Marcus Mariota went 13-of-15 for 169 yards and two scores in Oregon’s spring game. (Steve Dykes/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

The offseason’s final crop of spring games wrapped up over the weekend. Here’s a look at the top news and notes from around the nation:

• Oregon: Chip Kelly may have skipped town to take over the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, but Oregon’s offense looked as explosive as ever even without its old coach. With former coordinator Mark Helfrich at the helm, the Ducks’ attack reeled off 65 points, 802 yards and nine touchdowns in the team’s spring game on Saturday. Sophomore quarterback Marcus Mariota was sharp coming off a strong freshman campaign, finishing 13-of-15 for 169 yards and two scores in four short series of action. As the offense thrived, former Oregon tailback LaMichael James returned to Autzen Stadium to watch the scrimmage from the sidelines.

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Rutgers will wear special helmets and jerseys during its April 27 spring game. (Rutgers Athletics)

By Zac Ellis

The feel-good story of the day comes out of New Jersey, where Rutgers announced Thursday that it will give 22 local students affected by Hurricane Sandy the opportunity to play a flag football game at the Scarlet Knights’ spring game on Saturday, April 27. The students will play the final five minutes of the annual Scarlet-White game, with their play affecting the final score.

Rutgers is selecting the students in a contest of essays and photos, which can be submitted through a special Facebook page. Selected children will spend the second half of the game on the sidelines of High Point Solutions stadium with their respective teams.

Rutgers fans attending the game can donate $5 to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund at the gate, and the team will wear special jerseys sporting the names of 90 towns across New Jersey affected by Sandy. The jerseys will later be signed by head coach Kyle Flood and given to each town. The Scarlet Knights will also wear special helmets with an “R Strong” logo.

Rutgers has made efforts to honor and support victims of Hurricane Sandy since the storm hit, including selling more than $61,000 worth of “R Strong” T-shirts since last fall. Rutgers athletics also raised $10,000 for the Jersey Shore chapter of the American Red Cross by collecting at the team’s game against Army last November.

Is this the real Kliff Kingsbury, or an incredible simulation? (AP)

• Kliff Kingsbury is on Twitter. His hair does not look artfully tousled. He is wearing a suit and tie, and that tie is not a skinny tie. No v-necks are immediately visible. This may in fact be a wax dummy of Kliff Kingsbury pictured here, which would go a long way toward explaining why it hasn’t tweeted yet.

• We are now contractually obligated to call him Bear O’Brien for one calendar year. Penn State’s head coach has been bestowed with the Bear Bryant College Coach of the Year Award, marking him as the most alliterative winner in the award’s history. Congratulations, Bill O’Bryant!

• Coach-hirin’ follies! Florida defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is leaving to rejoin the Seattle Seahawks; Gators assistant D.J. Durkin has been elevated in his place … per our express wishes, Clancy Pendergast will replace Monte Kiffin as USC’s DC … Rutgers will reportedly lose offensive coordinator Dave Brock to Delaware … Rick Smith, who’s coached defensive backs at South Florida since 2010, will join Ruffin McNeil’s staff at East Carolina as defensive coordinator … now-former Boston College OC Doug Martin (not, so far as we know, nicknamed “Muscle Hamster”) is headed back to New Mexico State in the same capacity.

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The story of one college football postseason contest, as told through social media.

We’ll be kicking off right around the time the sun starts to set in Orlando, so getcha Instagrams ready, kiddies.

— RussellAthleticBowl (@RussellAthBowl) December 28, 2012

When I walked into the Citrus Bowl today, the first person I saw was Joe Tessitore. So I’m confident I’ll have something to write about.

— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) December 28, 2012

Joe Tessitore is calling this game, and that means we can [RAIN OF EXPLODING ROBOT DINOSAURS]

— edsbs (@edsbs) December 28, 2012

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Will Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova have a super time bowling in Orlando? (AP)

The 2012 Russell Athletic 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 Andy Staples’ game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This is where we tend to lose it every bowl season, every year without fail, so just try and stay with us here: This is the Russell Athletic Bowl, which last year was the Champs Sports Bowl, which is played in the Citrus Bowl but is not the Citrus Bowl because the Capital One Bowl is the Citrus Bowl, and before that the Tangerine Bowl, although the Russell Athletic Bowl was also the Tangerine Bowl, three times. I need to lie down. Us too.

• If this game is in the Citrus Bowl, where are they playing the Citrus Bowl? The Capital One Bowl is also held in the Citrus Bowl. I would like a hot towel for my face, please. Us too.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, with streaming available on WatchESPN. Internet favorite Joe Tessitore will man the booth, with Matt Millen serving as designated albatross and Maria Taylor down on the sidelines.

• Whom does it feature? ACC versus Big East.

• What about this year? 6-6 Virginia Tech scrapes into the postseason to stare down 9-3 Rutgers.

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Highlight video of the ballyhooed 1992 RU/VT game. And there is NO QUESTION it was made in 1992. youtu.be/UIlIsa2zphg

— RussellAthleticBowl (@RussellAthBowl) December 3, 2012

We would like to politely request at this time that all footage of the 2012 Rutgers Athletic Bowl adhere to these same retro production values. For continuity, you see.

• Assorted trophy happenings. Your 2012 Heisman finalists, who are somehow still not called “Heis-men,” which will apparently never be satisfactorily explained: Johnny Manziel, Manti Te’o and Collin Klein. Klein has also been bestowed with the Johnny Unitas Award, and Te’o with the Nagurski Trophy. In non-Heis-men news, Notre Dame’s Bob Diaco is the 2012 Broyles Award winner, and Matt McGloin takes home the Burlsworth Award.

