Vick Ballard ran for a career-high 180 yards and two touchdowns to lead Mississippi State over Wake Forest 23-17 Friday night in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. It was the Bulldogs' fifth straight bowl victory and second consecutive under coach Dan Mullen.
The Bulldogs (7-6) capped a season that started with high expectations by winning consecutive bowls for only the second time in school history and first since 1999-2000.
Mississippi State overcame four turnovers thanks to six sacks — its highest total since piling up seven in a win over Florida in 2000.
Wake Forest (6-7) snapped a two-game bowl winning streak. The Demon Deacons of the Atlantic Coast Conference now have lost both bowls against the SEC and finish the season having lost five of their last six games.
Pinstripe Bowl • Chas Dodd hit Brandon Coleman for an 86-yard touchdown pass late in the game and Jawan Jamison ran for two scores to lead Rutgers to a 27-13 win over Iowa State in New York.
The Scarlet Knights (9-4) ran their bowl winning streak to five and improved to 2-0 this season at Yankee Stadium, where they beat Army last month. Rutgers, which played in one bowl game before 2005, is 5-1 in the postseason under coach Greg Schiano.
The Cyclones (6-7) finished the season on a three-game losing streak, their last win coming on Nov. 18 in Ames, Iowa, when they pulled off the biggest upset of the season against Oklahoma State.
That night Jared Barnett threw for 376 yards. This game, Steele Jantz relieved Barnett in the second quarter and helped pull the Cyclones within 20-13 in the fourth on Jeff Woody's 20-yard touchdown run with 10:00 left.
Armed Forces Bowl • Riley Nelson threw three touchdown passes to Cody Hoffman, the last with 11 seconds left, and Brigham Young beat Tulsa 24-21 in Dallas for another 10-win season.
With no timeouts and the ball at the 2, the Cougars hurried up to the line. Nelson then faked a spike that would have stopped the clock and instead stood up and threw to Hoffman in the end zone.
The Cougars (10-3) wrapped up their season of independence by winning 10 games for the fifth time in coach Bronco Mendenhall's seven years.
G.J. Kinne threw three TD passes for Tulsa (8-5), including a 30-yarder to Bryan Burnham with 10:42 left for a 21-17 lead.
BYU needed 12 plays to go 48 yards on its last drive. Nelson converted a fourth-and-9 with a 14-yard scramble and later ran 8 yards on third-and-5.
Tulsa, whose other four losses this season came against top-10 teams, failed to take advantage when BYU was penalized for running into the kicker on fourth down from the 10 with about 6 minutes left. But the Golden Hurricane punted the ball away four plays later, setting up the winning drive for the Cougars.
Finale for Griffin? • If that really was Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III's final college game, what an incredible way to go out.
Just ask him.
"We went out in style!" Griffin shouted to his teammates.
It was amazing the Baylor quarterback had any breath left at all. Not after a record-shattering Alamo Bowl that might not only be remembered as the highest-scoring regulation bowl game in history, but also possibly as Griffin's last addition to his legacy in Waco.
The AP player of the year wasn't dazzling Thursday night, but he didn't need to be as No. 15 Baylor still pulled out an incredible 67-56 victory over Washington.
If it was RG3's final showcase before jumping to the NFL, it was a gripping goodbye to watch. One of the nation's most electrifying players was upstaged by an even more exciting nail-biter that shattered the previous record for points in regulation set in the 2001 GMAC Bowl.
Fans showered Griffin with chants of "One more year! One more year!" as he paraded the Alamo Bowl trophy around the field. He stopped at the front-row stands and showed off his prize to his mother, who has already been looking at her son's NFL draft prospects.
Griffin said he'll start looking, too, soon enough.
For now, there was still the craziness of this game to sort through.
