2009 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Texas (11-1) vs. Ohio State (10-2)
Jan. 5, 12 p.m. ET, Fox
Payout:
$17 million Location: University of Phoenix Stadium,
Glendale AZ
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2009 Fiesta Bowl
Player Profiles, Histories, & More
 |
|
National
Rankings |
|
Texas
|
Ohio
State |
|
Total Offense |
|
9th 476.42 ypg |
79th 339.67 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
49th 339.92 ypg |
7th 279.25 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
4th 43.92 ppg |
42nd 28.17 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
18th 18.58 ppg |
6th 13.08 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
35th 176.92 ypg |
26th 191.58 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
2nd 73.58 ypg |
19th 114.92 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
10th 299.50 ypg |
105th 148.08 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
108th 266.33 ypg |
7th 164.33 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
43rd 0.25 |
6th 1.25 |
|
Texas
Fla Atlantic W 52-10
at UTEP W 42-13
Rice W 52-10
Arkansas W 52-10
at Col W 38-14
Oklahoma W 45-35
Missouri W 56-31
Okla St W 28-24
at Tex Tech L 39-33
Baylor W 45-21
at Kansas W 35-7
Texas A&M W 49-9 |
Ohio State
Young St W 43-0
Ohio W 26-14
at USC L 35-3
Troy W 28-10
Minnesota W 34-21
at Wisc. W 20-17
Purdue W 16-3
at Mich St W 45-7
Penn St L 13-6
at NW W 45-10
at Illinois W 30-20
Michigan W 42-7 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
T |
5
highest
1 lowest |
O |
|
5 |
Quarterbacks |
4 |
|
3 |
RBs |
5 |
|
3.5 |
Receivers |
4 |
|
4 |
O
Line |
3 |
|
5 |
D
Line |
3 |
|
4.5 |
Linebackers |
5 |
|
3 |
Secondary |
4 |
|
4.5 |
Spec
Teams |
5 |
|
4.5 |
Coaching |
4.5 |
|
There are a handful of games
that define a college football
season and this bowl, when the
snapshot of the 2008 campaign is
taken, will be one of them
thanks to what happened in the
Rose and Sugar Bowls.
With USC dominating Penn State
in the Rose, all of a sudden the
Trojans became the ones who
should’ve been playing in the
national title game. And then
came Utah’s stunning win over
Alabama to finish unbeaten, and
now there’s talk about the Utes
deserving to finish close to the
top spot. Little of the focus is
around Texas anymore, even
though the Longhorns have as
much right as anyone to be in
Miami on January 8th.
While Texas is playing at one
level, and it has to hold up the
pride of a Big 12 South that’s
had problems so far this
post-season, the Big Ten has had
an abysmal 1-5 bowl season. Now
the league has one final shot to
salvage some semblance of pride
after the Nittany Lions got
ripped up in Pasadena, Wisconsin
failed to show up against
Florida State, Michigan State
got stopped by Georgia,
Northwestern failed to take
advantage of a sluggish
Missouri, and Minnesota wasn’t
up to snuff against Kansas.
For Ohio State, all the goodwill
built up from beating Miami in
the 2002 national title in what
seems like 25 years ago is gone
after losing the last two
national titles and after
getting thumped by USC early
this season. This really is an
elite team with speed,
athleticism, pro talent and lots
and lots of great players and an
overall record over the last ten
years that roughly 110 other
programs would kill for. But the
Buckeyes need to show up against
the Longhorns. They can afford a
loss, but they have to play
really well and they have to
prove to the world they can hang
with an elite of an elite team
on the big stage. Yet another
ugly performance and a blowout
loss would only further deepen
the current anti-Big Ten
sentiment, and rightly so.
Texas has a different issue.
There but for the grace of a few
more votes and a little more
love form the computers and it
would’ve been a Longhorn-Gator
national championship and
Oklahoma would be in its third
straight Fiesta Bowl. While
there might be some moaning from
the USC faithful about the one
loss coming to a decent Oregon
State, and Utah fans arguing
that going unbeaten with wins
over Oregon State, TCU, BYU,
Michigan (in the season opener
before the Wolverines were
supposed to stink), and Alabama
should bring the eventual No. 2
spot in the final rankings home.
