To wrap up the 2023 college football bowl season, excluding next week’s National Championship, the New Year’s Six bowls were full of utter blowouts as well as some of the best football games played this season.
Both College Football Playoff semi-finals were electric, coming down to the last plays and ending with the higher seeds winning with elite defensive stops. All four teams looked like they deserved to be in contention for the title.
As Michigan and Washington continue their undefeated seasons, only one game separates the 2023 seasons being nothing more than a footnote in the grand history of the college football landscape and the beginning of the 2024 season’s offseason.
Fiesta Bowl – Oregon vs Liberty
In Bo Nix’s final game of his illustrious college career, he balled out and finished his Oregon tenure as one of the better quarterbacks in the program’s history. Against an outmatched Liberty defense, he went 28-of-35 through the air and threw for 363 yards and five TDs.
From the jump, the Ducks were clearly the better team and they even looked like a team that was good enough to be in the College Football Playoff. If not for Washington spoiling their season, Oregon could have been the undefeated squad looking to send the Pac-12 out with a title.
As a team, Oregon totaled 584 total yards to their opposition’s 294. On both sides of the ball, they looked like a much better team. In a world of an expanded playoff, they would be a threat to run the table and this game proved it.
Scoring 28 points in the second quarter, Oregon dominated Liberty 45-6.
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl – Iowa vs Tennessee
Another NY6 bowl, another absolute blowout. Despite making just his first start, Tennessee’s Nico Iamaleava significantly outplayed his counterpart at QB. Even though he just had 151 yards and one passing TD, it was still nearly 100 more yards than Iowa’s Deacon Hill.
The Volunteers defense shut out the Hawkeyes, holding them to just 173 total yards and only 2-of-15 on converting third-down plays. Not looking like a Conference runner-up, Iowa looked like a much worse team compared to the Volunteers.
A 35-0 victory for Tennessee was proof that conferences are not built the same way; some have much more depth than the others.
Rose Bowl – Michigan vs Alabama
To kickstart the College Football Playoff, Michigan and Alabama put on a show in Pasadena, California. It started off rough for the Wolverines as J.J. McCarthy looked to have thrown an interception on the first play from scrimmage. While overturned, the Michigan offense still went three-and-out on their first drive.
Capitalizing on a strong start, Alabama scored first to take a 7-0 lead. Michigan responded and had a 13-10 lead entering the second half, but their third-quarter performance left a lot to be desired.
Special teams haunted the Wolverines. Several muffed punts and bad punting of their own accord, as well as both a missed extra point and field goal, looked to be the nail in the coffin of their season. But, as time was ticking down, McCarthy and Blake Corum led a huge drive to tie the game up with under two minutes remaining.
After stopping Jalen Milroe and the Crimson Tide offense, the game was headed to overtime. Corum only needed two plays to rush for a TD, bringing his game totals to 83 yards and one TD, setting the career rushing TD record for Michigan football.
Alabama got down to inside the five-yard line, a fourth and goal play to keep their season alive. Milroe took a low snap and ran forward — straight into his offensive line. Falling down, Michigan won the Rose Bowl and punched their ticket into the National Championship game.
McCarthy had 221 yards and three passing TDs, leading the Michigan comeback to win 27-20 and win the program’s first playoff game.
Sugar Bowl – Washington vs Texas
After an overtime thriller that came down to the final play, it would be fair to assume the other semifinal matchup would not be able to live up to the same hype. However, it did. Washington and Texas were tied 7-7 after one quarter, 21-21 at half and were one play away from a huge upset.
The Huskies won 37-31, but the game could have been put away much earlier. Texas did not get the ball going in the third quarter as Washington out-scored the Longhorns 10-0 and looked like the much better team.
Over the course of the entire game, Michael Penix Jr. wowed the football world with beautiful deep throws with consistency, firing lasers through the Texas defense and dicing up long drives. He had 430 yards and two TDs during the win, but it looked like he had an even better statistical output than that.
Dillon Johnson fought through injuries to run in two scores for UW, but his availability and production in the upcoming title game is up in question.
For Texas, Quinn Ewers had several balls batted down at the line of scrimmage as the Huskies front seven consistently read what he was trying to do. Despite looking outmatched, they had one play to silence the critics.
With exactly one second left on the clock, UW’s defensive back Elijah Jackson batted the ball away to secure the win for the undefeated Huskies, continuing their NCAA-best winning streak.
A 37-31 win solidified the championship as the two undefeated teams at the top of the standings, perfectly setting up a fantastic game to conclude the 2023 season and send out the Pac-12 Conference.
