2009 AT&T Cotton Bowl
Texas Tech (11-1) vs. Ole Miss (8-4)
Jan. 2, 2:00 p.m. ET, Fox
Payout:
$3 million Location: Cotton Bowl, Dallas TX
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2009 Cotton Player
Profiles, Histories, & More
 |
|
National
Rankings |
|
Ole
Miss |
Texas Tech |
|
Total Offense |
|
38th 398.67 ypg |
4th 536.17 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
14th 293.75 ypg |
72nd 371.58 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
32nd 30.83 ppg |
4th 44.58 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
14th 17.75 ppg |
66th 26.25 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
31st 183.42 ypg |
96th 118.92 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
6th 83.92 ypg |
45th 133.50 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
58th 398.67 ypg |
1st 417.25 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
60th 209.83 ypg |
91st 238.08 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
67th -0.08 |
24th 0.58 |
|
Ole Miss
E Carolina L 27-22
Furman W 24-7
Ga Tech W 20-17
at UNC W 20-17
at Neb. W 35-30
West Kent W 27-13
at Bos Coll L 28-23
at Florida St L 30-20
Maryland W 23-13
at Miami L 16-14
Duke W 14-3
Virginia W 17-14
ACC Champ
Boston Coll W 30-12 |
Texas Tech
E Wash W 49-24
at Nevada W 35-19
SMU W 43-7
UMass W 56-14
at Kan St W 58-28
Neb. W 37-31 OT
at Tex A&M W 43-25
at Kansas W 63-21
Texas W 39-33
Oklahoma St W 56-20
at Oklahoma L 65-21
Baylor W 35-28 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
M |
5
highest
1 lowest |
T |
|
3.5 |
Quarterbacks |
5 |
|
4 |
RBs |
3 |
|
3 |
Receivers |
5 |
|
4.5 |
O
Line |
4 |
|
5 |
D
Line |
3.5 |
|
3 |
Linebackers |
3.5 |
|
3.5 |
Secondary |
3 |
|
4.5 |
Spec
Teams |
2.5 |
|
4 |
Coaching |
4 |
|
Payout:
$3 million Location:
Cotton Bowl, Dallas TX
It what has become the
consolation bowl for the Big 12
team left out in the cold, it’s
a nice reward for the SEC. Will
the two representatives play
accordingly?
Texas Tech was never in the
discussion for the BCS and the
national title despite finishing
in a three-way tie with Texas
and Oklahoma for the Big 12
South title. The 65-21 loss to
the Sooners ended that debate,
but all is hardly lost for a
program that came up with its
biggest season ever. Head coach
Mike Leach is staying put,
there’s a decent group of
prospects ready to step in next
year for QB Graham Harrell and
WR Michael Crabtree. This isn’t
as much of a last hurrah for the
Red Raiders as it is a chance to
show off that it deserved to be
in the BCS, even though it
couldn’t be because of the silly
rule that limits the number of
teams from one conference that
can get into a big money game.
While the Red Raiders might have
wished for something bigger and
better, this is a dream game for
an Ole Miss program that was
left for dead ever since Eli
Manning and the boys beat
Oklahoma State in the 2004
Cotton Bowl. In a strange quirk,
the SEC’s four-game run of wins
ended last year with Arkansas
decided not to show up against
Missouri, who got jobbed even
more than this year’s Texas
Tech, hurt by the loss of head
coach Houston Nutt.
Nutt and the Rebels took
advantage of a down year for the
SEC and a great group of
veterans put in place by the old
coaching staff to go 8-4 and
finish as the SEC’s fourth best
team. The four wins all came by
seven points or fewer, and there
was the 31-30 win over Florida
that established the program as
a player again and set the tone
for the Nutt era. The Rebels got
better and better as the season
went on, winning the last five
games of the regular season
winning the final four games by
a combined score of 152 to 20.
It’s Texas Tech’s top offense
vs. the Ole Miss defense that
finished 14th in the
nation in both total and scoring
D. It’s one of the Big 12’s
shining stars against an SEC
also-ran, meaning a win for the
SEC would be a huge, huge
feather in the league’s cap in a
year when it was supposedly fell
to the No. 2 spot in the
conference rankings, while Big
12 fans always make a big deal
out of their wins against the
SEC. But will it be a good game?
No one has played more exciting
bowl games than Texas Tech over
the last three seasons. The Red
Raiders lost 13-10 in the 2005
Cotton Bowl when Alabama’s
defense came up huge, they
mounted the greatest comeback in
bowl history to beat Minnesota
in the 2006 Insight Bowl, and
after appearing to be left for
dead against Virginia in last
year’s Gator Bowl, they came
back to win 31-28 in the final
moments. If Texas Tech needs
another late comeback to beat
Ole Miss, chalk it up as a win,
albeit it a moral one, for the
SEC.
This isn’t the best of matchups
considering the Ole Miss pass
defense is sketchy and Texas
Tech, well, likes to throw the
ball a whole bunch, but the
Rebels have surprised all season
long and they aren’t going to be
fazed by playing a high-octane
offense. If you can beat Florida
in Gainesville, push Alabama in
Tuscaloosa, and blow out LSU in
Death Valley, you can hold up
against a Texas Tech attack that
sputtered a bit at times to
close out the year.
As good as the Red Raiders might
be, finishing fourth in the
nation in total offense, fourth
in scoring offense, and first in
passing, it took a big second
half to get by Baylor, they were
shut down by Oklahoma when the
game mattered, and were pushed
to overtime at home by Nebraska.
When the offense is rolling,
it’s unstoppable, but when it
starts to sputter a bit it can
go cold for long stretches. Ole
Miss has to make it chilly, and
it has just enough athleticism,
and just enough confidence, to
do it.
