The day we’ve been waiting for – New Year’s Day in America, and what drama we saw! Here’s a quick recap of what you need to know from the day’s early games:
Citrus Bowl
Minnesota were one of the more surprising teams in 2015, improving markedly in every area, and despite a strong start against the SEC East champion Missouri, the Tigers ground game pounded their defense again and again, and then the Gophers offense found out they couldn’t run the football against the stout Mizzou front.
Indeed, one of the best ground games in the country was limited to just 106 yards and, on top of that, the Missouri defense, who forced three turnovers against a team who rarely turns the football over, and whose defensive line spent a lot of time harassing Minnesota QB Mitch Leidner.
Then, the Tiger offense ran the Gophers into the ground. Marcus Murphy had 159 yards and Russell Hansborough 114 and a touchdown. Though it was close entering the fourth quarter, 19-17 to the Tigers, Mizzou QB Maty Mauk threw a 7-yard touchdown to Bud Sasser and Hansborough ripped off a 78-yard touchdown run to ice the game, and give Missouri it’s twenty-third win in the last two seasons, an all-time mark for the school.
Outback Bowl
It was the Melvin Gordon Show for Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl, just as it’s been the Melvin Gordon Show just about everywhere the Badgers have played this season. In his final college game, the back who held, for seven days, at least, the single-game NCAA record for most rushing yards, was his usual rampaging self, ripping through the Auburn defense for 251 yards (at 7.4 a carry, if you don’t mind) and three scores.
A missed Auburn field goal in overtime ensured Wisconsin farewelled it’s most prolific running back with a narrow 34-31 win. Backup Corey Clement also had a big day, notching 105 yards on 15 carries. So the ground game at Wisconsin looks in good hands.
The Badger victory was yet another for legendary head coach Barry Alvarez, who walked the sidelines today after the departure of head coach Gary Andersen last month. The game-plan under Alvarez was just as it had been under Andersen and Brett Bielema before him: hand it to Gordon, and Gordon can do the rest.
Running backs were the flavour of the day, with Auburn’s Cameron Artis-Payne running for 126 yards and two touchdowns. The Tigers offense couldn’t take advantage of three Wisconsin turnovers, and seventy-five yards of penalties didn’t help the Tigers cause.
Cotton Bowl Classic
Down 20 points to Baylor beginning the fourth quarter, things looked over and done with for Michigan State. Then, the extraordinary happened. A furious comeback by the Spartans, whose offense isn’t exactly built for these sorts of events, saw them take the lead on a ten-yard pass from QB Connor Cook to Keith Mumphrey with 0:27 to play in the game. It was Cook’s second touchdown pass of the final frame, and part of a run of twenty-one unanswered in the final quarter. The end result was an unlikely 42-41 win for the Spartans.
Baylor’s high-octane offense ripped into the vaunted Michigan State defense for 584 yards (most of which came through the air, thanks to standout QB Bryce Petty, who threw for 550 yards, with three touchdowns) and, similarly, in a wide-open game, Baylor couldn’t stop the Spartans offense, which was led by R Jeremy Langford, who ran for 162 yards and three scores on 27 carries.
Even with a handful of seconds left, Baylor had a chance to pull out a win but Petty was sacked twice in succession and tossed an interception on the last play of the game to hand Michigan State a pretty good victory, in what's been a stellar Bowl season for the Big Ten.
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