Fw: [NU Sports] Best Big Ten bowl games this decade ...

Tue Dec 29 17:11:36 CST 2009

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-----Original Message-----
From: hakirsch at aol.com
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:29:51 
To: SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)<sjtruog at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Best Big Ten bowl games this decade ...

Steve

Great re cap.  Had forgotten a few of them.

  On a side note the 2000 michigan/NU game was ranked 10th best game of the decade for all games either by SI or ESPN. Of course #1 was the OK/BSU Fiesta Bowl

Harry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: "SjT \(Stephen J. Truog\)" <sjtruog at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:30:33 
To: <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: [NU Sports] Best Big Ten bowl games this decade ...

We’ll save second-annual “40 days of football” retrospective looking back at the 2000s (I HATE the word “oughts”) for a countdown into the fall season with the usual look back at the coaches, players, games and teams of the decade in Big Ten football.

But as we prepare to start the Big Ten bowl season tonight, I thought we could get a quick taste of list-o-mania by looking back at the top 10 bowl games for the Big Ten in the 2000s (since those aren’t eligible for the “greatest games” countdown). There have been some dandies – wins and losses for the league – in the past 10 years. And while we could still add another, I’m not counting on the Canes/Badgers or Cyclones/Gophers to crack this list. Well, maybe the Champs Bowl could perhaps do it.

So without further delay, enjoy, reminisce and debate the best bowl games of the 2000s!

HONORABLE MENTION – Five that just missed the list!
* 2004 MUSIC CITY BOWL: Minnesota 20, Alabama 16 – Gotta be honest, I don’t really remember this game, but I had to do a doubletake at the score! Plus, it’s nice to get one from our old Nashville bowl on the list. I do remember the 2004 Gopher team, though, with the fast start and the backfield of future NFL stars Marion Barber and Laurence Maroney. Hard to think they didn’t get a better bowl, but beating Bama is always a good way to end the season.

* 2007 MOTOR CITY BOWL: Purdue 51, Central Michigan 48 – The entry from Detroit was a close call between this one and our back-and-forth game in 2003, but at least here the Big Ten team won – at the final gun no less – and Curtis Painter had a magnificent day.

* 2003 SUN BOWL: Minnesota 31, Oregon 30 – Another Gopher win on the list (thankfully for them, bowl games were not played in November) and another Big Ten win to keep NU’s shootout loss to UCLA off the list. Another great Gopher back, Thomas Tapeh, combined with Maroney to lead the Gophers to a last-minute win here.

* 2008 ALAMO BOWL: Missouri 30, Northwestern 23 (OT) – The first of many overtime games on the list, and the first league loss. Northwestern came in big underdogs to a Mizzou team that fell from the Big XII title game to San Antonio. As we all remember, the Cats looked good in this game, especially when Corey Wootton was healthy. But Chase Daniels and Jeremy Maclin turned it up at the end to help the Tigers escape … barely. You could also add in a few other Alamo close-losses for the league here, including Iowa’s 2006 near-colossal upset of Texas, 24-26 or the controversial Michigan loss to Nebraska in 2005, 28-32.

* 2009 FIESTA BOWL: Texas 24, Ohio State 21 – The only game from 2009 on the list was another near miss for the league, as the Bucks looked like they would finally break their B(C)S drought with an upset of title game-shoulda been Texas until that final drive.

Now to the ten best ...

10) 2000 OUTBACK BOWL: Georgia 28, Purdue 25 (OT)
* Oddly, this was the first of two OT games the Boilers and Bulldogs would play in Florida bowl games this decade, and Georgia got the better of Purdue in both. But this one hurt the most, as Drew Brees and Purdue jumped out to a 25-0 lead before blowing it all. Too bad, because it was the only blemish on what was an amazing New Year’s Day 2000 for the Big Ten (with two games later on this list and Wisconsin’s Rose Bowl win over Stanford in a 17-9 game that will not go down in anyone’s book of classics, but a win’s a win). Exciting but heartbreaking, the Boilers would bounce back to make it to Pasadena behind Brees the following year.

9) 2002 ALAMO BOWL: Wisconsin 31, Colorado 28 (OT)
* The Buffs came in ranked #13 in the B(C)S after falling in the Big XII title game to Oklahoma and Gary Barnett’s team was a huge favorite, but the Badgers used a surprising air attack behind Brooks Bollinger to come from behind and surprise CU in overtime. Was in the beginning of the end for Barnett in Boulder?

8) 2004 FIESTA BOWL: Ohio State 35, Kansas State 28
* USC owned the Roses in the 2000s, LSU owned the Sugar and the Buckeyes owned the Fiesta. (Remember that the Florida title game was not the official Fiesta Bowl that year.) The Bucks were 3-1 in their home away from home in the 2000s, and that loss was a near-miss against heavily favored Texas. One of those games is later on the list, another was an always-satisfying smackdown of Notre Dame in the B(C)S but this one was an overlooked entertaining match between #7 OSU and #8 K-State, coming off their Big XII title game upset of Oklahoma. The Bucks jumped on the distracted Cats 21-0 behind future Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes, but Kansas State had future pro talent as well in Darren Sproles and cut the deficit to 7 a couple times and outgained OSU before falling short.

