2008 Cotton Bowl
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
If you had predicted at the beginning of the 2008 Cotton Bowl that a runningback was going to break the bowl’s records, Tony Temple might not have been the first name to come to mind. If you had said that Mizzou would score 38 points with only 136 yards passing and no touchdown passes from Chase Daniel, people would have thought you were crazy.
That doesn’t make those statements any less true.
A little over a year ago, tailback Temple had an MVP-worthy day at the Sun Bowl but missed out on the honor when Mizzou lost late in the game. Today, as Mizzou beat the Arkansas Razorbacks 38-7, Temple had an even better day and earned the title of offensive player of the game.
“Everybody was talking about Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, Peyton Hillis,” says quarterback Chase Daniel, who has always called Temple the “catalyst” for the offense. “No disrespect to those guys, but I wouldn’t trade my back for anything.”
Temple broke Dicky Maegle’s Cotton Bowl all-time rushing record with 281 yards — 212 yards more than his average per game this season. He also broke the rushing touchdown record with four. He knows what’s important, though: “We got the W, and that’s what matters the most.”
The offensive line helped by opening gaping holes for Temple. Daniel, Maclin, Rucker and company helped by connecting on passes all year long and teaching defenses to expect a passing attack. Offensive coordinator Dave Christensen helped by setting a game plan that clearly worked.
Temple almost didn’t get the records. In the fourth quarter, he was sidelined with a tweaked hamstring. With the record in sight, though, Temple told Coach Gary Pinkel, “I think I can go.” He went into the game and got a 40-yard touchdown run. Teammates carried him off the field.
Even Arkansas’ Darren McFadden spoke highly of Temple: “Sitting there watching a runningback do that against you, it’s just a hard thing to watch. You’ve got to give him full credit. He came to play.”
Speaking of McFadden, though, let’s not forget the other side of the ball. The Tiger defense held an Arkansas offense that previously averaged 297 yards per game to just 164 yards. Ziggy Hood got to the quarterback twice, once with the help of Lorenzo Williams. William Moore had 13 tackles and returned an interception 26 yards for a touchdown, with the help of a tipped pass by Sean Weatherspoon. Moore earned top defensive honors from the Cotton Bowl.
It was supposed to be an offensive shootout. Williams hates when people say that. “Every time somebody said that about a game, we played really well,” he says. Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus told the players today would be a challenge. They accepted, and then some.
At the end of the day, a bunch of extremely happy black-and-gold fans face an extremely pleasant drive or flight home. Coaches and players get to revel in a season in which they won 12 games, something no Mizzou team has done before. They also get to expect a solid ranking at the end of the season after a marquee bowl victory, BCS or no BCS.
Soft-spoken senior tight end Martin Rucker — who was relatively quiet today but was a force this year — offers some parting words on a season that will go down in history: “This is why I came back … I said the guys in this locker room will be a pretty special team this year, and I wanted to be a part of it.”
Photos by Rob Hill
Top right, Tony Temple rolled over Arkansas defenders (and, this time, a referee) for 281 yards. Above, Arkansas’ offense got used to swarms of Mizzou defenders.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
The Mizzou Tigers have defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 38-7, based in large part on Tony Temple’s record-breaking rushing day. Stay tuned for postgame information and images.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
First Chase Daniel threw an interception. Then he forced a fumble to get the ball back. Then, Mizzou’s Derrick Washington lost a fumble. Then Mizzou recovered an Arkansas fumble to get the ball back again.
Then, Mizzou recovered a fumbled punt return on the Arkansas 11-line yard. Somebody must have greased the ball.
Mizzou failed to convert, but Jeff Wolfert’s 32-yard field goal put them ahead 31-7 with 10:25 left in the game.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
Despite a fumble, Tony Temple keeps on rolling. He has now broken his own school bowl rushing record, set in the Sun Bowl last year with 194 yards.
Mizzou collected a fourth touchdown on another record-setting play. Sean Weatherspoon tipped an Arkansas pass, and William Moore scooped it up for a 26 yard interception return for a touchdown. It’s his eighth interception on the year, a new school record.
Arkansas finally posted points with 3:08 left in the quarter when Darren McFadden ran for a three-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play.
Moving into the fourth quarter, Mizzou leads Arkansas 28-7 and has a first down on the Arkansas 38 yard line.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
With a 4-yard run, Tony Temple (pictured at right) now has his third touchdown of the day, and Mizzou leads 21-0. Temple’s three touchdowns ties a Cotton Bowl record; he joins the ranks of other rushers including the legendary Jim Brown. Three unsuccessful drives later, Arkansas’ Felix Jones has fumbled, and Mizzou has the ball again.
