Do not adjust your monitors: That’s a defensive player (Marquis Flowers, No. 2 above) saving the day for Arizona. (AP)

Quick hits on the first Saturday of the 2012 college football bowl season. Recap the best Twitter action from today’s bowl games with the Campus Union Laff Riot.

• New Mexico Bowl: Arizona 49, Nevada 48: Just because this is almost exactly what we were expecting out of the New Mexico Bowl doesn’t mean it was any less satisfying to watch. Like the season proper, bowl season will contain all manner of football. There will be scoring barrages and slogs, footraces under the south Florida sun and grinding stops in the snow. But we can’t think of anything more proper to kick off the postseason than a fireworks show.

It took the Wolf Pack just more than two minutes to score their first touchdown, which seemed an appropriate length of time given Arizona’s defense. The manner of the scoring was also not unexpected, with Stefphon Jefferson motoring for a 16-yard rushing touchdown. What we did not expect to see was Arizona punting on the ensuing possession … and again on the Wildcats’ second possession. With a 17-yard scoring pass from Cody Fajardo to tight end Zach Sudfeld, Nevada went up 14-0, and the Wildcats gamely dug a deeper hole for themselves by fumbling the kickoff return. The Pack recovered, and on the very next play from scrimmage, Fajardo and Sudfeld teamed up again for a 28-yard score. (This all despite Sudfeld, according to the broadcast team, suffering from the lingering effects of stomach flu.) This being Nevada and Arizona, all this took place in the first 11 minutes of the ballgame.

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The Idaho Potato Commission sponsors the Idaho Potato Bowl and its deliciously starchy logo. (PRNewsFoto)

The 2012 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Gabriel Baumgaertner’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, formerly known as the Humanitarian Bowl (and more importantly, the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl), makes its second appearance in the college football postseason galaxy. And for the second consecutive year, it will be the only college football bowl game boasting a logo that features chives.

• Where will this game be played? Boise’s Bronco Stadium, home to the Boise State Broncos and their famous blue turf.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN. The Potato Bowl apparently does not warrant a 3D broadcast, saddening fans who were looking forward to exploring those pillowy mountains of sour cream from the comfort of their living room sofas.

• Whom does it feature? A most favored bloggy combo: WACtion versus MACtion!

• What about this year? The WAC champion Utah State Aggies will make their second consecutive Potato Bowl and third overall postseason football appearance in Boise. They’ll face the Toledo Rockets, who finished third in the MAC West. This is Toledo’s first appearance in the Potato Bowl.

• Is there an actual dish called a Potato Bowl available for purchase at the game? We’re looking into concession availability, but while we’re on the subject, let’s visit the Idaho Potato Commission website and its fine collection of potato-based tailgating recipes. There is something called “Deviled Eggs A La Idaho® Potatoes” happening here that certainly looks like a potato bowl-type dish.

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• With a Champoline, bien sûr. Shutdown Fullback welcomes the 2012 postseason by drinking on  trampoline and discussing (sort of) the impending New Mexico Bowl:

A felicitous bowl season to all.

• Oh, you wanted football. Bill Connelly breaks down this weekend’s bowl action in New Mexico and Potato previews that contain maths.

• “Actual division names TBD.” Time to dredge up all those Ro-Tel-infested, be-Barbasoled threads concerning the infinite list of possibilites that would have made better division names than Leaders and Legends, for redistricting time in the Big Ten is upon us. This will in no way end with heartbreak and nationwide derision, particularly not if they go with that Hunger Games-inspired “inner-outer” arrangement.

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Will Kent State’s Dri Archer earn a return to his home state of Florida this postseason? (AP)

• Peasants at the gates! Utah State and San Jose State make their first appearances in the BCS rankings, while Northern Illinois enters the BCS Top 25 for the first time in 2012. Are we in for some surprise gate-crashers in the big-money bowls after all? Maybe. Allow SMQ to explain it all for you: “So even for the winner, the potential stakes in the MAC title game range from the Orange Bowl to the GoDaddy.com Bowl, with nothing in between.” And remember not to overlook this Friday’s NIU-Kent State showdown while penciling the Golden Flashes in for a trip to Florida.

