Mar 5, 2012
11:53:20am
11:53:20am
bowl game
- Jan 4, 2012 - #7 BYU (11-1) vs #5 OU (11-1) Tempe, AZ ESPN 8pm EST
#1 USC (12-0) and #2 LSU (11-1) will square off for the national championship game in just a few days. The then-ranked #2 Sooners were predicted to fight for a spot in the NC game but dropped their final game of the season @ pesky TCU. Since TCU already had 2 league losses many thought theyd just roll over and die, but by beating OU they finished 3rd in the Big12 behind Texas and OU, who each finished with one league loss, but OU beat Texas and owned the tie-breaker. They did however win the Big-12, again, and are enjoying their 5th BCS bowl in 7 seasons.
BYU on the other hand has been fighting and clawing for this chance for years. While they have been one of the winning-est programs in the country they have not yet had that break-out season where they can get into a BCS game. Since many deem the 1996 BYU team as one of the reasons the whole BCS system was created it is fitting that BYU is again setting the trend for non-AQ schools by being the first one-loss team to get into a BCS bowl.
#3 Bama (11-1) only lost @ #2 LSU and many feared yet another rematch! Behind those top-3 are a lot more one-loss teams: #4 Michigan, #5 OU, #6 Arkansas (10-2), and #7 BYU. Ohio State finished with 2 losses in Meyers 1st season and claims #8, followed by 2-loss Arkansas, Texas, Oregon and then FSU to round-out the top 12. Thankfully for Cougar fans no non-AQ satisfied the auto-AQ bid requirement as CUSA champ Southern Miss finished with 2 losses and #18 and the MWC champ #20 BSU finished with 3 losses (to MSU, SMU and a fatal loss in Laramie to end the season).
The other BCS bowls are as follows: Rose - #11 Oregon (10-2) vs #4 Michigan (11-1); Sugar - #3 Bama (11-1) vs #24 USF (8-4); Orange - #12 FSU (10-2) vs #8 Ohio State (10-2). The Orange Bowl taking OSU was HUGE for BYU. Many speculated they would take 10-2 Texas, leaving the door open for the Fiesta to take OSU. But they did what was best for them and took the Buckeyes. Obviously the Fiesta takes the Big-12 champ and refused to have a re-match, so they were forced with taking a 3-loss #16 Washington team from the Pac-12, 2-loss Texas, 3-loss #15 TCU or a 3-loss #14 Michigan State team that just got blown out by 20 in the B1G championship game. The Fiesta Bowls hands were tied, they almost had to pick #7 BYU because of the uproar that would ensue if they didnt. Sure enough they did and Cougar Nation was shocked that, for once, things seemed to work out in their favor.
Newly sworn in President Romney flies out to AZ for this game with his alma-mater. He does the honorary coin flip and is sporting a sweet BYU leather jacket. BYU wins the toss and elects to defer. The higher-ranked Sooners are in their crimson home uniforms and BYU is sporting the all-whites, chosen by the Seniors.
Q1 The question coming into this game was whether the Sooners, who nearly had an NC bid wrapped up before Gary Patterson had something to say about it, would be motivated to be in just the Fiesta Bowl. Theyve been here a lot over the years and this was not the ending they hand in mind just a few weeks ago. The first quarter proves that OU is having a little bit of a hangover. Landry Jones misreads the BYU D, shuffles out of the pocket and gets nailed by Hadley who was coming strong on the blitz. He fumbles the ball and BYU recovers in OU territory. 3 plays later Riley finds Hoffman on a slant and BYU is up 7-0 after just two and half minutes! Some more sloppy blocking by OU and some super aggressive blitzing by Bronco gives BYU the ball back in decent field position. This time Sorenson misses a 40 yard FG and BYU settles with a 7-0 lead when it feels like it should be more given all that has gone wrong for the Sooners.
Q2 Jones makes one of the prettiest passes weve ever seen and Johnson gets beat bad, long for a 74 yard TD pass to tie things up. This jump starts the Sooners and their D is playing with more frenetical effort now. Riley is struggling against such a quick D. Hes not really able to escape out of the pocket like hes used to and this is frustrating him. After OU adds two more FG (thank you D!) BYU is ready to punt the ball again. Riley Stephenson shanks the snap, picks it up and boots it a total of 17 yards before getting absolutely smashed! It was ruled the OU player never touched the ball (replay confirms he didnt) and BYU gets a free pass! PHEW! Riley comes out and hits Apo and then Thompson for quick gains and then is finally able to scramble for a big 12 yard gain. 1st and 10 from the Sooner 33. Then BYU fans see Taysom Hill line up in the slothmmmRiley runs to his side and pitches it to Hine who reverses it to Hill. Taysom is fast enough to elude one defender, stops on a dime and nails a wide open Apo streaking down the side line! BYU goes up 14-13 at half.