Here are a couple of other highlight photos from the first half, thanks to longtime MIZZOU magazine photographer and Mizzou Wire blogging partner Rob Hill.
Above, receiver Jeremy Maclin eludes defenders. Below, Arkansas’ Darren McFadden has had less success evading the Mizzou defense.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
Mizzou leads 14-0 at the half. They’ve done it on the ground, and they’ve done it with strong defense against Arkansas’ usually prolific offense.
The numbers tell the story of the half:
- Mizzou’s Tony Temple now has 13 carries for a season-high 159 yards and two touchdowns. Something about bowl games brings out the best in him (remember his Sun Bowl performance, anyone?).
- On the flipside, Arkansas has 82 yards rushing. The Tiger defense has stopped them in crucial situations and forced two field goal attempts by Alex Tejada, both of which have failed.
- Despite an offensive attack skewed toward running (a change from the norm), Chase Daniel also is eight for 13 passing for 78 yards. Martin Rucker leads receivers with three catches, and Will Franklin has the most receiving yardage with 34.
- Brock Christopher has stopped Darren McFadden on several big plays and has eight total tackles. Ziggy Hood has two sacks. The Arkansas offense has 148 yards to Mizzou’s 231.
Mizzou gets the ball to start the second half. Mizzou has scored more than 50 percent of the time on their opening drive of the second half this season.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
A runningback in the Mizzou-Arkansas game is on fire, and it isn’t Darren McFadden.
After a five-yard touchdown run on a drive that included yet another 22-yard run, Tony Temple now has 147 yards and two touchdowns. That 147 yards rushing is already a season high, and it’s just the first half.
Arkansas kicker Alex Tejada just missed his second field goal of the day. Stay tuned for the halftime score and stats.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
After the first quarter, Mizzou leads 7-0 and is in Arkansas territory again.
Both fast-paced offenses actually got off to a slow start. Arkansas was driving briskly down the field on their first drive, but Brock Christopher got a big third-down tackle on Darren McFadden, which led to an unsuccessful field goal attempt. Mizzou took over and got a first down on a pass to Martin Rucker, but then another first-down catch by Rucker was overturned on review. Mizzou failed to convert on third down and punted. Two drives down, no points on the board.
One Arkansas drive and punt, six Tiger plays, two straight first-down passes to William Franklin and one 22-yard run by No. 22 Tony Temple later, Mizzou was on the board.
On the next drive, the Mizzou defense successfully stopped McFadden, then held firm on a fourth-down play. Next Mizzou drive, No. 22 Temple got a 22-yard run again. Mizzou ends the quarter with second down and nine yards to go on the Arkansas 33-yard line.
On a side note, Pig Brown whooped it up on the field as a captain before the coin toss. Even injured, he’s a leader.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
It’s about 20 minutes until game time here at the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park. Fans lived it up at the Mizzou Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Party last night but still managed to get up bright and early for what Coach Gary Pinkel described as the earliest game he has ever coached. Kickoff is at 10:42.
As the game gets going, here are a few more things to watch:
- Look for a fast start, which has been a key to Tiger success this season. Mizzou has scored on its opening possession in six of 13 games, and opponents have scored only once on theirs.
- Look for a high-scoring game. Mizzou’s scoring offense ranks seventh in the NCAA with 40 points per game, and Arkansas isn’t far behind at ninth with 39.83 points per game.
- The Cotton Bowl is honoring retiring Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles, who has served the Razorbacks for 50 years as a coach and then director. There’s a Mizzou connection, too: Broyles coached the Tigers in 1957, before heading to Arkansas.
Note: I’m seated below the press box, right above Razorback territory. My posting access will be spotty, but I will update the blog as much as I can with game info. Stay tuned after the bowl for postgame quotes and stats, too. Enjoy the game, and please keep blog comments respectful.
Posted on
Jan. 1, 2008 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
Happy New Year from Dallas!
Now, it’s time for business.
Take away the comparisons and peripheral distractions for a minute. Take away the fact that Gary Pinkel has extended his contract at Mizzou while Arkansas is playing under interim Coach Reggie Herring after the departure of Houston Nutt. Take away this past week’s negative focus on Arkansas’ Darren McFadden, who has been deemed eligible to play. Take away any smack-talk.
Take away all of that, and you have two teams with high-profile players and high-level playing potential. When they clash today in the Cotton Bowl, that may be all that matters.
So how do they stack up?
