South Florida, Central Florida, Notre Dame, Florida State all pick up bowl wins

Share this: Email | Facebook | X

ATLANTA (AP) - EJ Manuel threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to stop a South Carolina rally and lead Florida State to a 26-17 victory over the turnover-plagued Gamecocks in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Friday night.

Chris Thompson ran for 147 yards and a touchdown and Dustin Hopkins kicked four field goals for the No. 23 Seminoles (10-4), who reached 10 wins for the first time since 2003. Hopkins tied his own school record for a bowl, and the four field goals also matched the Chick-fil-A Bowl record.

Manuel took over for senior quarterback Christian Ponder, who left early in the second quarter with a concussion. No. 19 South Carolina lost running back Marcus Lattimore when he was hit hard on the Gamecocks' first drive.

Manuel completed 11 of 15 passes for 84 yards and a touchdown and had seven carries for 46 yards. He was 7-for-7 passing on the fourth-quarter touchdown drive.

South Carolina (9-5), which was seeking its first 10-win season since 1984, committed five turnovers.

Sun Bowl

Notre Dame 33, Miami 17

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Freshman Tommy Rees passed for 201 yards and two touchdowns to Michael Floyd as Brian Kelly became the first Notre Dame coach to win a bowl game in his first season.

Notre Dame (8-5) reached the end zone on three of its first four possessions. Rees tossed TD passes of 3 and 34 yards to Floyd and Cierre Wood broke free on a 34-yard scoring run before David Ruffer added field goals from 40, 50 and 19 yards.

The Fighting Irish closed with four victories to cap an up-and-down season under Kelly. They beat Utah, Army and USC down the stretch, then handled Miami (7-6) easily for Notre Dame's second straight postseason victory.

Meineke Bowl

South Florida 31, Clemson 26

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - B.J. Daniels threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third and South Florida finished coach Skip Holtz's first season with a victory.

Mo Plancher also ran for a score for the Bulls (8-5), who took control after Tigers quarterback Kyle Parker left at halftime with broken ribs. South Florida secured its fifth straight eight-win season and earned its first bowl win over a team from a BCS automatic-qualifying league.

Backup Tajh Boyd was picked off by JaQuez Jenkins on the first play of the fourth. His 48-yard return set up Daniels' 8-yard TD run to make it 31-13 and gave the Tigers (6-7) their first losing season in 11 years.

Liberty Bowl

Central Florida 10, Georgia 6

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Latavius Murray scored on a 10-yard touchdown run with 9:01 left, and Central Florida capped the best season in school history with the program's first postseason victory.

The Knights (11-3) had never won more than 10 games in a season and had lost their first three bowl games, including their last visit here in 2007.

Georgia (6-7) snapped a four-game bowl winning streak with its first loss since the 2006 Sugar Bowl. Worse for the Bulldogs is notching their first losing season since going 5-6 in 1996.