Tigers roll in Cotton Bowl
Jan. 3, 2008
DALLAS — Tickets for Tuesday's 72nd Annual AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic sold out faster than any of the 71 previous contests, largely thanks to the match-up of two Heisman Trophy finalists: No. 6 Missouri's junior quarterback, Chase Daniel, and No. 24 Arkansas' junior running back, Darren McFadden. But, just like last year's Sun Bowl, it was MU senior tailback Tony Temple who stole the show.
Barring a medical redshirt for his injury-shortened 2004 season, Temple ended his college career in a tremendous way. He ran 24 times for 281 yards and four touchdowns, breaking the Cotton Bowl record for rush yards set in 1954 by Rice's Dicky Meagle.
On a day where Daniel had just 12 completions for 136 yards, by far his worst numbers of the season, Temple buoyed the Tigers in a 38-7 obliteration of the Razorbacks.
"Tony ran exceptionally well," MU coach Gary Pinkel said. "There were giant holes out there, and he took advantage of them."
Arkansas interim coach Reggie Herring said Temple was "running on air." The Razorbacks (8-5, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) spent much of the game in the same Cover 1 and Dollar defensive packages, lining up as many as seven defensive backs to shut down MU's vaunted pass offense. And to that extent, it worked.
"They put a lot of defensive backs in, more than we had ever seen," Pinkel said. "And they stifled our passing game for sure."
But that left plenty of room for Temple to put Missouri (12-2, 7-2 Big 12) on his back. There were at least four or five carries where Temple ran for more than10 yards before a Razorback defender even touched him.
"My offensive line created huge holes for me," Temple said. "I can't say enough about what they did."
But Temple broke dozens of tackles in the game, including two on his final run, a 40-yard touchdown run that broke the Cotton Bowl record and made him the first MU running back in history to rush for 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons. He said he tweaked his right ankle on the run and was carried off the field; half in celebration, half out of his inability to walk at that given moment.
"Yeah I tweaked it a little," Temple said sheepishly about his ankle. "But to get carried off the field on your last play in college, with thousands of people cheering for you? I can't lie, it's pretty cool."
Temple's 425 rushing yards in his past two bowl games is an all-time record for total rushing yards in consecutive bowl games. His 281 yards is second all-time in a single bowl game, behind Georgia Tech's P.J. Daniels, who ran for 307 in the 2004 Humanitarian Bowl against Fresno State.
The Razorbacks spent much of the week leading up to the game saying how the Tigers were a one-dimensional team that relied solely on tight ends. One of those tight ends, senior Martin Rucker, who had just three catches for 32 yards, said he knew the Razorbacks were in over their heads if they played that way, which they did.
"All week all they talked about was all we have are tight ends and all we can do is pass the ball," he said. "Immediately I knew if that was actually their real plan, there was no way they were going to stop Tony."
On the other side of the ball, the Tigers held McFadden to 105 yards on 21 carries and junior Felix Jones to 45 yards on 10. Herring also lamented his freshman kicker, Alex Tejeda, who missed two field goals in the first half that swung the momentum in MU's favor for the rest of the game. Tejeda also botched a squib kick, hitting the front line of Missouri's kickoff formation and giving the Tigers good field position on the first drive of the second half.
"The kicking game made some mistakes that really hurt us," he said. "He stumbled all day long."
The Razorbacks also lost four fumbles, and even the one time they intercepted Daniel, they couldn't capitalize. Sophomore defensive end Adrian Davis intercepted Daniel in the third quarter, but Daniel dove to tackle Davis and forced a fumble, which MU junior lineman Colin Brown recovered.
Daniel's forced fumble won the praise of junior safety William Moore.
"Chase is a physical cat, man," he said. "He could have just laid down, but he went and got the ball back. Put his helmet on the ball and everything. I'm worried about my job next year," he said with a laugh.
Moore capped off his tremendous season with a forced fumble of his own, stripping junior fullback Peyton Hillis. He also intercepted senior quarterback Casey Dick and ran that back for a touchdown, earning defensive player of the game honors.
"That's not Arkansas football, what you saw today," Herring said of his team. "The way we played today, with the mistakes we made, we couldn't have beaten anybody."
Daniel said he was also happy to shut up the Arkansas players who said the Big 12 was soft compared to the SEC.
"They talked a whole bunch," Daniel said of Arkansas. "All that talk apparently came from them being unprepared or needing to be amped to play us and that showed on the field. It was disrespectful to us, we didn't want to get upset or tell everyone. But we knew about it, and we showed today that the Big 12 has muscle to it also."
Not only did the Tigers win 12 games in a season for the first time in school history, but they also did it in northern Texas, a place that has become a prime recruiting spot for the team.
"This was great advertising for the Missouri program today," senior lineman Lorenzo Williams said. "It shows to recruits here in Texas that they can come in and do something special at this school."
After the disappointment of not being selected to play in the Bowl Championship Series, Rucker said he and his team got excited about the Cotton Bowl, and it showed.
"Not making the BCS hurt for a day or two," he said. "But we wanted to prove to America and the people who kept us out that we deserved to be there. And nothing speaks louder than 38-7."
For Pinkel, it was yet another validation of the how far the program has come since he took over in 2001, when he said high school coaches in St. Louis wouldn't even let him come talk to their players.
"Here we are six years later, with a Cotton Bowl victory and a ranking somewhere in the top ten in the nation," he said. "After all we've been through these past few years, it's all just kind of overwhelming. What a great moment this is for this program."
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