“Everything is preparing you for something else.”- Mike Leach
Moss covers the shadowed creek bank; up the bases of the trees and blanketing half sunken boulders, it carpets the forest with a vibrance most needed on this cloudy day up the mountain. It’s cool enough for a light jacket under the boreal Esque forest canopy 3600 ft above the valley. Cool enough to think about the long-awaited fall season and football season specifically. There is sunshine in the end.
Football season, which is more important than anything else; supreme. Having extreme power. Wait–that’s the definition of paramount not football season. Paramount: Chief, Best, Supreme or CBS.
I’m sure someone has already thought of this, but it entered my brain and exited the pen. The Pen writes what it writes.
So, I guess this will be exploring what is deemed ‘more important than anything else’ by Co-CEO Brian Robbins and the Paramount+ team, at least in regard to College Football.
Before making the testy trek up-trail that brought me to the tranquil place I am now, I spent some time reading about the different streaming networks and the college football games that will be featured. What began as a simple self-education eventually led all the way to a Sun Bowl rabbit hole that inspired this walk and the reason I’m writing now.
A relatively chilly day, this 17th of July. Lone in the hollow, fern pastures by my side.
Some call it gloomy, I feel perfection. A chilly day in July, it’s all in perception.
*literal crickets sound
So, Paramount Plus is committed to showing at least one college football game every week this season, including three double headers, one triple header, and one bowl game. The following is the schedule for the year:
- 8/23 5:30* Stanford @ Hawaii
- 8/30 1:30 Nevada @ #6 Penn St**
- 9/6 1:30 Oklahoma St @ #3 Oregon
- 9/13 1:30 #12 Southern Cal @ Purdue
- 9/20 1:30 #8 Michigan @ Nebraska
- 9/27 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 10/4 10 AM #21 AF @ Navy
- 10/4 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 10/11 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 10/18 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 10/25 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 11/1 10AM Army @ #21 Air Force
- 11/1 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 11/1 5:30 Wash St @ #29 Oregon St
- 11/8 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 11/15 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 11/22 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 11/28 10 AM Iowa @ Nebraska
- 11/28 2:00 Boise St @ Utah St
- 11/29 1:30 TBD Big10 Game
- 12/13 1:30 Army vs Navy
- 12/31 12:00 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl
*Mountain Standard Times
**Rankings from SingleHighSports.com
A decent season slate, especially if CBS schedules correctly regarding the 10 TBD games. Capping the season with a Noon on New Years Eve Sun Bowl is a nice payoff for a viewing audience. There is some fun Sun Bowl History incoming soon.
I mean no one knows exactly how the season will play out, but we can speculate.
Since I’ve already pre-speculated in my full season preview “Predicting the Unpredictable,” it makes sense just to work off of that to predict a few potential game options for the TBD slots:
- 9/27
- Ohio St @ Washington would be my number 1 choice. Demond Williams Jr vs Jeremiah Smith. I’ll take Demond.
- USC @ Illinois could be another option. I have USC winning this one
- 10/4
- Wisconsin @ Michigan would be my first choice
- Minnesota @ Ohio St is a distant second
- 10/11
- Michigan @ USC is first choice. I’ll take the Trojans to win
- Indiana @ Oregon
- 10/18
- Washington @ Michigan
- Penn St @ Iowa
- 10/25
- UCLA @ Indiana. Bruins win on the road
- Michigan @ Michigan St
- 11/1
- Penn St @ Ohio St
- Rutgers @ Illinois
- 11/8
- Nebraska @ UCLA. Cornhuskers win on the road
- Washington @ Wisconsin
- 11/15
- Penn St @ Michigan St. Sparty with the upset
- Wisconsin @ Indiana. Badger up
- 11/22
- USC @ Oregon. Ducks stay hot
- Washington @ UCLA. Huskies win
- 11/29
- Oregon @ Washington. Huskies get to 10 Wins
- UCLA @ USC. Trojans finish with 9 wins
There are other options for these dates, but these would be my first couple of choices. Either way, at least one good football game will be on every week of the regular season on CBS/ Paramount+
The “unpredictable” season preview has Penn St, Washington, Ohio St, Michigan, and Oregon finishing with 10 wins, so having one of these five every week would be satisfactory. Entertainment matters as well, so scheduling a UCLA @ Indiana or Nebraska @ UCLA could be highly entertaining and worth a watch.
