Penn State, among others, made the Big 10 proud
“The SEC has a lot more speed-type people. They (the Big Ten) have a lot more big guys. We’ve got great receivers and running backs to try to take advantage of something Penn State doesn’t have.” LSU QB Jordan Jefferson prior to PSU’s speed and defense dominating the game.
As the bowl season is coming to an end, the most impressive and improved performance by any conference as a whole was the Big 10. As of late, the conference was ridiculed and dismissed as slow, slower, and slowest. This season, however, the big boys out of the conference disproved all the critics in somewhat tenacious fashion.
We first pay homage to Penn State. The Nittany Lions slogged to a 19-17 victory over LSU in the 64th Capital One [Mud] Bowl. The 24th bowl win for legendary coach Joe Paterno was just as exciting as his first. In the first half alone, the old ball coach’s defense stuffed the high powered Tiger’s offense to -2 yards rushing on 12 carries and just 69 yards in passing. Though LSU finally took a slim lead late in the game, 17-16, Darryl Clark took charge and lead his team down to the LSU 4 where Collin Wagner booted the game winning filed goal with just :57 seconds remaining.
On the west coast, we saw MVP Terrelle Pryor continue to grow-up right before our very own eyes as the Ohio State sophomore lead the Buckeyes to a 26-17 win over the Oregon Ducks. Pryor had a solid Rose Bowl performance throwing for 266 yards with 2TDs and 1 INT. He also showed off his legs rushing for 20 times grinding out 72 yards.
Finally, last night Iowa stuck a fork in the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets‘ vaunted rushing attack. Prior to the game, the Yellow Jackets averaged a dominating 307.2 rushing yards per game. However, the average proved to be extremely misleading as the Yellow Jackets earned much of their success playing weaker ACC defenses. When the team matched up against the SEC’s Bulldogs, the rushing yards dropped to 205. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes are accustomed to facing run oriented offenses in the Big 10 and it showed last night. The Hawkeyes completely crippled Georgia Tech’s legs and surprisingly held the team to 0 yards passing in the first half. Congratulations to Stanzi and company for winning big, 24-14, in South Florida.
The Matador recognizes that the Big 10 did not go undefeated in bowl play, but you must still tip your hat to Wisconsin beating Miami and a short-handed Michigan State team giving Texas Tech all they could handle and to both Minnesota and Northwestern for taking their games the distance.
For all you skeptics, the Big 10 is only getting stronger.
