Kentucky 28, Clemson 20
The Wildcats were making their first bowl appearance since 1999 and made it worth their while. Kentucky shockingly came out and defeated Clemson in an ugly game. There were a countless number of missed/blocked kicks and turnovers that did end up making for an exciting game. It's nice to see a team like Kentucky get a bowl win as they're one not usually around during the postseason. Plus, they're the 87th team I believe to win a bowl game since Notre Dame's last postseason victory.
Oregon State 39, Missouri 38
What I originally thought to be the most-exciting game of the day (see below) came down to a gutsy decision by Oregon State coach Mike Riley. The Beavers trailed by 14 and managed to get in a position where they cut the lead down to 7 with under a minute to go. Oregon State had the ball with quite a ways to go and little time to score, but got down the field into Missouri territory. Following a fourth down conversion to keep hopes alive, Matt Moore completed a 14 yard pass to Joe Newton. That put the Beavers 1 point down and seemingly in a spot to kick the extra point to send the game to overtime. That's not what Mike Riley thought though. He sent the offense back onto the field for a 2-point conversion attempt. The risk paid off as Yvenson Bernard ran straight ahead into the endzone to give Oregon State the 39-38 lead and eventual win. The excitement of the day was really just beginning.
South Carolina 44, Houston 36
Another high-scoring affair added to an already eventful day of bowl games. The Liberty Bowl featured two high-powered offenses that just kept going back and forth. The end of the first half had four touchdowns (two from each team) in a span of just three minutes. In the second half, the scoring eased a bit, but not completely. South Carolina's defense started to step up and provided enough for the offense to simply outscore Houston. The Cougars made an attempt at a late comeback, but just ran out of time. They had one last chance to score from way out and tried a short pass with a wall of blockers. The play came up about 30 yards short and the Gamecocks got the win.
Texas Tech 44, Minnesota 41
The best game of the day and maybe even the entire season was out in Tempe, Arizona, at the Insight Bowl. Minnesota quickly got ahead early and eventually ended up with a lead of 38-7 with 7:47 to go in the 3rd quarter. That's when things got interesting.
Texas Tech proceeded to rattle off four touchdowns to cut the lead to 3. The Red Raiders got the ball back on deep in their own territory with no timeouts and little time to work with. Somehow, Graham Harrell led Texas Tech down the field in enough time to attempt a 52 yard field goal. Alex Trlica kicked the ball as the clock ran out and somehow made his attempt to tie the game up at 38-38, sending things to overtime. In OT, Minnesota could only get a field goal on their possession, leaving the door wide open for a Texas Tech offense that wasn't missing a step. The Red Raiders ended up in the endzone off of a 3 yard run by Shannon Woods and won the game in dramatic fashion by a score of 44-41. This was the largest comeback in bowl game history. Unfortunately, most didn't get to see the game due to the NFL Network becoming the new pain in the ass station on TV. With limited availability, this game went unwatched by most, including myself, leaving only highlights to get a feel for one of the best bowl games you will see. Even so, the game was a great one.
There you have it, about as good of a day you'll ever have when it comes to exciting bowl games. After so many lousy games prior to this, a comeback along with a shootout and along with a gutsy game-winning 2-point conversion can completely change the landscape of the bowl season.
You may have noticed that only four games were recapped above. Well, that's because Purdue got rolled over by Maryland in the Champs Sports Bowl 24-7, proving to really be the lone non-exciting game all day.
Here's to hoping the rest of the bowl season provides the same excitement we saw with these games as you can't get much better than that.
