The ultimate Saturday of the faculty soccer season is within the books. From Ole Miss’ setting a program report for wins to Florida State making the mistaken form of historical past in its Orange Bowl loss, that is one of the best and worst of the day.
BEST
Ole Miss: The Rebels are partying tonight prefer it’s … 2023? Their 38-25 win over Penn State within the Peach Bowl gave Ole Miss 11 wins for the primary time in program historical past.
With quarterback Jaxson Dart, who completed with 379 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday, doubtlessly returning in 2024 for his senior yr and a formidable incoming switch portal class, Ole Miss needs to be a powerful contender to make it into the expanded 12-team Faculty Soccer Playoff subsequent season.
WORST
Florida State: Geez, Florida State. We perceive you are still grieving the CFP snub, however you did not have to embarrass your self on nationwide tv.
The Seminoles have been laughed out of the Orange Bowl by halftime of their 63-3 loss to Georgia, the most important margin of defeat in bowl recreation historical past. The Bulldogs, which had a much bigger gripe than the Seminoles of being neglected of the playoff, did not spend the previous month pouting and threatening lawsuits.
As a substitute, Georgia returned to work and confirmed how championship-worthy groups reply to adversity. Florida State ought to take notes.
BEST
Georgia: Groups may cease eager to play the Bulldogs in a bowl recreation after Saturday’s shellacking. Mixed with final yr’s CFP championship recreation blowout over TCU, Georgia has outscored its previous two bowl-game opponents 128-10.
Towards Florida State, Georgia had 36 first downs and 675 yards of offense, together with 376 speeding yards. Defensively, the Bulldogs compelled held the Seminoles to 209 whole yards and compelled 4 turnovers.
WORST
Auburn: The Tigers’ ugly 31-13 Music Metropolis Bowl loss to Maryland was the third consecutive loss to finish the season for Auburn after they started the season 6-4. Additionally included in that stretch was a dreadful 31-10 house loss to Convention USA New Mexico State and the heartbreaking 27-24 Iron Bowl loss to Alabama.
The bowl defeat additionally offers this system a third-consecutive dropping season, its longest stretch since 1975-77.
BEST
Maryland: All Mike Locksley does is win bowl video games. The Terrapins full-time head coach for the previous 5 seasons (he additionally served as interim head coach for six video games in 2015) has received three consecutive bowls, together with the Pinstripe Bowl in 2021 and Duke’s Mayo Bowl in 2022, the longest streak in program historical past.
WORST
Penn State: The Nittany Lions as soon as once more failed to indicate up for a giant recreation of their loss to Ole Miss. Head coach James Franklin is 4-16 as Penn State head coach towards Michigan and Ohio State, the Huge Ten’s greatest groups, and Saturday’s end result confirmed this system is not even on the extent of the third (probably fourth) greatest SEC staff.
BEST/WORST
CFP committee: On the one hand, Florida State’s blowout loss justified the committee’s determination to drop the Seminoles out of the highest 4 of the ultimate rankings. On the opposite, the end result revealed the thoughtlessness with which it manufactured the final High 25 of the yr.
Did the committee significantly assume Florida State — ranked fifth — was higher than Georgia — ranked sixth? Additionally, how might anybody who watched Saturday’s recreation say with a straight face that the Bulldogs aren’t one of many 4 greatest groups within the nation?
The CFP committee, that is who, proving how unserious it really is.