• Cajuns to New Orleans to repeat legendary tailgating feats. Bowl invitations issued over the weekend: Utah State to a second consecutive Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Nevada to the New Mexico Bowl and the Ragin’ Cajuns to their second New Orleans Bowl. Now, we didn’t see the Cajuns in their postseason appearance in person last year, but we have been to New Orleans for college football games, and been to tailgates in Lafayette, and this game just became our first mandatory trip of the postseason. Stewart Mandel’s latest bowl projections can be found here, freshly updated with all invited teams.

• Coach firin’ season, continued. Jon Embree tells the Denver Post he’d been told just last week that his job was safe … one Post columnist calls Embree’s ouster shameful and unjust … Marshall’s defensive coordinator has resigned … and Ellis Johnson’s press conference has been canceled, with a team meeting scheduled for 4:00. Nothing to see here!

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Many considered the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl between 6-7 UCLA and 6-6 Illinois a mockery. (They weren't wrong.) (Icon SMI)

A report by CBS’ Brett McMurphy on a fledgling movement among college football’s power brokers to restrict postseason eligibility to teams with winning records has touched off flights of fancy over which bowl games are most shrilly begging to be offed. Our pals at SB Nation have charted out the seven games ripest to be snuffed out in a world where 7-5 is the absolute floor for winter ball. And we say to you, titans of our industry: Stay your scything hands, and let the corrupt decadence of the postseason fester and flourish for what little time its current form has left.

George Mallory would watch the New Mexico Bowl

From the McMurphy report: “Fewer bowls would actually benefit the overall bowl system, a non-BCS bowl official said. ‘It would make the existing bowls more valuable and drive up the sponsorships and television ratings for the survivors,’ the official said.” We find the truth of this difficult to ascertain. So because the Mountain Dew Icy Shardblast Bowl on December 19 is now a thing of the past, we are, as consumers, expected to be more excited for the DO YOU GUYS KNOW HOW TO POST VIDEOS TO FACEBOOK Bowl (presented by Facebook) on the 20th?

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Louisiana-Lafayette fans (and mascot Cayenne) celebrated the Ragin' Cajuns New Orleans Bowl win over San Diego State in style. (Icon SMI)

• Bowltyme! Important takeaways from the first three contests of the college football bowl season: Wyoming fans are people you want to party with. Louisiana fans, even more so. Maybe give Louisiana’s S&C coach a wide berth. Illegal stemming: It’s a thing! Penn Wagers: doin’ Penn Wagers things. A Cowboys extra point attempt very nearly triggered our long-standing “hit both uprights and the crossbar and you win the game” rule. It was the play of the day, until the last play of the night. And I know you’ve found yourselves wondering: Just how are these three contests like artisanal pork products? [Recaps: Temple 37-Wyoming 15; Ohio 24-Utah State 23; Louisiana 32-San Diego State 30]

• A souvenir football on every mantel: In non-FBS goings-on: Mars Hill’s Jonas Randolph is having a pretty good week. Pittsburgh State wins its second DII title in program history. Wisconsin-Whitewater captures a third consecutive Division III national championship. And the States of Sam Houston and North Dakota will vie for the FCS title in January.

• Fresh coaches, bought and sold! Amid speculation he might leave for the Pitt job, Paul Rhoads has re-upped with Iowa State. Reportedly out of the Akron and Southern Miss coaching searches, respectively: Pat Narduzzi and Kirby Smart. And take a minute today to read about the effect outgoing Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker had on one former player. And Gary Crowton will do … something … at Maryland.

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The New Mexico, Famous Idaho Potato and New Orleans bowls take place on Saturday, Dec. 17.

Three bowl games of varying degrees of glory kick off the 2011 postseason. Study up!

New Mexico Bowl (Temple vs. Wyoming): 2 p.m. ET, ESPN.

Read the preview:

The first bowl of the postseason features two programs with something to prove. Last season, Al Golden’s Temple squad finished 8-4 but was the only bowl-eligible team with more than six wins not to receive a postseason invitation. First-year Temple coach Steve Addazio helped the Owls avoid another snub in 2011 with a stingy defense and run-based offense that scored at least 34 points in seven of eight victories behind the nation’s seventh-best rushing attack (257 yards per game). Meanwhile, Wyoming aims to brand the New Mexico Bowl as its own by seeking the program’s second straight victory in the Albuquerque classic.

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