(Picture from gopsusports.com)
The Big Ten rang in the New Year with a bang, showing that they can hang with and beat teams in "greater" conferences. In the Outback Bowl this morning, Northwestern held their own against a "better" Auburn team. Quarterback Mike Kafka set an all-time bowl record by completing 47 passes on 78 attempts. He also set two Outback Bowl records with 532 yards passing, and an abysmal five interceptions (two of which came in the endzone). Going into halftime Auburn lead 21-7, and looked to be dominating the game. But fueled by their high-octane coach Pat Fitzgerald, the Wildcats, came back in the second half behind their quarterback. In the last five minutes, Northwestern put two touchdowns on the board and a two point conversion to tie the game. With 1:15 left on the clock, Auburn fumbled on the kick off return, giving the ball to Northwestern with tremendous field position. With three seconds remaining in regulation, Northwestern kicker Stefan Demos hooked a 44-yard field goal attempt, which would have locked up the first bowl win for Northwestern in the past 60 years.
In overtime, the 'Cats won the toss and played great defense which forced Auburn to kick the field goal. Kafka came back out with all the momentum on their side. After a few plays that went nowhere, Kafka was sacked for a ten yard loss, and officials ruled that he fumbled the football, which would have ended the game (causing celebration number one for Auburn). After review, they concluded that Kafka's knee was down on the play. After failed attempts to the endzone, Demos game back out to tie the game and redeem himself for his missed kick in regulation. The ball hit off the upright (cue Auburn's second celebration). This time Auburn was penalized for roughing the kicker that unfortunately left Demos limping off the field. The Wildcats could not punch it in after first and goal, and faced another fourth down. Instead of kicking the field goal with their back-up kicker, Fitzgerald opted for a trick play. Northwestern lined up in field goal formation, and on the snap, holder Zeke Markshausen ran the ball to the right and was forced out of bounds at the 2-yard line, ending this exciting game with a final score of 38-35. Northwestern held their own, and honestly should have won this game a couple of times. I still don't quite understand why you have a back up kicker if you, as a coach, can't trust him to hit a chip shot?
In the Capital One Bowl, #13 Penn State came out to play #12 LSU in a wet and muddy matchup. Penn State bolted out to a quick 13-3 lead at halftime, but LSU made some good adjustments coming out of the locker rooms by only giving up six points on two field goals to Joe Pa's Lions in the second half. In the final minutes of the game, Penn State was down by two, and in great fashion, senior quarterback Daryll Clark led the Lions down field on a 12-play drive that would end up sealing the game. With 57 seconds left in the quarter, Penn State kicker Collin Wagner hit a 21-yard field goal giving the Nittany Lions a 19-17 lead. LSU tried to get down field quick, and looked to be doing so, but an unnecessary roughness call ultimately slammed the door on the Tiger come back. Coach Paterno landed his 24th bowl win all the while giving Les Miles his first loss in the five bowls at LSU.
The Big Ten is 2-2 so far this Bowl season with Ohio State (who currently is up 7-0 in the Grand Daddy of them all), Michigan State, and Iowa left to play in their games. The Big Ten needs to win these games to get the credit they have been looking for. If Ohio State, and Iowa can win their Bowl games, it could be a fresh new start (and look) for the Big Ten in the New Year.
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