— Tulane 34, North Texas 21
UNT outgained Tulane 415-344, but was minus-5 in turnovers.
Green Wave led 24-6 at halftime; they’ll probably be in the 12-team playoff.
Both head coaches in this game are moving on to bigger $$$ jobs.
North Texas freshman QB Mestamaker has led the Mean Green to an 11-2 record; he didn’t start any games when he was in high school. Kind of amazing.
— James Madison 31, Troy 14
12-1 Dukes ran the ball 42 times for 318 yards (7.6 yards/carry)
JMU outgained the Trojans, 411-177.
Dukes led 17-14 at halftime.
JMU’s last TD was a defensive score that salted the game away.
— Kennesaw State 19, Jacksonville State 15
Owls win Conference USA in their first year as a I-A team.
Kennesaw drove 75 yards, scored game-winning TD with 0:51 left.
Owls led 12-0 after three quarters, but Jax State led 15-12 with 4:00 left.
— Boise State 38, UNLV 21
Broncos win their third straight Mountain West title.
Next year, Boise is joining the revamped Pac-12.
Boise led 21-0 midway thru the second quarter.
Broncos are likely going to play Washington in the LA Bowl.
— Gonzaga 94, Kentucky 59
Gonzaga crushed the Wildcats; they led 43-20 at halftime.
Zags lost their previous game, nine days ago, 101-61 to Michigan.
Kentucky is 5-4, 0-4 vs top 100 teams, 0-4 when they allow 60+ points.
— Xavier 79, Cincinnati 74
Crosstown rivalry game was 37-37 at halftime.
Xavier shot 66.7% inside arc, only 6-28 on the arc.
In a 74-possession game, Xavier had only four turnovers.
— Notre Dame 87, TCU 85 OT
Horned Frogs led by 11 late in the first half.
Notre Dame won despite going 9-20 on the foul line.
Notre Dame shot 61.8% inside arc, made 12-26 on the arc.
— UAB 74, Drake 69
Blazers out-rebounded Drake, 44-30.
Drake led by 5 early in the second half.
UAB was 21-28 on foul line, Bulldogs 12-16.
— Famous birthdays, December 6th:
Larry Bowa, 80
Steven Wright, 70
Lindsay Scott, 65
Lance Blankenship, 62
Kevin Appier, 58
Sarah Rafferty, 58
Kevin Cash, 48
Adam Eaton, 37
Johnny Manziel, 33
Giannis Antetokounmpo, 31
— Penn State hit the jackpot with their coaching search, hiring former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell as their new football coach.
Campbell was 35-15 in four years at Toledo, then went to Iowa State and was 72-55 in ten years coaching the Cyclones. Iowa State is tough place to win; Campbell is a very good coach.
— Iowa State is replacing Campbell with Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers, who led the Coogs to a 6-6 record this year, despite not being in a league. Next year, Wazzu will have its third head coach in three years, but at least they’ll back in a league.
— Kansas State changed football coaches this week; Chris Klieman retired after going 54-34 in the Little Apple, an impressive run. There were reports that the players voted to skip going to a bowl game this year, after a 6-6 regular season, but K-State alum Collin Klein is the new coach, and whole bowl thing was still up in the air late Friday night.
— Random fact: 17 NFL teams play their home games on artificial turf fields, 15 play on natural grass.
— Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey kicked five field goals Thursday night, making kicks from 55-57-63 yards; he is the first kicker EVER to make three FG’s of 55+ yards in the same game.
— If you like college basketball, you should have ESPN+; they show ton of games on there, and you can watch replays of games all night, including teams from smaller leagues.
