Texas A&M: 2021 Orange Bowl Champions

A sturdy, reliable axe is an effective tool to cut through obstructions.

But Achane-saw can slice through blockage with lightning speed.

That was demonstrated in the fourth quarter of Texas A&M’s electrifying 41-27 Orange Bowl victory over North Carolina on Saturday night.

The 13,737 at Hard Rock Stadium watching freshman Devon Achane saw the Aggies’ present and the future race to the end zone in a dead heat and stop the upset-minded Tar Heels stone cold.

In a span of just over two minutes, Achane — the fabulously fleet-footed freshman from Fort Bend Marshall — scored on a 76-yard touchdown explosion and a powerful 1-yard touchdown to turn Aggie lamentations into celebrations.

"He’s got a chance to be a very special player,” A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said in an obvious understatement.

He already is.

Frankly, the No. 5 Aggies (9-1) did not play well for most of the first three quarters.

The offensive line uncharacteristically struggled to protect quarterback Kellen Mond. A plague of penalties nullified several big plays and an end-zone interception. North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell frequently found holes in the A&M secondary. He threw three touchdown passes.

That resulted in A&M trailing 27-20 after Howell threw a 75-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter. The Aggies answered to tie the game at 27 on a Kellen Mond touchdown run, but they were forced to punt on their following possession.

The Tar Heels (8-4) had momentum. A&M starting running back Isaiah Spiller was sidelined with a foot injury. Less than five minutes remained. And a potential lead for the Aggies was a long 76 yards away.

Then, in a flash, everything A-changed.

Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Achane rushed for 140 yards and was named Orange Bowl MVP.

Mond handed off to Achane, who swept around the left end on a counter. He picked up a block from pulling tight end Jalen Wydermyer but seemed to trip over Wydermyer’s foot.

However, Achane regained his footing, shrugged off a tackle, accelerated like a rocket and blazed down the sideline, leaving Tar Heel tacklers in the dust.

Just like that, A&M surged to a 34-27 lead with 3:44 remaining.

“Jalen Wydermyer made a great block,” Achane said. “I was just following my block. They made it easy for me to do my job. I was tripping, and I almost fell. When I broke the tackle and looked up, there wasn’t nobody there. I knew, ‘Yes, this is a touchdown. Ain’t nobody catching me.’”

Nobody did. But in reaction to Achane’s spectacular sprint, the A&M defense seemed to catch some of that lightning.

“It gave us a boost,” sophomore defensive end DeMarvin Leal said. “We were trying to fight and fight and fight for that energy. As soon as that happened, you could feel that energy. Energy is so contagious. You could just feel that energy go through everybody. It was an amazing outcome.”

The Aggies defense gave up a 9-yard run on the first play of North Carolina’s ensuing possession. They did not allow a yard on the next three plays.

On fourth-and-1, freshman safety Antonio Johnson and senior tackle Jayden Peevy stopped North Carolina running back Josh Henderson for no gain.

A&M took over at the North Carolina 34-yard line. Achane immediately ran for 10 yards. Then for 23. On the next play, he scored from the 1-yard line with 1:38 remaining.


That was two touchdowns — and a two-touchdown lead — in just over two minutes.

The Aggie defense made it hard on Sam Howell late in the contest.

The defense then smothered Howell, sacking him twice for 18 yards in losses, to close out A&M’s eighth consecutive victory and seventh straight by a double-digit margin.

Of course, some still won’t be impressed. The national media, which has consistently dismissed A&M’s accomplishments, will argue the win was tainted because four North Carolina starters opted out.

That doesn’t matter, though. The Aggies could finish as high as No. 3 in the final national rankings. A No. 4 finish would be their highest final ranking since winning the 1939 national championship.

That’s the past. Aggies should focus more on the future.

A&M made amazing strides in its third season under Fisher. All indications are that the Aggies will continue trending upward.

Their big-play threats are underclassmen. Ainias Smith caught six passes for 125 yards. He’s a sophomore. So is Wydermyer. So is Spiller, who scored the Aggies' first two touchdowns and passed the 1,000-yard mark for the season on his fourth carry of the game.

Spiller might have been in the game in the fourth quarter had he not sustained a foot injury earlier.

