Notre Dame, Miami Of Ohio, South Florida And Army All Win Bowl Victories, Become Rising Stars
Every college football bowl season brings surprise teams that triumph and become the rising stars to watch next season. Count Notre Dame, Miami of Ohio, South Florida and Army among those teams this year. All won bowl victories and showed great promise in future years.
The most prominent of these four rising football programs is one of the most storied in college football history - Notre Dame.
There was much speculation when Brian Kelly took over as head coach for the Fighting Irish this year. Not because his name was Kelly (which is Irish), or that he was Irish (which he is), or that he was Catholic (which he is), but because of his great success at building programs at a lower level than Notre Dame.
He certainly paid his dues before arriving at the Notre Dame campus adjacent to South Bend, Indiana.
Kelly was 41-2 in his last 3 years at Grand Valley State University, winning 2 NCAA Division II National Championships and finishing as Runner-Up in the 3rd.
He took a stuck-in-the-mud program at Central Michigan and in his 3rd year went 9-4, winning the Mid-American Conference Championship as the Chippewas went to the Motor City Bowl.
In 4 years at Cincinnati, he went 34-6, won 2 Big East Conference titles and went to 4 bowl games.
This season he led Notre Dame to an 8-5 record and trounced Miami Florida 33-17 in the Sun Bowl, becoming the first Fighting Irish coach to win a bowl game in his first season - a feat that got by such great Notre Dame coaches as Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz. Is Brian Kelly a rising star? Yes, he is all of that and more.
Miami of Ohio, a mid-major team in the Mid-American Conference, registered the best turnaround season in college football history, going from 1-11 in 2009 to 10-4 this year, becoming the first team in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history to win 10 games in one season after losing 10.
The Redhawks not only won the Mid-American title, they topped off their amazing year by taking it to Middle Tennessee, 35-21, in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Even more surprising, they did it with an interim head coach (Lance Guidry) and a freshman quarterback (Austin Boucher).
Head coach Mike Haywood decided to move on to Pittsburgh in December, leaving Guidry to lead the team. The Redhawks won their last 6 games. Haywood headed to Pitt and promptly got fired before he started after being arrested on a felony domestic violence charge. Good for Guidry, bad for Haywood.
Boucher, a redshirt freshman, was tapped for duty when starting QB Zac Dysert suffered a lacerated spleen in November. Boucher did just fine, going 22-of-35 (63%) for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Redhawks win over Middle Tennessee.
Miami's Dayonne Nunley recovered a fumble and had a 52-yard pick-six interception return. Thomas Merriweather rushed for 100 yards and scored 2 TDs.
Middle Tennessee's night could be summed up by saying the Blue Raiders committed 5 turnovers.
Skip Holtz (son of Lou Holtz) has an outstanding first season as head coach of the South Florida Bulls. He replaced a popular coach, had a rocky 3-3 start but finished strong by beating the Clemson Tigers 31-26 in the Meineke Bowl.
Bull QB B. J. Daniels threw 2 touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the way. Tiger QB Kyle Parker left at halftime with a cracked rib.
South Florida was able to notch its 5th straight 8-win season, and earn its first bowl victory over a team from a BCS automatic-qualifying league. Clemson finished its season at 6-7, its first losing season in 11 years.
Rich Ellerson is a second-year coach at Army, which has been the weakest of the military schools in recent years - the Air Force and Navy teams have shined brighter. Ellerson had 25 seniors and his own brand of success in mind for this season. His leadership helped Army to an upset win over Southern Methodist, 16-14, in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Josh McNary picked up a fumble and returned it 55 yards to score, and the Black Knight defense held on to give Army (7-6) its first winning season in 14 long years. Senior linebacker Stephen Anderson, Army's player of the game, had 14 tackles, an interception and a sack. Army's defense held the line in great military tradition; the Black Knights led 16-zip at the half and made it stick.
Ellerson inherited a team that had three consecutive 3-9 seasons and had won only 30 games since its 1996 Independence Bowl appearance that was its last winning season. The bowl win this year was Army's first since the 1985 Peach Bowl, 25 years ago.
