All 2014-15 College Football Bowl Season Team
Hope you held on to the college football season tight. Hope you told it how much you love it, because now it's gone—for the next seven or so months, that is.
Now that Ohio State has finished running the ball down Oregon's throat, the bowl season is complete. It's time to reflect back and announce Bleacher Report's All-Bowl-Season Team.
Keep in mind the players selected didn't necessarily have to have the most eye-popping stats, though those don't hurt. Rather, this is a list of players with highlight-reel plays and big moments.
Which players made this season's all-bowl team? Check out the answers in the following slides, which will no doubt be agreed upon by everyone.
Quarterback: Cardale Jones, Ohio State
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Make three starts and lead your team to a national title? Sure, that would probably garner some first-team all-bowl selection consideration.
That's what Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones did, and he's been nothing short of brilliant throughout the playoffs. All the redshirt sophomore did was rack up 566 all-purpose yards and three total touchdowns. More importantly, he took a great opportunity and turned it into a national championship.
There are others that have put up more eye-popping stats, but none of them have led their team to a title despite entering the season as the No. 3 quarterback.
Second-Team Quarterback: Cooper Rush, Central Michigan. In the Bahamas Bowl loss to Western Kentucky: 28-of-45 for 493 yards, 7 TDs, 1 INT.
Running Back: Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State
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The easy choice here would be to take Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon, who ran for 251 yards against Auburn in the Outback Bowl. (See below.)
That said, Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott put up some outlandish numbers of his own. In the Buckeyes' 42-35 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Elliott, who has operated in the shadow of players like Gordon, Tevin Coleman and Ameer Abdullah, rushed for 230 yards at 11.5 yards per carry and two touchdowns.
And against what was the No. 1 rush defense in college football, no less.
Elliott followed that performance up with 246 yards, the most ever in a national championship game, and four touchdowns against Oregon.
Second-Team Running Back: Melvin Gordon, Wisconsin, who had 34 rushes for 251 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-31 win over Auburn in the Outback Bowl.
Wide Receiver: Tommy Shuler, Marshall
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When you have 18 receptions in a game, yeah, you're going to get noticed.
And Marshall wide receiver Tommy Shuler deserves to be noticed. The senior had 18 grabs for 185 yards and a touchdown in Marshall's 52-23 Boca Raton Bowl win over Northern Illinois. That nearly doubled his previous season-high for receptions, which was 10 (against UAB and Western Kentucky).
Shuler isn't the biggest guy (5'7", 188 pounds per his bio), but he's been productive for the Thundering Herd over his career. That's a great way to end it.
Second-Team Wide Receiver: KD Cannon, Baylor. The true freshman ended his season in style with eight catches for 197 yards and two touchdowns. However, the Bears blew a 20-point lead in a 42-41 loss to Michigan State.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Tight End: Maxx Williams, Minnesota
4 of 10I'll be forthright about this. Minnesota tight end Maxx Williams had perhaps the best individual play of the bowl season. Williams, he of the 250-pound physique, hurdled not one, but two Missouri defenders in the Citrus Bowl while scoring a 54-yard touchdown.
Mizzou would go on to win 33-17, but you can hardly fault Williams, who led all receivers with seven catches for 98 yards.
Williams has been spectacular all season (36 catches, 569 yards and eight touchdowns) and wisely opted to take his game to the NFL.
If that's the last memory we have of Williams as a college player, well, that's not too shabby.
Second-Team Tight End: Stanford tight end Austin Hooper, with five catches for 71 yards in the Foster Farms Bowl against Maryland.
Offensive Line: Georgia
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Georgia running back Nick Chubb didn't make this year's all-bowl team, so giving the Georgia offensive line a spot is the least we can do. After all, Chubb ran 33 times for 266 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a 37-14 win over Louisville in the Belk Bowl.
In all, Georgia rushed 53 times for 292 yards. That wouldn't have been possible without some big uglies paving the way.
The Bulldogs probably didn't need to run a pass play at all—okay, they did, but you get the point—yet still managed to average 8.3 yards per attempt.
In other words, Georgia was able to do pretty much whatever it wanted.