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• Oh, NOW you don’t like the BCS. Not before. Just now. Northern Illinois is bound for the Orange Bowl as the first team from the MAC to earn a BCS bowl bid. We, as you might imagine, are delighted. Others are not. In other words, it’s just like every other BCS selection reaction ever.

Herbstreit calls NIU’s BCS berth “A sad state of college football.”

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 3, 2012

Herbstreit on #BCS selection show: “To put Northern Illinois in the BCS is a joke.” — Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) December 3, 2012

Say what you will about NIU, its bid was automatic, just like Wisconsin’s and Louisville’s. NIU ranks ahead of both in every poll. — Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) December 3, 2012

“I can’t believe they let NIU into the sacrosanct Orange Bowl.” <—someone who has never watched the Orange Bowl — edsbs (@edsbs) December 2, 2012

Rule that got NIU in was established to help defend BCS from anti-trust lawsuit. ESPN acting like it’s a football decision — Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) December 3, 2012

Is there any other sport in America where people DESPISE the underdog? Any sport in the world? — Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 3, 2012

Again, according to every current human poll and a consensus of the BCS computers, NIU’s not even the worst BCS bowl team this year. — Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) December 3, 2012

To steal a @billsimmons metaphor, a lot of the NIU whining seems like people who are also mad the house doesn’t win more in blackjack.

— John Infante (@John_Infante) December 3, 2012

For takes longer than 140 characters, see Samuel Chi’s “Deal with it” and Matt Hinton’s “Blame the Big Ten and Big East.” The final regular-season BCS standings can be found here; the tell-all Coaches’ Poll results are here. For our full bowl schedule, click this way.

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• Louisville 20, Rutgers 17. We’ll let SI.com’s Gabriel Baumgaertner tell y’all all about the antics of Teddy Bridgewater, but don’t go away without watching him let it all out postgame with offensive coordinator Shawn Watson. Bridgewater led the Cardinals to a primetime win, on the road, against the country’s fourth-ranked scoring defense. And then this happened:

How Bridgewater is even remaining upright at this point is anybody’s guess, but up he his, and no matter your particular partisanship, you must applaud. Have you a pulse? You will be moved. But don’t take our word for it. Listen to his teammates. Here’s Louisville offensive lineman Alex Kupper, after the game: “His legacy at the University of Louisville keeps building and building, and he’s only halfway through. He’s just an unbelievable player, the way he fights. When you’re playing next to him, if you do anything less, it’s shame on you.”

Rutgers still gets a share of the Big East title, and Cincinnati could force a four-way tie atop the conference standings with a win over UConn, but take it from Louisville safety Calvin Pryor, as the Cardinals mull their postseason possibilities: ”Whatever it is is better than going to the Belk Bowl!” [BOX | RECAP]

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What has one good arm, one good leg and a date with one of the country’s top defenses? Teddy Bridgewater, show us your guts. (AP)

You have but one option for college football viewing this Thursday evening, and that is a battle for conference supremacy between Rutgers and Louisville, two teams that would like very much not to be in that conference anymore. We’re sure you have so many questions. 

• What information do I, the discerning sports fan, require in order to consume this game? The Cardinals and Scarlet Knights are scheduled to kick off at 7:31 p.m. ET at High Point Solutions Stadium. The sold-out game will be televised on ESPN and streamed on WatchESPN.

• What’s at stake here? Oh, lots. A Rutgers victory tonight pretty much solves everything as far as the conference championship is concerned: Win, and the Scarlet Knights will head to a BCS bowl as the Big East’s only team with fewer than two losses in conference play. A Louisville win here followed by a Cincinnati win over UConn on Saturday would create our favorite postseason thing: a multi-team tie for first place in the conference standings, between Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville and Syracuse.

• So if Rutgers hadn’t been pantsed by PITT, we wouldn’t be in this predicament at all, no? Correct. The Orange, Cardinals and Bearcats all have two conference losses already. The Panthers have had a funny way of throwing wrenches and near-wrenches like that this year. As fans of regimented chaos, we have never been fonder of them.

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Bacarri Rambo had a fumble recovery and a pick in Georgia’s rout of Georgia Tech. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Snap Judgments from the Week 13 early slate. For more, check out Friday Snaps, Saturday’s midday Snaps, Saturday’s late Snaps, our recaps of Michigan-Ohio State, Florida-Florida State and Notre Dame-USC and our complete Top 25 review.

• No. 3 Georgia 42, Georgia Tech 10. Looky here, it’s two teams headed to major conference championship games next week! Don’t be too hard on Tech; the Jackets and their coach have battled the flu all week, were operating without the services of leading rusher Orwin Smith and still managed to pile up 458 yards in Sanford Stadium. It was scoring that posed the problem; Tech didn’t even attempt a punt in the first half but had three drives snuffed out by a fumble, a failed fourth-down attempt and an interception, respectively. Its second-half drives fared little better, ending in two punts, one touchdown and three more unsuccessful fourth-down conversions. Georgia’s first seven drives, by contrast: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. Mark Richt, in his postgame press conference: “Our goal was to win every phase of the game, for every unit to win. I think we may have done that.” Seems like a solid take, coach.

The result is the biggest margin of victory for the Dawgs in their year-end rivalry game since 2002. And speaking of records: With Saturday’s scoreboard assault, the 2012 Bulldogs are officially the highest-scoring squad in program history. That same 2002 team scored 450 points in 14 games; with 12 games down and two to go, this year’s squad is already at 456. Safety Bacarri Rambo tied Jake Scott’s school record for career interceptions at 16. And Aaron Murray is now the first SEC quarterback to put up three consecutive 3,000-yard seasons.

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