two players, wide receiver Kevin Stepherson and running back C.J. Holmes, had been suspended for the Citrus Bowl New Year’s Day against LSU. It was subsequently learned that the suspensions stemmed from shoplifting arrests.
A day later, Brian Kelly confirmed that a third Fighting Irish player, tight end Alize Mack, has been suspended for the bowl game as well. Mack’s suspension, though, is unrelated to the incident involving his two teammates and instead attributed some vague “internal team matter.”
Mack’s 19 receptions are tied for fourth on the team, while his 166 yards are fifth.
Thanks to the suspensions to Mack and Stepherson, as well as an injury to Chase Claypool, Notre Dame will be without three of its top four pass catchers for the bowl game. Claypool is second on the team with 29 catches, while Stepherson’s 19 are tied with Mack for third. All told, the Irish will be down 67 receptions, 927 receiving yards and eight receiving touchdowns for the bowl game against the Tigers.
Equanimeous Brown leads the team with 31 receptions and 468 yards. His four touchdown catches are second behind Stepherson’s five.
Taking a quick-hit look at the Dec. 22 bowl menu, which today features the best feel-good team of the 2017 college football season as well as a quarterback who could be a Top-10 pick in the 2018 NFL draft.
WHO: UAB (8-4) vs. Ohio (8-4)
WHAT: The 4th Bahamas Bowl
WHEN: 12:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
WHERE: Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium, Nassau, Bahamas
THE SKINNY: Normally, I couldn’t give a spit who wins any of these bowl games as long as they put on a good, entertaining show. This is one of the lone exceptions, however, because how can you not root for the UAB football program in general and the players and coaches in particular? After the administration unnecessarily disbanded the football program and then, under intense public pressure and alongside a massive fundraising effort, resurrected it less than a year later, the Blazers resumed football on the field in 2017 following a two-season sabbatical. And what a remarkable return it was as Bill Clark‘s squad won eight games in the regular season, already the most in the program’s history — topping the old standard of seven set in 2004 — and finished second in the Conference USA’s West division. After a so-so 4-3 start, they finished the regular season by winning four out of five games, with the lone loss being to Florida in Gainesville. Oh, and have I mentioned that this will mark just the second-ever bowl game for the Blazers? Fitting the glass slipper on this football Cinderella story won’t be easy, though. Ohio has made its hay this season on the ground, finishing the regular season 17th in the country in rushing yards per game at just over 244; UAB, conversely, was slightly below average in giving up 169.8 ypg (71st out of 130 FBS teams). The Blazers can also run the ball quite effectively as they’re 37th nationally (190.3 ypg); that plays right into the MAC school’s strength, however, as the Bobcats are 11th in stopping the run (111.4 ypg). That said, Ohio stumbled into the postseason having last two games in a row… and they’ve also lost three bowls game in a row… and, dammit, UAB is just too good of s story for it to end any other way than with a win. Here’s to saying the program will celebrate its second-ever postseason tilt by winning in its first-ever bowl game. That could just be the heart, not the head, talking, though.
THE LINE: UAB, +7
THE PREDICTION: UAB 27, Ohio 26
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WHO: Central Michigan (8-4) vs. Wyoming (7-5)
WHAT: The 21st Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
WHEN: 4 p.m. ET on ESPN
WHERE: Albertsons Stadium, Boise, Idaho
THE SKINNY: Arguably the marquee player with the most national name recognition today makes his appearance in this game, quarterback Josh Allen, after a little bit of injury uncertainty, suits up for and starts in what’s expected to be his last game at the collegiate level. That said, Allen struggled this season compared to last as an inferior supporting cast and the injury to his throwing arm did him no favors; Central Michigan’s pass defense (23rd in the country, 188.2 ypg) could do him no favors in his college football swan song, either. … Neither team has had much success of late in the postseason, with the Chips dropping three bowl games in a row (last win: 2012) and the Cowboys two straight (last win: 2009). … If you’re looking for the hotter of the two teams in the here and now, it’s easily the MAC school as CMU closed out the regular season winning five in a row while their opponent today dropped two straight to end the year. Allen didn’t play in those two losses, it should be noted, and UW was 7-3 in games the junior signal-caller started this season. … This bowl game will serve as a quasi-home game for the Cowboys as Boise is a mere 680 miles from Laramie. For comparison’s sake, Kalamazoo is just over 1,800 miles away, so the Cowboys have that going for them. Which is nice. … One stat of which you may not be aware before we leave: Wyoming is 12th in the country in scoring defense, giving up an average of just 17.8 points per game.
THE LINE: Central Michigan, +3½
THE PREDICTION: Central Michigan 24, Wyoming 20
This is just wild. Actually, that word, or any other for that matter, doesn’t do this situation justice.
