2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl results: Louisiana Tech romps past Illinois

Here are the big numbers from Friday’s bowl wins by NC State, Louisiana Tech, and Rutgers.

So how did the Illini lose by 17 points? Blown opportunities. Illinois created nine scoring opportunities (first downs inside the opponent’s 40), scored two touchdowns, settled for four field goals (missing two), lost a fumble, turned the ball over on downs, and punted once. Points per opportunity: a ghastly 2.0.

Louisiana Tech held off an Illinois rally on Friday, pulling away late to win the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl, 35-18, their first bowl win since 2008.

Louisiana Tech improves to 9-5 while Illinois, playing in their first bowl game since 2011, finishes 6-7.

Everything is bigger in Texas, which means by some transitive logic it’s also home to the worst kicking we’ve seen in a long time. First Louisiana Tech’s kicker slid on his butt during the opening kickoff, then the Bulldogs changed kickers and this happened.

The terrible kicking continued. It was Illinois’ turn.

Via ESPN

Kicking a football is a three-step process.

Boxing Day represents the true beginning of the power conferences’ bowl schedule. Utah was the only power team to play before Christmas; four play among today’s three bowls. Let’s take a look at the key questions for each game.

One of the primary purposes of the stats I create for Football Outsiders is the separation of efficiency and explosiveness. We measure efficiency with Success Rate and the magnitude of the successful plays with IsoPPP. Both the Illinois and Louisiana Tech offenses rank better in IsoPPP than success rate, and both defenses rank better in success rate than IsoPPP.

Before this season, not many analysts predicted either of these two teams would be in a bowl game. Illinois and Louisiana Tech will square off in the Heart of Dallas Bowl Friday, with one taking home an important postseason victory.

Illinois head coach Tim Beckman entered the season on the hot seat after six wins in his first two seasons, but earned at least another year with the Illini’s 6-6 season. Four of the wins came against bowl teams: Western Kentucky, Texas State, Minnesota and Penn State. Illinois had two win their final two games against Penn State and at Northwestern to make the postseason, and they were able to do just that.

The Heart of Dallas Bowl is one of the newer postseason games on the slate. It was created in 2011 in the hopes of hosting a Big 12 vs. Big Ten matchup each December, though that was only the case in the inaugural season when teams from those conferences have struggled to win enough games in order to qualify. If recent history is any indication, this year’s Heart of Dallas Bowl will be a blowout: in four games, the winning team has won by an average of 22 points. Hopefully this one, featuring Illinois and Louisiana Tech, will be a little closer.

Here is all you need to know about this year’s contest in Dallas.