2009 AT&T Cotton Bowl
Ole Miss 47 ... Texas Tech 34
GAME RECAP:
The Ole Miss offense shows up the Red Raiders
- 2009 CFN Cotton Bowl
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1. Now that
Oklahoma State and Texas Tech
have lost to Oregon and Ole
Miss, respectively, get ready to
hear that the Big 12 South is a
poser over the next 72 hours.
Texas will have a chance to add
some sanity to the discussion in
Monday’s Fiesta Bowl, but if
they happen to lose to Ohio
State, look out. The anti-Big 12
South rhetoric will reach a
fever pitch, with the underlying
message being that Oklahoma will
get exposed by Florida in Miami.
One thing that’s becoming
obvious is that the conference
as a whole has been soft this
year. Yeah, the offenses are
dynamite, which has been a
factor, but when the league’s
best defense ranks No. 50
nationally, you’re a rich man’s
WAC. The Red Raider D didn’t
just get beaten for 515 yards
and 47 points. It was bullied
for 60 minutes. The Big 12’s
reputation has taken a body blow
in the past few days. It’ll be
up to the ‘Horns and the Sooners
to make things better over the
next week. -
Richard Cirminiello
2.
There's a line from the old HBO
movie, Barbarians at the Gate,
about the takeover bids to
acquire RJR Nabisco, when the
final proposals are submitted:
"Is this the best you can do ...
the very best?"
This was it for Texas Tech. This
was the peak of what a program
in a division with traditional
superpowers like Texas and
Oklahoma can reach. Everyone was
back on defense, ten starters
returned on offense, and the
coaching staff got an upgrade.
And this was it, all getting
blown up by an Ole Miss team
that had time to prepare. The
Tech offense wasn't bad, but it
was hardly the killer it was
expected to be with all the
talent and all the experience it
boasted, and now the question
has to be out there about
whether or not Mike Leach can be
the type of coach who can take a
program to the elite of the
elite level. When is he going to
put together a better team than
this one? Can great defenses
figure out how to slow the
machine down when they get time
to prepare? Remember, Alabama,
and not this year's Alabama,
stopped the Red Raiders cold a
few years ago in the Cotton
Bowl. Virginia and Minnesota had
Tech dead-to-rights the last two
bowl seasons, only to have
Graham Harrell get hot at just
the right time to pull off
extraordinary comeback wins.
Texas isn't going anywhere and
Oklahoma isn't going to get
worse in the near future, but
Harrell and Michael Crabtree
will be off to the next level.
Oh sure, as long as Leach sticks
around, Tech will put up big
offensive numbers, but can the
program ever get any higher than
this? After this performance,
there's still a lot to prove.
Otherwise, just being a very
good, very scary midrange Big 12
program isn't necessarily a bad
thing. -
Pete
Fiutak
3. Baseball is the sport where
something truly remarkable can
happen on any given day, but the
final Cotton Bowl in the Cotton
Bowl stadium offered a fairly
unique football case study.
Consider the powerful pendulum
swings that occurred in this
game, usually on back-to-back
plays, and sometimes on an
individual play.
* In the first quarter, Ole Miss
converted a fourth down with a
fake punt. On the next play, the
Rebels fumbled. Tech used that
momentum swing to score a
touchdown.
* In the second quarter, Tech
converted a fourth down. On the
next play, Red Raider
quarterback Graham Harrell--who
was solid in the short and
intermediate passing game, but
atrocious with his deep
balls--threw an interception
that Ole Miss turned into
points.
* On the final play of the first
half, Harrell's remarkable
44-yard scramble took the two
teams through three distinctly
different stages of emotional
upheaval. When Harrell got to
the 25-yard line, it looked as
though Texas Tech could steal a
late field goal. When Harrell
got to the 10, it looked as
though Tech could steal a
touchdown. When Harrell got
tripped up at the 3 by a
hustling and untiring Ole Miss
secondary, the Red Raiders were
shut out. Tech went from
expecting zero points, to
expecting three points, to
expecting seven, and back to
nothing, all on one play.
* In the fourth quarter, Tech
forced an Ole Miss fumble at its
own 2. On the next play,
Harrell--who had more than
enough time to throw the ball
away--fumbled after taking the
worst of sacks.
Four massive emotion swings took
place in this game. The Rebels
benefited from three of them,
and that's not counting the
devastating one-two punch of a
pick-six and a long kick return
that greatly increased UM's
confidence level in the third
quarter. Tech made a number of
big plays; Ole Miss made even
bigger plays, and more of
them... usually on the back end
of a back-to-back sequence. Ball
game. -
Matthew
Zemek
4) After the kerfuffle
surrounding the three-way tie in
the Big 12 South, many will
claim that this loss makes Texas
Tech a fraud and a phony. Please
don't go there. This was far
more about Ole Miss flexing its
muscles than Tech failing.
Michael Crabtree wasn't very
healthy, and some wild,
emotion-swinging plays cut
against the Red Raiders, such as
a pick-six that took place
because Crabtree slipped on the
Cotton Bowl turf. That stuff
happens. The real revelation
here is that Ole Miss is a
big-time team up and down its
roster. Credit the Rebels for
bringing their A-game and
offering a defensive front that
outplayed Tech's decorated
offensive line. Both teams have
plenty of athletes, but Ole Miss
was--by far--the physically
superior team. What Mike Leach
might want to consider after
losing this non-conference game
is to beef up his
out-of-conference schedule in
future years. Tech scheduled two
FCS opponents and 1-11 SMU to go
along with 7-6 Nevada. Had Tech
been willing to play a big boy
from a power conference in
September, perhaps an SEC school
wouldn't have punched them in
the mouth today.
-
Matthew
Zemek
5. Although he started slowly
and wasn’t perfect, Ole Miss’
blowout of Texas Tech will
officially go down as QB Jevan
Snead’s national coming-out
party with the program. It was
almost poetic that the former
blue-chip recruit from the
University of Texas returned
back to his home state for his
biggest moment, going 18-of-29
for 292 yards, three touchdowns
and a pick. He did a nice job of
bouncing back from that lone
interception, which Darcel
McBath took back for six, making
a statement that he’ll be one of
the nation’s top 10 quarterbacks
of 2009. Snead has a rifle for
an arm, and this first full
season as the starter will
really pay dividends a year from
now. -
Richard Cirminiello