The 2014-15 college football season wraps up with 38 bowl games and one national championship game.
It’s hard to argue that we San Diegans are blessed annually with one of the most exciting of the bunch — the National University Holiday Bowl.
The Holiday Bowl has deservedly earned a reputation for exciting finishes and the 37th match-up in the series Dec. 27 at Qualcomm Stadium was no exception as a last-second desperation pass by the 25th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers was knocked down near the end zone by the 24th-ranked USC Trojans to preserve a 45-42 victory for the latter team.
It was a wild finish for the Huskers, who trailed by a score of 45-27 at one point in the third quarter. The 55,789 in attendance — most of them USC fans — had to gasp at the game’s frantic finish that saw Nebraska score two unanswered touchdowns and try for another score to tie or possibly win the game.
“It was everything we hoped it would be — close at the half, great crowd, great halftime show, great marching bands … everything that college football is all about,” explained South County resident Bruce Binkowski, who serves as executive director of the San Diego Bowl Game Association.
That was likely an understatement. The teams combined for 87 points and more than 1,000 yards in total offense (525 for Nebraska, 515 for USC).
Whew! Good to the last drop.
Despite the respective teams’ illustrious histories, this was the first USC-Nebraska bowl game match-up.
The Holiday Bowl victory marked a step back toward prominence for the Trojans, who had battled NCAA sanctions since the Reggie Bush scandal that banned the school from bowl games in 2010 and 2011, vacated its 2004 national championship and cost the football program 30 scholarships over a three-year period.
The Holiday Bowl win added to USC’s 2013 Las Vegas Bowl victory against Fresno State. Prior to that, the Trojans had not won a bowl game since 2009 when current NFL Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was at the helm.
Overall, this was the 51st bowl game appearance by a USC team — and the first appearance by the Trojans in San Diego.
New head coach Steve Sarkisian called it the beginning of a brighter future for USC.
“We’ve laid a good foundation in year one of where we’re headed as a program,” Sarkisian said. “Our future, and I’ll say it again, is ridiculously bright.”
The Trojans have appeared in an unprecedented 32 Rose Bowls.
“(Our brand) is unrivalled by any other university in the country when it comes to college football,” Sarkisian noted.
Each team received a payout of $2.075 million to participate in the game. Both teams finished the season with 9-4 records.
Fight on
Nebraska opened scoring on a 34-yard field goal by Drew Brown but USC’s Adoree Jackson returned the ensuing kick-off 98 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. It was the longest kick-off return in Holiday Bowl game history.
Brown’s initial field goal was set up by a blocked punt by teammate Kieron Williams.
The first quarter was drawn out and featured 27 points between the teams. Nebraska took a 10-7 lead on Kenny Bell’s 18-yard touchdown reception form quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr.
The Trojans countered with a 42-yard field goal by Andre Heidari for a 10-10 standoff.
The opening quarter ended with a 17-10 Husker lead after De’Mornay Pierson-El caught a nine-yard scoring pass.
USC then gave its legion of fans much to celebrate over the next two quarters by reeling off three unanswered touchdowns to build a 31-17 edge on the scoreboard.
Nelson Agholor caught a 17-yard TD pass from quarterback Cody Kessler to tie the game and Javorius Allen scored on a two-yard run to boost the Trojans to a 24-17 halftime lead.
Jackson hauled in a 71-yard scoring pass from Kessler to start the third quarter and Allen (152 yards on 26 carries, two TDs) scored on a 44-yard run sandwiched around a 20-yard TD run by Nebraska’s Ameer Abdullah to push USC to a 38-24 advantage.
Brown trimmed the Trojan lead to 38-27 on a 25-yard field goal with 2:28 left in the third quarter.
The third quarter was productive for both teams, which combined for 38 points on five touchdowns and one field goal.
Bryce Dixon caught a 20-yard scoring pass from Kessler to hike the USC lead to 45-27. But Nebraska continued to bounce back.
Armstrong threw for a touchdown (65 yards to Jordan Westerkamp) and ran for another (15 yards with 6:52 left in the fourth quarter) to trim the Trojan lead to three points.
Despite the offensive nature of the game, defense sealed the outcome. On the series prior to the final bat-down, the USC defense stopped Nebraska on fourth-and-three to take over on downs.
Kessler earned honors as the game’s offensive MVP by completing 23 of 39 passes for 321 yards with three touchdowns and one pick. He tied the USC single-season record of 39 touchdown passes set by Matt Barkley in 2011.
Trojan defensive end Leonard Williams, the team’s 2014 MVP who has declared for the 2015 NFL Draft, earned recognition as the game’s defensive MVP. He recorded 80 tackles, 9.5 tackles for a loss and a team-high seven sacks this season to go with 21 sacks in his three-year career.
In defeat, the Huskers actually held the ball longer than their opponent (34:26 to 25:34 in time of possession) and ran a staggering 94 plays.
Armstrong completed 32 of 51 passes for 381 yards and three TDs, with one interception. Pierson-El had eight catches for 102 yards for the Huskers.
Trojan fans ended the game with incessant chants of “U-S-C.”
Typical Holiday Bowl magic.
A ton of memories for Eagles’ grad Cardona and victorious Navy Midshipmen in Poinsettia Bowl
With such a strong military presence in San Diego County, it seemed as if both the Navy Midshipmen and SDSU Aztecs shared equal billing as “home” teams in the 10th annual San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl Dec. 23 at Qualcomm Stadium.
The Rams (8-5) used Southwestern College’s refurbished DeVore Stadium as a training site for the bowl game to further local ties to the team.
The 10th anniversary match-up proved special as Navy — the champions of the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl in 2005 — shook off two ensuing losses in the bowl game, including a 35-14 setback to SDSU in 2010, to prevail, 17-16, over the Aztecs in a heart-pounding finish.
Navy’s Austin Grebe kicked a 24-yard field goal with 1:27 remaining in the fourth quarter to erase a 16-14 SDSU lead.
The Aztecs (7-6) got in position to win the game but Donald Hageman’s 35-yard field goal attempt with 20 seconds to play was wide right to preserve the Navy win.
Ironically, Hageman had set a new SDSU record with 20 field goals in one season after previously splitting the uprights from 43 and 37 yards in the game to boost the Aztecs to a 13-7 lead.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Navy had a somewhat sizable contingent of San Diego area players on its roster. Five players hailed from San Diego Section CIF schools, with another from nearby Temecula.
Senior long-snapper Joe Cardona attended Granite Hills High School, while other county locals included junior kicker Nick Sloan (Scripps Ranch), sophomore cornerback Cameron Bryant (Mira Mesa) and senior defensive end Paul Quessenberry (La Costa Canyon). Also, freshman safety Dexter Bell attended Imperial High School while freshman safety Randy Beggs attended Vista Murrieta High School.
A returning three-year starter, Cardona was the only the second freshman to start in program history and has established himself as one of the nation’s top long-snappers on both punts and field goals.
A 2010 graduate of Granite Hills, Cardona attended the Naval Academy Prep School during the 2010-11 academic year. While at GHHS, he was a two-sport athlete who lettered twice in football and four years in lacrosse. He led the Eagles to a conference title in lacrosse in 2010, earned conference MVP honors and second-team all-section honors.
“I couldn’t ask for more,” he said. “My final collegiate game … to come back to Qualcomm and get a win in front of my family, my friends, against the hometown team, is awesome. I couldn’t ask for more than that.”
Cardona is scheduled to graduate in May 2015 at which time he will be commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.
He said he and the other San Diego area players shared a special camaraderie on the team.
“A ton of instant friendships,” Cardona said.
