— Minnesota 20, New Mexico 17 OT
Golden Gophers won their 9th straight bowl game.
Down 14-7, New Mexico ran a kickoff back 100 yards for a TD.
This was New Mexico’s first bowl outside of Albuquerque since 2004.
— If you were wondering, the all-time record for most consecutive bowl wins is 11, set by Bobby Bowden’s Florida State teams from 1985-95.
— Northwestern 34, Central Michigan 7
QB Stone threw for 226 yards, 3 TD’s.
Central Michigan lost three fumbles, committed four turnovers in all.
Wildcats have won six bowl games in a row.
— Texas-San Antonio 57, FIU 20
FIU actually led this game 14-0 in first quarter.
Roadrunners led 31-14 at halftime.
FIU went for it on 4th down 10 times, were 1-10.
— Michigan hired former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham as their new coach; Whittingham was 177-88 in 22 years at Utah, going 11-6 in bowls (they lost the last five). Utah is 10-2 this year; this is a big upgrade for the Wolverines.
— Green Bay Packers ruled out QB Jordan Love (concussion) for tonight’s game with the Ravens; Green Bay clinched a playoff spot when Detroit lost Thursday. Malik Willis will start for the Packers; he is 3-2 as an NFL starter, has thrown for 134 yards in three games this year.
— Famous birthdays, December 27th:
Tovah Feldshuh, 77
Craig Reynolds, 73
Mark Budaska, 73
Kent Benson, 71
Donald Igwebuike, 65
Eva LaRue, 59
Kevin Ollie, 53
Deuce McAllister, 47
Carson Palmer, 46
Cole Hamels, 42
Greg Zuerlein, 38
Rick Porcello, 37
Jordan Montgomery, 33
JJ Koski, 29
Brock Purdy, 26
— It was freakin’ freezing here in upstate New York Friday, and now it is snowing out; this is my annual “Why the hell don’t I live in Las Vegas?” night. Once a year, I curse myself out for living in a place where it occasionally gets very cold, and it costs me $40 to get my driveway plowed.
— They’re remodeling the grocery store I go to; its been taking a long time- they’re supposed to finish next month. It is funny going there; no one seems to know what aisle anything is in any more. Used to take me 10 minutes to do my shopping; takes a lot more now. I’m wondering how much it costs to do all that work.
— Thursday night in Denver, the Nuggets beat Minnesota 142-138 in OT; Nikola Jokic scored 56 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, had 15 assists— he scored 18 of his points in the 5:00 overtime, the most any player has ever scored in an overtime.
— College/minor league sports are off the rails; quarterbacks are transferring:
UNLV QB Anthony Colandrea is in the portal, after leading the Rebels to a 10-4 record. He played at Virginia in 2023-24.
(The last four Heisman Trophy winners have all been transfers)
Some other QB’s who are in the transfer portal:
Sam Leavitt, Arizona State
Drew Mestemaker, North Texas
Dylan Raiola, Nebraska
Josh Hoover, TCU
Rocco Becht, Iowa State
Brendan Sorsby, Cincinnati
DJ Lagway, Florida
Byrum Brown, South Florida
Aaron Philo, Georgia Tech
— Since the weather sucks outside, here are some baseball tidbits to help us feel warmer; most of this info came from an article by David Schoenfield on ESPN.com
Pittsburgh Pirates hit 117 home runs last year, 31 fewer than any other team,. Which why they acquired Brandon Lowe, Ryan O’Hearn. Paul Skenes had a 1.97 ERA but was only 10-10, because the Pirates don’t score enough freakin’ runs.
Mets ranked 27th out of 30 teams in IP by starting pitchers, now they let their closer walk to the Dodgers. Mets are going to be very interesting to watch between now and the start of spring training- they need to add talent, both hitting and pitching.
St Louis Cardinals went 232-254 the last three years, their worst three-year stretch since 1988-90, which is why they’re cleaning house now. This year’s attendance was 991,084 fans lower than the Cardinals’ home attendance in 2023- the natives are restless.
Milwaukee Brewers hit .258 as a team last year, but they hit .279 with runners in scoring position, that doesn’t happen much. It probably isn’t sustainable either, so Milwaukee’s offense could suffer this coming season.
Orioles/Marlins both got only 62 RBI from their first basemen last year, tied for worst in the major leagues. That explains why the Orioles went after Pete Alonso.
Cincinnati Reds got only 51 home runs from outfielders; they play their home games in one of the best home run parks there is, which may explain why they moved Noelvi Marte to RF.
Arizona Diamondbacks got saves from 17 different pitchers last year, an all-time record (’21 Rays, ’24 Dodgers each got saves from 14 pitchers).