Q3 OU comes out much more prepared for BYUs aggressive blitz and Landry starts taking advantage of it. The Sooners drive deep into BYU territory, but once again, thanks to a tough run D by BYU and an untimely holding penalty on OU, the Sooners are forced to kick another FG. OU leads 16-14. Riley throws an awful pick that leads to a quick OU TD and it appears the Sooners will run away with this one.
Q4 After a great punt return by Falslev BYU finally tacks on a FG to get with a score, 23-16. Sadly, OU quickly adds another TD on a quick, explosive 3-play scoring drive to go ahead 30-16. BYUs running game has struggled so they start running a few options. OU was unprepared for this and when run correctly it is tough to defend. A few runs by Riley and Hine mixed in with a great grab by Hoffman and BYU is back knocking on the door. Riley gets nailed in the pocket but some how keeps from falling down. He drifts to his right and orders players around. Pritchard stops blocking and sneaks out of the backfield unnoticed. Riley nails him at the 5 and Iona will not be denied! TD BYU with 4:02 left. BYUs D forces the Sooners to a somewhat quick 5 and out and gets the ball back with 2:38 left. 1st and 10 from BYUs 38 yard line. Riley runs a QB sneak and gains 5 yards but is forced to come out when his helmet pops off. Doman, anticipating that OU will be expecting a vanilla hand off, fakes the hand off to Quezada and has Hill roll out naked to his left. Both options are covered so Taysom takes off. He jukes the OU LB and then gets pushed out of bounds by the safety at the OU 37, a 20 yard gain! Riley comes back in and nearly ends all hope when he throws an ill-advised pass to Hoffman in a crowd. Somehow the two OU DBs knock the ball out of each others hands and BYU stands to live another day! OU wastes their last time-out challenging the call as the OU DB was adamant he caught the ballhe was very wrong. 2nd and 10, 1:40 left. Alisa comes in and barrels through the OU DL for a gain of 6. On 3rd down Riley just misses Falslev in the slot and BYU is forced to burn their last timeout. 4th and 4 from the OU 31, 1:11 left. BYU goes back to the trips option with Hoffman, Apo and Chambers on one side. Riley hits Apo and Hoffman and Chambers do a number on the OU secondary. They barrel through for a gain of 7 and give BYU a first down on the OU 24, 1:00 left. Riley rushes everyone to the line and nails Falslev for a short gain of 3, he then over throws Mathews in the back of the endzone. 3rd and 7, from the 21, 40 seconds left. This time Riley is pressured but manages to escape behind a great Reynolds block. He dives forward for another first down and they stop to measure just in case. This allows BYU to sub and get the package in they want. 1st and 10 from the 14, 27 seconds left. Riley throws behind Hoffman on another slant and then on second down gets sacked for a loss of 3. No time outs and Riley spikes the ball on 3rd and 13 from the 17 with 5 seconds left. Now its 4th down, game on the line. BYU is praying for another Beck to Harline miracle. Riley gets the ball and like Beck did dances around until someone hopefully gets open. He avoids several OU defenders and actually looks like hes going to try and run it himself. He jabs hard right at the line of scrimmage and seems to be reading someones eyes. Two OU LBs who were spying charge at him. Falslev breaks through the middle right where they left and catches the ball right at the goal line. He falls forward and BYU scores to get within 1 with NO time left!!!! Little did we know but during the measuring time out Riley and coaches decided that when they scored they would go for two and the win. The BYU O stays on the field and OU is very confused and cant call time out because they wasted their last one on the INT replay earlier. Riley hikes the ball and immediately a flag flies because an OU player was off-sides (more like running onto the field), its a free play, Riley makes one jab step like hes going to sneak it in and rolls out trying to beat everyone to the marker. This time he hesitates, gives the same OU LB a basketball-like ball fake like hes going to throw it, this causes the OU player to stand up a little, Riley tucks the ball and sneaks past the pylon! 2-point conversion GOOD! BYU declines the penalty and walks off the 2012 Fiesta Bowl Champions in true Riley fashion, 24-23. Yet another one-point heartbreaking loss for the Sooners at the hands of the Cougars.
