2015 Citrus Bowl results: Missouri squeezes out Minnesota

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.

Missouri struggled to get its offense going early on thanks to two Maty Mauk interceptions, but it settled down after the first quarter and methodically steamrolled through a strong Minnesota defense to win the Citrus Bowl 33-17.

Mauk shook off the slow start to throw two touchdowns and run for another, and two Missouri running backs exceeded 100 yards on the ground. Marcus Murphy was phenomenal, rushing for 157 yards on 12 carries -- an impressive 13.1 yards per carry.

Admittedly, the second hurdle wasn’t as majestic as the first hurdle, but we won’t hold that against him.

Happy New Year!

RavenousUte [1:24 AM]:

Come on now, Missouri! You’re going to let the Big Ten out-eat you? That’s the least-SEC thing a team has ever done since, well, last Saturday when LSU lost to Notre Dame in an eating challenge.

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).

This year’s Citrus Bowl — the first year the name has been reclaimed from Capital One — is one of surprises. Before the season, hardly anyone could have expected Minnesota and Missouri to finish with as good of seasons as they did, and now they’ll get the chance to prove how good they really are when they square off in Orlando.

Minnesota finished with the same record as last year (8-4), but the Gophers had impressive wins against division foes Iowa and Nebraska, and the losses were respectable other than the loss to Illinois, coming against Ohio State, Wisconsin and TCU.

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.

Perhaps more important than his outfit is the face of DT Josh Augusta here:

We’re not totally clear about why Gary is so festive or why Maty Mauk has a camo helmet. What we do know is we’re posting this song:

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.

It was never a BCS bowl game and it was passed over as one of the national semifinal sites for the new College Football Playoff, but there is no denying that the Citrus Bowl, which is returning to its old name after a stint as the Capital One Bowl, is one of the most anticipated bowl games of the season each year.

Here is everything you need to know for this year’s game.