Start with McFadden and the almost-equally dangerous Felix Jones, Arkansas’ dynamic running duo. McFadden averages 143.8 rushing yards per game, and Jones averages 9.1 yards per carry. Combined, the two have amassed 2,842 rushing yards on the year and 26 touchdowns. How do you stop that?
“Stopping them is not what you do,” says Mizzou defensive lineman and team captain Lorenzo Williams. “You contain them and try to get them out of their running game.”
That’s easier said than done, even though the Tiger defense has come on strong and gives up only 118.85 yards rushing per game. To make things even trickier, McFadden sometimes lines up in the “Wild Hog” formation to take snaps and pass, run or hand the ball off. Williams shows respect: “Dude ran it for almost 1,800 yards this year.”
On the flipside, Mizzou’s passing attack vs. Arkansas’ aggressive man coverage will be worth watching. “They’re very physical,” Pinkel says of the Arkansas defense. “They play a lot of bump and run, and it can be a challenge getting the ball into the middle.”
Mizzou’s seventh-ranked passing offense has been impressive this season. Second-team All-America quarterback Chase Daniel has passed for 4,170 yards and 33 touchdowns, and he spreads the ball around. First-team All-America tight end Martin Rucker has an NCAA-leading 81 catches; wide receiver Jeremy Maclin (also an all-purpose first-team All-American) has 77; tight end Chase Coffman has 51. How well will Arkansas’ 36th-ranked pass defense perform against those varied weapons? And how much will leading rusher Tony Temple (68.9 yards per game) open the passing game with success on the ground?
Mizzou will be missing a few players. Early season defensive leader Pig Brown remains injured, although second-team All-America safety William Moore has risen to the occasion in his absence. Backup receiver Greg Bracey was suspended from the team. Fellow receiver Danario Alexander went down with a knee injury in the Big 12 game and will remain on the sidelines.
Chase Daniel says he isn’t too worried. He still has plenty of weapons. “We still have more than any team in the country from my perspective,” he says.
Posted on
Dec. 31, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
Bill Cocos has no use for Monday morning quarterbacks who second-guess every play a football coach calls. “You know why he called that play?” Cocos says. “Because he thought it was going to work.”
That kind of reasonable perspective comes with nearly 60 years of being a loyal fan. Cocos (pictured at right) is more than a Mizzou fan, though; he’s a fixture. The 1952 graduate and former member and president of the UM System Board of Curators hasn’t missed a home game since 1948, and he has missed just two away games since 1969. He’s here in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl, naturally.
Here’s what else comes with 60 years of loyalty: insider access. Cocos often has appeared in postgame locker rooms — only after wins, of course — but one such experience stands out.
With about a minute left in the Mizzou-Kansas game on Nov. 24 at Arrowhead Stadium, officials came to Cocos’ seat to invite him to the locker room. The bad news: He missed Lorenzo Williams’ game-sealing safety sack of Todd Reesing. The good news: He got to celebrate with the team in the locker room and even hold the Big 12 North trophy after sharing a hug with Coach Gary Pinkel.
The moment was undeniably special, a pinnacle in a true fan’s career. But it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t been there through the highest highs and lowest lows.
“If you follow a team, you have to follow them win, lose or draw,” Cocos says, employing a truism he has used in the many media profiles about him. “That special moment I had in Kansas City wouldn’t have been possible if we had been up all the time.”
Photo by Rob Hill
Posted on
Dec. 31, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
Icons of Texas mixed with symbols of Mizzou at the New Year’s parade in downtown Dallas. There were Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and Kilgore Rangerettes, and then there were Missouri cheerleaders and Golden Girls. Marching Mizzou followed a high school band playing the theme from the TV show Dallas. NFL legend Emmitt Smith was the grand marshal, but MU Chancellor Brady Deaton and wife Anne actually got more cheers (at least from the black-and-gold factions).
The Dallas-Mizzou mix makes sense. There are 18 players on the football team from the state of Texas. Likewise, it’s a big alumni base (more than 3,500 in the Dallas area), and the admissions office recruits here for new students. The connection was more pronounced today, though, with the Big MO drum banging against the Dallas skyline.
Photos by Rob Hill
Above, Marching Mizzou takes part in the New Year’s parade in downtown Dallas on Dec. 31. Below, the parade also featured icons of Texas football, including the Cowboys cheerleaders.
Posted on
Dec. 31, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
You might think there’s a long, storied history between Mizzou and Arkansas. For one thing, the states of Missouri and Arkansas share a border. For another, they played just four years ago in the Independence Bowl.
Actually, Mizzou and Arkansas have played each other only four times in football history. This first time was in 1906, when Missouri won. Then Arkansas won in 1944. Then Mizzou won in 1963. Then Arkansas won at that 2003 bowl game. So the series is tied at 2-2, and you could look at this year’s Cotton Bowl as a rubber match that’s a long-time coming.