“He was banged up a little bit,” Fisher said of Spiller. “We put (Achane) in, and then he hit it really good two or three times. I said, ‘He's doing pretty good,’ so we kept it him in.”

Fisher might have a problem when the Aggies open next season. Spiller is a reliable, effective running back. He’s like a razor-sharp axe.

Achane is a machine. Achane-saw. How will carries be shared? How will Fisher maximize all the big-play ability at his disposal?

“I’ll take care of that,” Fisher said. “It’s a good problem to have.”

Iowa State: 2021 Fiesta Bowl Champions

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The weight of disappointment and failure has gotten heavier just about every year for the better part of a century. Yes, there were moments of success and glimmers of hope, but, for the most part, year after cursed year, the Iowa State football program added to its collection of miseries.

Given 100 years to accumulate, the heap of losses and humiliations buries a program in rubble that blots out the light toward a path out and starves the oxygen needed to endeavor toward an escape, if one could even be seen.

Iowa State football spent something close to 100 years as an unsolvable problem, its own history weighing it down from finding a new future. Even if someone could start to maneuver a way out, to clear a path, how long would it take to unburden all of failure?

It took Matt Campbell five years.

Twelfth-ranked Iowa State defeated Oregon 34-17 on Saturday to win the Fiesta Bowl, cement the 2020 season as the best in program history and deliver on Campbell’s promise to change the culture of Cyclone football from laughingstock to national relevance.

“We're always going to have to go up the rough side of the mountain at Iowa State, just because that's who we are. That's how the program is,” Campbell said. “And yet, when you have elite character, elite leadership, great things can happen. And that's really what we've been able to develop now in our fifth year.”

The team’s 9-3 record matches the most wins in a season in program history, while the victory over the Ducks represents the program’s first win in its first appearance in a New Year’s Six bowl game. All while managing the COVID-19 pandemic that has cost and upended lives across the globe and turned college sports into even messier beast to tame than it typically is.

“As coach (Matt) Campbell said, we were the laughingstock of the Big 12 at one point,” All-American running back Breece Hall said. “Just envisioning what coach Campbell thought that we could do here. That's the reason why I came here. To see what we accomplished today, it's Iowa State history.”

"History" is a tortured word at Iowa State, where a first bowl appearance didn’t happen until 1971 and the trophy case remains without a conference championship since 1912. Recent history was just as troublesome as the ancient, when Campbell took over a program in 2015 that had won eight games combined the previous three seasons. It didn’t get better when Campbell hit the recruiting trail after his first Cyclone team went 3-9.

Then, though, they began to break through.

This year’s senior class beat top-five teams and won the Liberty Bowl in 2017. The Cyclones went to bowl games and flirted with contending atop the conference in 2018 and 2019. Then, in 2020, it all came together in a way never before seen at Iowa State.

“We recruit all these guys with a hope and a dream,” Campbell said. “And then all of a sudden, we're 3-9 (in) Year 1. And I think it's so fitting that, as we leave here, and this senior class leaves here now 9-3, they really flipped the script the entire way. 

“Maybe for some programs, that's easy to do; but (people) know the history of this program for the last 100-plus years. It's not real easy to do here. And this group did it. This group literally rewrote the history books.”

Although Campbell sold players on a “home and a dream,” it was a well-articulated one.

“When he called me and said hey, ‘We're playing Big 12 football, we've got tools,’” quarterback Brock Purdy, an Arizona native, said. “It's not already made, but I wanted to help that out and get it to where it needed to be. And so that was really our conversations when he was recruiting me. 

“So here we are back at home in the Fiesta Bowl, and I think we're able to take the next step as a program. And we did that today.”

Five years in the making. No skipped steps. No instant success. Just consistent improvement with one historic reward at the end.

“This team literally became the best version of itself it could be,” Campbell said. “This 2020 Iowa State football team reached its full potential. There's not one regret. There's not one, man, woulda, coulda, shoulda. 

“This group's literally reached its full potential and become the best version of itself it can be.”

After a century, Iowa State has emerged from the debris of defeats and the wreckage of wretchedness. And they are standing not hobbled by the challenge, but strengthened by it. 

Ole Miss: 2021 Outback Bowl Champions

TAMPA, Fla. — Lane Kiffin ended his first season as Ole Miss coach with an exclamation point.

