NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
Dec. 10—It may have been a bittersweet ending to the 2024 UTPB football season but considering all the Falcons had to deal with, head coach Kris McCullough and his players still have reasons to be positive from this year.
The Falcons fell to No. 25 Central Missouri in Saturday’s Heritage Bowl in a double-overtime thriller, 39-37 in Corsicana.
With the loss, UTPB finished the year 7-5 while Central Missouri finished 9-3.
The Falcons are still searching for their first postseason victory in the program’s short history.
Still, UTPB finished with back-to-back winning seasons for the first time as McCullough wraps up his second season in charge of the program.
Things looked bleak for the team back on Oct. 5 after a season-ending leg injury to quarterback Dylan Graham in a 36-7 loss to eventual Lone Star Conference champions Angelo State.
Instead, the team responded with a 14-13 upset at No. 9 Central Washington the following week and only lost one more regular season game after Graham’s injury.
“Our guys kept fighting and played the best football since I’ve been here,” McCullough said at Monday’s press conference at the D. Kirk Edwards Human Performance Center. “Going into the bowl game, I thought we played well as a team. We played against a really good team. That’s a top 25 team that we faced. I felt like last year, if they beat Harding, they would’ve gone on to win the national championship.”
>> LEAD DISAPPEARED: UTPB carried a 28-14 lead into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, Central Missouri’s offense, led by Harlon Hill finalist quarterback Zach Zebrowski, scored two unanswered touchdowns to tie the game up with 35 seconds remaining after a 13-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Rose and send the game into overtime.
The Mules’ last scoring drive in regulation took 94 yards and 5:11 off the clock.
>> ANGEL DIAZ: After Central…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football-notebook-utpb-reflecting-010100960.html
Author : Odessa American, Texas
Publish date : 2024-12-11 01:01:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
