Kansas State did not finish the regular season the way it wanted to.

Not by a long shot.

In the thick of the Big 12 race — potentially the College Football Playoff — heading into the final month, the Wildcats stumbled to three losses in their final four games.

The good news: they played well enough early in the season to earn a chance to end it on a good note in today’s Rate Bowl in Phoenix against Rutgers.

“I hate losing in general,” Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson said. “We earned this opportunity to play another game. We just want to go out and showcase some of the things that we didn’t get to showcase.”

The Wildcats got the season off to a good start, their only loss in the first seven games coming against BYU on Sept. 21. Then things started teetering as teams found a way to slow Kanas State’s power-running offense.

With opponents stacking the line to slow running back DJ Giddens, the Wildcats were far less productive offensively, scoring nine fewer points and putting up nearly 50 fewer yards over the final four games compared to the first eight.

“You can look at taking a loss two different ways: you can either sit there and sulk in it or you can sit there and find something to get better on,” Kansas State center Hadley Panzer said.

Rutgers (7-5) had its rough stretch in the middle of the season, losing four straight games. The Scarlet Knights rebounded to beat Michigan State in the regular-season finale after losing to No. 21 Illinois by a touchdown.

Rutgers has had one of its best offensive seasons in years, averaging 27.9 points per game — best since 2009. The Scarlet Knights also are one of the nation’s best teams at taking care of the ball, ranking eighth nationally in turnovers, committing only eight.

Shorthanded Pitt set to face Toledo

At the beginning of November, the Pittsburgh Panthers were 7-0 and dreaming of finishing the season in the College Football Playoff.

Instead, they were spending their Christmas in Detroit.

Pitt went 0-5 in November, losing to SMU, Virginia, Clemson, Louisville and Boston College before accepting an invitation to the GameAbove Sports Bowl today at Ford Field, where they face Toledo.

The Panthers have made this trip before, beating Mid-American Conference opponents in Detroit in 2013 (30-27 over Bowling Green) and 2019 (34-30 over Eastern Michigan), but this trip is a little different. More than a dozen players have left the program to enter the transfer portal, and the Panthers will be missing one of their top offensive weapons.

Konata Mumpfield, who caught 52 passes for 813 yards and five touchdowns, is preparing for the NFL draft and won’t be participating in the bowl game. Pitt expects to have quarterback Eli Holstein back after he missed the BC game with an injury sustained against Louisville. Holstein threw for 2,225 yards and 17 touchdowns while rushing for three more.

Even with the missing players, coach Pat Narduzzi was not treating the game as an afterthought.

“I’m always looking forward, not backward,” he said. “Every win is important, and we want to play the best possible football game.”

Saturday NFL outdraws CFP openers

A pair of Saturday NFL games drew a larger viewing audience than college football for the rollout of the sport’s 12-team playoff.

The playoff game between SMU and Penn State averaged 6.4 million viewers on TNT networks, compared with the Texans-Chiefs game on NBC, which averaged 15.5 million viewers.

Later, Clemson-Texas drew 8.6 million viewers on TNT, compared with 15.4 million for Steelers-Ravens on Fox.

ESPN, ABC and others aired the other two college games — Indiana-Notre Dame (13.4 million) on Friday night and Tennessee-Ohio State (14.3 million) on Saturday night. There were no competing NFL games.

The overall average of 10.6 million viewers was higher than all but four college games this season.

south florida wins a wild hawaii bowl

Bryce Archie found Keshaun Singleton over the middle to give South Florida the lead in the fifth overtime and Mac Harris batted down a pass in the end zone to give the Bulls a 41-39 victory over San Jose State on Tuesday night in the Hawaii Bowl.

It was the longest FBS bowl/postseason game since overtime was established in 1996. Previously four games had gone three overtimes.

South Florida (7-6) has won back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 2016-17. San Jose State (7-6) was seeking its first bowl victory since 2015.

Trailing 27-24, South Florida started its final drive of regulation at midfield with 43 seconds left. Archie had two completions for first downs to set up John Cannon’s 41-yard field goal to tie it.

Archie was 24 of 35 for 235 yards for UCF. Sean Atkins made 11 catches for 104 yards.

Eget threw for 280 yards and two touchdowns for San Jose State. Coleman filled in nicely for SJSU, which was without star receiver Nick Nash, by making 12 catches for 119 yards and a touchdown.