Here are some other historical facts and stats:
- Mizzou last played in the Cotton Bowl in 1946, where the team lost to Texas in a game that saw 950 yards in total offense. That was Mizzou’s only Cotton Bowl appearance.
- Arkansas is no stranger to Dallas, with a 3-6-1 record at the bowl and one national championship victory in the 1965 game.
- Assuming Arkansas’ Darren McFadden is eligible, he and Mizzou’s Chase Daniel will make this the seventh time multiple Heisman Award finalists have played in the Cotton Bowl. The first time was a 1949 game featuring SMU’s Doak Walker and Oregon’s Norm Van Brocklin.
- Mizzou holds a 5-2 record in bowl games against SEC opponents.
- Arkansas is 4-2 against the Big 12 in postseason games.
- The Cotton Bowl itself has been around for 71 years, since oilman J. Curtis Sanford promoted the first game himself in 1937 in Fair Park Stadium.
- Many football greats have graced this bowl, from Doak Walker in the early days to Troy Aikman, Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Roger Staubach and many, many more.
- The Cotton Bowl has featured a match-up of the SEC vs. the Big 12 — arguably the nation’s strongest football conferences — since 1998.
The Cotton Bowl also featured one of the most bizarre plays in college football history, when 1954 Alabama player Tommy Lewis jumped off of the bench and onto the field to tackle Rice’s Dicky Maegle, who appeared to be running for a touchdown. Here’s hoping Mizzou and Arkansas players show a little more restraint.
Posted on
Dec. 31, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
They’re coming by land. They’re coming by air. They’d probably come by sea, too, if Dallas were a port city.
They — meaning the team, the fans, the family, the alumni, the cheer squads, the band and more — know the trip to the Cotton Bowl is worth it.
“It’s a long bus drive, but that’s OK,” says Suzy Thompson, cheer coach and mascot coordinator. Her cheer squad and two Truman mascots rode the 580-mile trip Saturday with Marching Mizzou and the Golden Girls. “It’s sort of a reward for them being out all year in the elements and everything.”
The “reward” mentality applies to everyone. For the players, a bowl game means a chance to break from the usual routine of in-season road games and have some fun — eating hundreds of pounds of meat at Lawry’s Beef Bowl, mingling with family and fans, and just soaking in the postseason atmosphere. For Chase Daniel and his fellow Tigers from Texas, it also means coming home and getting to practice at famed Texas Stadium, home of the Cowboys (and a place Daniel has played before, back in high school).
For fans, a bowl game offers one last football-based adventure. They get to spot players and chat with Coach Gary Pinkel in the lobby of the Hilton Anatole, the team and alumni hotel. They get to don the black and gold and toss a football with their kids in that same fancy lobby. They get to revel in the spirit at pep rallies and other events (see photos below).
There are other rewards from a season like 2007, though. Pinkel has talked about his warm reception while recruiting, and the same applies to cheer squads and the band. Thompson says she’s getting inquiries about cheerleader tryouts for next year, and those don’t even take place until spring. Likewise, Marching Mizzou director Michael Knight says interest in the band has spiked.
“Everyone’s looking to the future,” Thompson says, “thinking that it’s going to be this way for a while.”
Photos by Rob Hill
Top right, fan David Deihl of Trimble, Mo., hoists daughter Delaney for a better view at the Mizzou Spirit Rally at the Hilton Anatole on Sunday. Above and below, Truman and cheerleaders fire up the crowd. The two Trumans who made the trip appreciate the cool weather, says mascot coordinator Suzy Thompson: “It’s warm in that suit.”
Posted on
Dec. 30, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
With one bale of cotton, you can make 215 pairs of blue jeans, 2,104 pairs of boxer shorts, 3,085 diapers, 313,600 $100 bills and much, much more.
So says the National Cotton Council, but cotton researchers at Mizzou’s Delta Center have their own numbers: In southeast Missouri, cotton is second only to soybeans as the most valuable crop — with an average value of more than $180 million from 2002 to 2005. Delta Center researchers have developed six new cotton varieties.
Jennifer Faddis of the MU News Bureau has much more information about how cotton isn’t just for football.
With all the attention on the Tigers and the Cotton Bowl, here’s another noteworthy development: Mizzou Tigers for Tigers, a group dedicated to helping endangered tigers, is competing against the Auburn Tigers and the Clemson Tigers to see which school can raise the most money for the conservation cause. Mizzou fans and alumni can help.
