Bowl Season: Trick Plays and Haymakers

“There are too many bowl games” is a take you will not find at Kentucky Sports Radio. Bowl season is college football in the most ridiculous manner possible. This most recent Saturday fulfilled KSR’s motto and much, much more.

Cinderblocks and Sucker Punches

If you listen to 11 Personnel, you know how much Adam Luckett and I enjoy the program Chris Creighton has built in Ypsilanti. Eastern Michigan has steered so hard into the blue collar skid, they painted their turf gray to resemble “The Factory” they call home. Before each game, the team busts through a wall of cinderblocks. Those blocks made the road trip to the 68 Ventures Bowl.

Eastern Michigan brought their wall of cinder blocks to Mobile for the 68 Ventures Bowl. (Theyre real cinder blocks! I picked one up!) pic.twitter.com/At8rpmodzy

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) December 24, 2023

There were 69 points scored in the 68 Ventures Bowl and most of them came from the South Alabama Jaguars. Apparently one Eagle wasn’t too happy with how things unfolded during the 59-10 beatdown, so he ended the game with a sucker punch.

best angle i’ve seen yet, credit to south_alabamian on tik tok pic.twitter.com/2i6MbOYIeu

— sean (@jagsfbguy) December 24, 2023

A Long Run by a Kicker

Butch Jones won the Championship of Life, but he did not win the Camelia Bowl. After an atrocious start to his tenure at Arkansas State, the former Tennessee coach got the Red Wolves back into the postseason with a 6-6 record. It will not be a winning season thanks in part to a fun trick play.

Kanon Woodill has only made one 49-yard field goal in his career. When he lined up for his second one, nobody was on the left side of the line of scrimmage. Northern Illinois executed the fake to perfection, resulting in a 32-yard touchdown run.

That was the last Northern Illinois score of the day. Arkansas State rallied an punched one into the end zone with less than two minutes to play. The two-point conversion failed, giving quarterback Rocky Lombardi a 21-19 send off for his seventh college football season.

More Bowl Game Trick Plays

The Birmingham Bowl had as many trick plays (3) as interim head coaches and backup QBs (3). Did you know it’s legal to snap the ball sideways? I did not until Duke ran this bizarre two-point conversion.

Later in the game, Troy tried to run a double-pass to Chris Lewis. When that failed, they called another trick play right after it. This time the throwback to the left tackle was executed to perfection for a Thicc Six.

That trick play made it a one-score game. The Trojans got the ball back, but their chance for an equalizer was short-lived. Duke sealed the 17-10 win with an interception.

Bowl season is a beautiful mess and it’s just getting started.