Garrett Nussmeier’s final season at LSU is a family affair
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Andrea Adelson
BATON ROUGE, La. — Doug Nussmeier rarely gets days like this one anymore, hanging around a college football field, watching his sons Garrett and Colton soft toss the ball to each other. Garrett has been at LSU, trying to lead the Tigers on a title run. Colton has been in Texas, where he has developed into an ESPN Junior 300 prospect as one of the top quarterbacks in the country, with offers from LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and many others.
Doug has been in the NFL as an assistant coach, living apart from his family the past two years so Colton could finish out his high school career.
But on this day in June, they are all together at the LSU elite summer camp. Doug Nussmeier smiles big. He decided to leave the Philadelphia Eagles and take the offensive coordinator job with the Saints earlier this year. Now, all he needs to do to visit his older son is hop in his car and drive for an hour or so.
The family calls this a “full circle moment.”
Doug started his NFL career as a quarterback with the Saints in New Orleans. He met his wife, Christi, in New Orleans. He won a Super Bowl in the Superdome. Christi, a Louisiana native, instilled a love for her home state in her kids, a love that not only led Garrett to LSU but kept him there for five years. Now here they are, Doug, Garrett and Colton, all back in Louisiana on a swampy hot summer day.
Doug stands off to the side, watching, not coaching. Though he played quarterback, he never put pressure on his sons to play the position. But they wanted to be just like him. His No. 13 jersey and all.
“He was my idol growing up,” Garrett says. “He’s the most influential person in my career.”
Through backyard drills and days spent breaking down tape, through 12 moves to follow Doug on his coaching journey, Garrett soaked up knowledge, learned how to deal with change as a constant, spent time on different campuses, in different stadiums — every moment leading to the one he faces now in his fifth and final season with the Tigers. His mother inspired his love for LSU and his dad inspired his obsession with the quarterback position.
They both led him here, to the biggest year of his life.
CHRISTI NUSSMEIER WOULD have been perfectly happy if her sons hadn’t become quarterbacks. But looking back, it does seem like they were always on the path to running an offense. When Christi says her sons were born with a football in their hands, she means it almost literally. After Garrett was born in 2002, she chose a Sports Illustrated-themed birth announcement. In the photo, Garrett snuggles a football.
Garrett’s earliest football memories start at age 6, when he asked his dad to throw with him in their backyard in Seattle. The warmup Doug showed him is the one Garrett still uses before every practice and game, focusing on flexibility first before moving into segments that isolate different parts of the throwing motion.
At every college stop they made, Garrett observed the quarterbacks: Drew Stanton at Michigan State, Jake Locker at Washington, A.J. McCarron at Alabama. Garrett saw the way each player led his team not only in games but at practices. He watched the way they interacted with their teammates. He sometimes sat in the room with them to break down tape.
“I was subconsciously just learning things without actually knowing what I was learning,” Garrett says. “As I got older, I started to realize, ‘Hey, OK, that’s what they were doing.'”
From there, Garrett steadily improved and kept his eyes focused on getting a college scholarship, then eventually playing in the NFL. Garrett was smaller for a quarterback at 6-foot-1, and his parents had no idea where he might end up. But they encouraged him to keep pushing forward, and Doug provided feedback whenever Garrett asked.
“I was hoping that as he started to grow into his middle school years, maybe he’ll be good enough to be a starter on his high school team. And then if he’s that, well, then maybe that opens the door for him to have the opportunity to play at a small school or someplace,” Doug says.
Doug had taken an assistant coaching job with the Cowboys in 2018, so the Nussmeiers moved to the Dallas area, where Garrett would play high school football. Christi remembers one moment early in Garrett’s high school career that changed everything.
“Garrett made some moves, and I just remember my face going, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and I looked at Doug. We both looked at each other,” Christi says. “We knew Garrett was talented, and we knew he was special, but I asked Doug, ‘That’s not normal, is it?’ And Doug said, ‘No.'”
Adds Doug: “He wasn’t the biggest guy, but all of a sudden, some schools started coming to see him.”
Ole Miss was the first to invite him to a football camp, then LSU invited him to campus, too. LSU held a special place in his heart. Garrett was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where Christi grew up.