Moved to January 2nd,
the Cotton Bowl will avoid the
New Year’s Day glut of games and
will have the spotlight all to
itself. Arguably the most
prestigious of the non-BCS
games, this has the potential to
rise up and be even bigger once
it’s played in the new Jerry
Jones’ palace next year. For
now, this should be an
interesting watch and a good
contrast in styles.
Players to watch:
While everyone knows all about
Graham Harrell, this is a
chance for Jevan Snead to
get a bit of the national
spotlight. Snead was a big-time
recruit for Texas, but Colt
McCoy took the job by the horns
and the writing was on the wall.
For an Ole Miss program that
went from Eli Manning to barely
being able to throw the forward
pass, Snead has been a godsend.
After a bit of a shaky start
with 11 interceptions in the
first eight games, including a
four-pick game leading to the
loss to Vanderbilt, he threw
just one interception and 11
touchdown passes over the final
four games. While he’s a runner,
he wasn’t used much out of the
backfield netting just 62 yards
with three touchdowns. It’ll be
his job to keep the chains
moving and to try to keep up
with the Texas Tech attack.
While Michael Crabtree is
only a sophomore, this is his
third year out of high school
making the two-time Biletnikoff
winner eligible for the NFL
draft if he chooses to take off.
While he didn’t put up the sick
and twisted numbers of his
breakthrough 2007 campaign, when
he made 134 catches for 1,932
yards and 22 scores, he still
put up 93 grabs for 1,135 yards
and 18 scores. In other words,
his “down” year was a dream
career for many receivers.
However, he was held in relative
check over the final two games,
partly due to injury, catching
15 passes for 125 yards and no
touchdowns against Oklahoma and
Baylor, and while it might seem
absurd to be disappointed in
making so many grabs, he wasn’t
quite the same. He caught nine
passes for 101 yards and a
touchdown last year’s Gator
Bowl, and now he wants to close
out his amazing two year run
with a bigger bang.
Crabtree’s college career will
forever be linked with Harrell,
who’s playing the final game of
his phenomenal career. While
Crabtree might be the first wide
receiver taken in the 2009 NFL
Draft, the jury is out on
Harrell. Is he a system guy, and
how much tweaking will he need?
There’s no question he can run a
fast-break, high-tempo offense,
and there’s no questioning his
accuracy completing 70% of his
1,952 passes for 15,429 yards
and 130 touchdowns and just 32
interceptions. He also added 12
rushing scores. While playing in
the Cotton Bowl might be a bit
of a disappointment for a Texas
Tech team thinking BCS, don’t
expect Harrell to come out flat.
After being left out of the fun
among the Heisman finalists,
this is his final shot to show
the world that he deserved to be
considered every bit the
quarterback that Sam Bradford,
Tim Tebow and Colt McCoy were
this season.
The key to slowing down Harrell
and Crabtree will be getting
into the backfield, and no one
does it as well as Ole Miss.
Former head coach Ed Orgeron
left the cupboard stocked with
tremendous defensive line talent
led by All-SEC star Peria
Jerry, who finished second
on the team in sacks. An
unstoppable force on the inside,
his emergence into a superstar
opened things up for the rest of
the line including Greg Hardy.
The former basketball player
came up with ten sacks last year
and made 8.5 this year despite
missing four games hurt. Jerry
and Hardy helped Ole Miss lead
the nation in tackles for loss
(combining for 26.5) and finish
fifth in sacks.
Texas Tech will win if...
Harrell can get rid of the ball
in a hurry. The Ole Miss
defensive front is too good to
run on consistently, and it’s
going to pin its ears back to
get into the backfield from all
four spots. Harrell is used to
being pressured, everyone tries
to do the same thing, but he
only faced two defensive lines
remotely as good as this one.
Texas lost all-star DE Brian
Orakpo and didn’t generate too
much in the way of pressure from
then on, and Oklahoma dominated
early before taking its foot off
the gas in the second half.
Harrell will get his yards, but
the Tech offense is at its best
when Harrell is able to find his
third and fourth option on a
regular basis, or if he’s able
to set his feet, step up, and
fire to his No. 1 option. He’s
not going to have that kind of
time, so he’ll have to speed up
his pre-snap reads and his
receivers will have to make more
plays than normal on the move.
Ole Miss will win if...
forces turnovers. That’s far,
far easier said than done
against a Texas Tech offense
that rarely shoots itself in the
foot. It’s not a coincidence
that the five-game winning
streak kicked in when the
secondary started making picks.
The Rebels intercepted four
passes over the first seven
games and took it away ten times
in the final five. Oddly enough,
the defense didn’t force a
fumble over the finishing kick
after coming up with seven in
the first seven games. On the
flip side, in the loss to Wake
Forest: 5 turnovers. In the loss
to Vanderbilt: 2 fumbles. Ole
Miss turned it over three times
against Alabama and three times
against South Carolina. Got all
that? It’s this simple. Ole Miss
turned it over 13 times in the
four losses and nine times in
the eight wins. Win the turnover
margin; have a shot at pulling
off the upset.
What will happen:
This is a strange, interesting
matchup, not unlike the 2006
game when Alabama, led by Mike
Shula, came up with a stunning
defensive performance to keep
the Red Raider offense in check.
But this Texas Tech team is far
better, and while Ole Miss is
strong enough defensively from
keeping this from being a
runaway blowout, there isn’t
enough offense in the bag to
keep up once Harrell starts
rolling. The Heisman snub was
enough to give the Red Raider
just enough edge to get the win.
Line: Texas Tech -5.5
... CFN Prediction:
Texas Tech 38 … Ole Miss 30