Posted on
Dec. 30, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
He’s a loyal Tiger. He’s our man. He’s not going anywhere.
That was the general idea about Gary Pinkel before the holidays, but now it’s more than an idea. It’s a signature on the dotted line.
Mizzou announced a new five-year contract for Pinkel (pictured at right) on Sunday, Dec. 23, no doubt making for a merrier Christmas for the coach. Including base pay and other compensation (for things such as football camps, apparel and broadcast shows), his guaranteed yearly compensation jumped from $1.3 million to $1.85 million. In the process, Pinkel went from being the seventh-highest-paid coach in the Big 12 to the third, behind only Texas’ Mack Brown and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. His staff also receives an increase, to be divided at his discretion.
What a difference seven seasons make, especially capped with one like 2007. Pinkel — noticeably in pretty happy spirits these days — talks about how different things were for him when he first came to the university.
“One of the things when I took over this job that was a little bit overwhelming was the apathy,” Pinkel said in the week before his contract announcement, “the negativity by media, by fans. You know, you get beat up so much that you just don’t have a very positive fan-base. We had to overcome that. In fact, we had to ignore it.”
Ignorance wasn’t bliss, though. Early on, when he was selling his program on recruiting trips, he was met with apathy, skepticism and worse. This year, in the time he spent recruiting between the Big 12 Championship and the team’s Cotton Bowl practices, he was still selling the program. But now people were buying.
Fans are buying, too. Home attendance averaged more than 60,000 for the first time since 1981. Mizzou’s official ticket allotment for the Cotton Bowl sold out within hours, and all bowl tickets sold out within a day.
A big season and bigger money don’t mean the coach is content, though. His new and returning players in February will get a speech about how they have to be in the title hunt in November every year — and play at a high enough level to capture what they’re hunting.
“I’m not implying in any way that we have arrived, but certainly there’s great pride and enthusiasm for Mizzou football now,” Pinkel said. “We finally did some things that people said Missouri can’t ever do.”
Photo by Shane Epping
Posted on
Dec. 29, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
Welcome to Mizzou Wire’s Live Wire Blog. For the next few days, we’ll be covering the Cotton Bowl — the last hurrah in a historic season for Tiger football.
So just how historic has it been? Though often repeated, the brags and “first-ever” facts are impressive enough to list again here.
Mizzou won 11 games for the first time in program history, with only two losses (both coming against BCS No. 4 Oklahoma). To truly grasp the magnitude of that fact, consider this one: Mizzou hadn’t won nine games in a season since 1969 and has reached that mark or higher only four times.
Going into the Cotton Bowl, Mizzou ranks as BCS No. 6 and AP No. 7. After a win over rival Kansas (then BCS No. 2) on Nov. 24 at Arrowhead Stadium, Mizzou sat atop national rankings at No. 1 for the first time since 1960.
Despite being left out of the BCS bowl picture, Mizzou beat two BCS bowl teams, Kansas and Illinois. The Tigers are the only team to do so this season.
Mizzou won its first-ever Big 12 North divisional title and made its first trip to the Big 12 Championship game.
The list goes on.
Now, Mizzou prepares to take on the AP No. 25 Arkansas Razorbacks in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 1 in Dallas. It’s the first New Year’s Day bowl for the Tigers since 1970, and it pits two Heisman candidates against each other: Mizzou’s Chase Daniel and Arkansas’ Darren McFadden.
Can the Tigers add another highlight to the list — and increase their win column to a staggering 12 in the process?
Follow the celebration and the game here. You can check in for new information or subscribe to the Live Wire Blog feed to keep up with the action.
Photo by Shane Epping
Posted on
Dec. 28, 2007 by Chris Blose
Category: 2008 Cotton Bowl
It’s four days and counting until the Mizzou Tigers take on the Arkansas Razorbacks in the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic on Jan. 1 in Dallas. The team left for Dallas Wednesday, and various alumni groups, Marching Mizzou, cheer squads and fans will be leaving in the days to come.
Mizzou Wire will be blogging from the Cotton Bowl beginning Sunday, Dec. 30. Check back here for complete Cotton Bowl coverage, or subscribe to the Live Wire Blog feed to keep up with the action.
In the meantime, the Mizzou Alumni Association has information on watch parties and fan events. Get ready for the 11-2 Tigers’ first New Year’s Day bowl since 1970.
Photos by Shane Epping
Tight end Martin Rucker extends a hug to friend Gayle Johnson (left) while Carrie Funk, grandmother of punter Adam Crossett, enjoys the fun.
MU fan Brenda Bolfing, who has attended every home and away game this season, holds a sign at the team send-off.