Christi was determined to give her three children — including daughter, Ashlynn, also an LSU student — a place they could call home, considering all the moving they did. They may have changed addresses every few years, but they would always return to Lake Charles for the holidays and summers. Christi cooked specialties from home and played zydeco music. When people asked the kids where they were from, they would answer, “Louisiana.”
“Lake Charles was the only place that was constant my life,” Garrett says. “When you only live somewhere at the longest three years, you’re just spinning around, and so Louisiana was just always my home. When I came on my first visit here, I just knew this is where I want to be.”
Garrett loved then-coach Ed Orgeron, but he really wanted to play for then-offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger. He committed in 2020 as a junior. Ensminger announced his retirement later that year, but Garrett signed in 2021 anyway, as an ESPN 300 prospect and one of the top quarterbacks in the nation.
Garrett played in four games and ultimately redshirted, but midway through that freshman season, LSU announced Orgeron would not return for 2022. For months, Garrett felt uncertainty about his future and the future of the program.
Enter Brian Kelly.
ON JAN. 7, 2013, Garrett Nussmeier and Brian Kelly shared a football field for the first time. Doug was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama when the Crimson Tide played Kelly and Notre Dame in the BCS national championship game in South Florida.
Garrett, who was 10 at the time, remembers falling asleep at halftime with Alabama up 28-0. But he also remembers heading down to the field after the 42-14 victory, throwing confetti and holding the championship trophy. During a quarterback meeting their first year together, Garrett decided to have some fun. He turned to Kelly and asked, “Remember that national championship?” They had a good laugh.
But the transition to playing under Kelly wasn’t so easy.
Nussmeier thought that after his first year at LSU, he was going to be the guy at quarterback. But Kelly went into the transfer portal and brought in Jayden Daniels, who ultimately won the starting job in 2022.
“Things were a little rocky at first,” Garrett Nussmeier admits. “But as time has gone on, my relationship with Coach Kelly has just grown.”
Nussmeier had opportunities to leave through the transfer portal, especially after serving as the backup to Daniels in 2022 and 2023. But he knew what it was like to leave a place, having done it so much growing up. He knew how hard it was to start over, make new friends, go through proving himself all over again.
He watched his dad preach patience throughout his own coaching career. Maybe more than anything, Garrett felt an unwavering loyalty to the state of Louisiana and desperately wanted to bring a championship to the place he calls home.
“I just didn’t feel like my time here was done,” Nussmeier says.
“He came in built for an old-school mentality of ‘I’m going to stick it out. I’m going to work my tail off and get that opportunity,'” Kelly says. “He saw some things that we were doing in developing Jayden and getting him to be a better version of himself. He grew up loving LSU. If you add all of those things up, it wasn’t about just throwing some money at him. It had to be more than that. He is a guy that loves transformational relationships instead of transactional.”
Garrett finally got his opportunity to start last season, opening with a 300-yard passing day in a last-second loss to USC. LSU rolled to a 6-1 start, but the next three games proved to be the most humbling stretch of his career. The Tigers dropped all three — to Texas A&M, Alabama and Florida — as Nussmeier struggled to play consistently and avoid mistakes. In those three losses, he threw for five combined touchdowns and five interceptions, lost two fumbles and took 11 sacks, including a whopping seven against the Gators.
“There was a part of me that was doing too much and trying to be perfect instead of just playing football,” Nussmeier says. “There was a lot of overthinking, a lot of trying to make things happen when I didn’t need to. That was one of the biggest learning moments for me in my career.”
Indeed, both Kelly and offensive coordinator Joe Sloan say Nussmeier had to go through those moments to learn and grow. Kelly called the losses a “low point” in decision-making and managing the game.
“A lot of playing quarterback is developing some calluses, and he was able to develop some calluses, and he knows what the fire feels like,” Sloan says.
At 6-4, with a once promising season on the verge of disaster, LSU hosted Vanderbilt at home in late November. “That was a big moment for me,” Nussmeier says.
Before the game, he took a deep breath and told himself to forget about being perfect. LSU won its final three games, including a 44-31 victory over Baylor in the Kinder’s Texas Bowl. Nussmeier threw for 313 yards with three touchdowns and an interception, a game Kelly described as his best of the season.
“He didn’t take the big play as being the only play,” Kelly says. “He started to figure out that zero was OK. Once he felt that zero is OK, and I don’t have to make a play each and every down, the offense played very well.”