Second-Team Offensive Line: Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets went 9-of-13 on third-down attempts, averaged 7.4 yards per rush, paved the way for 577 total yards of offense and led seven touchdown drives on 12 attempts. The Yellow Jackets beat Mississippi State 49-34 in the Orange Bowl.
Defensive Tackle: James Castleman, Oklahoma State
6 of 10We here at Bleacher Report are big proponents of fat-guy touchdowns—fat-guy anything, really.
Yeah, Oklahoma State defensive tackle James Castleman had three tackles, including a sack, in the Pokes' 30-22 win over Washington in the Cactus Bowl, but that doesn't move the meter. You know what does? A one-yard touchdown run as a Wildcat quarterback and 48-yard reception.
Both highlights can be seen in the video above. There really is nothing quite like watching a 300-pound man run gracefully down the field. It might as well be ballet.
“He’s got great hands,” offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich told Kyle Fredrickson of The Oklahoman. “I don’t know how many times we ran that, six times, in bowl practice and he was six-for-six. He actually did one one-handed and actually went to the ground for another one.”
Second-Team Defensive Tackle: Malcom Brown, Texas. The junior had eight tackles, including one for a loss, and two quarterback hurries in the Longhorns' 31-7 loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl.
Defensive End: Dante Fowler, Florida
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Did you know that Freddy Krueger's character from A Nightmare on Elm Street was inspired by Florida defensive end Dante Fowler? You can have that blatantly-false-but-still-makes-you-think piece of trivia for free.
Fowler was constantly in the backfield in Florida's 28-20 win over East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl with three sacks for a loss of 22 yards. 2014 may have been a disappointing season for the Gators, but Fowler has been one of the few bright spots. Against the Pirates, Fowler showed why he's one of the top outside linebackers for the upcoming draft, per B/R's Matt Miller.
Second-Team Defensive End: Vic Beasley, Clemson. Beasley has one of the quickest first steps of anyone at his position. In the Russell Athletic Bowl win over Oklahoma, Beasley had three tackles for loss, a sack and a pass breakup.
Linebacker
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Oklahoma may have been blown out in the Russell Athletic Bowl, but not through the fault of linebacker Eric Striker.
The junior was everywhere for the Sooners against Clemson with 12 tackles, three of which went for a loss and one of which was a sack. He also had a pass breakup and quarterback hurry to pad his stat sheet.
Oklahoma's defense didn't get the job done, and it's fair to question the Sooners' motivation. However, Striker did his job, which is to get pressure in the backfield.
Second-Team Linebacker: Nick Vigil, Utah State. The sophomore had seven tackles plus 34 rushing yards and a touchdown in a two-way effort against UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl.
Cornerback: Cyrus Jones, Alabama
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Alabama wasn't able to come away with a Sugar Bowl win over Ohio State, but Crimson Tide cornerback Cyrus Jones was all over the place.
The junior had four pass breakups and an interception that he returned 32 yards on top of his two tackles. Though Buckeyes deep threat Devin Smith racked up 87 yards receiving, he did so on just two catches, and quarterback Cardale Jones averaged 6.9 yards per pass attempt.
Alabama's pass defense wasn't great, but not a total liability, either. Jones was an active member of the Tide secondary despite the result.
Second-Team Cornerback: P.J. Williams, Florida State, who had 14 tackles in a 59-20 loss to Oregon. Williams announced last week on his Twitter account that he was declaring for the NFL draft. He finished second on the team with 10 pass breakups.
Safety: Chris Hackett, TCU
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How dominant was TCU's defense in a 42-3 win over Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl? Safety Chris Hackett, with an interception and a pair of tackles plus being involved in countless other plays, wasn't even the Horned Frogs' standout player.
But when it comes to nominations for all-bowl performances, Hackett showed why he's one of the best at his position anywhere in college football. Hackett helped limit the Rebels to 120 yards passing and three interceptions. In all, Ole Miss had a mere 129 yards of offense.
Hackett, understandably, wanted to end on that note and has declared for the 2015 NFL draft.
Second-Team Safety: Damarious Randall, Arizona State, who had five tackles and a pass breakup in a 36-31 win over Duke in the Sun Bowl.
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
