Friday college football bowls: VT, Texas Tech rally to victories; Ohio cruises

2. All-time meetings between Texas Tech and Minnesota. The first took place in the 2006 Insight Bowl, and Tech unleashed a 31-point comeback in 23 minutes to eventually win the game in overtime, 44-41. The second took place on Saturday night in Houston and only featured eight lead changes and a late, 10-point Tech surge for a 34-31 Red Raider win. Let’s just go ahead and legislate that these two teams play every year. Minnesota was not very good for the season as a whole (honestly, I didn’t realize the Gophers were bowl-eligible until the bowl pairings were announced; it completely snuck up on me), and Tech lost four of five to finish the regular season, but none of that mattered at Reliant Stadium. The two teams put on a gritty, interesting show. Again.

5. Virginia Tech fumbles. Bad snaps, bad exchanges, the Hokies made their mistakes in a variety of ways. It seemed that after every good play the Hokies’ offense made, it was followed by a penalty and a drive-killing mistake. But they won, in part because they recovered five of the game’s seven fumbles overall. A bad snap led to a Rutgers defensive touchdown on the second play of the game, but for most of the rest of the game, when the ball hit the ground (and it hit the ground a lot), it bounced the Hokies’ way. Or, as Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples put it in one of the best columns he has ever written:

Texas Tech scored 10 points in the final 1:10 of the fourth quarter to come back and defeat Minnesota, 34-31, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas.

The teams went back-and-forth in a high-scoring first half, with Texas Tech leading 24-17 at halftime. While there were 41 total points scored and six lead changes in the first half, the second half turned into a defensive battle. Minnesota scored 14 straight points to take a 31-24 lead, and appeared to be in position for the win.

Right in front of an official.

Predictably, he was ejected from the game. He may also have cost his team the lead.

And once you make the call (with complete and total confidence), you run with that call as hard and as fast as you can. Whatever conclusion you draw as to what Manning’s doing here is absolutely the only thing he could possibly be doing.

It’s probably best if you assume the worst. Assume malice, while you’re at it. Do all this based entirely on an internet image that doesn’t show any context, any object of his gesture or really any clearly defined thing that the subject is doing.

It’s not quite Georgia facing a 3rd and 57, but the Meineke Car Care Bowl saw fit to bless us with a sequence of events were facing 3rd and 49. Thank you, based football gods. This is the best belated Christmas gift we could have hoped for.

They, uh ... they didn’t convert.

The Scarlet Knights led 10-0 after the first fifteen minutes with linebacker Khaseem Greene providing Rutgers with their only touchdown of the day off a fumble recovery. Following that mini-outburst though, both teams were silent in the second and third quarters, combining for a third-down conversion rate of 8-for-40 throughout the game.

Box Score Hero: Calling anybody from this game a “hero” would be a stretch so lets just give this award to Hokies punter A.J. Hughes who averaged 41.7 yards on his whopping 11 attempts.

At this point, one had to recognize what a great job Virginia Tech’s defense has done on the night. Rutgers’ offense is nothing special (unless you’re Arkansas), but still -- holding a bowl team to three offensive points despite getting zero help from your own offense is an achievement. Especially since it was Exum’s big return that put VPI in position to strike the end zone.

If VT can win, a crate of game balls to that D.

Virginia Tech’s first snap whistled past Logan Thomas, with an apparent miscommunication the culprit. Greene closed on Thomas in the end zone, bringing him down for what looked like a two-pointer. But officials ruled the ball had bobbled out, and it was Greene who was able to capitalize.

But upon closer inspection, it’s a wonder Virginia Tech didn’t challenge the ruling. Thomas’ knee looks to be down before the ball comes out. We don’t think this was a fumble.

Ohio finished the day with more than 500 yards of total offense; Tettleton threw for more than 300 yards, and Blankenship had a 100-yard rushing day. Those two helped the Bobcats set some new Independence Bowl records:

Ohio picked up where it left off after the break -- running back Beau Blankenship scored two touchdowns to extend the Bobcats’ lead to 38-7 with more than nine minutes to play in the third quarter. From there, Ohio was able to salt away the victory, as ULM was not able to mount a rally.

Three turnovers, a blocked field goal and 239 total first-half yards by Ohio’s Tyler Tettleton had ULM looking way up at the scoreboard in their first-ever bowl game. It’s only gotten worse since then.

Shreveport does that to people, ma’am.

