Looking back at the chaos of the 2007 college football season
By Zach Bigalke
2007 Bowl Games
A crazy season of upsets couldn’t have concluded without some crazy upsets in the postseason. BYU and Cincinnati became the first ranked teams to win bowl games. The No. 17 Cougars knocked off UCLA 17-16 in the Las Vegas Bowl, while No. 22 Cincinnati won 31-21 over Southern Miss.
The first Top 25 team fell when No. 24 Boise State was toppled 41-38 by East Carolina two days before Christmas. Four days later, No. 19 Texas took down No. 11 Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl. Then, on December 29, Wake Forest defeated No. 24 Connecticut by two touchdowns in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
Joe Paterno won his 23rd career bowl game 24-17 over Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl. Nick Saban won his first bowl game with Alabama, a 30-24 win over Colorado in the Independence Bowl. One marked the waning moment of an era, the other a team on the rise. And it all took place before New Year’s Eve.
New Year’s Eve
Celebrating the conclusion of its first decade of existence, the BCS had certainly reduced the impact of some bowl games that had not made the cut into the exclusive group of BCS sites. But there was still plenty of intrigue on the New Year’s Eve calendar before the BCS games began the next day.
The last day of 2007 began with yet another Top 25 loss. Both Oregon and South Florida had occupied the No. 2 spot in the BCS standings earlier in the season, but had tumbled in November to fall out of contention. The No. 21 Bulls were paired against the unranked Ducks in the Sun Bowl. Jonathan Stewart racked up a career-high 253 rushing yards as Oregon walloped USF 56-21 to end their losing streak.
Before it joined the major bowls in the College Football Playoff era, the Chik-fil-A Bowl still regularly boasted a matchup of ranked teams. Well-matched teams played to overtime in Atlanta, as No. 23 Auburn and No. 15 Clemson needed extra time to settle the score. In the battle of Tigers, Clemson had the ball first in OT and kicked a field goal. Auburn responded with the winning touchdown as Kodi Burns ran the final seven yards to victory.
California, no longer ranked, survived a 42-36 shootout against Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. Kentucky knocked off Florida State 35-28 at the Music City Bowl in Nashville. On the Smurf Turf in Boise, Fresno State took down Georgia Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl. And Oklahoma State trounced Indiana 49-33 in the Insight Bowl to conclude New Year’s Eve action.
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New Year’s Day
January 1 used to mark the traditional end of the college football postseason. By 2007, bowl games were extending throughout the first week of the new year. But New Year’s Day still held plenty of significance in its own right. The day began with No. 16 Tennessee outlasting No. 18 Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl, and ended with a couple big upsets of ranked teams.
Missouri, having fallen to No. 6 after their loss in the Big 12 title game, missed out on a BCS invitation. Gary Pinkel’s crew settled for the Cotton Bowl, where they demolished Arkansas 38-7. Tony Temple rushed for 281 yards and four touchdowns in the Tigers rout, outplaying more storied running back Darren McFadden in the process.
In Orlando, Heisman winner Tim Tebow accounted for four touchdowns but managed just 211 total yards of offense. In the process, No. 12 Florida was upset by unranked Michigan to end its BCS title defense empty-handed. Mike Hart ran for 129 yards and two scores, while Chad Henne threw three touchdown passes and racked up 373 passing yards. It proved to be Lloyd Carr’s last game, as he was effectively a lame duck ever since falling to Appalachian State in the season opener.
To cap the day of football, Texas Tech faced No. 20 Virginia in the Gator Bowl. The Jacksonville crowd was treated to a tense 31-28 showdown that was decided by Alex Trlica’s 41-yard field goal with seven seconds left on the clock. Trlica’s field goal capped a 14-point comeback in the fourth quarter by the Red Raiders, who won nine games in a season for the third time in five years under Mike Leach.
The BCS Quartet
That wasn’t all the fun that began on New Year’s Day, though. The first of the BCS contests featured No. 5 Georgia and No. 10 Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Six days before another SEC school took the field at the Superdome, the Bulldogs dismantled the Rainbow Warriors in a 41-10 walkover. Colt Brennan threw three interceptions and failed to score a touchdown. For just the second time in his college career, Brennan threw for fewer than 200 yards. It proved a mismatch that rendered plenty of questions for mid-majors to come.
The Rose Bowl ended in similarly lopsided fashion. Illinois had upset Ohio State en route to a No. 13 ranking, but the magic did not strike in Pasadena for the Illini. The Trojans racked up a Rose Bowl-record 633 yards of offense as they took down the Big Ten runner-up 49-17. Joe McKnight and Stafon Johnson both rushed for over 100 yards, while John David Booty threw three touchdown passes in the win. In the process, Southern California became the first school to win 11 or more games in six straight seasons.
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The Fiesta Bowl took place on January 2 between West Virginia and Oklahoma. Rich Rodriguez had taken the Michigan job ahead of the bowl game, leaving his alma mater to rely on interim coach Bill Stewart. Few gave West Virginia a chance against the Sooners, but Stewart’s team pulled off a 48-28 upset of the No. 4 team in the country. Pat White threw for 176 yards and two scores, and added another 150 yards on the ground. Noel Devine also eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark in the win as Stewart sealed a full-time gig with WVU.
In the final BCS bowl game before the championship, No. 8 Kansas played in the Orange Bowl for the first time since 1968. Their opponents, No. 3 Virginia Tech, had hoped for a trip to New Orleans but had to settle for Miami. The Jayhawks appeared more motivated from the outset, building a 17-7 lead by halftime and then doggedly hanging on to win by a field goal over the Hokies. After Tech pulled within three with three minutes remaining, Kansas was able to kill the rest of the clock to seal its first-ever Orange Bowl victory.
Ohio State v. LSU
The first week of January culminated in the showdown between the Buckeyes and Tigers for the ultimate prize in college football. Ohio State and LSU faced one another in the New Orleans Superdome on January 7. For the Buckeyes, it was a chance at redemption after crumbling against Florida the year before. For LSU, it was a chance for Les Miles to emerge from the shadow of Nick Saban and bring the Tigers another national title.
The Buckeyes scored first, as Chris Wells busted off a 65-yard touchdown run less than a minute and a half into the contest. After forcing a three and out on LSU’s first drive of the game, Ohio State extended its lead to 10 points with a 25-yard Ryan Pretorius field goal. The Tigers responded with their own field goal to pull back within a touchdown before the end of the first quarter.
Once the game shifted into the second quarter, so too did the momentum. Three straight LSU touchdowns put the Tigers up for good by halftime, as the defense picked off Todd Boeckman as the Buckeyes were driving to tie things back up midway through the frame. LSU instead went into the locker room up 24-10 at the intermission, and that gap would hold for the rest of the game.
Matt Flynn finished the game with just 174 passing yards but four touchdowns for the Tigers. Jacob Hester rushed for 86 yards and a score in the win. The two teams traded punches evenly in the second half of the game, but LSU had already put things out of reach in their home state.
After a wild season where they had lost twice in triple overtime, the Tigers made the Mad Hatter a national champion coach in the 38-24 win. In the final AP poll of the season, LSU was a near-unanimous choice for the national title. Georgia, USC, Missouri, and the Buckeyes rounded out the top five.
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There were as many questions as answers. Many wonder what might have happened if USC or Missouri had played the Tigers in the Superdome instead of Ohio State. But four years after winning a split national championship on the same field under Nick Saban, former Oklahoma State head coach Miles had pulled off a similar feat in an even more convoluted season to remember.