2015 Potato Bowl: Akron beats Utah State for first bowl win

It’s time for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl! It is a wonderful event. The winner actually gets a bowl of potatoes from Idaho, which are famous.

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl day means we get images of the Famous Idaho Potato mascot, a dancing, always smiling anthropomorphic potato.

It was a pretty damn good year for the MAC. Toledo beat a couple of power-conference teams (but didn’t win its own division, which gives the impression of solid depth), and more importantly, fewer teams were outright bad.

Only one MAC team ranked worse than 111th in the F/+ rankings heading into bowl season, compared to six Conference USA teams, four Sun Belt teams, and two each from the Mountain West and American.

There are some wrong-headed people who like to talk about things like there being “too many bowls.” To those people, I submit the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

It has the best mascot of any bowl, Spuddy Buddy:

Utah State made a noble effort in the final minutes, but Akron won the first bowl game in school history with a 23-21 victory in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

The Aggies scored a touchdown in the final two minutes to get the game within a score, but failed to recover the onside kick attempt. The Zips were able to run out most of the clock, and Chuckie Keeton couldn’t find the magic on a last-second lateral play attempt.

A potential Utah State game-tying touchdown during the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl was ruled incomplete. Despite the announcers assuming it would be reviewed -- and perhaps overturned -- it was never reviewed. Instead, Utah State could not convert on a fake field goal and came up empty.

Here’s a look at the play:

Utah State punter Aaron Dalton just won the Internet MVP of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl after a beautiful punt that pinned Akron inside the 5-yard line. JUST LOOK AT THIS F***ING PUNT!

Alright, it took a nice bounce. Then it looks like it’s going to bounce out of bounds, but it just ... keeps ... rolling.

A MAC team and a Mountain West team playing on a blue field, with a dancing potato on the sideline. This ... this is bowl season. This is what makes college football the most difficult sport to explain to non-Americans.

The last time Akron was in a bowl game, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was wrapping up its domination of the box office. J.D. Brookhart led the Zips on a surprising run to the 2005 MAC title; Akron finished the regular season 5-3 in MAC play, but late poundings of Ohio and Kent got the job done.

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