Army will lose a lot of seniors, but it is clear that Ellerson is not going to be just another head coach at Army, and the Black Knights have already figured that out.
The most prominent of these four rising football programs is one of the most storied in college football history - Notre Dame.
There was much speculation when Brian Kelly took over as head coach for the Fighting Irish this year. Not because his name was Kelly (which is Irish), or that he was Irish (which he is), or that he was Catholic (which he is), but because of his great success at building programs at a lower level than Notre Dame.
He certainly paid his dues before arriving at the Notre Dame campus adjacent to South Bend, Indiana.
Kelly was 41-2 in his last 3 years at Grand Valley State University, winning 2 NCAA Division II National Championships and finishing as Runner-Up in the 3rd.
He took a stuck-in-the-mud program at Central Michigan and in his 3rd year went 9-4, winning the Mid-American Conference Championship as the Chippewas went to the Motor City Bowl.
In 4 years at Cincinnati, he went 34-6, won 2 Big East Conference titles and went to 4 bowl games.
This season he led Notre Dame to an 8-5 record and trounced Miami Florida 33-17 in the Sun Bowl, becoming the first Fighting Irish coach to win a bowl game in his first season - a feat that got by such great Notre Dame coaches as Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian and Lou Holtz. Is Brian Kelly a rising star? Yes, he is all of that and more.
Miami of Ohio, a mid-major team in the Mid-American Conference, registered the best turnaround season in college football history, going from 1-11 in 2009 to 10-4 this year, becoming the first team in Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) history to win 10 games in one season after losing 10.
The Redhawks not only won the Mid-American title, they topped off their amazing year by taking it to Middle Tennessee, 35-21, in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Even more surprising, they did it with an interim head coach (Lance Guidry) and a freshman quarterback (Austin Boucher).
Head coach Mike Haywood decided to move on to Pittsburgh in December, leaving Guidry to lead the team. The Redhawks won their last 6 games. Haywood headed to Pitt and promptly got fired before he started after being arrested on a felony domestic violence charge. Good for Guidry, bad for Haywood.
Boucher, a redshirt freshman, was tapped for duty when starting QB Zac Dysert suffered a lacerated spleen in November. Boucher did just fine, going 22-of-35 (63%) for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Redhawks win over Middle Tennessee.
Miami's Dayonne Nunley recovered a fumble and had a 52-yard pick-six interception return. Thomas Merriweather rushed for 100 yards and scored 2 TDs.
Middle Tennessee's night could be summed up by saying the Blue Raiders committed 5 turnovers.
Skip Holtz (son of Lou Holtz) has an outstanding first season as head coach of the South Florida Bulls. He replaced a popular coach, had a rocky 3-3 start but finished strong by beating the Clemson Tigers 31-26 in the Meineke Bowl.
Bull QB B. J. Daniels threw 2 touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the way. Tiger QB Kyle Parker left at halftime with a cracked rib.
South Florida was able to notch its 5th straight 8-win season, and earn its first bowl victory over a team from a BCS automatic-qualifying league. Clemson finished its season at 6-7, its first losing season in 11 years.
Rich Ellerson is a second-year coach at Army, which has been the weakest of the military schools in recent years - the Air Force and Navy teams have shined brighter. Ellerson had 25 seniors and his own brand of success in mind for this season. His leadership helped Army to an upset win over Southern Methodist, 16-14, in the Armed Forces Bowl.
Josh McNary picked up a fumble and returned it 55 yards to score, and the Black Knight defense held on to give Army (7-6) its first winning season in 14 long years. Senior linebacker Stephen Anderson, Army's player of the game, had 14 tackles, an interception and a sack. Army's defense held the line in great military tradition; the Black Knights led 16-zip at the half and made it stick.
Ellerson inherited a team that had three consecutive 3-9 seasons and had won only 30 games since its 1996 Independence Bowl appearance that was its last winning season. The bowl win this year was Army's first since the 1985 Peach Bowl, 25 years ago.
Army will lose a lot of seniors, but it is clear that Ellerson is not going to be just another head coach at Army, and the Black Knights have already figured that out.
