Bowl Season Winners and Losers: USC begins and ends 2024 with wins over SEC teams in Vegas

Bowl season is in full swing as New Year’s Day approaches. With Saturday’s bowling schedule being the busiest of the year, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at the winners and losers of the postseason so far.

winner

USC: The Trojans capped an otherwise disappointing season with wins over SEC teams in Las Vegas. USC defeated LSU in its season opener at Allegiant Stadium in Week 1 and capped it off with a 35-31 win over Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl on Friday night.

QB Jayden Maiava threw three interceptions but hit Kyle Ford with eight seconds left for the game-winning score after Marcel Reed gave Texas A&M a three-point lead with 1:49 left.

The win means USC finishes the season 7-6 and avoids the first losing season of Lincoln Riley’s head coaching career. However, Riley was not traded to Los Angeles for 7-6. Given USC’s performance in 2024 and the team’s departures via the transfer portal, he has a major rebuilding task ahead of him.

Vanderbilt: The team that was widely expected to finish last in the SEC instead had a winning record. The Commodores beat Georgia Tech 35-27 in the Birmingham Bowl on Friday, thanks to 21 straight points in the second half.

QB Diego Pavia threw three touchdowns and will return for another season thanks to his win on the court. Pavia successfully sued to gain another year of eligibility after playing in junior college and plans to return to Nashville along with assistant coach Jerry Kill and tight end Eli Stowers. Stowers, who played with Pavia under Kill at New Mexico State in 2023, had 49 catches for 638 yards and five TDs in 2024 and caught four passes for 55 yards and a TD in the bowl game.

Marine: The Midshipmen stopped Oklahoma with a two-point conversion with six seconds left to beat the Sooners 21-20 in the Armed Forces Bowl. The win moved Navy to 10-3 and gave the Midshipmen their first 10-win season since an 11-2 season in 2019.

Although Army won the AAC, Navy boasts a 31-13 victory over the Black Knights and a 34-7 victory over Air Force as a service academy.

Syracuse QB Kyle McCord: Who could have predicted before the season that Kyle McCord would set the ACC record for passing yards in 2024? The former Ohio State QB finished the season with 4,779 yards after throwing for 453 yards and five touchdowns in the Orange’s 52-35 Holiday Bowl victory over Washington State.

McCord completed 391 of 592 passes for 34 TDs and 12 interceptions this season, and five of those picks came in his nightmarish game against Pitt in October. McCord will finish the season with the most completions, pass attempts and yards of any QB this season after totaling 3,170 throws in 12 games in his only season as the Buckeyes’ starter in 2023.

UConn: The Huskies defeated North Carolina 27-14 in the Fenway Bowl on Saturday to finish the season 9-4. It’s a remarkable season for one of the few independent teams in college football. The nine wins represent a program record and only three UConn teams have finished a season with as many wins.

The success also comes as UConn hasn’t had a winning season since 2010, when Randy Edsall was in the final season of his first stint with the team.

loser

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi: Do you think it’s easier to score a touchdown from one or three meters away? Narduzzi chose the latter option in his team’s 48-46 six-overtime loss to Toledo in the GameAbove Sports Bowl.

In case you need a refresher, college football’s overtime rules mean that any game that goes beyond two overtimes becomes a duel with two-pointers from the 3-yard line.

After Toledo kicked a 33-yard field goal to open the second overtime, Pitt reached the 1-yard line and Gavin Bartholomew was stopped for no gain on third down. Instead of going for the win from one yard out, Narduzzi had Ben Sauls kick a 19-yard field goal for the tie and a third overtime. Four overtimes later, Pitt suffered its sixth straight loss and finished the season at 7-6.

Tennessee: Phew, it was a really bad evening for the volunteers on December 21st. Tennessee quickly fell behind 21-0 to Ohio State in its 42-17 College Football Playoff loss to the Buckeyes. Ohio State’s defense overwhelmed Tennessee’s offense and the Vols’ biggest offensive threat was the legs of QB Nico Iamaleava after star RB Dylan Sampson suffered a lower-body injury.

Tennessee must figure out the offensive inconsistency that plagued it in the second half of the season if it wants to get back into the CFP in 2025.

Oklahoma: The Sooners ended their first season in the SEC with the school’s second losing season in three years under Brent Venables. Oklahoma hadn’t had a losing season since its third straight in 1998 under John Blake.

The offense has been the problem in 2024 and the Sooners hope that will be fixed with the arrival of Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle and quarterback John Mateer. However, the schedule is still difficult. OU will play Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama next season and will still have Ole Miss, Missouri and LSU.

Tulane: It was a brutal end to the season for the Green Wave. Tulane missed the chance to host the AAC title game and potentially reach the College Football Playoff with a Thanksgiving night home loss to Memphis. Then the Green Wave fell at Army and lost the conference title game. Starting QB Darian Mensah then moved to Duke.

Then Tulane lost 33-8 to Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl. And now RB Makhi Hughes is in the transfer portal. He had 1,401 yards and 15 rushing TDs this season.

North Carolina: Bill Belichick still has some work to do. The Tar Heels finished the season 6-7 and on a three-game losing streak with a loss to UConn. Yes, UNC was without star RB Omarion Hampton, but the Tar Heels had just 206 total yards and were 0 of 9 on third down. North Carolina’s only offensive TD of the game came with less than seven minutes left, when UConn was 20 had a point lead.