B/R's College Football Weekly Awards: Bowl Season Part 2

B/R's College Football Weekly Awards focuses on the college football bowl season. The focus is on Group of Five programs. This edition focuses only on six days from Dec. 22-27.

Air Force won their 10th game of the season in the Armed Forces Bowl against Baylor. It's the program's third straight season with double-digit victories.  Fresno State won the MWC title.

Sam Hartman is leaving Wake Forest as the program's all-time leader in passing yards (12,967) and total touchdowns (127). He might declare for the 2023 NFL draft. He threw for 280 yards and three touchdowns in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Jerry Kill has been a college football coach since the 1970s. He retired from Minnesota in 2015 due to health issues. Kill returned to college athletics in 2018 as the athletic director at Southern Illinois. In 2019, he became a special assistant at Virginia Tech and then a head coach at TCU. His record as a coach is 158-104, but he had never won a bowl. New Mexico State won the Quick Lane Bowl 24-19 over Bowling Green.

Middle Tennessee beat San Diego State 25-23 in the Hawai'i Bowl. The Blue Raiders lost 76 yards on seven sacks and nine yards from two kneeldowns. They managed only 19 yards of rushing beyond that.

Houston won the Independence Bowl to end the 2022 season. Holton Ahlers led ECU to a 53-29 victory over Coastal Carolina. Utah State's punt was a mistake.  Memphis won 38-10. It was the first time ECu won a bowl in nine years.