Doug would watch nearly every game alone in a hotel room as he prepared his own game plans for the Eagles. Sometimes he would watch on TV, sometimes on an iPad. He made sure never to overstep or question the coaching Nussmeier was getting from Kelly and Sloan.
“They have a plan, and they are working diligently to improve the things that need to be improved and strengthen the things that need to be strengthened,” Doug says.
LSU ended the season 9-4. Nussmeier had already announced he would be back for a fifth and final season. He asked his dad to handle his NIL negotiations.
WHEN BAUER SHARP came to LSU on his official visit, he went to dinner with Nussmeier and linebacker Whit Weeks. Nussmeier, Sharp says, was instrumental in helping him decide to transfer from Oklahoma to LSU.
Indeed, Nussmeier took an active role in helping LSU revamp its roster through the portal, understanding that both he and the program had championship aspirations for 2025. In addition to Sharp, LSU signed two top five wide receivers (Barion Brown and Nic Anderson) and revamped a defense that has struggled at times.
The presence of a veteran quarterback, going into his second year as a starter, proved to be a huge selling point, too.
“With him being in the offense for four years, that played a huge part in it, and just to see what type of leadership he had, and to connect with him, that was so inviting,” Sharp says. “It was so encouraging. I loved what I saw.”
Nussmeier is the rare quarterback who has stayed put. Of the Top 20 quarterbacks who signed in 2021, 14 ended up transferring. Seven are playing their fifth seasons in 2025. Of those seven, only Nussmeier and Behren Morton at Texas Tech are still playing for the teams with which they originally signed. To Garrett, the decision to play one more year was not complicated.
“When you look at the statistics of quarterbacks getting drafted high, a lot of them were fifth years,” Garrett says. “That experience matters for my position. So I think there’s a lot of value in staying.”
Kelly points to stats, too, and the way his quarterbacks play better in their final season as his starter. Daniels is the perfect example. In Year 1 under Kelly, Daniels threw for 2,913 yards and 17 touchdowns. In Year 2, Daniels threw for 3,812 yards and 40 touchdowns, en route to winning the Heisman Trophy.
“I really believe experience at that position is the most important thing,” Kelly says. “Wherever I’ve been, your last year is your best year, so the expectations are that the same will occur for Garrett.”
Indeed, early Heisman odds have Nussmeier second, right behind Texas quarterback Arch Manning. Nussmeier also is ranked as one of the top quarterback prospects for the NFL draft next season. (ESPN’s Matt Miller has him going No. 11 .)
“I definitely think he’s capable of winning a Heisman, but that trophy is based off a season,” Sloan says. “He has the talent, and we have the people around him. I just know this. He’s who we would want to be a quarterback at LSU. If we got to draft, we’d pick Garrett Nussmeier.”
Nussmeier worked this offseason to put himself in position to win a title, dropping a few pounds, adding muscle mass and working with private speed coaches in Dallas. Sloan says Nussmeier is in the best shape of his life, and that will allow him to help more in the run game. Managing the pocket, speeding up the process at the line of scrimmage and his footwork also have been a huge point of emphasis this offseason.
“When his feet are on time, and staying what I call tight and he’s not having big movements, he’s extremely accurate, and especially more and more accurate down the field,” Sloan says.
He also took more ownership of the team.
“He’s a whole different person, the way he carries himself, the way he speaks to others,” running back Caden Durham said. “We see his energy in the morning, 7 o’clock for workouts. Everybody is like, ‘We’re going to go as hard as you and even harder,’ just because he’s the leader. He’s the head honcho. This offense runs through him. So let’s go.”
Nothing about what is ahead will come as a shock. Walking into SEC stadiums with his dad prepared him for big crowds, big moments. Memories often trickle back. The first time taking the field at Baton Rouge in 2020, closing his eyes, remembering what it felt like to be inside a roaring, sold-out Death Valley. When he walked onto the field at Auburn in 2022, he turned to Sloan and Daniels, pointed to the sideline near the away team tunnel and said, “That’s where I was crying when the Kick Six happened,” remembering back to the 2013 Iron Bowl when his dad was an Alabama assistant.