Ole Miss held off a late Indiana comeback to win the Outback Bowl, 26-20 on Saturday. The Rebels led by as many as 14 points before No. 11 Indiana (6-2) came back to tie the score, but quarterback Matt Corral led the Rebels on a quick scoring drive with under five minutes left to regain the lead. The defense forced a late turnover on downs to end the Hoosiers' late rally try.

Ole Miss finishes the season 5-5.

Here are five takeaways from the Rebels' win.

Where’s this defense been?

Ole Miss entered the game allowing more yards per game than any FBS team. This wasn’t a defense that looked comfortable slowing down winless Vanderbilt, let alone a top-25 opponent. But the Rebels did just that Saturday, holding Indiana to 20 points and 4.3 yards per play.

"I think we really limited explosive plays and made them drive the length of the field,"  Kiffin said. "We forced a long field goal and did a good job that way."

Sure, Indiana started a backup quarterback. But that same backup quarterback scored 14 points against Wisconsin, which owned the nation’s No. 1 total defense.

Ole Miss held Indiana to a paltry 141 yards and three points in the first half and intercepted one pass in the red zone to end a Hoosiers scoring threat. Though the tackle-for-loss and sack numbers weren’t high, the Rebels supplied consistent pressure off the edge, especially from senior Sam Williams. 

Oh, that defense

Ole Miss allowed more than 100 points across nine fourth quarters this season. Naturally, Indiana started scoring in bundles in the fourth quarter of this one. Ole Miss led by 14 points when the third quarter ended. By the time there were six minutes left in the game, the score was tied.

The Ole Miss defense still deserves some credit for playing the best three quarters it had all season to start the game. But for a team that has struggled to finish games all season, this was the worst possible scenario for a game to end.

Until it wasn't. The defense got the stop when it needed to in the final minutes, going back to the way it played in the first three quarters just like Kiffin advised them to in the huddle before the drive began.

"That's what we wanted," linebacker Jacquez Jones said after his 13-tackle performance. "We knew it was going to come down to us. That's what we wanted and I feel like we got. Big Sam (Williams), Ced (Johnson), all them boys rushing the quarterback, they couldn't block them boys."

No weapons, no problem

Corral played Saturday without most of his favorite targets. Wide receivers Elijah Moore and Braylon Sanders, tight end Kenny Yeboah and running back Jerrion Ealy all missed Saturday for various reasons. But Corral still managed to spread the ball well, picking apart the Indiana drop-eight zone and completing passes to eight different receivers. 

"We said 'Look around the country,' " Kiffin said. "'There are some teams that are stepping up with players out and there are teams that are making excuses.' We wanted to be that team that stepped up. It was awesome to see."

Corral struggled against drop-eight zone early in the season, particularly against Arkansas when he threw six interceptions. But Saturday, Corral used his check down options and short, timing throws to navigate the zone properly and slice without mistakes through an Indiana defense that led college football in interceptions this season.

Getting creative

Everyone notices when backup quarterback John Rhys Plumlee plays slot receiver. Plumlee caught five passes for 73 yards, ran once for four yards and completed a 4-yard pass.

But Ole Miss used a number of other converted or less-heralded players in creative ways Saturday, and all season. Converted running back Tylan Knight forced a third-quarter fumble and tight ends Casey Kelly and Chase Rogers caught nine passes after catching two combined in the first nine games. 

"These are guys that haven't played a lot, just like John at receiver, and they want to play more," Kiffin said. "Now they get a chance to play and they made plays today. It was awesome to see."

Fix the kicking

Kicker Luke Logan had one of his better games on the year, hitting two first-half field goals. But those field goals were from 26 and 24 yards out. He got another try from 37 yards to put Ole Miss up two scores in the fourth quarter but he couldn’t connect. Logan didn’t make a kick longer than 40 yards in either of the last two seasons despite being Ole Miss’ primary kicker.

Logan is a senior who can come back because of the NCAA’s eligibility rules for 2020-21. But Ole Miss needs an upgrade at that position if it wants to feel comfortable with leads.

