On Dec. 27 in Orlando, BYU came back and beat Georgia Tech 25-21 in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, and the ending went nuclear online for one simple reason: somebody actually cared. BYU scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, took the lead with 2:00 left, then sealed it with an end-zone interception with six seconds on the clock. That is not “meaningless,” that is a live wire.
And if you are a Notre Dame fan who spent the last three weeks doing the “bowls are beneath us” routine, I hope you watched every second. Because while BYU and Georgia Tech were out here sweating, punching, and trying to win a stupidly beautiful game, Notre Dame literally turned down an invitation to this exact bowl and shut their season down. Too cool for the Pop-Tarts Bowl, right.
Quick facts
- Final: BYU 25, Georgia Tech 21 (Camping World Stadium, Orlando)
- BYU trailed 21-10 at halftime, shut Georgia Tech out in the second half
- Game winner: Jovesa Damuni TD run with 2:00 left, Evan Johnson end-zone INT with 0:06
- BYU MVP: Bear Bachmeier, 27-of-38, 325 yards, 1 TD
The final play that made everyone yell
Here’s why your group chat would not shut up. Georgia Tech is down late, still has life, and Haynes King drops a 66-yard laser on fourth-and-15 to move them to the BYU 18 with under a minute left. That’s the moment everybody sits up like, “Oh no, they’re doing it.”
Then BYU slams the door. Three incompletions. Fourth down. End zone target. Evan Johnson picks it off with six seconds left. Ballgame. Season. Confetti. The cleanest kind of heartbreak, the kind you remember for years.
I texted my buddy at 2AM, “A Pop-Tarts Bowl just gave me more adrenaline than half the ‘big games’ this year.” He responded, “Notre Dame fans are pretending they didn’t watch.” That’s the whole thing right there.
Why “opt-in” teams win the internet
BYU was down 11 at the half, then made the whole second half a chokehold. Georgia Tech scored 21 before halftime, then got blanked after the break. That is effort. That is coaching. That is players not sleepwalking through “a lower-tier bowl.”
BYU did not just “show up,” they got punched, got wobbly, then came back swinging. Enoch Nawahine punches one in to make it a three-point game, BYU forces stops, then Damuni finishes the comeback with the go-ahead touchdown run.
That’s the difference. Fans don’t hate bowl games. Fans hate fake effort. When two teams act like the game matters, the internet treats it like a national title. Don’t tell me bowls are dead when you were screaming about a fourth-and-15 bomb and a last-second end-zone pick.
The bowl-season attitude that’s killing the sport
Now let’s talk about the vibe assassin. Notre Dame’s season ended with them opting out of bowls entirely after the playoff snub, including turning down an invitation to play in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That’s not “protecting the future,” that’s taking your ball and going home because you didn’t get the toy you wanted.
And Notre Dame fans are the loudest choir for this sermon. Every year it’s the same code: “Bowl games don’t matter” really means “my team didn’t get what it wanted.” This time it got weaponized into a full-on boycott. It might feel satisfying in the moment, but it’s terrible for the long-term health of the non-playoff bowl ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the Pop-Tarts Bowl just sat there like a mirror, reflecting the obvious. If BYU and Georgia Tech can treat it seriously, why can’t the self-proclaimed “biggest brand” do the same.
What BYU proved about its program
BYU finished 12-2 and got its first 12-win season since 2001. That is not a “participation trophy season.” That’s a real year, and the Pop-Tarts Bowl became their exclamation point because they refused to treat it like a consolation prize.
Bear Bachmeier threw for 325 and got named MVP. Carsen Ryan went for a career-high 120 receiving yards. And the defense, after getting hit with a fake field goal touchdown and a muffed kickoff that spotted Georgia Tech the ball at the BYU 6, still came out of halftime and posted a second-half shutout.
That’s recruiting juice. That’s momentum. That’s the reputation every coach wants: “We are the program that gives a damn, even when the internet tells us not to.”
How bowls can beat “big games” at their own game
College football is supposed to feel like a fever dream. The Pop-Tarts Bowl gets that. The trophy is literally a working toaster inside a football-shaped trophy, built to lean into the spectacle. It’s not pretending to be the Rose Bowl. It’s trying to be fun, and that’s the point.
It’s like a wedding reception that accidentally becomes the best party of the year because nobody’s pretending to be cool. BYU and Georgia Tech weren’t too cool. They played like psychos, and the whole thing turned into something people will talk about longer than some “serious” playoff game.
One playoff game is going to have a smaller “holy crap” footprint online than this bowl did.
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