Pop-Tart Bowl Champions, the Best Offense in America and a Kenny Who Catches Everything
Cleveland State30
Louisville13
- Game
- 2027 Pop-Tart Bowl
- Date
- 2028-01-01
- Site
- Neutral site
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 11-2
POP-TART BOWL CHAMPIONS! Vikings 30, Louisville 13, on New Year’s Day in Orlando, and the 2027 Vikings finish 11-2, ranked No. 11 in the final AP poll for the third straight year!
And friends, the numbers. Our offense scored 43.5 points a game, the most in the country. Not the conference. The country. Amar’e Hocker, a junior, threw for 5,317 yards, and along the way he set Big 12 and school single-game records with nine touchdown passes in a game, plus a school-record 562 passing yards in one afternoon. The good Kenny, Kenny Tongues, a freshman, led us with 1,445 receiving yards and set school single-game records with 319 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches. Baraka Nwangwu led the ground game. Marquel Bakhtiari, a redshirt freshman, led the defense with 75 tackles.
And Darren Klein won the Mackey Award and made All-American: our second Mackey tight end in four years.
Jersey thirty-four, gold star. Big Stan’s ordering a fourth sandwich board. Five pierogi, and one for Teresa, who watched the bowl with us in Old Brooklyn and yelled “GO KENNY” at the wrong Kenny all night.
Eleven wins. Third straight bowl title. The best offense in the country. A Mackey Award. School records falling like snow off the Terminal Tower.
The honest summary: the Vikings went 7-2 in the Big 12 and finished fourth, behind an Ohio team they beat by twenty-eight. The two losses were on the road, both to teams that got hot, and the defense is still the question. But the offense is the best I’ve ever covered, the quarterback has one more year, and the freshman with my name has already broken records I didn’t know existed.
Miami (OH) went to the national championship game and lost to Alabama. Nadia’s “WE’LL SEE” trophy is now draped in a tiny black ribbon. I didn’t gloat. I bought her a drink. She said, “Next year, Ken.” I said, “Next year.” We clinked glasses. Rivals are just friends with a scoreboard.
I called my father at midnight. A good day. I told him about the records, the bowl, the other Kenny. Then Teresa took the phone and said, “Hi, Mr. Hogmanes. I’m Teresa.” He said, “Kenny’s girl?” She said, “Yes, sir.” He said, “Good. Make him go outside more.”
Back and forth
Third straight bowl title, Kenny!
Third straight No. 11. The pollsters have a type.
Your dad talked to Teresa!
He called her “Kenny’s girl.” She’s going to bring it up forever. I’ve accepted it.
Eleven wins, a third straight bowl trophy, the best offense in America, a second Mackey tight end, and Ray Hogmanes ordering his son outside.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.