2015 Outback Bowl results: Wisconsin outkicks Auburn in OT

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.

College football’s showcase day, now headlined by two College Football Playoff games, lived up to any and all expectations. Let’s look at the key numbers from January 1’s five bowls.

And by allowing just three points in Minnesota’s final five possessions following Williams’ touchdown, they sent defensive coordinator Dave Steckel, recently named Missouri State’s head coach, out a winner.

Auburn and Wisconsin went to OT in the Outback Bowl. Wisconsin’s Rafael Gaglianone hit his field goal. Auburn’s Daniel Carlson did this:

What a rough way to lose. He had the distance on the 45-yarder and aaaaaallllllmooooost got the accuracy, but, you know, doink.

After lackluster offensive performances from both Auburn and Wisconsin in the first half of the Outback Bowl, the Badgers and Tigers turned on the offense in the second half. They engaged in a back-and-forth shootout that went all the way to overtime, culminating in a 34-31 Wisconsin win. As so many college games do, this one ended on a missed field goal, as Auburn couldn’t punch one in from 45 yards.

It was 14-7 in favor of Auburn at halftime, but Wisconsin battled back behind Gordon, who surprisingly got only 12 carries in the first half. He scored three touchdowns on 22 carries in the second half, helping the Badgers to a 28-24 lead with three minutes left. Malzahn opted to go for it on fourth-and-11 from the Wisconsin 15-yard line and he was rewarded with a 13-yard pass interference call, which ultimately led to a touchdown on the next play.

If Auburn wins Thursday’s Outback Bowl, Outback Steakhouse will give away free Bloomin’ Onions nationwide on Jan. 2. If Wisconsin wins, the free appetizer in question will be Coconut Shrimp. The restaurant chain knows you’re picking sides and they have ANTHROPOMORPHIZED FOOD MONSTERS to help you root.

Well played, Outback. We shall eat your free appetizers.

Happy New Year!

RavenousUte [1:24 AM]:

The inaugural College Football Playoff is here, with both semifinal matchups kicking off Thursday. There are three other exciting bowl games taking place first, however, with all five of the day’s games available to watch on TV and streamed on WatchESPN. Full schedule below.

The day starts off with three matchups featuring Big Ten schools, beginning with Auburn-Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. The game will feature two very different approaches to run-based offenses, while the Badgers will be playing without head coach Gary Andersen (now with Oregon State) or offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig (Vanderbilt).

We asked for New Year’s Day to be awesome again, and it appears we are getting what we wished for: five games, all with ranked teams, three fun table-setters, and the first two national semifinal games in FBS history. So grab your hangover cure of choice, and let’s look at the most important questions for each of January 1’s five bowls.

January 1 kicks off with a battle between run-heavy teams with defenses that weren’t as bad as they showed at the end of the year.

However, losses to Georgia, Texas A&M and Mississippi State had the Tigers out of playoff contention heading into the annual Iron Bowl. In that game, the offense exploded for 44 points and 630 yards, but the defense imploded in a 55-44 loss. Defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson lost his job the next day, and Will Muschamp was named his successor.

Date and time: Thursday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET

Assuming are about 300 eaters among the players, coaches, staff, etc., each person would have a chance to take on 12 pounds. That’s just an outrageous amount of food. Everyone better be hungry.

UPDATE: It appears the eating is going well.

The SEC’s recent domination of postseason play is pretty widely known. Until Florida State beat Auburn last season, the conference had produced the last seven national champions in a row, and these numbers show just how dominant the SEC has been since 2007.

The only other conference with a winning record in January bowls during that timeframe is the Pac-12, with less than a quarter of the games the SEC has played. Sure, the SEC is getting more opportunities in marquee bowl games than the other conferences, but they’re also doing a much better job of taking advantage of them.

But of the 13 players targeted more than 130 times, only two (Cooper and ECU’s Justin Hardy) had a catch rate higher than 71 percent, and only four (Cooper, FSU’s Rashad Greene, Arizona State’s Jaelen Strong, and UMass’ Tajae Sharpe) averaged more than 14 yards per catch. Only one did both. And in the SEC, no less.

Only two true wide receivers have won the Heisman Trophy. Tim Brown raced past Syracuse quarterback Don McPherson and Holy Cross do-everything Gordie Lockbaum in 1987 to become Notre Dame’s seventh Heisman winner, and in 1991 Desmond Howard became Michigan’s second winner, destroying any and all comers; he swept all six regions of the voting and ended up with 2,077 points, 1,574 more than runner-up Casey Weldon.

Gary Andersen is leaving Wisconsin to take the head coaching job at Oregon State, according to the Portland Tribune and other sources. The move is something of shock, as Andersen had only been in Madison for two years and had the program running fairly smoothly. He’s taking over Mike Riley, who left Corvallis after 14 years to take the Nebraska job.

Andersen went 19-7 in two season at the helm in Madison, and won the Big Ten West this past year. Before that, he spent four years in charge at Utah State, compiling a 26-24 record that included a WAC title in 2012, which was previously unthinkable at that school.

The 2014 Outback Bowl is upon us, and it’s taken a preeminent place in this year’s bowl rotation as one of the top bowl games that won’t feature one of the four national semifinalists. It’s among a simultaneous triple-header of bowls — Outback, Capital One and Cotton — on New Year’s Day you can surf through before the two national semifinals, the Rose and Sugar bowls, kick off later in the day.

Date and time: Thursday, Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET