2014 Music City Bowl results: QB-switching Notre Dame beats LSU

In the regular season, the SEC West was a perfect 28-0 in non-conference games. When the league was en route to its flawless out-of-conference performance, some numbskull was using the Simple Rating System to ask whether the division was the best since conferences started splitting in half.

Unfortunately for those people who staked out the position that the West was something special in 2014, bowl season was a disaster. It started well enough, with the two bottom finishers in the West -- Arkansas and Texas A&M -- winning their postseason games, the former in utterly dominating fashion. When LSU lost to Notre Dame on a last second field goal on December 30, it marked the first time in 31 games that an SEC West team had lost to a non-conference opponent.

The 2014 season has been the Year of the Freshman Running Back, with five freshmen among the nation’s top 30 rushers (and 18 of the top 100) heading into Tuesday. And then they raised the bar on Tuesday, which saw bowl wins by Georgia over Louisville (37-14), Notre Dame over LSU (31-28), and Stanford over Maryland (45-21).

Nick Chubb finished his freshman season with 1,550 rushing yards. That’s the largest single-season total for any Georgia Bulldog not named Herschel Walker. Considering he wasn’t even the most touted running back in Georgia’s freshman class -- recruiting services rated Sony Michel slightly higher -- that’s an incredible feat. It’s made even more incredible considering he was a backup to one of the best players in college football, Todd Gurley, for half the season.

With the win, Notre Dame finishes the season 8-5. LSU drops to 8-5 with the loss.

3. Entertaining bowl games can be quick too! When you think of back and forth, entertaining bowl games, chances are you don’t think of a game that can wrap up quickly. Both Notre Dame and LSU were able to move the ball quite a bit, but they did so much of that moving on the ground, leading us to a bowl game that ended in a tidy three hours, 10 minutes. Our schedules salute you, men.

And then, he had this 89-yard touchdown run. He has 135 yards on only eight carries, which seems good.

That kind of speed should not come from a human being that big. Enjoy dealing with this guy for two more years, SEC defenses.

This fake field goal run by LSU’s Brad Kragthorpe to close the first half against Notre Dame should’ve been a touchdown.

As you can see above, the ball breaks the plane. You can also see that his knees aren’t down yet. You can tell they aren’t down at the same time as the ball crossing the plane because they clearly collide with the ground a beat later. From another angle, you could also see without any doubt that his knees weren’t down as he extended the ball.

Coaches will tell you that the bowl is the first game of the next season. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly took that to a logical extreme in explaining why he has chosen to give quarterback Malik Zaire his first career start in the Music City Bowl.

For Notre Dame, the difference between 7-6 and 8-5 is minimal. You might as well start figuring out what you’ve got for 2015.

Both LSU and Notre Dame spent time in the top 10 of the AP Poll this season, but neither was able to stay in the College Football Playoff hunt. They’ll each get an opportunity to partially redeem their seasons Tuesday in the Music City Bowl.

The Tigers opened the season with a win over Wisconsin, but lost their first game in late September when they fell to Mississippi State. Two weeks later, they were blown out by Auburn, effectively ending any Playoff hopes, and late losses to Alabama and Arkansas only sealed the Tigers’ fate. LSU has one of the best defenses in the country and a strong running game, but inconsistency at the quarterback position has done them in.

BREAKING NEWS!

This is yet another blow to the SEC and their recent dominance of college football.

During a Monday press conference, LSU coach Les Miles denied that either he or his agent has been contacted by Michigan regarding their current football coach opening, according to Ben Love of Scout’s LSU affiliate:

Love went on to write that Miles strongly hinted that he was not interested in leaving Baton Rouge:

Still searching for a new head coach, Michigan has contacted LSU’s Les Miles about the position, per Sam Webb of U-M’s Scout site. However, Football Scoop says it’s unlikely anything will come from the overture.

Miles has a history of being a potential candidate for the Wolverines, seeing his name widely discussed during the school’s previous two coaching searches. However, he’s never been offered the job, according to at least one account. Some involved in this search were reportedly in disagreement over Miles, with the naysayers fearing he would publicly spurn Michigan. He played for the Wolverines under legendary head coach Bo Schembechler and served as an assistant under Schembechler and Gary Moeller.

The 17th edition of the Music City Bowl is here, and this year’s game marks the 10th anniversary of its SEC-ACC affiliation. This year, it will be LSU and a partial ACC member, Notre Dame.

The Music City Bowl has historically stayed close -- only once in the past 10 years has the final margin been wider than a touchdown. We here at SB Nation are obligated to inform you that the widest margin in the game’s previous 16 editions was 38-7 in the inaugural Music City Bowl at Vanderbilt Stadium, when Alabama mustered just a single score and lost to Virginia Tech. Ever since, the game has been played at LP Field, home of the Tennessee Titans.