Kentucky: 2021 Gator Bowl Champions

Despite its best efforts to give the game away down the stretch, Kentucky held on for its third straight postseason victory of the Mark Stoops era. UK withstood a series of self-inflicted errors to overcome N.C. State 23-21 in the 2020 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

Senior A.J. Rose rushed for a career-high 148 yards on just 12 carries, but 10 penalties for a total of 103 yards — including a trio of them in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter with UK clinging to a 16-14 advantage — kept the Wolfpack within striking distance throughout the second half after the Cats built a 13-0 lead before the break.

An interception off a deflected pass by Jamin Davis — his third of the season — gave way to a 26-yard touchdown run by Chris Rodriguez with 2:55 left. His second score more or less put the game out of reach for N.C. State, which was able to answer that touchdown with 1:10 remaining but couldn’t recover an onside kick.

“We just wanted to refuse to lose the game, honestly,” Davis said of the moments leading up to his interception. “We just wanted to keep our backs against the wall and let nobody take it from us. That’s the same thing that we’ve been preached to do all year, if the ball is in the air then it’s our ball. That was my mindset, to keep playing and ice the game.”

Terry Wilson, likely starting his final game as UK’s quarterback, finished 12 of 20 for 99 yards. He rushed for 14 yards on six carries.

Kentucky finished its season 5-6, and won a third bowl game in as many seasons for just the second time in school history (2006-2008 was the other time). This was its first postseason victory amid a pandemic, of course.

“It’s unfortunate that the season is over, but it felt good to end on that win like we did,” said Rose, who was named Kentucky’s MVP for the game. “… It’s been a long year, a tough year, due to these COVID restrictions and everything that’s going around, but I feel like we managed and did a great job of keeping players safe and keeping those around us safe.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Kentucky’s first drive ended in three points after it converted a fourth-and-1 on a Rodriguez rush to N.C. State’s 14-yard line. Wilson started 4-for-4 passing before missing short on a throw to Josh Ali in the end zone for a would-be touchdown right after that conversion, and the Cats eventually settled for a Matt Ruffolo field goal.

Brandin Echols quickly gave Kentucky the ball back after recording his first interception of the season and returning it to midfield. The Cats were unable to convert on fourth-and-1 this time, though, and turned the ball over to the Wolfpack at their own 29.

N.C. State followed with a short, fruitless drive of its own before each team had slightly longer possessions that ended without points. Kentucky broke the streak with a six-play, 79-yard streak down the field capped by a 4-yard touchdown run from Rodriguez.

The Wolfpack marched 52 yards on 14 plays but were forced to settle for a field-goal try from Kentucky’s 23; safety Ty Ajian got a finger on the ball as it went up and it fell a couple yards short as a result. A couple of big gains — a 31-yard burst from Rose and a 23-yard connection from Wilson to Keaton Upshaw — set Kentucky up in the red zone but it was only able to tack on a second field goal right before halftime.

A 30-yard kickoff return by Zonovan Knight put N.C. State at its own 32, from where it traveled to 23 before an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty forced a third-and-23 try. The Wolfpack got 13 yards back but Christopher Dunn was wide right on a 43-yard kick, leaving them scoreless. Kentucky didn’t travel far on its ensuing series before punting.

UK lost Echols for the game midway through the third quarter after he and teammate Vito Tisdale collided with one another while trying to tackle an N.C. State receiver. His exit left UK without a single cornerback who started a game during the regular season; Carrington Valentine started in place of Cedrick Dort, who was “medically unavailable” on Saturday. N.C. State finally got on the board on the drive where UK lost Echols, as Bailey Hockman hit C.J. Riley for a touchdown on a fourth-and-6 pass from UK’s 9-yard line.

Kentucky stalled out at the Wolfpack’s 44 but pinned them inside the 5-yard line on Max Duffy’s next punt. They didn’t get much further before punting to Ali, who caught it at UK’s 38. UK moved into N.C. State turf on its next trip but elected to punt on fourth-and-2 from State’s 40, and it was downed at the 13.

The Cats’ offense got back to action immediately after Yusuf Corker intercepted Hockman at N.C. State’s 42. A 27-yard rush by Rose set Kentucky up at the Wolfpack’s 3-yard line but the Cats couldn’t punch it in. Ruffolo went 3-for-3 on field-goal tries with a 20-yard kick to extend the lead to 16-7 with 5:45 left.