Florida State reached bowl eligibility this season for an NCAA-record 36th straight year thanks to a 6-6 record that included a win in a rescheduled game on Championship Saturday as well as one over an FCS program. It’s the latter win that’s caused a bit of a kerfuffle ahead of FSU’s Independence Bowl game against Southern Miss next Wednesday.
One Reddit user dug deep into the NCAA rulebook and determined that FSU should not be eligible to play in any bowl game this season. Why? The win over Delaware State shouldn’t have counted because the FCS program didn’t meet the scholarship requirement as laid out by the NCAA’s own rules.
From the Reddit college football site:
For an FCS opponent to be countable towards bowl eligibility, the FCS program must have awarded at least 90% of the FCS scholarship limit. After our own investigation, we have determined and confirmed that Delaware State has not met the 90% threshold set by the NCAA. As a result, Florida State’s bowl countable record is 5-6, thus making them ineligible for a bowl game this season.
Per the Reddit user, Delaware State was at 87 percent, or two scholarships away from hitting the 90-percent threshold as that level of football allows 63 scholarship players per team. Another “investigation” had the FCS program one scholarship short.
Best of all? Per one report, some of those involved in the imbroglio were forced to anonymously acknowledge that the Reddit user was correct and FSU should not have been bowl-eligible because of what was described as a “monumental” oversight on the part of not only the NCAA but FSU and the ACC as well. Another report pointed the finger of blame at Delaware State.
Alas, and regardless of who is to blame, it’s far too late in the process to change course and the game will go off as previously scheduled.
Given how FSU’s lost season has gone, this is a fitting way for the Seminoles to head into the postseason in a year when playoff hopes were high just four months ago. Hard to believe that, in late August, both the Associated Press and coaches had FSU ranked as the No. 3 team in the country heading into the 2017 season.
In the midst of the first Early Signing Period, Pitt has bolstered its roster numbers via a more traditional personnel maneuver.
The Panthers confirmed Thursday that they have added transfer wide receiver Taysir Mack. Prior to the Twitter announcement from Pitt’s head coach, this was the first mention of Mack even transferring from his now-former school, Indiana.
The reason or reasons behind this abrupt divorce and remarriage are not yet known.
Because of NCAA transfer rules, Mack will be forced to sit out the 2018 season. He’ll then have two seasons of eligibility remaining that he can begin using in 2019.
Mack was a three-star 2016 recruit who was rated as the No. 7 player at any position in the state of New York. After redshirting as a true freshman, he caught 23 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns in 2017. Those numbers were good for fifth, fifth and tied for third, respectively, on the team.
Head coaches — at least publicly — won’t complain about winning ugly when it comes to securing a victory in college football. If you gave some truth serum or a few adult beverages to Geoff Collins though, the first year head coach would have to admit that Thursday night’s game at Tropicana Field was about as ugly as it comes in the sport.
Not that it mattered in the end, as his Temple team (7-6) managed to mow down Florida International (8-5) for a 28-3 win in the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.
The formula was a familiar one for the Owls: salty defense, a methodical offense and wait for a few big plays out of quarterback Frank Nutile. The signal-caller didn’t have the sharpest outing down in St. Petersburg, Fla. but was solid enough to lead his team to the win column by throwing for 254 yards and a touchdown without an interception. He scored the game’s first points as well on a keeper in the second quarter and setup the team’s second score on a big pass play down the field that tailback David Hood (76 yards rushing) eventually punched in for a touchdown.
Adonis Jennings (51 yards), Keith Kirkwood (96 yards) and Isaiah Wright (73 yards, one touchdown) were the big play threats in the passing game and balanced out things given how difficult it was to run the football. The offense did just enough to take advantage of a quality performance from the Temple defense, which recorded seven sacks, two fourth downs stops, and kept their opponent out of the end zone despite having one of the more productive units in the country coming in.
Most of those struggles for FIU can be traced back to their opening drive of the game when senior starting quarterback and Tampa native Alex McGough went down with what officials later said was a broken collarbone. That seemed to chuck the game plan right out the window for the Panthers, which never seemed to get any consistency on that side of the ball out of backup Maurice Alexander once he threw two early interceptions and was generally running around to avoid pressure on every drop back. Running backs Napoleon Maxwell and Alex Gardner failed to find much space on the ground without much of a passing threat as neither came close to hitting the century mark.
Despite the loss though, it was still a heck of a year for FIU and first year coach Butch Davis as they made just the third ever bowl appearance for the program and tied the school record for wins in a season.
Temple knows all about turnarounds themselves as the bowl victory on Thursday, just the third postseason win in program history, caps off a remarkable second half surge that included four wins in their final five games. Given how bad the Owls looked in September, that’s a nice little springboard into the offseason for Collins and his staff as they send the winningest senior class in school history off with a nice, if ugly, victory.
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