The Nussmeiers call all of these moments “God winks,” each one intertwined, interconnected, preparing Garrett for the moment he has waited on since he first threw a football in the backyard with his dad.
Now with Doug just a drive away in Louisiana, the place Garrett loves more than anything, they are closer than they have been since they lived under one roof in Dallas. Christi will be able to make her way to LSU and Saints home games. Ashlynn will be there. Colton may make a trip or two depending on his schedule.
There is, of course, one way for this full circle moment to be complete: hoisting a championship trophy.
“I’ve always wanted this pressure. I’ve always wanted this expectation. I’ve always wanted people to talk about me the way that they are and have this expectation,” Nussmeier said. “It’s definitely a dream come true.
“But it’s not finished yet.”
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Kyle Bonagura
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Kyle Bonagura
ESPN Staff Writer
- Covers college football.
- Joined ESPN in 2014.
- Attended Washington State University.
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Mark Schlabach
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Mark Schlabach
ESPN Senior Writer
- Senior college football writer
- Author of seven books on college football
- Graduate of the University of Georgia
Week 4 did not produce any seismic upsets, but as always, there were plenty of eye-opening results that impacted the College Football Playoff picture and beyond.
Among the games that altered perceptions were Indiana’s dismantling of Illinois, decisive wins by Texas Tech (at Utah) and Ole Miss (over Tulane), and road victories by Syracuse (at Clemson) and Michigan (at Nebraska).
As in last season’s inaugural 12-team CFP, the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams, will make the field. Unlike last year, the four highest-ranked teams (not necessarily conference champions) will be awarded first-round byes. The other eight teams will meet in first-round games at the campus sites of seeds Nos. 5 through 8.
From there, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in what had been the New Year’s Six bowls, with this season’s national championship game scheduled for Jan. 19 at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
All of that is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Apart from the playoff is the 35-game slate of bowl games, beginning with the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 13.
We’re here for all of it.
ESPN bowl gurus Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach are projecting every postseason matchup, including their breakdowns of how the playoff will play out, and we’ll be back every week of the season until the actual matchups are set.
Jump to a section:
Playoff picks | Quarterfinals
Semis, title game | Bowl season
College Football Playoff
First-round games (at campus sites)
Friday, Dec. 19/Saturday, Dec. 20
Times and networks TBD.
Bonagura: No. 12 South Florida at No. 5 LSU
Schlabach: No. 12 South Florida at No. 5 Oregon
Bonagura: No. 11 Texas Tech at No. 6 Miami
Schlabach: No. 11 Indiana at No. 6 Penn State
Bonagura: No. 10 Texas at No. 7 Florida State
Schlabach: No. 10 Texas A&M at No. 7 Florida State
Bonagura: No. 9 Oklahoma at No. 8 Indiana
Schlabach: No. 9 Texas Tech at No. 8 Oklahoma
First-round breakdown
Bonagura: Two teams worth highlighting this week are Indiana and Texas Tech, both of which had huge wins against conference teams that were in these projections a week ago (Illinois and Utah). These games weren’t just wins, they were statements. Indiana beat Illinois by 53, and Tech beat Utah by 24.
For Texas Tech, the win should establish the Red Raiders as the favorite in the Big 12 — a conference that will have a tough time getting two teams in the playoff. For Indiana, the road is more difficult — but it’s manageable. The only ranked teams left on its schedule are Oregon and Penn State, so if the Hoosiers hold serve in the games they’re favored in and finish 10-2, that should be good enough to get in the playoff. Of course, this appears to be a team that can go toe-to-toe with anyone, so it’s premature to write off any games as losses.
Schlabach: It was another wild Saturday, and my playoff bracket has three new teams after Illinois, Tulane and Utah were on the wrong side of blowouts.
Texas Tech spent a boatload of cash boosting its roster this past offseason, and it paid off in Saturday’s 34-10 victory at Utah. The victory puts the Red Raiders and Iowa State in the driver’s seat in the Big 12 race, and those teams won’t play each other in the regular season. In fact, Texas Tech doesn’t face another Big 12 opponent that is currently ranked in the AP poll the rest of the way.
