As we approach the end of the 2014 calendar year, we’re looking back at the top 50 stories in college football for the year. Today, we look at No. 40-36.

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No. 30 – Spurrier hates his team

It wasn’t the happiest of seasons for Gamecock fans, and Spurrier’s postgame quotes became increasingly hilarious with each disappointing loss (or win). My personal favorite came after South Carolina beat Vanderbilt. Spurrier’s comments are below:

Spurrier essentially found a way to criticize his own team, Georgia, Vanderbilt, his special teams coach and the poll voters in one sitting. Awesome.

The Gamecocks finished the season with a 6-6 record and will play Miami in the Indepedence Bowl on Dec. 27, 2014.

No. 29 – Bret Bielema’s Emotional Rollercoaster

Going into the season, we discussed internally that Bret Bielema was going to be one of our favorite coaches this season. He didn’t disappoint. We had some fun with Bielema during the opening month of the season as he slaughtered some crappy teams, but things got real mid-season for Bielema and the Hogs.

After a close game against Alabama, fans got to see Bielema get emotional about his goals at Arkansas:

As the month of October neared an end, we speculated if Bielema would end the season with a 0-16 conference record over his first two seasons.

Then, his team got hot in November. Consecutive shutouts against LSU and Ole Miss were just what Bielema and his team needed to show the fans that they’re on the right track. Even with a loss to Missouri to close the season, Arkansas feels like a team on the way up. The Hogs will play Texas on Dec. 29, 2014 in the Texas Bowl.

No. 28 – Cadet Saves Reveille

The Texas A&M vs SMU game on Sep. 20, 2014 got a lot more exciting when the television cameras caught a Texas A&M cadet, Ryan Kreider, protecting Reveille VIII, the Texas A&M mascot from an SMU football player.

The video became an instant hit as fans around the country tuned in to watch the cadet protect the dog.

Following the game, Kreider received some accolades and high praise from Brigadier General Joe E. Ramirez, the Commandant of Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets.

No. 27 – C’mon SEC East!

While the SEC West is known as the toughest division in college football, the SEC East division continues to struggle.

We should have known it would be yet another down year for the east when preseason ranked No. 10 South Carolina got throttled on opening night to Texas A&M.

Kentucky looked promising, but then collapsed. Tennessee continues to rebuild. Florida struggled against and fired head coach Will Muschamp. Georgia had another Georgia-like season. Missouri was good, but lost to Indiana at home!

The season ended with an embarrassing rivalry weekend in which the SEC East went 0-4 against ACC teams.

When the season had concluded, the final College Football Playoff Top 25 had only two SEC East teams in it: No. 13 Georgia and No. 16 Missouri.

No. 26 – We like watching coaches dance

Watching hard-ass football coaches break it down and dance has become a strange and hilarious part of college football. It’s become so big that ESPN’s College GameDay actually aired a segment on it this season:

Of course the highlight is the old video that surfaced of Gus Malzahn dancing to MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This. You can watch the entire Malzahn video below:

What’s Next?

As we continue our countdown, we’ll look at a coach and quarterback reunion, a bizarre coaching search, and much more.