2014 Holiday Bowl

The 2014 Holiday Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played on December 27, 2014, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The 37th edition of the Holiday Bowl, it featured Nebraska from the Big Ten Conference and USC from the Pac-12 Conference. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that concluded the 2014 FBS football season. The game started at 5:00 p.m. PST and was telecast on ESPN (also on ESPN Radio). Sponsored by National University, it was officially known as the National University Holiday Bowl.

2014 National University Holiday Bowl
37th Holiday Bowl Game
Nebraska Cornhuskers USC Trojans (9–3) (8–4) Big Ten Pac-12 42 45 Head coach:  Barney Cotton (interim) Head coach:  Steve Sarkisian AP Coaches 25 22 AP CFP 24 24
1 2 3 4 Total Nebraska 17 0 17 8 42 USC 10 14 21 0 45
Date	December 27, 2014
Season	2014
Stadium	Qualcomm Stadium
Location	San Diego, California
MVP	Offense: USC QB Cody Kessler[1] Defense: USC DE Leonard Williams[1]
Favorite	USC by 7[2]
Referee	Randy Christal[3] (Big XII)
Attendance	55,789[3]
Payout	US$2.075 million per team [4]
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN/ESPN Radio
Announcers	Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack, & Samantha Ponder (ESPN) Bill Rosinski, David Norrie, & Joe Schad (ESPN Radio)
Holiday Bowl  ← 2013  2015 →

Teams

This was the fifth overall meeting between these two teams, with USC leading the series 3–0–1 before this game. The last time these two teams met was in 2007.

Nebraska

Main article: 2014 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team

USC

Main article: 2014 USC Trojans football team

Game summary

Scoring summary

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP NEB USC 1 11:05 5 29 1:47 NEB 34-yard field goal by Drew Brown 3 0 1 10:54 – – 0:11 USC Adoree' Jackson 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, Andre Heidari kick good 3 7 1 8:23 6 53 2:31 NEB Kenny Bell 18-yard touchdown reception from Tommy Armstrong Jr., Drew Brown kick good 10 7 1 6:05 2 42 2:18 USC 42-yard field goal by Andre Heidari 10 10 1 1:25 6 39 2:42 NEB De'Mornay Pierson-El 9-yard touchdown reception from Tommy Armstrong Jr., Drew Brown kick good 17 10 2 13:11 10 75 3:14 USC Nelson Agholor 17-yard touchdown reception from Cody Kessler, Andre Heidari kick good 17 17 2 6:39 12 80 3:32 USC Javorius Allen 2-yard touchdown run, Andre Heideri kick good 17 24 3 12:01 1 71 0:12 USC Adoree' Jackson 71-yard touchdown reception from Cody Kessler, Andre Heidari kick good 17 31 3 9:41 7 73 2:20 NEB Ameer Abdullah 20-yard touchdown run, Drew Brown kick good 24 31 3 8:06 5 68 1:35 USC Javorius Allen 44-yard touchdown run, Andre Heidari kick good 24 38 3 2:28 6 9 3:25 NEB 25-yard field goal by Drew Brown 27 38 3 2:03 2 65 0:25 USC Bryce Dixon 20-yard touchdown reception from Cody Kessler, Andre Heidari kick good 27 45 3 0:24 3 64 1:39 NEB Jordan Westerkamp 65-yard touchdown reception from Tommy Armstrong Jr., Drew Brown kick good 34 45 4 6:52 9 77 2:51 NEB Tommy Armstrong Jr. 15-yard touchdown run, 2-point pass good 42 45 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 42 45

Source: ^[3]

Statistics

Statistics[3]	NEB	USC
First downs	28	22
Plays–yards	94–525	73–515
Rushes–yards	43–144	34–194
Passing yards	371	321
Passing: Comp–Att–Int	31–49–1	23–39–1
Time of possession	34:26	25:34

Depth chart

Nebraska Defensive starters FS Corey Cooper (6) SS Nate Gerry (25) NB Byerson Cockrell (28) LB LB Zaire Anderson (13) Josh Banderas (52) CB Daniel Davie (23) DE DT DT DE Randy Gregory (4) Vincent Valentine (98) Maliek Collins (7) Greg McMullen (90) CB Josh Mitchell (5)

USC Offensive starters WR Nelson Agholor (15) WR Steven Mitchell (7) LT LG C RG RT Toa Lobendahn (50) Damien Mama (51) Max Tuerk (75) Viane Talamaivao (60) Zach Banner (73) TE Randall Telfer WR JuJu Smith (9) QB Cody Kessler (6) RB Javorius Allen (37)

Depth chart

USC Defensive starters FS Gerald Bowman (27) WOLB WILB MILB SOLB J.R. Tavai (56) Hayes Pullard (10) Anthony Sarao (56) Su'a Cravens (21) SS John Plattenburg (24) CB Josh Shaw (6) LE NT RE Claudeson Pelon (90) Delvon Simmons (52) Leonard Williams (94) CB Adoree' Jackson (2)

Nebraska Offensive starters WR Kenny Bell (80) WR De'Mornay Pierson-El (15) LT LG C RG RT Alex Lewis (71) Jake Cotton (68) Dylan Utter (66) Mike Moudy (74) Givens Price (78) TE Cethan Carter (11) WR Jordan Westerkamp (1) QB Tommy Armstrong (4) RB Ameer Abdullah (8)