Texas can change all of that in
a real hurry.
All the attention and all the
focus can be on the Longhorns
with a dominant win over Ohio
State. Yes, the Buckeyes are
having a hard time getting much
in the way of credibility its
way, but this really is a good
team with plenty of big-time
athletes, NFL starters, and
veterans. A win over Ohio State
really would be impressive, and
a blowout would mean the
Longhorns would be assured of
the No. 2 spot behind Florida if
the Gators win the BCS
Championship Game, and it would
get a few votes for the top
spot.
Almost no one saw this coming.
Texas was supposed to be good,
but the preseason buzz was all
about Missouri, a rising Texas
Tech, Oklahoma, and Kansas, but
Texas turned into one of the
nation’s most complete teams
with a dominant run defense, an
efficient offense, thanks to an
all-timer of a year from Colt
McCoy, and the best special
teams in the Big 12. The
Longhorns made their big
statement with a 45-35 win over
Oklahoma, with a final score
that will forever be etched into
the heads of angry UT fans, and
there were nice wins over
Missouri, Oklahoma State and
Kansas. But there was one big
pass from Graham Harrell to
Michael Crabtree with just a few
ticks left on the clock, and
Texas Tech ended up ruining the
dream season.
While Oklahoma put on an
offensive show over the second
half of the season, impressing
the BCS voters and computers
enough to take the spot in the
Big 12 title game over UT and
Texas Tech, but Texas was every
bit as dominant outside of the
battle with Oklahoma State and
the loss to Texas Tech. However,
because UT wasn’t as flashy, and
because OU blew away Texas Tech,
Mack Brown’s club was left out
in the cold.
Ohio State had high expectations
coming into the year, even if
the public didn’t. When LB James
Laurinaitis and CB Malcolm
Jenkins shockingly chose to come
back for their senior seasons,
all of a sudden the team that
played in two straight national
title games became loaded.
However, the team wasn’t sharp
to start out the year, superstar
RB Beanie Wells hurt his toe,
and the team that was supposed
to be so complete and so good
all of a sudden was in disarray,
as evidenced by a 35-3
embarrassment at USC.
Wells got healthier, star
recruit Terrelle Pryor took over
the quarterbacking reins, and
the team settled down and got
better and better as the year
went on. There was the 13-6 home
loss to Penn State in a war, but
there weren’t any problems with
anyone else over the second half
of the season, even if the only
wins of note came in blowouts of
Michigan State and Northwestern.
With Boise State losing to TCU,
the debate, at least before the
Fiesta Bowl, about who deserved
the 10th spot is
over. Ohio State now has to play
loose and up to its talent level
in one last hurrah for a great
team that’ll be remembered more
for the failures than for all
the wins. Texas has to show why
it was totally and completely
screwed by the system, while
casting a pall over a BCS
Championship Game that will seem
a bit off if the Fiesta Bowl
turns ugly. There will be
storylines a plenty in what was
a good matchup before the bowl
season, and is an even more
fascinating one now.
Players to watch:
Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson,
Roy Williams, Quentin Jammer;
for the most part, Texas
superstars tend to stay for
their senior seasons when they
could easily be off to the pros
and be first round picks as
juniors. Vince Young was one of
the notable exceptions, and
Colt McCoy could have a
tough choice to make in a few
weeks. He has said he’s coming
back for his senior season, but
big bowl performances tend to
change perceptions. Remember,
Young wasn’t really considered a
true top five caliber draft pick
before his magnum opus against
USC, and LSU’s JaMarcus Russell
went from being on the fence to
the No. 1 overall pick after
lighting up Notre Dame.
McCoy finished second in the
Heisman voting behind Oklahoma’s
Sam Bradford, but if there was
an MVP award, it would be next
to impossible to not give it to
him. He led the team in rushing
with 576 yards and 10
touchdowns, completed 78% of his
throws for 3,445 yards and 32
touchdowns with seven
interceptions, and was nearly
flawless from pillar to post.