Indiana’s 63-10 rout of No. 9 Illinois put the rest of the Big 10 on notice. It was the Hoosiers’ first victory over a top-10 opponent in five years and its most lopsided win over one in school history. The Hoosiers play at Oregon on Oct. 11 and at Penn State on Nov. 8, so there won’t be any questions about their strength of schedule if they get back into the CFP for the second straight season.
USF, which beat Boise State and Florida earlier this season, returns to my 12-team bracket. The Bulls blasted FCS program South Carolina State 63-14, and they’re my fifth conference champion after Tulane lost 45-10 at Ole Miss on Saturday. I also strongly considered Memphis, which knocked off Arkansas 32-31 at home.
CFP quarterfinals
Wednesday, Dec. 31
CFP quarterfinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic
AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
7:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: No. 7 Florida State vs. No. 2 Oregon
Schlabach: No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 4 LSU
Thursday, Jan. 1
CFP quarterfinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl
Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, Florida)
Noon, ESPN
Bonagura: No. 5 LSU vs. No. 4 Penn State
Schlabach: No. 7 Florida State vs. No. 2 Miami
CFP quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential
Rose Bowl (Pasadena, California)
4 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: No. 9 Oklahoma vs. No. 1 Ohio State
Schlabach: No. 9 Texas Tech vs. No. 1 Ohio State
CFP quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl
Caesars Superdome (New Orleans)
8 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: No. 6 Miami vs. No. 3 Georgia
Schlabach: No. 6 Penn State vs. No. 3 Georgia
Quarterfinals breakdown
Bonagura: The tastiest hypothetical quarterfinal matchup here is Georgia vs. Miami, which would feature Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck against his former team. The downside is that storyline would be so dominant everyone would quickly get tired of hearing about it.
Ohio State vs. Oklahoma looks good too, but then again that’s the whole point of the playoff. These are all enticing games.
Schlabach: These potential matchups would produce some intriguing storylines, with Florida State and Miami potentially meeting for a second (or third?) time. The Hurricanes have already taken down USF and Florida, and they’ll play the Seminoles on the road Oct. 4. Those teams could potentially meet again in the ACC championship game.
Ohio State and Texas Tech have much in common in terms of spending big bucks in the transfer portal, and Oregon and LSU would be a matchup of two of the best quarterbacks in the FBS: Garrett Nussmeier and Dante Moore.
Georgia and Penn State have played just once in the past 43 years. The Bulldogs defeated the Nittany Lions 24-17 in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl.
CFP semifinals, national championship game
Thursday, Jan. 8
CFP semifinal at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl
State Farm Stadium (Glendale, Arizona)
7:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: No. 5 LSU vs. No. 1 Ohio State
Schlabach: No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 2 Miami
Friday, Jan. 9
CFP semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta)
7:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 2 Oregon
Schlabach: No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 1 Ohio State
Monday, Jan. 19
CFP National Championship
Hard Rock Stadium (Miami Gardens, Florida)
7:45 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 1 Ohio State
Schlabach: No. 2 Miami vs. No. 1 Ohio State
National championship breakdown
Bonagura: Ohio State is still the favorite on paper, but it has an interesting test Saturday against Washington at Seattle, which can be a tough place to play. And Husky Stadium will surely be electric for this one. The more important game this week is Oregon at Penn State, where the winner will be well on its way to the Big Ten title game.
Schlabach: I had all but one of my top four seeds advancing to the semifinals. A Georgia-Miami matchup in the Fiesta Bowl would be good drama, as Kyle noted in his quarterfinals breakdown.
Oregon and Ohio State won’t play each other in the regular season, but they could certainly meet in the Big Ten championship game. They played twice last season, with the Ducks winning 32-31 at home during the regular season and the Buckeyes flipping the script with a 41-21 victory in a CFP quarterfinal at the Rose Bowl.