#1 USC (12-0) and #2 LSU (11-1) will square off for the national championship game in just a few days. The then-ranked #2 Sooners were predicted to fight for a spot in the NC game but dropped their final game of the season @ pesky TCU. Since TCU already had 2 league losses many thought theyd just roll over and die, but by beating OU they finished 3rd in the Big12 behind Texas and OU, who each finished with one league loss, but OU beat Texas and owned the tie-breaker. They did however win the Big-12, again, and are enjoying their 5th BCS bowl in 7 seasons.
BYU on the other hand has been fighting and clawing for this chance for years. While they have been one of the winning-est programs in the country they have not yet had that break-out season where they can get into a BCS game. Since many deem the 1996 BYU team as one of the reasons the whole BCS system was created it is fitting that BYU is again setting the trend for non-AQ schools by being the first one-loss team to get into a BCS bowl.
#3 Bama (11-1) only lost @ #2 LSU and many feared yet another rematch! Behind those top-3 are a lot more one-loss teams: #4 Michigan, #5 OU, #6 Arkansas (10-2), and #7 BYU. Ohio State finished with 2 losses in Meyers 1st season and claims #8, followed by 2-loss Arkansas, Texas, Oregon and then FSU to round-out the top 12. Thankfully for Cougar fans no non-AQ satisfied the auto-AQ bid requirement as CUSA champ Southern Miss finished with 2 losses and #18 and the MWC champ #20 BSU finished with 3 losses (to MSU, SMU and a fatal loss in Laramie to end the season).
The other BCS bowls are as follows: Rose - #11 Oregon (10-2) vs #4 Michigan (11-1); Sugar - #3 Bama (11-1) vs #24 USF (8-4); Orange - #12 FSU (10-2) vs #8 Ohio State (10-2). The Orange Bowl taking OSU was HUGE for BYU. Many speculated they would take 10-2 Texas, leaving the door open for the Fiesta to take OSU. But they did what was best for them and took the Buckeyes. Obviously the Fiesta takes the Big-12 champ and refused to have a re-match, so they were forced with taking a 3-loss #16 Washington team from the Pac-12, 2-loss Texas, 3-loss #15 TCU or a 3-loss #14 Michigan State team that just got blown out by 20 in the B1G championship game. The Fiesta Bowls hands were tied, they almost had to pick #7 BYU because of the uproar that would ensue if they didnt. Sure enough they did and Cougar Nation was shocked that, for once, things seemed to work out in their favor.
Newly sworn in President Romney flies out to AZ for this game with his alma-mater. He does the honorary coin flip and is sporting a sweet BYU leather jacket. BYU wins the toss and elects to defer. The higher-ranked Sooners are in their crimson home uniforms and BYU is sporting the all-whites, chosen by the Seniors.
Q1 The question coming into this game was whether the Sooners, who nearly had an NC bid wrapped up before Gary Patterson had something to say about it, would be motivated to be in just the Fiesta Bowl. Theyve been here a lot over the years and this was not the ending they hand in mind just a few weeks ago. The first quarter proves that OU is having a little bit of a hangover. Landry Jones misreads the BYU D, shuffles out of the pocket and gets nailed by Hadley who was coming strong on the blitz. He fumbles the ball and BYU recovers in OU territory. 3 plays later Riley finds Hoffman on a slant and BYU is up 7-0 after just two and half minutes! Some more sloppy blocking by OU and some super aggressive blitzing by Bronco gives BYU the ball back in decent field position. This time Sorenson misses a 40 yard FG and BYU settles with a 7-0 lead when it feels like it should be more given all that has gone wrong for the Sooners.
Q2 Jones makes one of the prettiest passes weve ever seen and Johnson gets beat bad, long for a 74 yard TD pass to tie things up. This jump starts the Sooners and their D is playing with more frenetical effort now. Riley is struggling against such a quick D. Hes not really able to escape out of the pocket like hes used to and this is frustrating him. After OU adds two more FG (thank you D!) BYU is ready to punt the ball again. Riley Stephenson shanks the snap, picks it up and boots it a total of 17 yards before getting absolutely smashed! It was ruled the OU player never touched the ball (replay confirms he didnt) and BYU gets a free pass! PHEW! Riley comes out and hits Apo and then Thompson for quick gains and then is finally able to scramble for a big 12 yard gain. 1st and 10 from the Sooner 33. Then BYU fans see Taysom Hill line up in the slothmmmRiley runs to his side and pitches it to Hine who reverses it to Hill. Taysom is fast enough to elude one defender, stops on a dime and nails a wide open Apo streaking down the side line! BYU goes up 14-13 at half.
