The 2012 Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl, the 35th edition of the game, was a postseason American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

between the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only two private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior to jo ...

from the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

and the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

from the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Divisi ...

(Pac-12), played on December 27, 2012, at

Qualcomm Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the st ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

. The game was the final contest of the 2012 NCAA Division I-Football Bowl Subdivision (Division I-FBS) football season for both teams. The game kicked off at 6:45 p.m. PT and was broadcast on both

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

TV and

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN ...

. This is the first Holiday Bowl appearance for both Baylor and UCLA, as well as the first-ever meeting between the two teams. It also marks the first time one of the Pac-12's Southern California teams has played in the Holiday Bowl.

Teams

Baylor

The Baylor Bears, winning their last three games, are among the best in the country, averaging 578.8 yards per game (first), averaging 353.3 yards passing (third), and averaging 44.1 points per game (fifth). They defeated then-No. 1 ranked

Kansas State Wildcats The Kansas State Wildcats (variously "Kansas State", "K-State", or "KSU") are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Kansas State University. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple; white and silver are generally used as co ...

52–24 on November 17. Its Quarterback Nick Florence has passed for 4,121 yards for 31 touchdowns this season, and rushed for a gain of 531 yards and nine touchdowns. Baylor is rated 117th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 62 touchdowns, 8 field goals for 458 points.

UCLA

For the third time this season, the UCLA Bruins will be playing against a team that has defeated a No. 1 ranked team in the country. They lost the last two games to the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

who defeated the then No. 1 rated

Oregon Ducks The Oregon Ducks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Oregon, located in Eugene. The Ducks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. ...

on November 17. The Bruins are led by quarterback

Brett Hundley Brett Alan Hundley Jr. (born June 15, 1993) is an American football quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, where he was the school's career leader in both total ...

and senior running back Johnathan Franklin. Franklin, the school's all-time leading rusher, has carried the ball 268 times for 1,700 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also has 32 receptions for 319 yards. Hundley has completed 292 passes for 3411 yards and for 26 touchdowns. Additionally, he has run for 365 yards for nine touchdowns. Defensively, UCLA is led by

Eric Kendricks Eric-Nathan Marvin Kendricks (born February 29, 1992) is an American football middle linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins. As a senior in 2014, he won the Bu ...

and Anthony Barr. Kendricks is fifth in the nation with 137 tackles and has 10 or more tackles in eight games this season. Barr leads the nation with 13.5 sacks and has 20.5 total tackles for loss. He is credited with four forced fumbles and two blocked kicks.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Statistics

Game notes

* December 6, 2012 – Johnathan Franklin was voted second best running back in the nation in the

Doak Walker Award Since 1990 the Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. It is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Football Le ...

, finishing just behind

Montee Ball Montee Ball Jr. (born December 5, 1990) is a former American football running back. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He played college football at Wisconsin, where he was twice recognized as the be ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. *The Bruins' final touchdown was not reviewed during the game, but replays appeared to show that Logan Sweet was down at the 1-yard line on what was ruled a 34-yard touchdown catch. While the score of the game was 49–26, Baylor Head Coach Art Briles had the score changed to 49–19 on the championship rings presented to Baylor players commemorating the victory. Chip Patterson of

CBSSports.com CBSSports.com (formerly CBS SportsLine.com and SportsLine USA) is an American sports news website operated by Paramount Streaming, itself a division of Paramount Global. It is the website for CBS's CBS Sports division that features news, high ...

called the changing of the score "an arrogant move."

References

{{UCLA Bruins bowl game navbox

Holiday Bowl The Holiday Bowl is a post-season NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game that has been played in San Diego since 1978. San Diego County Credit Union has been the game's title sponsor since 2017, and the bowl has ...

Holiday Bowl Baylor Bears football bowl games UCLA Bruins football bowl games

December 2012 sports events in the United States