Two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and a late-hit penalty put N.C. State at UK’s 8, and Knight capitalized with a touchdown run to bring the Wolfpack within two at 16-14 less than a minute later. They halted Kentucky again but would never get closer than that margin.

ISML 2020: Rin Tohsaka Initiates Transition

ISML 2020: Rin Tohsaka Initiates Transition

By Jo-Ryan Salazar

The Bedlam on Baltic Avenue

January 3, 2021

At midnight JST on January 1, 2021, Violet Evergarden and Rimuru Tempest completed their one-year term as Saimoe and Deputy Saimoe Prime Minister, with Evergarden penning one of the tragic stories of the world, its long and arduous battle with the coronavirus pandemic. But as a general election was not held during 2020, Rin Tohsaka has been given temporary reins of government as Acting Saimoe Prime Minister until the general election takes place on the final day of the Eliminations Period of the 2020 International Saimoe League. That is a ways away however, as the Diamond Period just concluded Match Day 3. 

In a welcoming move, Sakuta Azusagawa has been named to assist with the transition process as Acting Deputy Saimoe Prime Minister. "I understand this is the very first time I have been in an office in any capacity, but due to the special circumstances that have taken place and that this government cannot continue without a leader on the male side, I will use this opportunity to get experience," Azusagawa said. "Hopefully I will earn the right to this leadership for good but I know that I have noble competition that want to be where I am right now."

In the Female Division, Mikoto Misaka routed Kuroko Shirai 4894-1774, Asuna Yuuki slahed past Sagiri Izumi 3859-3393, Mai Sakurajima bounced past Iroha Isshiki 4130-2784, Tohsaka thumped Saber 3595-2626, Ai Hayasaka trounced Ruiko Saten 4139-2758, Chino Kafuu defeated Shiro 3618-3185, Mio Akiyama scored the Upset of the Roung, a 3371-3064 scalp of Schwi Dola and Kaguya Shinomiya drilled Kurisu Makise 4674-2555.

Wrapping up Female Division play, Yukino Yukinoshita burned Misaki Shokuhou 4322-2745, Mashiro Shiina smashed Shouko Nishimiya 3905-2948, Yui Yuigahama hammered Chika Fujiwara 3748-3232, Rikka Takanashi rocked Nanami Aoyama 3774-3113, Megumin exploded past Emilia 3320-3180, Index Prohibitorum defeated Hina Amano 3490-3074, Nao Tomori eased past Eriri Spencer Sawamura 3263-2960 and Kurumi Tokisaki shot down Utaha Kasumigaoka 4007-3199.

In the Male Division, Riku Dola defeated Kazuma Satou 3280-2883, Touma Kamijou broke Yuu Otosaka 3752-2488, Levi leveled Shirou Emiya 3196-2816, Subaru Natsuki flew past Yato 3334-2312, Edward Elric won the closest race of the round, a 2877-2821 nailbiter over Sorata Kanda, Saitama punched Shidou Itsuka 3200-2398, Rintarou Okabe thumped Kiritsugu Emiya 3421-2061 and Miyuki Shirogane routed Takashi Natsume 4321-2063.

Wrapping up Male Division play, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji defeated Archer 3085-2872, Taki Tachibana took down Tanjiro Kamado 3138-2891, Yuuta togashi whipped past Masamune Izumi 3374-2419, Gilgamesh impaled Willem Kmtsch 3078-2334, Saika Totsuka toasted Yuzuru Otonashi 2969-2706, Ryuuji Takasu roared past Lancer 3209-2790, Yuu Ishigami pounded Eugeo 4273-1915 and Azusagawa rolled past Tomoya Okazaki 3867-2362.

Finally, in Couples Tournament action, Elaina and Saya thumped Yuuko Yoshikawa and Natsuki Nakagawa 3519-2318, Maki Nishikino and Nico Yazawa routed Yuzu and Mei Aihara 3708-2195, Kyouko Sakura and Sayaka Miki eased past Mikiya Kokotou and Shiki Ryougi 3382-2562 and Kyousuke and Kirino Kousaka prevailed over Nozomi Kasaki and Mizore Yoroizuka 3057-2978.

Match Day 4 of the 2020 International Saimoe League is scheduled for January 4, 2021. Vote for your favorite characters at InternationalSaimoe.com and join the ongoing debate.