Florida State vs. Houston, 2015 Peach Bowl results: Coogs finish best year in school history

TV ratings for the College Football Playoff were down massively, 1.) because the games were blowouts and 2.) because of the foolish decision to move the games from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve.

ESPN, which has the rights to the Playoff games as well as the four other New Year’s Six games, knew this could happen. It tried to move the Playoff games to Jan. 2 for this year. It was rebuffed by the conferences, because of pre-existing contracts and a desire to keep the bowls with long-standing traditions of playing on New Year’s Day happy.

Here’s a look at Florida State’s average yards per play in 10-play chunks from Thursday’s Peach Bowl.

At the time Sean Maguire got hurt, FSU had averaged 9.5 yards per play with eight gains of two or fewer yards but three of 31 or more. The Seminoles were creating a pretty inefficient, big-play dependent profile, and it’s difficult to score too many points like that -- after all, these three big gains had resulted in a field goal to date, and FSU trailed 7-3. Still, the explosiveness potential was there, and Dalvin Cook hadn’t even gotten rolling yet.

College football coaches will do just about anything to gain a recruiting advantage. Coming off as the cool coach can actually be a major boost in helping secure commitments. Few are cooler than Tom Herman who drops Drake and Future references right in the middle of a press conference answer like it’s nothing.

The only way Herman could be any cooler is if he said that while wearing the diamond grill he just got with Paul Wall.

Florida State pooched their final kick of the Peach Bowl, and it didn’t work out well. The kick went for 47 yards, and Houston’s Steven Dunbar ran it back 37 yards, leaving the Cougars with less than half the field to go en route to their game-sealing touchdown.

It seemed like a strange call for Jimbo Fisher to make. That was because he didn’t actually make it. After the game, Fisher said it was simply a mishit kick by Roberto Aguayo. Fisher was not thrilled by it.

When you defeat Florida State in a bowl game, how should you celebrate it? Tomahawk chopping, of course. In the final minutes before their 38-24 Peach Bowl win over the Seminoles, Houston Cougars fans did their version of the chop. A lot of them are kind of half-assing it to spite FSU. And then there’s, like, that one guy in the back who’s either doing a sideways version of the chop, or he’s just waving his arm.

No. 18 Houston was a significant underdog against No. 9 Florida State in the Peach Bowl. The advanced stats predicted a two-touchdown FSU blowout. But it turns out no one was ready for the 12-1 Cougars -- especially not the Seminoles.

Houston ran out to an early lead and then held off a strong Seminole comeback in a monumental 38-24 Peach Bowl victory. All-AAC quarterback Greg Ward Jr. carved up Florida State with his arm and legs, springing for 305 total yards and three touchdowns against a stout FSU defense. No team in the nation had scored more than 24 points against the Seminoles in 2015 until the Cougars rolled through them on New Year’s Eve. The win was Houston’s first bowl victory over a top-10 team since 1980.

Also, here’s Houston’s head coach Tom Herman and his actual, rapper-approved grill, with some new jewelry we’ve given him.

Florida State defensive back Nate Andrews got to show all of America his butt. After breaking up a pass, he was backpedaling in celebration when his butt came cheek-to-cheek with a camera. It wasn’t all butts and laughs for Andrews. He reportedly twisted his ankle after this butt shot.

It is not Florida State’s day at the Peach Bowl, and it’s especially not quarterback Sean Maguire’s day, who was carted off earlier in the game, then sent back in to play. The Houston Cougars are leading, thanks in part to Maguire getting picked off by them.

At one point, after an interception, Jimbo Fisher asked Maguire what he was doing. Cameras didn’t catch Maguire’s lips, but all that needed to be said was a sad, limping throwing gesture, like he’s spritzing water on a cat with his fingers.

That’s the 230-pound Terrance Smith trying to make a valiant play on Houston’s Greg Ward Jr., with Houston tight end Hayden Daniels in the way. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a defender try to vault over a 6’4 blocker before, but now that we know it doesn’t work, we know not to try it going forward.

The halftime score is 21-3 in favor of Houston, but you knew that just from looking at this GIF, didn’t you?

