5 Teams Who Will Ride Bowl-Season Momentum into Huge 2015 Campaigns
For all the talk about meaningless games during the college football bowl season, entering the offseason with a victory and trophy in tow is much better than the alternative. While winning in December or even January gives no guarantees for the following September, it still provides a nice boost to victorious programs and gives fans a glimpse of which teams are poised to do big things eight months later.
Other, perhaps more important factors include returning starters, coaching changes and immediate-impact recruits, but don't discount the feeling a big-time bowl victory can provide.
It gives coaches evidence of what hard work can lead to, and it leaves the taste of a win over a nonconference opponent, which is typically the sort of game players prepare for to open up the following year.
We're looking for teams who left you impressed following a bowl victory, something that isn't easy to do when you're on your fourth cup of eggnog with relatives yammering away in one ear. These teams are obvious choices to become real players on the national scene in 2015.
Take a look at five programs who will ride bowl-season momentum into something special when September rolls around.
Ohio State Buckeyes
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Despite one game remaining on its schedule, there's virtually nothing that could happen to Ohio State on Monday night against Oregon that would leave the Buckeyes devoid of positive momentum entering the offseason.
What this team has endured to reach the biggest stage of the sport is legendary, and doing so with a fairly young roster means the 2015 Buckeyes could be scary good.
Start with Ezekiel Elliott, a sophomore running back with 1,632 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground who's also coming off back-to-back 200-yard games against Wisconsin and Alabama.
Then we go to the position generating the most discussion: quarterback. Preseason Heisman Trophy candidate Braxton Miller was lost before the season, and all backup J.T. Barrett did was step in and account for nearly 4,000 yards of total offense and 45 touchdowns.
Barrett went down against Michigan, and all third-stringer Cardale Jones has done is lead the Buckeyes to a 59-0 win over Wisconsin and a victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. If this is what Barrett and Jones were able to do with their names unexpectedly called, imagine what they could be with an offseason to prepare as the starter?
On defense, you'll see the return of future top-10 NFL draft pick Joey Bosa, linebackers Darron Lee and Raekwon McMillan and defensive backs Vonn Bell and Eli Apple.
Monday night matters, because there's a national championship at stake. But regardless of the result, Ohio State will be an absolute nightmare to prepare for in 2015, and with an impressive victory over Alabama under its belt, the momentum heading into next season will be unmatched anywhere else.
TCU Horned Frogs
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TCU was going to be a team to watch in 2015 regardless of what occurred in the Peach Bowl vs. Ole Miss. The Horned Frogs could have lost 42-3 and still started out in the Top 10.
Instead, Gary Patterson coached his squad to a 42-3 win over the Rebels in a dominating effort from start to finish. This was the same Ole Miss team, you'll recall, that led the nation in scoring defense at 16 points per game, beat Alabama in the regular season and allowed an opponent to score more than 20 points on just two occasions.
With a 42-0 lead at the end of the third quarter, TCU might've ended up with 60 had it kept its foot on the gas. Quarterback Trevone Boykin ended up with just 187 yards through the air to go along with three scores and three picks, but he finished the season with 41 touchdowns and more than 4,600 yards of total offense, and he'll be back in 2015.
It was one of the biggest wins in program history, and it came against an SEC team from a division many thought was one of the best ever. It showed that the Horned Frogs were clearly one of the top four teams in the country (although Ohio State proved that as well, and the committee couldn't leave out an undefeated Florida State team, overrated or not), and it will give the program added respect when the 2015 campaign commences.
The playoff committee won't consider anything from previous years in its evaluation, nor should it. But it's hard not to look at this TCU team as it stands today and label it a contender for next year's national title.
To beat a quality team in such resounding fashion was the biggest statement anyone outside the playoff could have made, and it gives the Horned Frogs huge momentum moving forward.
Tennessee Volunteers
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For a couple seasons now, Tennessee has been the "just wait" team, as in just wait a couple years, and the Volunteers bandwagon will be at capacity and moving forward at warp speed. Reading between the lines a bit has revealed merit in that assessment, but only recently have on-field results made the future of Tennessee football look bright.
A 45-28 victory over Iowa in the TaxSlayer Bowl was one such result, and the game itself wasn't nearly as close as the score indicates. The Volunteers jumped out to a 42-7 lead before three Hawkeyes touchdowns—including two in the final three-and-a-half minutes—brought the victory margin down to 17.
