CFB Saturday bowl game winners, losers: Pop-Tarts Bowl delivers; Cam Ward's decision puzzles

With eight games, Saturday was the biggest day of the 2024 bowl season, headlined by two top-25 showdowns, BYU-Colorado and Iowa State-Miami.

Here are our winners and losers from the most wonderful day of the college football bowl year.

Winner: Pop-Tarts Bowl CFP No.

18 Iowa State (11-3) and No.

15 Miami (10-3) gave college football's best bowl game trophy the game it deserved in the Cyclones' 42-41 win.

The teams combined for 625 yards and 59 points in the first half, ending the game with 939 yards.

Iowa State and Miami had 16 plays of at least 20 yards in the explosive, back-and-forth duel.

Who needs good playoff games when the Pop-Tarts Bowl is keeping us fed? Loser: Miami's QB strategy Miami quarterback Cam Ward broke former Houston quarterback Case Keenum's NCAA Division I record for most career passing touchdowns in the loss when he completed a four-yard touchdown to wide receiver Jacolby George for his 156th touchdown.

Ward was on his way to a massive game, going 12-of-19 for 190 yards and three touchdowns before sitting in the second half.

Head coach Mario Cristobal said conversations about player availability were "made ...

in private." Ward's decision is a poor look for both him and the Hurricanes.

By sitting after securing a personal record, he put himself above his team.

His decision also likely cost backup Emory Williams valuable reps with the first-team offense in practice leading up to the Pop-Tarts Bowl, and it showed.

Williams was 5-of-14 for 26 yards and an interception in the second half.

Last year, we saw then-backup quarterbacks at USC (Miller Moss) and LSU (Garrett Nussmeier) have huge bowl games after Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels elected to sit.

It's fair to wonder how better Williams would have looked if he had the same opportunity.

Winner: Nebraska The Cornhuskers jumped out to a 20-2 lead over Boston College before holding on for a 20-15 win in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl to clinch their first winning season since 2016.

Head coach Matt Rhule previously succeeded in turning Temple and Baylor around, and he's laid the groundwork for his next great reclamation project in Lincoln.

Freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola was 23-of-31 for 228 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The 2024 five-star recruit recently shut down speculation he intended to enter the transfer portal, and based on his promising start under Rhule, it's easy to see why he'd stay.

Loser: Colorado special teams The Buffaloes arguably had Saturday's most disappointing performance, losing 36-14 to No.

17 BYU (11-2) in the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Quarterback Shedeur Sanders and cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter playing on reported record insurance policies weren't the problem.

Sanders was 16-of-23 for 208 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, one of which came on a deflected pass, while Hunter had four receptions, 106 yards and a touchdown, adding four tackles on defense.

( h/t StatBroadcast ) But Colorado's special teams let the Buffaloes down.

In the first half, they fell for a Cougars onside kick and allowed a 66-yard punt return touchdown.

Kicker Alejandro Mata also missed a 48-yard field goal.

Coach Deion Sanders has done a fantastic job resurrecting Colorado in his first two seasons.

He made massive strides in shoring up the Buffaloes' defense this past offseason, but after the Alamo Bowl loss, Deion Sanders must use this offseason to turn his special teams unit into a positive.

Winner: TCU TCU dominated Louisiana (10-4), 34-3, to win the Isleta New Mexico Bowl and the most beautiful college football bowl trophy.

Hoover passes for 4 TDs as TCU beats Louisiana-Lafayette 34-3 in the New Mexico Bowl https://t.co/9QDj5HbaRi pic.twitter.com/WFizGrRYhk As The Athletic senior writer Chris Vannini noted, the win capped a quietly impressive season from TCU.

With its 9-4 record, it's "Just the second time since 2017 TCU won eight-plus games, the other being the '22 CFP season," wrote Vannini, who also noted the Horned Frogs' incoming No.

1 Big 12 recruiting class .

Big bounceback season for TCU, which finishes 9-4 after winning the New Mexico Bowl.

Just the second time since 2017 TCU won 8+ games, the other being the '22 CFP season.

QB Josh Hoover threw for nearly 4,000 yards as a sophomore.

No.

1 Big 12 recruiting class coming in.

Winner: Army quarterback Bryson Daily Army's sensational quarterback added to his historic season on the ground in the first half of the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against Louisiana Tech (5-7), giving the Black Knights a 21-3 halftime lead.

Daily became the sixth player to score 30 rushing touchdowns in a season when he gave Army a 7-0 first-quarter lead on a 15-yard touchdown.

Daily with rushing TD No.

30 on the year!! Currently leads FBS pic.twitter.com/QLyPzHgvhD He tied former Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds for the most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a single season (31) on an eight-yard score to cap a 21-play, 12-minute drive late in the second quarter.

31st rushing touchdown of the year for Bryson Daily* *the nation's leader in rushing touchdowns #AmericanWay x @ArmyWP_Football pic.twitter.com/buyUpbkw4T At halftime, Daily had 18 carries, 87 yards and two touchdowns.

Loser: NC State NC State added to the ACC's 2024 bowl misery by blowing a late lead against in-state rival East Carolina of the AAC in the Go Bowling Military Bowl.

The Wolfpack led 21-20, and their defense had the Pirates in a third-and-10 from their 14-yard line when East Carolina running back Rahjai Harris took a handoff on what should have been a harmless run to set up fourth down.

Instead, Harris found a crease in NC State's defense and broke free for the decisive 86-yard touchdown run that dropped the ACC to 1-9 in bowl games this season.

EAST CAROLINA 86-YARD TD RUN TO TAKE THE LEAD OVER NC STATE pic.twitter.com/kwnUng3eSZ To make matters worse, eight players were ejected in East Carolina's 26-21 win, including five NC State players and three East Carolina players, and an official suffered a gnarly cut under his left eye following a scuffle with under a minute remaining.

THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT!! 8 players were ejected (3 ECU players & 5 NC State players) pic.twitter.com/uiYAynHRyZ ECU and NC State got this ref bloodied up during theit brawl pic.twitter.com/Wf4ikXYi6S The game's ugly ending overshadowed NC State's late-game collapse, but both will be at the forefront of the Wolfpack's mind all offseason as it prepares for a rematch with East Carolina in Week 1 in 2025.

Winner: UConn head coach Jim Mora Jr.

Connecticut isn't just a basketball college.

UConn scored a decisive 27-14 win over North Carolina in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl hours after ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel reported Mora had reached a contract extension with Connecticut to keep him with the university through 2028.

Sources: UConn football coach Jim Mora has agreed to a new contract that includes two additional years that will take him through the 2028 season.

The deal includes a raise to an average of $2.5 million annually over the course of the deal, per ESPN sources.

pic.twitter.com/NNB50RlJUK Mora finished his third season as Connecticut's head coach with a 9-4 record, an impressive turnaround for a program that went 1-11 in 2021, the season before Mora's arrival.

His extension suggests the Huskies will continue their upward trajectory.

Loser: North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick has his work cut out for him.

The eight-time Super Bowl champion has taken a hands-off approach to begin his tenure, declining to attend practices or North Carolina's Fenway Bowl loss after being introduced as head coach on Dec.

12.

It's probably for the best Belichick wasn't at Fenway Park.

If he attended, North Carolina's roster might have been in the transfer portal by the start of the fourth quarter.

UConn outgained North Carolina 335-67 in the first 45 minutes.

The Tar Heels had more penalty yards (50) than yards from scrimmage (45) in the first half.

Nothing about Saturday's game was worth remembering for North Carolina.

The quicker it puts it in the rearview, the better.

On to TCU..

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