Bowl games, 1/1/08

Georgia would love to be back at the Superdome next week, playing for the title it really wanted. Instead, the Bulldogs will have to settle for being Sugar Bowl champs. Overpowering the country's last unbeaten team, black-clad Georgia took out its frustration at getting passed over for a shot at the BCS championship with a 41-10 rout of Colt Brennan and the Warriors on Tuesday night. Next Monday, on the very same Superdome field, Ohio State will meet LSU in the national title game. The No. 4 Bulldogs feel they're as deserving as either of those teams, and they'll certainly get no argument from Hawaii, which came to the Big Easy with a perfect record and left all beaten up.

This would have been a perfect Rose Bowl for the USC Trojans, except for the one part they couldn't control. They couldn't pick their opponent. The sixth-ranked Trojans routed Illinois 49-17 on Tuesday and showed the rest of the country that, yes, maybe they are the best team in college football right now. Certainly, a better test could have come against Georgia or Virginia Tech, or maybe next week against Ohio State in the national title game. But the Rose Bowl wanted a Pac-10-Big Ten matchup, and the national title game didn't want Southern California. So, it wound up being USC-Illinois in the Granddaddy of 'Em All, and the Trojans made the Illini pay.

Colorful confetti flip-flopping around him, fans in black and gold chanting his name, Tony Temple and his Missouri teammates were basking in a terrific ending to a magical season. Only one thing was wrong - the setting. See, this was the Cotton Bowl, not the national championship game they were a win away from reaching, and it wasn't the Orange, Fiesta or Sugar Bowl like they thought they deserved. Motivated instead of deflated, the guys from the 'Show-Me State' did their best to prove they belonged in the BCS by routing Darren McFadden and Arkansas 38-7 on Tuesday. Temple led the way, rushing for 281 yards and four touchdowns, both records in the 72-year history of the Cotton Bowl. Mizzou (12-2) was ranked No. 1 after beating Kansas in the regular season finale, then lost badly to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game - so badly that the Jayhawks wound up with an at-large berth into the Orange Bowl. Coach Gary Pinkel kept his team's spirits up by having them put together a list of reasons why Dallas was a great place to spend New Year's Day. Recruiting and appeasing their largest out-of-state alumni base likely were near the top.

Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was doused with water, surrounded by dancing players and then carried onto the field. He went out a winner. Chad Henne threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns, Mike Hart ran for 129 yards and two scores and the Wolverines upset No. 9 Florida 41-35 Tuesday in the Capital One Bowl to win their first bowl game since 2003. This one was special. Michigan's senior class won its first bowl game in four tries and Carr ended his coaching career on a high note. Henne, Adrian Arrington and Mario Manningham torched Florida's secondary all game. Arrington caught nine passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns, and Manningham added five catches for 78 yards and a score. The Gators (9-4) kept it close thanks to four turnovers and plenty of big plays by Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and speedster Percy Harvin. Playing with a broken bone in his non-throwing hand and facing constant blitzes, Tebow was 17-of-33 for 154 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 57 yards and a score. Harvin ran 13 times for 165 yards and a touchdown, and caught nine passes for 77 yards and a score. It wasn't enough.

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Heisman Trophy

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow made history Saturday night by becoming the first sophomore ever to win the 73-year-old Heisman Trophy. Even before Tebow pledged his services to the Gators, as a high school senior, the bar had been set exceedingly high not only by the notoriously rabid Gator Nation but by his future coach. Urban Meyer, college football's most relentless text-messager (before the NCAA banned them), reportedly wrote the following in one of his near-daily texts to Tebow that year: "TT: ... National Championship, Heisman, it's all waiting for you." Two years later, just as Meyer predicted, Tebow has both his national championship and his Heisman -- and he's still got two more seasons to add to the trophy collection.

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No. 10 Hawaii was rewarded for being the nation's only unbeaten team with an at-large bid to the Sugar Bowl to face No. 4 Georgia. The roar from the chanting, green-clad crowd at Stan Sheriff Center was deafening. The Aloha State has been in a football frenzy for the past two weeks, starting with Hawaii's win over last year's BCS buster Boise State to win its first outright Western Athletic Conference title. On Saturday night, the Warriors (12-0) completed their perfect season with a dramatic come-from-behind 35-28 victory over Washington.

LSU has a ticket to the title game. Everyone else has a pretty good gripe. The latest chapter in this crazy, unpredictable college football season was written Sunday when LSU won the sport's version of the lottery, being picked to play Ohio State for the championship and leaving about a half-dozen other candidates with plenty to complain about. The Tigers (11-2), ranked second in the latest Associated Press poll, will be the first team to play in the BCS title game with two losses. No. 1 Ohio State goes into the game, Jan. 7 at the Superdome in New Orleans, at 11-1.