7) 2005 ROSE BOWL: Texas 38, Michigan 37
* This is the highest I put a league loss on the list, but you could easily make a claim for this game to top 5 status. The kicker is that this game probably should have never happened. With Southern Cal set to head to the title game in Miami, the Tournament of Roses was expected to welcome back long-lost native sons the Cal Golden Bears to Pasadena on New Year’s Day. But some late politicking (whining) by Mack Brown somehow got the voters to vault the Horns ahead of Cal and get them in the B(C)S top four, which meant they were automatically in. Fortunately for fans, what resulted was a classic game. After a tie at the half, the Wolverines jumped out to a 31-21 lead entering the fourth quarter. What fans saw next was an early peek at what SC would discover in the following year’s Rose Bowl – the fourth quarter belonged to Vince Young. Michigan settled for a field goal with just under 2:00 left to take the lead, but the Texas QB drove the Horns down
 the field for a game-winning kick as time expired in one of the best Granddaddys of them all.

6) 2006 ORANGE BOWL: Penn State 26, Florida State 23 (3OT)
* Another odd pairing that resulted in one heck of a game. The Nittany Lions were the Big Ten champs, but the title game was in Pasadena that year and #3 PSU came up a last-second score to Michigan short of being unbeaten. As for Florida State, they were 7-4 and backed in after pulling an upset in the ACC title game. But the game still drew interest for matching up legendary coaches Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden in the Noles’ home state. And to be honest, that was about as interesting as the game for most of regulation. It was a sloppy slugfest, ending in a 16-16 tie. But long after the coaches’ bedtimes, things got interesting in the extra sessions, with missed kicks, wild touchdowns and by the time the third overtime was finished, Penn State emerged with a 26-23 win.

5) 2000 CITRUS BOWL: Michigan State 37, Florida 34
* The first game of New Year’s Day 2000 was Drew Brees and Purdue’s collapse to Georgia. In the second game, the Big Ten struck back behind an unlikely coach and hero. Nick Saban (surprise surprise) bolted East Lansing after a 9-2 regular season, leaving Bobby Williams in charge. With Sparty edged out of a B(C)S bowl by nemesis Michigan (who MSU had beaten on the field), it was off to face #10 Florida and Steve Spurrier in Orlando in what would become a classic game. When the final kick went through the uprights, the Green and White emerged with perhaps their biggest win of the decade, defeating the Mighty Gators 37-34.

4) 2005 CITRUS BOWL: Iowa 30, Louisiana State 25
* This was another of those co-championship years for Kirk Ferentz and Iowa, as the 9-2 Hawkeyes headed to Orlando to face future #1 draft pick JaMarcus Russell, Slick Nick Saban and the 9-2 LSU Tigers. The game itself isn’t too memorable, as Iowa nearly blew a 24-12 fourth quarter lead and trailed 25-24 with one play left. What everyone does remember is Drew Tate’s 50+ yard touchdown heave as time expired to give Hawkeye nation reason to go nuts and give the Big Ten a big win over the SEC in Orlando – the first of four straight from 2005-2008.

3) 2008 CITRUS BOWL: Michigan 41, Florida 35
* Perhaps the most satisfying win on the list is this one. Michigan came into the game at 8-4, following a season that began with a #5 ranking and title aspirations for the slew of seniors who returned to Ann Arbor. But an opening day loss to Appalachain State and a butt-kicking by Oregon later saw the Wolverines at 0-2. They rallied for 8 straight wins before falling to Wisconsin and Ohio State. They watched Illinois head off to Pasadena, Ohio State sneak into the title game and had to head to Florida to face the defending national champion Gators, who were huge favorites. But all the Tebow magic and Gator-thuggery were just hype as the Maize and Blue were (FINALLY!) aggressive on defense and knocked Tebow around all day while overcoming Mike Hart’s many fumbles to squeak out a game they dominated. It was Lloyd Carr’s final game as Michigan coach and a reminder to Michigan’s friens in Columbus that if you play your game and forget all the hype,
 you can take it to an SEC team and smack them in the mouth with Big Ten football – tough running and hard-hitting defense.

2) 2000 ORANGE BOWL: Michigan 35, Alabama 34 (OT)
* This game was the magnificent nightcap on New Year’s Day 2000 – Wisconsin had won the Rose Bowl, MSU had shut up the Mighty Gators and Purdue had let a 25-0 lead slip away against Georgia. Now it was time for the 10-2 SEC champion Crimson Tide to face the 9-2 Wolverines, who snuck in ahead of an MSU team they had lost to earlier. It was a great back-and-forth game and went into an extra session where Michigan, led by a kid named Tom Brady, defeated the Tide by the slimmest of margins – a missed extra point - capping a wild evening and another Big Ten victory.

1) 2003 FIESTA BOWL: Ohio State 31, Miami 24 (2OT)
* What else could be #1? This game had it all! Controversy, David vs. Goliath, overtime, more overtime and the league’s only national championship of the decade. The “Luckeyes” entered the game 13-0 but heavy underdogs after several close escapes during the season. The #1 Miami Hurricanes came in 12-0 and all but certain to claim their second straight national title (many thought it should have been three in a row, as they were left out of the 2001 title game against Oklahoma by the computers who put FSU in the game despite the Noles losing to the Canes). Yes, the game is remembered for the late flag in overtime that kept the Buckeyes alive. That’s a shame, though, because there were several close calls that had gone Miami’s way earlier and it overshadowed what really was a dominant performance by the Buckeyes. Ohio State dominated the game with their “slow and steady” turtle style against Miami’s talent-rich racing hare. The Canes, with
 a roster rich in future NFL stars, made some great plays to get back into the game at the end, but OSU took control of the game in the second quarter with their defense and Craig Krenzel guided OSU to the victory. It was a classic game, a classic upset and ranks right up there with the Boise State/Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl and USC/Texas title game as the truly great college football bowl games of the decade.

Let’s hope New Year’s Day 2010 is as good to the Big Ten as New Year’s Day 2000, only this time, let’s win the Outback Bowl! Happy Bowling!

Go Big Ten!
GO CATS!!!
- SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!

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