Independence Bowl, 2 p.m. EST, ESPN

Ohio vs. Louisiana-Monroe

R.J. Young (MLB, ULM, Sr.). ULM’s defense wasn’t particularly good, either, ranking just 85th in Def. F/+. But they were fun to watch, anyway, playing out of an aggressive 3-3-5 look and logging 75 tackles for loss (while leaking quite a few big plays along the way). Young is the quarterback of the unit, so to speak; with 10.5 tackles for loss (none of which were of the sack variety), he is the key to a downright decent run defense (65th in Rushing S&P+). ULM tends to fall apart on passing downs, but they could force quite a few second- and third-and-longs against the Ohio run game.

1. Because Todd Berry deserves your attention. ULM returned to the FBS ranks in 1994 and never threatened to become anything other than an also-ran in an iffy Sun Belt conference. The Warhawks never once finished with a winning record before Berry took over, making more news for their incredibly low revenue than their play on the field. Berry, who bombed in four years at Army (he went 5-42 in four seasons as head coach at West Point), took on this job with both defiance and a deft sense of reality. Knowing he couldn’t go about business in a normal way, he installed an aggressive, unpredictable, underdog-friendly spread offense and a 3-3-5 defense. His Warhawks were one point from bowl eligibility in 2010 but fell victim to injuries and tight losses (0-3 in one-possession games) in falling to 4-8 in 2011. But despite another run of injuries, it has come together nicely for ULM in 2012, and Barry deserves an incredible amount of credit for that.

Logan Thomas (QB, Virginia Tech, Jr.). It was pretty easy to see a tough year for Thomas coming. Here’s what I wrote in my 2012 Virginia Tech preview:

Sure enough, Tech struggled to run the ball for what felt like the first time in decades, the line couldn’t block anybody, and Thomas spent much of the season attempting to force the action with few reliable weapons around him. He had two semi-efficient big-play receivers at his disposal (Marcus Davis and Corey Fuller combined to catch 88 of 154 passes for 1,660 yards and 10 touchdowns), but he didn’t always have time to wait for them to get open. The result: 22 sacks, 14 interceptions, 23 total turnovers, and about six punts per game. That said, Thomas is still big, still athletic, and has still had his moments in 2012. Against a typically inefficient Rutgers offense, the Hokies probably won’t need to get too much from Thomas to win this game, but they will need a little bit.

Michael Carter (CB, Minnesota, Sr.). A part-time contributor for three seasons, Carter has made the most of extensive playing time this season; the senior from Pompano Beach, Florida, picked off two passes and broke up 14 others. He almost single-handedly defeated Purdue on October 27; he logged 5.5 tackles, returned an interception for a touchdown and broke up six other passes in a 44-28 win. Texas Tech basically has two No. 1 receivers, and it is unclear which he will spend most of his time battling, but this late bloomer should expect to hold his own. That might -- might -- go for Minnesota’s defense as a whole, too. It is a Gopher strength. Of course, throwing is also a Tech strength.

Darric Moard (WR, Texas Tech, Jr. and Sr.). Okay, fine, this is two guys: junior Darrin Moore (948 yards, 8.5 per target, 72 percent catch rate, 13 touchdowns) and senior Eric Ward (974 yards, 68 percent catch rate, 8.9 per target, 11 touchdowns). But it is almost impossible to differentiate between the two of them, so we’ll count them as one singular, fantastic receiver who catches, on average, about 13 of 19 passes in a given game for about 161 yards and two or three touchdowns. Whoever is the No. 2 receiver here is just about the best No. 2 receiver in college football. Carter will be assigned to one of them. The other should have a significant advantage over whichever Minnesota defender is battling them.

A team that lost its last two games to miss out on a BCS bowl bid goes against a team that had to win its last two games just to become bowl-eligible when Rutgers faces Virginia Tech in the Russell Athletic Bowl. The early Russell Athletic Bowl odds listed Virginia Tech as a one-point favorite; the Hokies have since been bet up to -2.5.

The Scarlet Knights and the Hokies clash Friday, Dec. 28 in Orlando (5:30 pm ET, ESPN). Formerly the Champs Sports Bowl, ACC teams have won eight of the past nine editions of this game, according to the bowl history article.

Virginia Tech has not been shy about wearing new and...interesting...helmets this season. Recall that earlier this year, they took the field wearing these “Hokie tracks” helmets. With the Russell Athletic Bowl matchup against Rutgers approaching, Virginia Tech is at it once again, this time by joining the matte-colored helmets movement. This is a sneak peek at the helmets the team will wear against Rutgers.

This isn’t the first time that Virginia Tech has worn special helmets for its bowl game. In the 2011 Orange Bowl loss to Stanford, the Hokies wore these “pumpkin” helmets. Virginia Tech isn’t the only school debuting special uniforms for its bowl game. The Cincinnati Bearcats will wear specially designed checkered helmets against Duke in the Belk Bowl, while Michigan is set to wear an entirely new uniform for its Outback Bowl matchup with South Carolina.