The 2015 Alamo Bowl was an 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 ...

played on January 2, 2015, at the

Alamodome The Alamodome is a 64,000-seat domed indoor multi-purpose stadium in San Antonio, Texas. It is located on the southeastern fringe of downtown San Antonio. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, having been constructed at a cost of $186 milli ...

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

. The 22nd edition of the

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the secon ...

featured the

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 ...

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 ...

. It was televised at 5:45 p.m. CST on

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 ...

and heard on the

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 ...

. It was one of the 2014–15 bowl games that conclude the 2014 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by the

Valero Energy Corporation Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United States and Can ...

and was officially known as the Valero Alamo Bowl. The Bruins defeated the Wildcats, 40–35, and ended the season with 10 wins.

Teams

This was the third overall meeting between these two teams, with the series standing tied, 1–1 before the game. The last time these two teams met was in 2010.

Kansas State

Kansas State entered the season ranked #20 in the preseason polls, and were predicted as one of the teams that could win the

. After winning their first two games, the Wildcats lost to then 5th-ranked Auburn 20-14 to fall to 2-1. The Wildcats then won 5-straight games to improve to 7-1, including a 31-30 win over

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

, and rose to #7 in the rankings. They would then lose 41-20 to TCU for their first loss of Conference play. After beating

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

and

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

, Kansas State lost their season finale to Baylor 38-27 to finish 9-3, with a 7-2 conference record

UCLA

The UCLA Bruins were ranked No. 7 in preseason national polls, and were expected to contend for not only one of the four berths in the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

, but also the national championship. They started the season 4–0, often struggling, before suffering consecutive home losses to the

Utah Utes The Utah Utes are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City. The athletic department is named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the Runnin' ...

and

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. ...

. After dropping out of the polls, they re-emerged as playoff contenders with five straight wins. However, UCLA lost their final home game 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 ...

. A win in the Alamo Bowl would give the Bruins their ninth 10-win season in school history, and it would be just the third time in their history that they have won 10 games in consecutive seasons.

Game summary

No. 14 UCLA jumped to a large halftime lead and held on for a 40–35 win over No. 11 Kansas State.

Paul Perkins Paul Kerry Perkins II (born November 16, 1994) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, leading the Pac-12 Conference in ru ...

scored on a 67-yard run to give the Bruins a 40–28 lead with just over two minutes left in the game, and he helped recover an

onside kick In gridiron football, an onside kick is a kickoff deliberately kicked short in an attempt by the kicking team to regain possession of the ball. This is in contrast with a typical kickoff, in which the kicking team intends to give the ball to the ...

to seal the game after the Wildcats final score. He finished with a career-high 194 yards with two touchdowns, and was named the bowl's offensive

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a partic ...

(MVP). UCLA ran for 331 yards, including 96 by

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 ...

. After making a team-high 10 tackles, including three for a loss, the Bruins'

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 ...

was voted the game's defensive MVP. The win earned UCLA their second straight 10–3 season, and their first consecutive bowl victories since winning eight in a row from 1983 through 1991. UCLA's Hundley ran for two touchdowns in the first quarter, when he also completed nine of 11 passes for 85 yards. The Bruins led 31–6 at the half after holding Kansas State to just 87 total yards. However, the Wildcats rallied to score 15 straight points and controlled the ball for almost 13 minutes in the third quarter. They pulled to within 34–28 after a touchdown with five minutes remaining. The scoring drive was extended by two penalties by UCLA, who had 15 for an Alamo Bowl record 128 yards. UCLA responded with Perkins' touchdown run on a second-and-13 play, extending the lead to 40–28. The Wildcats came as close as 40–35 with 1:21 remaining after

Tyler Lockett Tyler Deron Lockett (born September 28, 1992) is an American football wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Seahawks in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He played college foo ...

caught a 29-yard touchdown pass from

Jake Waters Jake Waters (born March 20, 1992) is an American football quarterback who is currently an assistant coach at Iowa State. He played college football at Kansas State and was the Wildcats starting quarterback from 2013 to 2014. Early years Co ...

, but the comeback ended after their failed onside attempt. Hundley accounted for three touchdowns and threw for 136 yards, but completed only three of 13 passes after the first quarter. The UCLA defense had a season-high seven sacks after entering the contest averaging just 1.8 (22 in 12 games). Perkins finished the season as the Pac-12 rushing leader with 1,575 yards. Kendricks led the

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

with 149 solo tackles. Kansas State's Lockett had an Alamo Bowl record 13 receptions for 164 yards, and tied the bowl record with two TD receptions. His 249

all-purpose yards All-purpose yards or all-purpose yardage is a gridiron football statistical measure. It is virtually the same as the statistic that some football leagues refer to as combined net yards. In the game of football, progress is measured by advancing t ...

were also a bowl record. Waters was 31-of-48 passing for 338 yards, but was intercepted twice and lost a fumble.

Scoring summary

Source:

Statistics

References

{{UCLA Bruins bowl game navbox

Alamo Bowl Kansas State Wildcats football bowl games UCLA Bruins football bowl games

January 2015 sports events in the United States