La. Tech senior sums up his last game with the perfect quote

Published Dec. 26, 2014 5:40 p.m. ET

Teddy Mitrosilis

It's easy to overlook the bowl games stuffed into the schedule at odd times on random days around the holidays.

As fans, we tend to gravitate to the "big" bowls with the big-name schools. When we do this, we forget how much the other bowls mean to the players involved.

Take the Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl between Louisiana Tech and Illinois, for instance.

Probably not a game you had circled on your bowl calendar for the afternoon following Christmas, right?

Well, it produced a moment defensive end Houston Bates will never forget. The Louisiana Tech redshirt senior played three seasons for Illinois before earning his degree and then transferring to Louisiana Tech to play a final season of football.

On Friday against the Illini, Bates helped lead Louisiana Tech to a 35-18 victory by having the best game of his college career: 5.5 sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss. Bates matched his sack total for the entire regular season.

It was his last college game and his last football game ever if he doesn't make a pro squad. That wasn't lost on Bates, who summed everything up with this perfect quote:

Fantastic. As much as we're looking forward to the playoff and all the big games on New Year's Day, it's also Houston Bates and Louisiana Tech that help make bowl season everything it is.

Teddy Mitrosilis is an editor and writer for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.