Tennessee will have 18 starters returning next season, tied with UCLA, Cal and Vanderbilt for most in the nation. Perhaps most importantly, it has found its quarterback, and one of the scariest things for for the rest of the SEC is when a dormant giant wakes up and has a signal-caller in place.
Joshua Dobbs didn't step onto the field and play like Vince Young right away, but his mobility and poise made it clear that he was the answer at the position. In a 45-42 win at South Carolina, Dobbs threw for 301 yards and two scores while rushing for another 166 and three more touchdowns.
Losses to Oklahoma and Mississippi State were ugly, but the Volunteers otherwise stayed competitive despite the young roster. Folks will point to Iowa as not exactly being the cream of the crop of nonconference competition, but when was the last time Tennessee played an important game outside the SEC and thoroughly dominated?
Because it has so many players coming back, recruiting is hotter than ever (currently ranked third in 247sports' class rankings). Furthermore, because it finished the year off with an impressive win, Tennessee has incredible momentum heading into the offseason and will be a team to keep an eye on in the SEC East.
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Clemson Tigers
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Based solely on the potential of quarterback Deshaun Watson, you'd be silly not to have Clemson as a team to watch for in 2015. But Watson didn't play in the Tigers' bowl game against Oklahoma, and if you watched Cole Stoudt at any point in the season, you'd think that the odds of beating the Sooners were dicey at best.
Instead, Stoudt went 26-of-36 for 319 yards and three scores in leading the Tigers to a 40-6 win over the hapless Sooners. Now inject Watson into the offense, and presto, you have a team worth getting excited about.
As a true freshman, Watson played in just eight games but threw 14 touchdowns to just two interceptions and had five more scores on the ground. He's accurate, has a strong arm and exudes poise well beyond his years.
Add in the fact that Clemson's top three pass-catchers—who accounted for 2,326 yards and 17 touchdowns receiving—will be back along with freshman running back Wayne Gallman, and the future is very bright indeed.
The obvious counterargument for Clemson's gaining momentum during bowl season would be pointing out that Oklahoma was an absolute shell of itself for the final half of the 2014 season. The Sooners blew a big lead to Oklahoma State in the regular-season finale, so seeing them get shellacked in a bowl game didn't send shock waves around the country.
But this is also a Clemson team that struggled at times with Stoudt at the helm, and there was zero struggling against the Sooners. Regardless of the current state of Oklahoma, you don't just show up and beat a team with that much talent by 34 points.
It should give Dabo Swinney and the rest of the coaching staff something to point toward when inspiring and motivating the players in the offseason. "If we can do that when we put it all together, what do you think we can accomplish with eight months to prepare for the next game?"
Arkansas Razorbacks
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After Tennessee, the next SEC program many are pointing to as being a monster on the rise is Arkansas, which beat up on Texas 31-7 in the Texas Bowl. But unlike with Tennessee, the Razorbacks have done a lot more on the field to give credence to that notion.
The Volunteers hired Butch Jones and recruited like crazy, and all of a sudden, the program was thought to be on the rise. And it is, but the Razorbacks hired Bielema and got quite a bit of laughter in response. But Bielema built up his offense behind a mammoth line, strengthened the backfield with Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins and went to work.
Out of the six games the Razorbacks lost in 2014, only two were by more than a touchdown. Arkansas lost to Alabama by one point and on the road at Mississippi State and Missouri by a combined 14 points. The team won three of its final four games including 17-0 and 30-0 wins over LSU and Ole Miss in back-to-back weeks.
The defense gave up fewer than 20 points per game, and the offense used a ground-and-pound style to churn clock and wear out the opponent. Williams ended the year with 1,190 yards and 12 touchdowns, while Collins had 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns. Both will be in the backfield once again in 2015.
The missing element is explosiveness on offense, and while Bielema has proved to be more than adept at building a team with a physical identity, being able to hit big plays and land daggers will be crucial.
But the Razorbacks ended the year by beating the snot out of the Longhorns, allowing just 59 yards of total offense. It was the perfect look into what this program has become and what it will be when play resumes next season.
All stats via cfbstats.com. Returning starters via Phil Steele.
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