Organizers decided to stick with their historical Pac-10-Big Ten matchup Sunday, picking 13th-ranked Illinois to play Southern California on New Year's Day after Ohio State got upgraded to the national championship game. It is the first trip to Pasadena for the Illini (9-3) since 1983, and their first bowl game since the 2001 season. For the sixth-ranked Trojans (10-2), the Rose Bowl is getting to be like their own New Year's tradition. This is their third straight trip, fourth in the past five seasons and 32nd overall.

The Fiesta Bowl will pair the 11th-ranked Mountaineers against the third-rated Sooners in a match-up of teams that had their national title hopes dashed in the last three weeks. The Mountaineers (11-2) were still stinging from a 13-9 loss to arch rival Pittsburgh on Saturday night -- a defeat that knocked them out of the Bowl Championship Series title game. The Fiesta has played host to two representatives of non-BCS conferences -- Utah and Boise State -- but decided it would rather have Big East champion West Virginia instead of Hawaii, pride and champ of the Western Athletic Conference. Oklahoma and West Virginia will meet for the fourth time, and the first in the postseason. Oklahoma leads the series 2-1.

A week later than it wanted, Kansas beat Missouri. An Orange Bowl bid is the surprising Jayhawks' reward. The eighth-ranked Jayhawks (11-1) got their first Bowl Championship Series berth Sunday and will meet No. 5 Virginia Tech (11-2) in Miami on Jan. 3. The Hokies got their Orange Bowl spot by beating Boston College for the Atlantic Coast Conference title. Kansas, which set a school record for wins, was an at-large pick and benefited greatly from Missouri's 38-17 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship. "A two-loss team compared to a one-loss team was probably the most pressing thing that we looked at," Orange Bowl CEO Eric Poms said. Never mind that both of Missouri's losses were to Oklahoma, that the Tigers were two slots ahead of Kansas in the final BCS standings and beat the Jayhawks head-to-head on Nov. 24 to doom Kansas' national-title hopes. The Orange Bowl simply didn't like what it saw Saturday night, and Kansas reaped the benefits.

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NCAA Football

College football isn't normally big on second chances, but in this historic season of attrition at the top of the polls, Missouri has been dealt a second chance of epic proportions. Beating Kansas on Saturday night in front of the largest Arrowhead Stadium crowd (80,537) in 35 years earned the Tigers their first-ever Big 12 North title and will more than likely send them to the top of the polls Sunday for the first time since 1960. That's nothing, however, compared to the potential windfall awaiting 11-1 Missouri if it can avenge its only loss of the season next week against 10-2 Oklahoma: a conference championship and a berth to the BCS national championship game.

Boston College ended a 15-game losing streak against Miami to head into the Atlantic Coast Conference title game with a victory, and the 15th-ranked Eagles didn't even need Doug Flutie to do it. Matt Ryan threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns Saturday to lead BC to a 28-14 win, BC's first victory over Miami since the 1984 'Hail Flutie' pass that ended one of the greatest games in college football history. Boston College (10-2, 6-2 ACC) will play for the conference championship in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 1 against Virginia Tech, which beat Virginia 33-21 Saturday for the Coastal Division title. BC already clinched the Atlantic Division with last week's victory over Clemson. But they wanted the win, anyway. The Hurricanes (5-7, 2-6) failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time in 10 years.

Under coach Tom Osborne, Nebraska was one of the bullies of college football, a program to be feared. Under coach Bill Callahan, the Cornhuskers were too often the ones getting pushed around. After watching Callahan's Huskers for five games, Osborne, in his new role as interim athletic director, decided it was time for change. He fired Callahan during a five-minute meeting Saturday. Callahan left the football complex without speaking to reporters. The move was expected after the Huskers finished 5-7 with Friday's 65-51 loss at Colorado, a game in which they squandered an 11-point halftime lead by allowing 34 consecutive points.

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All that stands between a Kansas-LSU matchup in the BCS national championship game are some tough opponents. LSU was first and unbeaten Kansas was second in the Bowl Championship Series standings Sunday and the chances of another team catching either without the Tigers and Jayhawks losing seems remote. The Tigers are No. 1 in the polls and the computers ratings and have BCS average of .990. The Jayhawks are No. 2 across the board with a BCS average of .949. Kansas moved up two spots this week, taking advantage of losses by Oregon and Oklahoma.

Hoping for Kansas or LSU to slip up are third-place West Virginia (.888), Missouri (.871), Ohio State (.860) and Arizona State (.802). LSU faces Arkansas at home on Friday before playing in the Southeastern Conference championship game against either Georgia or Tennessee on Dec. 1 in Atlanta. Kansas and Missouri meet Saturday in Kansas City for the 116th time, and never has it been more important. The winner goes to the Big 12 title game with national championship hopes in tact. If Kansas gets by Missouri, either Oklahoma or Texas awaits in the Big 12 title game. Ohio State (11-1) finished its regular season with a 14-3 victory over Michigan and is locked into at least a Rose Bowl bid as the Big Ten champion.

