Tag Archives: Ryan Broyles

>Fiesta Bowl

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>Oklahoma vs. Connecticut

  
   The Huskies could not have gotten a bigger challenge for their first appearance on college football’s biggest stage than facing the powerful Sooners on Saturday night at Glendale, Ariz.

   Connecticut’s path to Arizona began in 1997, when the school voted to accept the invite from the Big East Conference and upgrade from a I-AA program.

   The 25th-ranked Huskies (8-4) then joined the Big East for the 2004 season — one year early — after the Atlantic Coast Conference poached Miami and Virginia Tech in 2003. They earned their first bowl appearance that year, and the Fiesta Bowl will be their fourth consecutive postseason game.

   Oklahoma (11-2) is making its 12th bowl appearance in as many seasons under coach Bob Stoops and 44th overall. Its 25 victories are tied for fifth all-time, and the eighth BCS bowl appearance trails only Ohio State’s nine.  Unfiortunately, they have lost five consecutive BCS games — two for the national championship — since winning the 2003 Rose Bowl. Two other defeats, the 2007 and 2008 Fiesta Bowls, came when the Sooners were heavy favorites before losing to Boise State and West Virginia, respectively.

   If the Huskies have any hope in winning, their fate will ride on the legs of two-time 1,000-yard rusher Jordan Todman. The tailback had 1,574 yards and 14 TDs to earn Big East offensive player of the year honors and is second in the nation at 143.1 yards per game.

    With the Sooners likely to stack the box in an attempt to slow Todman, there will be pressure on Zach Frazer to keep Oklahoma’s defense honest. The senior, though, topped 200 yards just once this season and completed only 52.7 percent of his 222 passes for 1,202 yards and five TDs.

   The Sooners are fourth among FBS teams in passing at 336.8 yards per game, 13th in total offense (478.1 ypg) and 17th in scoring (36.4 points per game).

   Landry Jones threw for 4,289 yards and 35 touchdowns, with receiver Ryan Broyles posting his second straight 1,000-yard season. He finished with career highs of 118 receptions and 1,452 yards to go with 13 touchdowns and is Oklahoma’s all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards and receiving TDs.

   Five players had at least 26 receptions for the Sooners, and running back DeMarco Murray is one of them. He had 1,121 rushing yards and 14 TDs to go with 69 receptions, 595 yards and five receiving scores.

 Prediction:  As much as I would love to see the Huskies pull the upset, I really don’t see them having the horses to do so.  Oklahoma 31-10

>Weekend Observations

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  • Northwestern continues to be Iowa’s kryptonite, winning five of the last six meetings.  Unfortunately, the Wildcats lost QB Dan Persa for the season after he threw the game winning pass.  He ruptured his Achilles and is out for the season.  
  • Wisconsin scored 11 touchdowns against Indiana, the most in Wisconsin history and the second-most by a Big Ten team since World War II.   The Badgers rolled up 83 points, the most Wisconsin has scored in a Big Ten game and tied for the third-most points scored in a Big Ten game. It was the most points scored by any team in a Big Ten game since Ohio State scored 83 against Iowa in 1950.
  • Cameron Gordon’s 58-yd fumble return was the first defensive TD of the season for Michigan, whose defense ranked 114th (out of 120 teams) in yardage entering the game. Ryan Kerrigan set Big Ten and school records for career fumbles forced, with 14.
  • The win against Ole Miss snapped Tennessee’s six-game losing streak against SEC West opponents.  The Vols have never gone a season without an SEC win and have won at least three conference games every season since 1977.
  • Wake Forest (2-8, 1-6) lost its eighth straight game, its longest slide since dropping its last 10 in 1978.
  • Army became bowl eligible for the first time in 14 years. The Black Knights (6-4) continued their best season since going 10-2 in 1996 — they were 35-115 over the next 13 years. All three service academies have winning records now, and only twice since 1960 have all three finished above .500: in 1963, Army was 7-3, Air Force 7-4 and Navy 9-2, and in 1996 it was Army at 10-2, Navy at 9-3 and Air Force at 6-5.
  •  The Orange finished the regular season 4-0 on the road in Big East play and are bowl-eligible for the first time since 2004. And with a road win at Akron, Syracuse has five true road wins in a season for the first time since 1992.  At 7-3 (with two regular-season home games left and a possible bowl game), the Orange are guaranteed to have their first winning season since 2001, when they finished 10-3.  Doug Marrone now has more wins in less than two seasons at Syracuse (11) than Greg Robinson had in four seasons (10).
  • Ryan Broyles caught three TDs and now has 32 TD receptions in his career, most in school history.  
  • Washington State snapped a 16-game conference losing streak with a 31-14 win over Oregon State.It was the Cougars’ first Pac-10 win since a 16-13 overtime victory against Washington in the 2008 Apple Cup. 
  • South Carolina won for the second time in 19 tries against Florida, snapped an 0-for-12 streak in Gainesville and earned a spot in the league title game for the first time since joining the SEC in 1992. The Gators lost to a division opponent for the first time in 17 games, dropped their third consecutive home game and proved they didn’t deserve to play for a championship. It’s the program’s first three-game losing streak at home since 1989. Marcus Lattimore had the ninth 200-yd rushing game in South Carolina history; 1st since 2000 and 1st in SEC play.
  • Oklahoma State ended a 12-year losing streak to Texas with a 33-16 victory Saturday night. Oklahoma State won four straight road games for the first time since 1985. The Longhorns lost for the fourth time at home this year to equal the total amount of home losses for Texas since 2000. Texas lost four straight home games in the same season for the first time since 1956. Texas needs to win each of its final two games to become bowl eligible. It has not missed a bowl since 1997 and if they don’t make a bowl, it will be the first time in the BCS era that a team playing in the title game doesn’t make a bowl the following season.