But then there is a Supreme cherry on top at the end of the season.
12/31/25 The Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl will be at Noon.
Held in El Paso and touted as the Second Oldest Bowl Game behind the Rose and tied alongside with the Sugar and Orange. Yessir. There’s bound to be history there. A simple history would be taking a glimpse of the last five results:
- Louisville 35 Washington 34 2024
- Notre Dame 40 Oregon St 8 2023
- Pitt 37 UCLA 35 2022
- Central Michigan 24 Washington St 21 2021
- Arizona St 20 Florida St 14 2019
How about that? 4 out of the last 5 games were decided by less than 6 points.
But given that this tied for the second oldest Bowl game, a look a bit further back is necessary.
A light rain is drizzling off the coned conifers onto the ‘soggy bottom’ outside it’s sloped branches reach, a personal forest umbrella protecting my notes and fresh 70 sheet Mead, alone in the forest, it’s all that I need.
Notable Sun Bowl MVP Winners will lead into some fun pockets of sports history. Let’s explore. Backwards. To 1961.
- 1961 Fullback Billy Joe Villanova:
- The first MVP that caught my eye when scanning the list was Billy Joe. The name alone made me curious, but to then see he played fullback for Villanova made it even more interesting. Villanova played Wichita St and won 17-9 on the legs of Billy Joe’s early 19-yard go-ahead score.
- Fun fact from this game: Legendary NFL HOF Coach Bill Parcells played Linebacker throughout the game for Wichita St and even returned a kickoff 13 yards.
- 1966 Tailback Jim Kiick Wyoming
- Kiick finished the game with 177 total yards and two TD’s in the Cowboys 28-20 Win over Florida St.
- NFL HOF WR Ron “Jingle-Joints” Sellars caught a TD in the loss.
- 1968 Defensive Back Buddy McClinton Auburn
- One of this site’s favorites on this list
- The first DB to earn the honor.
- 3 INT, 6 Tackles, and a 32 INT returned for a touchdown led the Auburn to a 34-10 victory over Arizona.
- All-American as a Safety in 1968
- Set the single season Auburn record for interceptions with (9) and most in a career with (18)
- 1976 Kicker Tony Franklin Texas A&M
- Franklin was 3/3 including a record 62 yarder in the defeat of the Florida Gators 37-14.
- The Gator offense sputtered two first downs in the first half
Time to crank it up a notch.
- 1987 Thurman Thomas RB Oklahoma St
- NFL HOF Thurman Thomas ran for 4 touchdowns in his last college game capping an incredible college career
- QB Mike Gundy managed the offense well enough 12/18 161 yards with a TD in the 35-33 shootout over West Virginia
- The Cowboy backup running back gained 19 yards on 6 carries. He went on to win the Heisman the following year. Hall of Fame Running Back Barry Sanders 57th birthday was yesterday. Happy Birthday Barry.
- 1993 Cale Gundy QB Oklahoma
- Oklahoma 41- Texas Tech 10
- Gundy amassed 215 yards and scored 3 TD’s
- Oklahoma and Texas Tech would share a conference in 3 seasons later in 1996
- Texas Tech was coached at the time by Lubbock born Spike Dykes. Big 12 Coach of the year in 1996 and late father of TCU Head Coach Sonny Dykes (Big 12 Coach of the Year 2022) Real Stuff.
- 1994 Priest Holmes RB Texas
- Priest’s dive into the endzone with 77 seconds left in the game gave the Longhorns a 35-31 lead and eventual win over the Mack Brown led North Carolina Tarheels.
- Holmes finished with 161 Total Yards and 4 Touchdowns
Yeah. 11 Touchdowns between the past three players is ‘cranking it up a notch’ I’d say.
Birthday “Bad Boy Barry” being a backup to Thurman Thomas and only gaining 19 yards is an unbelievable Sun Bowl nugget.
The notable Sun Bowl MVP List continues:
- 1996 Chad Hutchinson Stanford QB
- 22/28 226 yards 1 TD
- Stanford 38 Michigan St 0
- Legendary Coach Nick Saban led the Spartans in the loss
- A 29-year-old Gus Johnson called the game on CBS.
