2014 Hawai’i Bowl results: Rice stomps Fresno State

My experience with flight delays involves sitting on the concourse floor next to the only available outlet, drinking a $12 bottle of water from Hudson News and praying for any information or my own timely demise.

The people flying back from the Hawaii Bowl were treated to Rice safety Gabe Baker singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. He killed it, too.

Let’s look at the key numbers from Wednesday’s bowl action.

Including Wednesday night’s 30-6 beatdown at the hands of Rice, Fresno State’s last two trips to the Hawaii Bowl have finished with losses by a combined score of 73-16.

Rice running back Jayson Carter is 4’9 and 140 pounds. On Wednesday, he carried the ball for the second time in his career, getting an attempt during Rice’s Hawaii Bowl win against Fresno State:

That wasn’t a gentle carry, either. He bounced off quite a hard hit.

Rice finishes its 2014 season at 8-5, its third consecutive winning season under coach David Bailiff. Fresno State ends at 6-8.

Even without noted Cousin Eddie lookalike Dan Mullen around, college football’s got Christmas Vacation on the brain this Christmas Eve:

How do you make a bowl game with a losing record? If you’re Fresno State, you go 6-6 in the regular season, win your division, and fall to Boise State in the conference title game. The Bulldogs will face Rice in the Hawai’i Bowl Wednesday, with two porous defenses facing off in what could be a high-scoring affair.

Fresno State’s season was one of streaks. They opened the season with three straight losses (USC, Utah, Nebraska), followed that up with three straight wins (Southern Utah, New Mexico, San Diego State), followed that up with three straight losses (UNLV, Boise State, Wyoming) and finished with three straight wins (San Jose State, Nevada, Hawaii) to grab bowl eligibility and the divisional crown.

All we want for Christmas Eve are points. Can Wednesday’s non-mainland bowl games provide them? Here are a couple of keys for Wednesday’s action.

What can CMU do that others couldn’t?

The BYU Cougars and Memphis Tigers meet in the Miami Beach Bowl at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, Dec. 22. Allowing only 17.1 points per game on defense this season, Memphis finished the year ranked fifth behind only Ole Miss, Stanford, LSU and Alabama in scoring defense.

BYU is 4-1 straight up and against the spread in its last five bowl games, while Memphis will be making its first bowl appearance since 2008. The Tigers are a 2-point favorite.

Aloha, and welcome to the 2014 Hawai’i Bowl! What could be better than a little Christmas Eve football in paradise? Fresno State and Rice will be enjoying a tropical holiday this year, according to ESPN.

The Hawai’i Bowl has been around since 2002 and actually draws some pretty big-name programs. Arizona State played in Honolulu in 2006, Boise State played there in 2007 and last year, where they faced Oregon State, and even Notre Dame made the trip in 2008. Last year’s tilt between the Broncos and Beavers wasn’t too intriguing, though it did include a quarterback being sent home from practices after allegedly peeing off a balcony. Don’t pee off the balconies, kids.