Complete bowl season schedule
Saturday, Dec. 13
Cricket Celebration Bowl
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta)
Noon, ABC
Bonagura: Alabama State vs. South Carolina State
Schlabach: Jackson State vs. South Carolina State
LA Bowl
SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, California)
9 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Cal vs. UNLV
Schlabach: Washington vs. UNLV
Tuesday, Dec. 16
IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl
Cramton Bowl (Montgomery, Alabama)
9 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: South Alabama vs. Miami (Ohio)
Schlabach: Western Kentucky vs. Georgia Southern
Wednesday, Dec. 17
StaffDNA Cure Bowl
Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida)
5 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Buffalo vs. Cincinnati
Schlabach: Northern Illinois vs. Troy
68 Ventures Bowl
Hancock Whitney Stadium (Mobile, Alabama)
8:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee
Schlabach: Old Dominion vs. Central Michigan
Friday, Dec. 19
Myrtle Beach Bowl
Brooks Stadium (Conway, South Carolina)
Noon, ESPN
Bonagura: East Carolina vs. Marshall
Schlabach: East Carolina vs. James Madison
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl
Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)
3:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Mississippi State vs. NC State
Schlabach: South Carolina vs. Virginia
Monday, Dec. 22
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Albertsons Stadium (Boise, Idaho)
2 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Ohio vs. Fresno State
Schlabach: Ohio vs. Utah State
Tuesday, Dec. 23
Boca Raton Bowl
Flagler Credit Union Stadium (Boca Raton, Florida)
2 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: UConn vs. Northern Illinois
Schlabach: Boise State vs. Toledo
New Orleans Bowl
Caesars Superdome (New Orleans)
5:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: James Madison vs. Jacksonville State
Schlabach: Coastal Carolina vs. Louisiana Tech
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl
Ford Center at The Star (Frisco, Texas)
9 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: North Texas vs. Texas State
Schlabach: North Texas vs. New Mexico State
Wednesday, Dec. 24
Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl
Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex (Honolulu)
8 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Boise State vs. Arizona
Schlabach: Hawai’i vs. Tulane
Friday, Dec. 26
GameAbove Sports Bowl
Ford Field (Detroit)
1 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Rutgers vs. Toledo
Schlabach: Rutgers vs. Buffalo
Rate Bowl
Chase Field (Phoenix)
4:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Houston vs. Maryland
Schlabach: Baylor vs. Michigan State
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
Gerald J. Ford Stadium (Dallas)
8 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Army vs. Appalachian State
Schlabach: UCF vs. San Diego State
Saturday, Dec. 27
Go Bowling Military Bowl
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (Annapolis, Maryland)
11 a.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Pitt vs. Memphis
Schlabach: SMU vs. Navy
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl
Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York)
Noon, ABC
Bonagura: Duke vs. Iowa
Schlabach: Clemson vs. Maryland
Wasabi Fenway Bowl
Fenway Park (Boston)
2:15 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Clemson vs. Tulane
Schlabach: NC State vs. Memphis
Pop-Tarts Bowl
Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida)
3:30 p.m., ABC
Bonagura: Georgia Tech vs. TCU
Schlabach: Georgia Tech vs. Utah
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl
Arizona Stadium (Tucson, Arizona)
4:30 p.m., CW Network
Bonagura: Bowling Green vs. New Mexico
Schlabach: Bowling Green vs. Fresno State
Isleta New Mexico Bowl
University Stadium (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
5:45 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Utah State vs. Western Kentucky
Schlabach: Wyoming vs. Texas State
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl
EverBank Stadium (Jacksonville, Florida)
7:30 p.m. ABC
Bonagura: Louisville vs. Alabama
Schlabach: Syracuse vs. Alabama
Kinder’s Texas Bowl
NRG Stadium (Houston)
9:15 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Iowa State vs. Texas A&M
Schlabach: TCU vs. Ole Miss
Monday, Dec. 29
JLab Birmingham Bowl
Protective Stadium (Birmingham, Alabama)
2 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: South Carolina vs. Old Dominion
Schlabach: Mississippi State vs. Pittsburgh
Tuesday, Dec. 30
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl
Independence Stadium (Shreveport, Louisiana)
2 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Baylor vs. Louisiana Tech
Schlabach: Houston vs. Jacksonville State
Music City Bowl
Nissan Stadium (Nashville, Tennessee)
5:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Minnesota vs. Auburn
Schlabach: Illinois vs. Auburn
Valero Alamo Bowl
Alamodome (San Antonio)
9 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: BYU vs. USC
Schlabach: Iowa State vs. USC
Wednesday, Dec. 31
ReliaQuest Bowl
Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)
Noon, ESPN
Bonagura: Illinois vs. Tennessee
Schlabach: Iowa vs. Tennessee
Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
Sun Bowl Stadium (El Paso, Texas)
2 p.m., CBS
Bonagura: SMU vs. Arizona State
Schlabach: Notre Dame vs. Arizona
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl
Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida)
3 p.m., ABC
Bonagura: Michigan vs. Ole Miss
Schlabach: Michigan vs. Texas
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl
Allegiant Stadium (Las Vegas)
3:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Nebraska vs. Utah
Schlabach: Nebraska vs. Cal
Friday, Jan. 2
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Amon G. Carter Stadium (Fort Worth, Texas)
1 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Kansas vs. Navy
Schlabach: Kansas vs. Rice
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (Memphis, Tennessee)
4:30 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: UCF vs. Missouri
Schlabach: BYU vs. Missouri
Duke’s Mayo Bowl
Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, North Carolina)
8 p.m., ESPN
Bonagura: Syracuse vs. Vanderbilt
Schlabach: Duke vs. Vanderbilt
Holiday Bowl
Snapdragon Stadium (San Diego)
8 p.m., Fox
Bonagura: Notre Dame vs. Washington
Schlabach: Louisville vs. Arizona State
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Adam Rittenberg
UCF assistant coach Shawn Clark, who was the head coach at Appalachian State for five seasons, died Sunday at 50.
