San Diego State: 2021 Frisco Bowl Champions

FRISCO, Texas -- — Lucas Johnson passed for a career-best 333 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for another score as San Diego State beat No. 24 UTSA 38-24 in the Frisco Bowl on Tuesday night for the Aztecs' program-record 12th win of the season.

Jesse Matthews caught touchdown passes of 11 and 20 yards and set career marks with 11 catches and 175 yards receiving. Tyrell Shavers caught the other touchdown pass, a 24-yarder.

Greg Bell also scored on a 1-yard run for San Diego State (12-2). Johnson completed 24 of 36 passes.

San Diego State kicker-punter Matt Araiza made a 33-yard field goal and finished the season with an NCAA-record 51.19 yards per punt. Araiza broke the mark set by Texas A&M's Braden Mann in 2018 (50.98).

Frank Harris threw touchdown passes of 12 yards to De'Corian Clark and 4 yards to Zakhari Franklin, and Brenden Brady scored on a 2-yard run for UTSA (12-2). Hunter Duplessis kicked a 41-yard field goal for the Roadrunners.

UTSA played without junior running back Sincere McCormick, Conference USA's offensive player of the year. McCormick, who ranks seventh in the FBS in rushing (113.8 yards per game), was one of five UTSA players who opted out in advance of next year's NFL draft.

THE TAKEAWAY

San Diego State: Simply qualifying for a bowl this season would have been accomplishment enough for a program that has driven 230 miles roundtrip to play its home games in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson for the last two seasons. Instead, they beat Pac-12 champion Oregon and reached the Mountain West championship game.

UTSA: Coach Jeff Traylor likes to check off boxes. This season, he checked off the Roadrunners' first conference championship. Still ahead is the box for the Roadrunners' first bowl win after three tries.

UP NEXT

San Diego State: The Sept. 3 opener against Arizona will mark the debut of new Snapdragon Stadium on the site of the old stadium that was also home to baseball's Padres and football's Chargers beginning in the 1960s.

UTSA: The Roadrunners' 12th season, 11th in FBS, will feature arguably the biggest game in program history – at Texas on Sept. 21.

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Wyoming: 2021 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Champions

BOISE, Idaho – Craig Bohl couldn’t have scripted a better super senior sendoff.

Trey Smith, a seventh-year senior who had nine carries for 14 yards during the regular season, put the exclamation point on Wyoming’s 52-38 victory over Kent State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Tuesday at Albertsons Stadium.

Smith finished with five carries for 73 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, as part of UW’s Potato Bowl-record 337 yards rushing.

Defensive end Garrett Crall had 1.5 sacks as the Pokes defensive front, which was without longtime assistant Pete Kaligis who left for Washington State, finished with a season-high 4.0 sacks of Kent State quarterback Dustin Crum.

And Chad Muma, who is headed for the NFL draft, capped off his brilliant collegiate career with a team-high 13 tackles and a half sack.

“Chad and Garrett are fulltime players. To see Trey go in and score and then the team just celebrate … he’s been one of the ultimate team players as well,” UW head coach Craig Bohl said. “That’s one of the reasons why I think this football team persevered through some ups and downs. They believed in one another.”

UW’s offensive line, which is led by some key seniors that Bohl expects to ride off into the sunset, dominated the second half.

That allowed quarterback Levi Williams to set Potato Bowl records with 200 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns, and Xazavian Valladay to get over 1,000 yards for the second time in his career.

“We knew we had to face adversity and we did,” Williams said. “Kudos to the seniors and all the guys who responded.”

Valladay, the 2019 Arizona Bowl most valuable player, is second on UW’s all-time rushing list (3,274 yards) behind Brian Hill (4,287 yards, 2014-16) after rushing for 79 yards and a touchdown in the Potato Bowl.

Hill, Ryan Christopherson and Dabby Dawson are the only other Cowboys to post two 1,000-yard seasons during their careers.

“We have shown times where we’re really explosive on offense,” Bohl said. “To be able to compose a game plan, the players buy in, then to get the yards that we did, generated a lot by the offensive line, is really heartwarming.

“A lot of those guys will be gone, but I think there’s going to be a good heart and soul to return to give us a great foundation.”

The Cowboys played seven bowl teams during the regular season, going 3-4 with wins over Northern Illinois, Ball State and Utah State, and losses to Air Force, Fresno State, Boise State and Hawaii.

UW also opened the season with a 19-16 win over Montana State, which will play North Dakota State in the FCS national championship game on Jan. 8. …

Offensive lineman Eric Abojei, defensive end Solomon Byrd and defensive tackle Ravontae Holt made the trip but did not suit up due to injuries.

Quotable

“I don’t think the emotions have really hit yet,” Muma said of playing his final game for the Cowboys. “It feels like we have film on Monday and we’re still rolling. I’ve still kind of got that feeling, but I’m just happy to come out of here with such a great team win.”