PAC-12 Football Weekend Recap (PAC-12 Bowl Games)
By Mike Vamosi
Tonight is the BCS National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Since the game doesn’t feature a PAC-12 team let’s look back at how the Conference of Champions did during the bowl season. As a whole the conference went 6-3 against ACC, Big XII, Big Ten, Independent and Mountain West opponents here’s the recap of all nine games.
Stanford for the second time this season took care of Arizona State and will return to the Rose Bowl Game on New Year’s Day. Tyler Gaffney and Kevin Hogan helped the Cardinal offense cruise up and down the field in the convincing 38-14 victory in Tempe. Here’s the recap of the 2013 PAC-12 Conference Title Game at Sun Devil Stadium.
Josh Huff and the Oregon Ducks defeated the Texas Longhorns 30-7 in the Alamo Bowl on December 30th. Photo Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
December 21 –
Gilden New Mexico Bowl (Albuquerque, NM) Washington State Cougars (6-7, 4-5 PAC-12) 45 v. Colorado State Rams (8-6, 5-3 MWC) 48: This game kicked off bowl season but also might’ve been the most painful loss of the postseason. Washington State lead 45-30 with 2:52 remaining before the wheels came off via turnovers and saw Colorado State roll for 18 unanswered points to end the game. Connor Halliday was 37-of-58 for 401 yards and six touchdown passes in the defeat.
Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl (Las Vegas, NV) 20 Fresno State Bulldogs (11-2, 7-1 MWC) 20 v. 25 Southern California Trojans (10-4, 6-3 PAC-12) 45: USC went into the Las Vegas Bowl with their third head coach of the season. The Trojans started hot leading 35-6 at the half against the champions of the Mountain West. Southern Cal finished the game with 499 total yards of offense while holding Fresno State to 2-of-14 on third down. Cody Kessler was a solid 22-of-30 for 345 yards with four touchdowns, Javorius Allen reached the end zone twice while racking up 86 yards on 27 carries and Marqise Lee caught seven passes for118 yards with two TD catches.
December 24 –
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl (Honolulu, HI) Boise State Broncos (8-5, 6-2 MWC) 23 v. Oregon State Beavers (7-6, 4-5 PAC-12) 38: Oregon State finished the season with a win after closing the regular season with five straight defeats. Despite being outgained 538-454 in offense the Beavers forced two turnovers and closed the season with a convincing win over Boise State. Sean Mannion who had his up and downs finished with 259 yards on 24-of-33 passing with a TD. Storm Woods ran 16 times for 107 yards with a touchdown and caught two passes for 21 yards.
December 27 –
Fight Hunger Bowl (San Francisco, CA) BYU Cougars (8-5) 16 v. Washington Huskies (9-4, 5-4 PAC-12) 31: Washington played this game with Marques Tuiasosopo as interim head coach leading the team in this game. Leading 21-16 at the half the Huskies outscored the Cougars 10-0 in the second half to comfortable win the game. Keith Price was an efficient 17-of-22 for 123 yards with a touchdown while adding 30 yards on the ground. Bishop Sankey finished his Husky career with 95 yards rushing two TDs to help Washington win their ninth game of the season.
December 30 –
Valero Alamo Bowl (San Antonio, TX) 10 Oregon Ducks (11-2, 7-2 PAC-12) 30 v. Texas Longhorns (8-5, 7-2 Big XII) 7: Mack Brown and Nick Aliotti both coaching in their last games for each team at the Alamo Bowl. Texas couldn’t stop the Oregon offense, as the Ducks outgained the Longhorns 469 to 236 with the defense allowing one touchdown. Oregon found the right balance on offense with 253 yards passing while running for 216 yards. Marcus Mariota averaged 9.7 yards per pass with his total being 253 yards on 18-of-26 passing with a score, he added 133 more on the ground on 15 attempts. Senior Josh Huff who was playing his last game in his home state caught five passes for 105 yards with a touchdown.
National University Holiday Bowl (San Diego, CA) 14 Arizona State Sun Devils (10-4, 8-1 PAC-12) 23 v. Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-5, 4-5 Big XII) 37: Arizona State just never got their high powered offense going and trailed from the get go. In addition to kicking field goals when getting into the red zone ASU was 6-of-19 on third down for the game. Taylor Kelly had a game high 135 yards rushing with a TD for the Sun Devils who were without their top back, he also threw for 125 yards. D.J. Foster also was over the century mark with 132 yards on 20 carries with a score.
December 31 –
AdvoCare V100 Bowl (Shreveport, LA) Arizona Wildcats (8-5, 4-5 PAC-12) 42 v. Boston College Eagles (7-6, 4-4 ACC) 19: Rich Rodriguez and his Arizona Wildcats cruised to a convincing with over Boston College in Shreveport. Ka’Deem Carey again had a big game for ‘Zona running for 169 yards on 27 carries with two touchdowns. B.J. Denker threw for 275 yards tossing two touchdown passes in addition to 51 yards on the ground. Denker’s top two receiving targets were Nate Phillips who had 193 yards on nine catches and Trey Griffey who had only three receptions for 41 yards, did catch two TDs. Leading by a point the Wildcats William Parks pick-six made it 14-6 which Arizona cruised the rest of the game.
Hyundai Sun Bowl (El Paso, TX) Virginia Tech Hokies (8-5, 5-3 ACC) 12 v. 17 UCLA Bruins (10-3, 6-3 PAC-12) 42: UCLA let Virginia Tech hang around for most of the game, leading 14-10 after three quarters before outscoring the Hokies 28-2 in the fourth. Brett Hundley had a big day throwing for 226 yards with two passing scores and 161 yards rushing with two more touchdowns on just 10 carries. Defensively the Bruins knocked out the VT starter Logan Thomas and held the Hokies to 3-of-17 on third down in the contest.
January 1 –
Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio (Pasadena, CA) 5 Stanford Cardinal (11-3, 7-2 PAC-12) 20 v. 4 Michigan State Spartans (13-1, 8-0 B1G) 24: Stanford couldn’t ask for a better start to the 100th Rose Bowl Game jumping out to a 10-0 lead and getting returning an interception for a score before half making it 17-7. After building that ten point lead the Cardinal saw the Big Ten champions outscore them 17-3 the rest of the game. Needing a yard late in the game Stanford got stood-up on offense by the stout Michigan State defense. Kevin Hogan threw for 143 yards with 41 yards on the ground in the defeat. Tyler Gaffney who scored the game’s first touchdown finished with 91 yards on 24 carries.
Rankings from the BCS Standings
Mike’s Picks:
Season Record: 69-23; Full Season + Bowls Record: 74-27
Bowl Record: 5-4 (Correct: Oregon State, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, UCLA; Incorrect: Washington State, Fresno State, Arizona State, Stanford)
Last Week: 3-2 (Correct: Oregon, Arizona, UCLA; Incorrect: Arizona State and Stanford)
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