Mississippi put 20 players on probation Sunday after they twice stole items from hotels. A news release said the players have paid for the items, which included radios and pillows. Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron said in the release that the players will be on probation indefinitely. Officials said the items stolen cost between $15 and $40. "Any actions similar to this will result in more severe penalties which may include dismissal from the team," Orgeron said in the release. The action comes a day after the Rebels lost 41-24 to No. 1 LSU in Oxford. It appears the players will be allowed to play Friday at Mississippi State in the final game of the season. A spokesman said a list of disciplined players was not available. Neither Orgeron nor athletic director Pete Boone immediately returned messages Sunday. Boone is scheduled to attend Orgeron's weekly news conference Monday to answer questions about the disciplinary action.

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NCAA Football

Top-ranked Ohio State's national title hopes teetered on a timeout, the ball inches from a first down for Illinois. Illini coach Ron Zook changed his mind, decided to go for it on fourth down and that was the beginning of the end for the Buckeyes' hopes of redeeming themselves in this season's national championship game. Juice Williams provided the big plays on the ground and through the air, spurring the Illini to a stunning 28-21 victory on Saturday night and throwing open the national title race for a bunch of teams that needed the Buckeyes to lose. It was the first time Illinois (8-3, 5-2 Big Ten) had beaten a No. 1 since 1956, and the first time it had done it away from home. The defeat also ended a conference and school streak of 20 Big Ten wins in a row by Ohio State (10-1, 6-1).

Marcus Henry was an under-appreciated underdog who turned into something special, the epitome of No. 5 Kansas' remarkable run from nowhere to a legitimate national title contender. Henry had a career-high 199 yards receiving and three touchdowns, Brandon McAnderson ran for 142 yards and two scores, and the Jayhawks stayed unbeaten with a 43-28 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday night. A skinny receiver who no one else wanted, Henry turned in the game of his career in his return to his home state as Kansas (6-0 Big 12) moved to 10-0 for the first time since 1899. The senior from Lawton had the fourth-highest receiving total in school history and caught more than one touchdown pass in a game for the first time in his career. The Jayhawks are now the only unbeaten team left in the six conferences with an automatic bid to the BCS after top-ranked Ohio State was upset by Illinois earlier in the day.

Chauncey Washington 's first step was a doozy. The USC tailback slipped, tripped and tumbled to the waterlogged turf without being touched the first time he got the ball at California. Between an insistent rain and the Golden Bears ' sturdy defense, Washington could have been in for a long day. It turned into the greatest night of his college career, and the long-struggling senior kept his Trojans in the Rose Bowl hunt. Washington ran for a career-high 220 yards and a touchdown, and No. 12 USC beat No. 24 Cal 24-17 on Saturday night in a matchup that was much more tantalizing before both schools blew their national title hopes last month. John David Booty passed for 129 yards and a score for the Trojans (8-2, 5-2 Pac-10), who stayed in the conference and BCS races by faring slightly better in the steady precipitation that drenched Strawberry Canyon all night, causing both teams to flounder with footing, execution and tackling.

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So much for BC going undefeated this season. Geno Hayes returned Matt Ryan's third interception for a 38-yard touchdown with 1:10 to play on Saturday night to help Florida State beat second-ranked Boston College 27-17, ending the Eagles' run at an unbeaten season and shaking up the BCS standings yet again. With the loss by BC (8-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), only Ohio State, Kansas and Hawaii remain unbeaten. A handful of one-loss teams - LSU, Oregon and Oklahoma among them - had their hopes for reaching the Bowl Championship Series title game aided by Florida State. LSU will probably take second-place behind Ohio State in the BCS standings when they come out Sunday.

After 44 years and three overtimes, Navy finally beat Notre Dame 46-44 in triple overtime on Saturday, ending the Fighting Irish 's NCAA-record winning streak against the Midshipmen at 43 games. Roger Staubach was quarterback for the Midshipmen in 1963 when they beat Notre Dame 35-14. Since then, the Irish have had their way - that is until Saturday. Seven times during the streak the Midshipmen had chances to win in the fourth quarter only to be thwarted by bad luck, questionable calls or big plays by the Irish. A few times Saturday it looked as though the win would elude them again. But this time it was the Midshipmen who managed to make the decisive plays.

Donald Brown hadn't been a big part of Connecticut's big season, until Saturday. The sophomore tailback came off the bench to run for 154 yards and a touchdown, leading UConn over Rutgers 38-19 and giving the Huskies an 8-1 record for the first time. Brown, who had been averaging about 52 yards a game and lost his starting job to the faster Andre Dixon , had a 33-yard touchdown run in the third quarter and a 70-yard run to set up a fourth-quarter field goal that helped put the game out of reach. He carried the ball 24 times, 22 in the second half when No. 16 UConn (8-1, 4-0 Big East) controlled of the clock.

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