Houston came to the Peach Bowl with fire in their hearts, ice in their grills, and trick plays in their playbooks. The Cougars dialed up this pretty wide receiver reverse pass by high school quarterback DeMarcus Ayers to take a 14-3 lead on Florida State:

It looks like the first option on the play was to hit quarterback Greg Ward Jr. on a wheel route, but that was covered. Ayers stayed locked on Ward until the last secod, leading the defense to ignore Chance Allen in the end zone. When Ayers hurled the ball back against his body at the last second, there was nobody within a mile of Allen.

No. 9 Florida State junior starting quarterback Sean Maguire was carted off in the first quarter of the Peach Bowl against No. 18 Houston. Maguire took a hit low while scrambling out of bounds and landed awkwardly. After limping to the sideline, he was carted off and seen pointing toward his left ankle.

The score at the time was 7-3, Cougars.

Florida State came into the Peach Bowl without backup QB Everett Golson, who missed the game for personal reasons. And early in the first quarter, starting quarterback Sean Maguire suffered a leg injury.

On first down, Cosentino dropped back to pass, didn’t see anybody open, and was hapless against Houston’s pass rush, taking a big sack for a loss of nine.

We’ve got broken ankles at the Peach Bowl, courtesy of Florida State receiver Travis Rudolph. After the catch, he took one little stutter step that left the Houston defensive back looking like he was playing a game of Twister. The defense buttoned up after this play and held the Seminoles to a missed field goal.

Memphis ball snatcher Equipment managers, game balls and middle fingers

Kickoff between the Cougars and Seminoles is set for noon ET, with streaming available through WatchESPN. The game’s also on ESPN.

Houston replaced former head coach Tony Levine with Tom Herman during the offseason, and the effects were immediate. The Cougars won their first 10 games of the season, the first 10-0 start for Houston since 2011, and took the American Athletic Conference title with a 24-13 win over Temple.

There’s nothing like a David vs. Goliath bowl matchup, and we’ll get one on New Year’s Eve when No. 9 Florida State takes on the 18th-ranked Houston Cougars in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.

The Seminoles (10-2, 6-2 in the ACC) come in at No. 5 in the S&P+ rankings and riding a three-game winning streak since their loss to top-ranked Clemson. The Noles’ headliner will be sophomore tailback Dalvin Cook, who led the ACC with 1,658 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns. Junior quarterback Sean Maguire has come on strong down the stretch as well, with 8 touchdowns against just two interceptions in his last five games since replacing Everett Golson as the starter. On defense, the Noles allowed just 15.8 points per game, led by senior linebacker Reggie Northrup and freshman safety Derwin James.

Tom Herman’s first Houston team emulated the program he left a year ago.

The Cougars play like Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes. They operate a run-heavy system with a dual-threat quarterback, they control field position, they finish drives well and they attack the ball on defense. While the AAC has not had a pleasant bowl season, it was still by far the best mid-major conference, and despite dealing with a quarterback injury late in the year (really emulating last year’s Buckeyes), they survived to take the conference title with a 12-1 record.

Tom Herman is the coach of the Houston Cougars. Houston is the world’s capital of diamond grills. Herman had previously promised his team that he would get a diamond grill if it won the American Athletic Conference championship... and it did! So this happened:

He’s didn’t just get a diamond grill. He’s got a diamond grill WITH RAPPER PAUL WALL. The AAC champ meets the People’s Champ! Paul is a fan of Tom:

The Florida State Seminoles are 8-3 straight up and 8-2-1 against the spread in their last 11 bowl appearances. The Seminoles will be looking for their seventh bowl win in their last eight bowl games this Thursday afternoon against the Houston Cougars in the Peach Bowl.

Florida State is a seven-point betting favorite at the Georgia Dome according to sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The betting favorite is just 3-7 ATS over the last 10 Peach Bowls.

Ty and Dan run through the other bowl games on and around New Year’s Day and break down an awesome Notre Dame-Ohio State match-up, a surefire Oregon-TCU shootout, and a painful showdown between Michigan and Florida. Plus, BattleFrog’s return on investment, Chick-fil-A’s cheapskate maneuver and a secretly decent gift package from the Liberty Bowl.

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