Cotton Bowl: Ohio State 24, USC 7

College football fans are never quite going to agree on J.T. Barrett. He might simultaneously be the most underrated and overrated quarterback in Ohio State history.

Barrett’s career numbers are unassailable:

Over four seasons, he threw for 9,434 yards and rushed for 3,263 yards. That’s very nearly a 2,500/1,000 average despite a late-season injury in 2014 and a QB platoon situation in 2015. He also threw for 104 touchdowns and rushed for 43 more.

Friday, he passed Purdue’s Drew Brees for the Big Ten’s career total offense record.

In the 50 games he played, Ohio State went 44-6. It’s almost impossible to do better than that.

Also:

He threw three picks in a 35-21 loss to Virginia Tech in 2014 that nearly derailed Ohio State’s eventual national title plans.

He was 9-for-16 for 46 yards in an upset loss to Michigan State in 2015 that did derail the Buckeyes’ hopes of repeating.

He threw for 127 yards and two picks in an embarrassing 31-0 loss to Clemson in the 2016 CFP semifinals.

He threw four picks in OSU’s 55-24 loss to Iowa this past November, which was, because of its magnitude, one of the most baffling losses in recent college football history.

He was Meyer’s security blanket — when in doubt, call a zone read or ask J.T. to make a big play — but even as one of Barrett’s bigger advocates, I’m not going to forecast a Buckeye drop-off next year in his absence.

With Barrett behind center, Meyer developed an almost Woody Hayesian tendency to close up shop and lean on defense and special teams to close out tight wins. And to be sure, it worked far more often than it didn’t. But it opened the door for a few catastrophic Saturdays, and Barrett’s legacy will forever be complicated because of it.

Still. 44-6. And the 44th win played out like many others. Against USC, Barrett scored twice, on a one-yard keeper and a beautiful 28-yard explosion up the left side of the defense. Ohio State went up 24-0 in the second quarter thanks to a series of Trojan turnovers, and since the Buckeye offense didn’t need to do a damn thing in the second half, the Buckeye offense indeed didn’t do a damn thing. They averaged 5.9 yards per play in the first half while establishing their lead; second half: 3.9.

That wasn’t Barrett’s fault, though. He was excellent in putting the game away early, and he wasn’t asked to do any more than that. If USC hadn’t managed to score only seven points in six scoring opportunities, he would have been asked to do more, and he’d have probably pulled it off just fine.

Barrett’s QB counterpart, USC’s Sam Darnold, wasn’t as lucky. His go-to receiver, Deontay Burnett, committed an early fumble and suffered a drive-killing drop soon after. And lord knows his offensive line couldn’t even pretend to keep Ohio State’s pass rush off of him. He was sacked eight times in 53 pass attempts, and there wasn’t much he could have done about most of those.

At the same time, all of Darnold’s bad habits were on display, too. He threw a gift-wrapped pick six to turn a 10-0 deficit into a 17-0 game killer. He was stripped on two of those sacks because he wasn’t trying to protect the ball. And when he hesitates or double-clutches before throwing, he throws some of the most spectacular air-mail passes you’ll see. Darnold could benefit from returning to USC for another season, but he’s a likely top-10 pick if he leaves. That usually means you leave.

Arizona Bowl: New Mexico State 26, Utah State 20

NMSU running back Larry Rose III officially wrapped up his career with 4,567 rushing yards, 1,157 receiving yards, and 42 combined touchdowns. He was an original Doug Martin recruit, he’s one of the Aggies’ greatest players ever, and while plenty of stars at smaller, unsuccessful schools elect to use a graduate transfer to play somewhere else as seniors, Rose stuck around.

You yearn for stories like that to have happy endings. And it doesn’t get much happier than this:

First time NMSU had made a bowl game since 1961. Headline worthy: pic.twitter.com/6wiiD4qY0o — Ari Alexander (@AriA1exander) December 30, 2017

Bowls are amazing. Never trust anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

Belk Bowl: Wake Forest 55, Texas A&M 52

Bowls are amazing, Part 2: John Wolford’s Wake Forest career began with a 12-for-22 performance against ULM. He threw for just 97 yards and an interception as the Demon Deacons lost a lifeless, 17-10 decision in Monroe. They would average just 14.8 points per game on their way to a 3-9 record. They would go 3-9 again in 2015, a season most notable for this thousand-word screen shot:

Two years later, Wake averaged 35.3 points per game. Wolford threw for 3,192 yards, a 64 percent completion rate, and a 29-to-6 TD-to-INT ratio. Wake went 8-5, and Wolford’s final game was one of his best: he went 32-for-49 for 400 yards and four scores.

In a game that featured six lead changes and both teams holding double-digit leads (A&M went up 14-0 early, and Wake led 38-21 late in the second quarter), Matt Colburn’s one-yard run gave the Deacs a 55-52 lead, and what we’ll call some physical pass defense (A&M fans might call it penalty-worthy) forced a late turnover on downs to seal the win.

From 0-0 to 55-52 in two years. Well done.

Music City Bowl: Northwestern 24, Kentucky 23

This might have been the worst exciting bowl game I’ve ever seen. Grotesque injuries, overreacting refs, terrible targeting calls, etc. But it came down to the wire all the same, with Kentucky scoring twice in the last five minutes to overcome a 10-point deficit but failing to convert what would have been the game-winning two-point conversion.

Northwestern got its 10th win, Kentucky got major resilience points, and ... let’s never speak of this game again.

Sun Bowl: NC State 52, Arizona State 31

NC State has won more than nine games in a season only once, and it really felt like this was the year that might change. The Wolfpack beat ranked FSU and Louisville teams on their way to a 6-1 start, and despite a blowout loss to Notre Dame, they put themselves in position to end Clemson’s CFP hopes the very next week. But they came up short, lost to Wake Forest for good measure, and had to settle for 9-4 following a Sun Bowl romp.

Ryan Finley completed 24 of 29 passes for 318 yards, Nyheim Hines and Reggie Gallaspy combined for 151 rushing yards and five scores, and the Wolfpack got a victory lap against an Arizona State team that has dealt with an, uh, odd transition over the last month.

College football's first bowl game was almost its last