Even in the lone loss, he had a
Heisman-type drive that seemed
like it was going to cement a
win over Texas Tech.
Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor
is hoping to become the
complete player that McCoy is,
and he’s well on his way. A
part-time performances over the
first few games, he was handed
the keys to the offense after
the loss to USC and he has shown
flashes of greatness. While the
coaching staff hasn’t let Pryor
turn it loose and take many
chances, the results have been
solid, highlighted by a
13-of-19, 144-yard, one
touchdown, one rushing
touchdown, one game-winning
drive performance against
Wisconsin. He’s considered an
even bigger, stronger, faster,
more polished Vince Young, but
he has to prove he can pull off
a huge game like this before he
starts to become the special
player he’s expected to be.
At the beginning of the year,
Ohio State had a balanced
offense that liked to get the
ball deep to Brian Hartline
and Brian Robiskie.
That dried up once Pryor took
over, and it put even more
pressure on RB Beanie Wells
to produce. Wells came back
from his toe problem to finish
with 100-yard or more in six of
the final eight games, with 94
yards against Purdue and 55
against Penn State. Almost
certain to turn pro after this
game, he’s expected to be a top
15 pick, and possible a top five
selection overall, and he could
use one final big push to make a
statement. He was one of the few
bright spots in last year’s
national title loss to LSU,
running for 146 yards on 20
carries.
The star of stars on the great
Texas defense is end Brian
Orakpo, a freak of nature
with superior strength and too
much athleticism for most
college tackles. Forgotten about
in the Texas Tech loss is how
the eventual Lombardi and
Hendricks Award winner got hurt.
He managed to come back two
games later after missing the
date with Baylor, and even with
the time off he came up with
10.5 sacks, 16.5 tackles for
loss, and 38 stops. Considering
the Ohio State pass protection
is iffy at best, job one for
Pryor will be to know where
Orakpo is at all times.
Texas will win if... the
pass rush is working. Forget
about all the talk surrounding
OSU’s idea of playing Todd
Boeckman and Pryor at the
same time. Watch Texas drool if
Boeckman, who was a sitting duck
in the loss to USC, is under
center. The key will be to make
Pryor try to make plays on the
move with his arm and not his
legs. When Pryor has time, he’ll
look deep against a mediocre UT
secondary, but on the move, he
goes big-time conservative and
takes the short to midrange
throws. This is a two-man OSU
offense, and if Orakpo and the
pass rush can force Pryor to
make the big decisions to win
the game, the Longhorns will be
in great shape.
Ohio State will win if...
the offensive line pounds away
on the Texas defensive front.
For all the great things the Big
12 offenses did this year, there
were only a handful of teams
that had an offensive line that
could step up and slug a good
defensive line in the mouth.
Oklahoma was one team with such
a front five, and its running
game was shut down by the
nation’s No. 2 run defense.
Oklahoma State was the other
team that could power it up
front and open holes for its
speed backs, and it had some
success with 217 yards on the
ground including a big day from
Kendall Hunter. After the way
the last few spotlight games
have gone for the Buckeyes,
confidence will be everything.
If OSU gets down 14-0, forget
about it. “Here we go again”
will quickly creep in. But if
the line can come up with a big
first drive, and if Wells and
Pryor are able to get on the
move, Ohio State might realize
just how much talent it really
has and it could take on an
attitude it hasn’t had in a few
years. Don’t discount just how
big a positive mindset will mean
for this team.
What will happen: Ohio
State will represent itself
well. Texas will come out and
score early, but the Buckeye
defense will settle down and
should keep the game from being
a blowout. The problem for the
Buckeyes will be a lack of
diversity. Boeckman, if he
really does play, won’t do much
of anything, and Pryor just
doesn’t have the passing game
yet to make the Texas corners
quake. It’ll be a good game, but
no big statements will be made.
Texas will simply come out and
win with a good all-around
effort.
CFN Prediction:
Texas 26 … Ohio State 17 …
Line: Texas -9.5