Q3 OU comes out much more prepared for BYUs aggressive blitz and Landry starts taking advantage of it. The Sooners drive deep into BYU territory, but once again, thanks to a tough run D by BYU and an untimely holding penalty on OU, the Sooners are forced to kick another FG. OU leads 16-14. Riley throws an awful pick that leads to a quick OU TD and it appears the Sooners will run away with this one.
Q4 After a great punt return by Falslev BYU finally tacks on a FG to get with a score, 23-16. Sadly, OU quickly adds another TD on a quick, explosive 3-play scoring drive to go ahead 30-16. BYUs running game has struggled so they start running a few options. OU was unprepared for this and when run correctly it is tough to defend. A few runs by Riley and Hine mixed in with a great grab by Hoffman and BYU is back knocking on the door. Riley gets nailed in the pocket but some how keeps from falling down. He drifts to his right and orders players around. Pritchard stops blocking and sneaks out of the backfield unnoticed. Riley nails him at the 5 and Iona will not be denied! TD BYU with 4:02 left. BYUs D forces the Sooners to a somewhat quick 5 and out and gets the ball back with 2:38 left. 1st and 10 from BYUs 38 yard line. Riley runs a QB sneak and gains 5 yards but is forced to come out when his helmet pops off. Doman, anticipating that OU will be expecting a vanilla hand off, fakes the hand off to Quezada and has Hill roll out naked to his left. Both options are covered so Taysom takes off. He jukes the OU LB and then gets pushed out of bounds by the safety at the OU 37, a 20 yard gain! Riley comes back in and nearly ends all hope when he throws an ill-advised pass to Hoffman in a crowd. Somehow the two OU DBs knock the ball out of each others hands and BYU stands to live another day! OU wastes their last time-out challenging the call as the OU DB was adamant he caught the ballhe was very wrong. 2nd and 10, 1:40 left. Alisa comes in and barrels through the OU DL for a gain of 6. On 3rd down Riley just misses Falslev in the slot and BYU is forced to burn their last timeout. 4th and 4 from the OU 31, 1:11 left. BYU goes back to the trips option with Hoffman, Apo and Chambers on one side. Riley hits Apo and Hoffman and Chambers do a number on the OU secondary. They barrel through for a gain of 7 and give BYU a first down on the OU 24, 1:00 left. Riley rushes everyone to the line and nails Falslev for a short gain of 3, he then over throws Mathews in the back of the endzone. 3rd and 7, from the 21, 40 seconds left. This time Riley is pressured but manages to escape behind a great Reynolds block. He dives forward for another first down and they stop to measure just in case. This allows BYU to sub and get the package in they want. 1st and 10 from the 14, 27 seconds left. Riley throws behind Hoffman on another slant and then on second down gets sacked for a loss of 3. No time outs and Riley spikes the ball on 3rd and 13 from the 17 with 5 seconds left. Now its 4th down, game on the line. BYU is praying for another Beck to Harline miracle. Riley gets the ball and like Beck did dances around until someone hopefully gets open. He avoids several OU defenders and actually looks like hes going to try and run it himself. He jabs hard right at the line of scrimmage and seems to be reading someones eyes. Two OU LBs who were spying charge at him. Falslev breaks through the middle right where they left and catches the ball right at the goal line. He falls forward and BYU scores to get within 1 with NO time left!!!! Little did we know but during the measuring time out Riley and coaches decided that when they scored they would go for two and the win. The BYU O stays on the field and OU is very confused and cant call time out because they wasted their last one on the INT replay earlier. Riley hikes the ball and immediately a flag flies because an OU player was off-sides (more like running onto the field), its a free play, Riley makes one jab step like hes going to sneak it in and rolls out trying to beat everyone to the marker. This time he hesitates, gives the same OU LB a basketball-like ball fake like hes going to throw it, this causes the OU player to stand up a little, Riley tucks the ball and sneaks past the pylon! 2-point conversion GOOD! BYU declines the penalty and walks off the 2012 Fiesta Bowl Champions in true Riley fashion, 24-23. Yet another one-point heartbreaking loss for the Sooners at the hands of the Cougars.
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