Clark had been hospitalized after experiencing a medical emergency Sept. 9. UCF coach Scott Frost said last week that Clark was “doing OK, he’s in stable condition,” and others close to him said he was making progress in his recovery. But he died “unexpectedly” Sunday, UCF announced, with his wife Jonelle at his side.
“Shawn was so much more than a coach. He was a remarkable man, husband, and father who cared deeply about his players and staff,” Frost said in a statement. “The reaction of our players and coaches to the news this morning is a testament to Shawn’s character and the impact he had on every life that he touched. He was loved. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Jonelle, and children, Giana and Braxton. We are here to support them and will continue to keep them in our hearts and prayers.”
Clark was in his first year with UCF as offensive line coach after going 40-24 at Appalachian State. A former Appalachian State offensive lineman, Clark returned to his alma mater as offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator in 2016, before taking over the program following the 2019 season.
“We are profoundly saddened by the passing of App State alumnus, football All-American and former head coach Shawn Clark. We extend our deepest sympathy to Shawn’s family and everyone who knew and loved him,” the school said in a statement.
Before returning to Appalachian State, Clark made stops at Kent State, Purdue and Eastern Kentucky.
“We are heartbroken by Shawn’s passing,” UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir said in a statement. “He brought passion, integrity, and a genuine love for people to everything he did.”
Clark is survived by Jonelle, a Hall of Fame softball player at Eastern Kentucky, and their two children.
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Andrea Adelson
The ACC fined Syracuse $25,000 and publicly reprimanded the school Monday for faking injuries in a 34-21 win over Clemson last weekend, calling its actions “unethical and contrary to the spirit of the rules.”
In a statement, the ACC said Syracuse violated a NCAA rule established this year aimed at stopping teams from faking injuries to slow down play.
With 9:25 left in the fourth quarter, the ACC said the action of two players and a coach “were a clear attempt to gain an unmerited advantage by stopping the game in order to secure an injury timeout.”
Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik accused Syracuse of faking injuries after the loss as a way to slow down its tempo.
“We were playing with tempo and props to them, they stopped us on some third downs and then they have an injury or something like that when we really got going,” Klubnik said. “That’s up to them if they want to be honest about that.
“That was definitely tough for us to really get in a rhythm. We’re playing fast and unfortunately they had a guy get hurt or a timeout or something like that.”
Syracuse defensive linemen Nissi Ogbebor and Kevin Jobity Jr. are both seen falling to the ground after a 23-yard completion from Klubnik to Tristan Smith for a first down to the Orange 9-yard line. The game was stopped so trainers could attend to them, as the Clemson crowd booed.
The ACC office and the National Coordinator of Football Officials reviewed the play. According to the ACC, the national coordinator “agreed that the action violated the spirit of the injury timeout and fair play and was done in a way to circumvent the new injury timeout rule to avoid the team being charged a timeout.”
Under the new NCAA rule, a team is charged a timeout if a player goes to the ground injured after the ball is spotted. But in this case, both players went down before the ball was spotted, so Syracuse was not charged a timeout.
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