Rees propels Irish to easy win over Miami

Freshman Tommy Rees passed for 201 yards and two touchdowns to Michael Floyd as Notre Dame beat Miami, 33-17, in the Sun Bowl on Friday in El Paso, Texas, making Brian Kelly the first Fighting Irish coach to win a bowl game in his first season.

Notre Dame (8-5) reached the end zone on three of its first four possessions. Rees tossed TD passes of 3 and 34 yards to Floyd and Cierre Wood broke free on a 34-yard scoring run before David Ruffer kicked field goals from 40, 50 and 19 yards.

The Irish closed with four victories to cap an up-and-down season under Kelly.

Rees hardly looked like a freshman, completing 15 of 29 attempts without an interception. His performance marked the first time a first-year starting quarterback at Notre Dame won a bowl game.

Floyd had a big day, too, with six catches for 109 yards receiving, and his numbers would have been even better if he'd brought in what would have been two more TD catches.

The game sold out in 21 hours, the fastest in the Sun Bowl's 77-year history, and the crowd of 54,021 set a bowl attendance record.

Florida St. 26, South Carolina 17: EJ Manuel threw a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to stop a South Carolina rally, Chris Thompson ran for 147 yards and a touchdown and Dustin Hopkins kicked four field goals for the No. 23 Seminoles (10-4) in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. No. 20 South Carolina (9-5) lost running back Marcus Lattimore when he was hit hard on the first drive.

South Florida 31, Clemson 26: B.J. Daniels threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third in the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. The Big East is 3-1 in bowl games with two to go (Connecticut vs. Oklahoma on Saturday night in the Fiesta Bowl and Pittsburgh vs. Kentucky in the Compass Bowl next Saturday). USF is 8-5, Clemson 6-7.

Central Florida 10, Georgia 6: Latavius Murray scored on a 10-yard touchdown run with 9:01 left and Central Florida (11-3) held on in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn.

- AP