- Just for fun, let’s follow Chad for a bit:
- 1996 Sun Bowl MVP
- 1996-97 stats for Stanford Football 4,235 yards 20 TD’s and 22 INT
- 1997 8W-3 L with 110 K’s and a College World Series Appearance for Stanford Baseball
- 1998 10W-5L with 115 K’s
- July 1998 left Stanford. Drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. 4 years 3.5-million-dollar contract.
- 1999 AA Arkansas Travelers and then AAA Memphis Redbirds
- 2001 quits baseball
- 2002 signs with the Dallas Cowboys 3 years guaranteed at five million with a 3.1 million signing bonus.
- 2003 Former Sun Bowl participant and Wichita St LB and now NFL HOF Coach Bill Parcells takes over the Cowboys Locker room and has a QB competition
- 2004 Dallas moves Chad to “Rhein Fire” in NFL Europe
- 2004 Signed with Chicago Bears
- 2005 named projected starter after former Gator QB Rex Grossman broke his leg. “Poor preseason play” dropped Chad to the bench and promoted rookie Kyle Orton to the opening day starter.
- Chad rides into the sunset of his sports journey.
Oddly enough,
- 2002 Sun Bowl MVP–Kyle Orton QB Purdue.
- Just three years before winning the Bears starting position over the 1996 Sun Bowl MVP Hutchinson, Orton led Purdue to a 34-24 victory over Washington
- 283 yards and 1 TD
So, Coach Bill Parcells participates in the Sun Bowl, Hutchinson is MVP of the same game 34 years later. Parcells ends Chad’s Dallas career. Chad tries to find a starting role at the Bears only to have it taken by another Sun Bowl MVP Kyle Orton…The Sun Bowl gives and takes. Sort of like the West Texas desert where the annual event takes place.
Let’s speed to the finish.
- 2007 Jonathon Stewart RB Oregon
- 253 yards and two TD’s led the Ducks smashing of South Florida 56-21 while missing starting QB Dennis Dixon
- USF had beaten ranked Auburn, West Virginia, and North Carolina that season
- 2017 Nyheim Hines RB NC ST
- Hines scored 3 first half TD’s in the Wolfpacks 52-31 win over Arizona St.
- Jakobi Meyers caught a TD in the win
- 2019 Jayden Daniels QB Arizona St
- Future Heisman Winner (2023) and NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year (2024) led his team in passing and rushing yards in a 20-14 win over Florida St.
And last season’s Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl MVP–
- 2024 Harrison Bailey QB Louisville
- 164 yards and 3 TD’s
- Louisville 35- Washington 34
- Washington QB Demond Williams Jr 422 Total yards 4 total TD’s in the loss
- Washington WR Giles Jackson 11 catches 161 yards and 3 TD’s
- Bailey has transferred to Florida where he will most likely play backup QB to “Mr. Gatorade” DJ Lagway.
- Demond Williams is the starting QB at Washington this upcoming year and a Heisman Dark Horse.
And remember–all of these moments and stories stemmed from the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl, which is one of the 23 College Football games that can be seen on–Chief. Best. Supreme. CBS/Paramount+ this season. Future Hall of Fame Coaches and Players have played in this historic bowl game for decades. Who will be the next? Who will be Sun Bowl MVP in 2025?
In a long very round about sort of way–a saunter of sorts–this has been the “Paramount+ Preview” and a journey down the college football memory lane with the Sun Bowl acting as the catalyst.
In fact, the Sun Bowl just might need to be on the list of games to attend at this point.
You know, I’ve got a friend from the south coast of England, and he says something quite regularly–that is at this moment ringing in my ears. He’ll often lead an exciting sentence with,
“You never fucking know mate”–you may need to get to El Paso at Noon on New Years Eve and be a part of and witness the next fun fact of Sun Bowl history and perhaps watch the next Heisman winner. You never fucking know mate.
Two fun facts that are too late to add:
- Largest crowd in Sun Bowl history 12/31/2010 54,021 Notre Dame over Miami
- Chad Hutchinson and former LSU Legend/ MLB infielder Todd Walker are brother in laws
Time to scoot down the trail towards the valley sunshine. Like water in a bowl, the valley holds the heat and the sunshine. Abandon the cool of this shadowed hollow, hold the breath, and dive headfirst into the bowl.
Bowls of sunshine in the end.
Find the Humor and Keep on Movin’
Whit W.