College football

Holiday Bowl: Cal pays for Holiday snooze

By wire services
Published December 31, 2004

SAN DIEGO - Maybe Mack Brown isn't such a villain, after all.

If No. 4 California was angry and frustrated after being snubbed by the BCS and denied a Rose Bowl berth, it had to have been flat out humiliated after No. 23 Texas Tech pulled a 45-31 upset in the Holiday Bowl on Thursday night.

The Golden Bears (10-2), who were 111/2-point favorites, simply had no answer against the Red Raiders (8-4) and their efficient spread offense, which uses four wide receivers most of the time.

Tech senior Sonny Cumbie threw for a career-high 520 yards and three touchdowns, including a 60-yarder to Joel Filani, and safety Vincent Meeks set up a score with a 48-yard interception return.

Cumbie was 39-of-60 and broke the Holiday Bowl attempts record of 59 set by BYU's Ty Detmer in 1989. He was short of Detmer's Holiday Bowl record of 576 yards, also set in 1989.

Cal had been in position to go to the Rose Bowl for the first time in 46 seasons, but was leapfrogged in the final Bowl Championship Series standings by Brown's Texas Longhorns, who ended up in Pasadena to face Michigan on Saturday.

The day the BCS pairings were released, Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers said Brown "was a little classless" for begging for poll votes to help his Longhorns, and that the system was "faulty."

The Longhorns, by the way, beat Texas Tech 51-21 at Lubbock on Oct. 23.

Texas Tech fans mocked Cal with chants of "Overrated!" in the closing minutes.

Cal's J.J. Arrington became just the third running back in Pac-10 history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. The senior from Nashville, N.C., carried 25 times for 173 yards, for 2,018 yards.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Headed off the field on a stretcher with a broken leg, Paul Peterson heard the roar of the crowd and knew his teammates were about to score.

He glanced up at the scoreboard just in time to see kicker Ryan Ohliger take a fake field goal into the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown run that sealed Boston College's 37-24 victory over North Carolina in the Continental Tire Bowl.

Pumping his fists in celebration, the touchdown temporarily eased the pain for Peterson, the Eagles' hard-luck quarterback.

"I saw it on the screen when they were wheeling me off and I was so pumped," Peterson said. "I'd be pretty ticked off I went out in the first quarter, but I made it to the fourth and we got the win. It's just awesome."

The 25th-ranked Eagles (9-3) never wanted to be in this game, only needing a victory over Syracuse in the regular-season finale to secure their first outright Big East championship and earn a BCS berth.

But Peterson missed that game with a broken hand, and Syracuse beat the Eagles to send them to Charlotte.

So when he broke his left leg in the fourth quarter, coach Tom O'Brien huddled the team at midfield and delivered a passionate speech for his quarterback.

"Paul is the heart and soul of this team, and everyone went back to the huddle and coach O'Brien said, "We're not going to lose. We're going to put it in the end zone for Paul,' " said holder Matt Ryan, who handed the fake to Ohliger.

Ryan then replaced Peterson at quarterback.

Clinging to a 27-24 lead over North Carolina (6-6) in the fourth quarter, Peterson was injured as he tried to run outside for a first down on third-and-1 and was brought down awkwardly by Tommy Davis.

SAN FRANCISCO - Aaron Polanco noticed New Mexico's defense overloading the outside snap after snap, so Navy's quarterback kept the ball and ran all day.

In his final game, Polanco embarrassed the nation's eighth-best rush defense.

He ran for three touchdowns and passed for another, and Navy capped the academy's best season in 99 years with a 34-19 win over New Mexico in the Emerald Bowl.

Polanco did just about everything else, too.

"I guess that's the way it worked out for me," he said. "The line played their hearts out."

Polanco scored on runs of 14, 1 and 27 yards and completed a 61-yard touchdown pass to Corey Dryden, the longest of the season by Polanco and the first career score by Dryden. The Midshipmen didn't have a turnover, and their defense was also impressive, despite the rain-soaked field at SBC Park.

The unit forced two first-half turnovers that led to TDs and staged a goal-line stand late in the third quarter. Then Navy kept the ball for the next 14 minutes, 26 seconds, and held New Mexico to only six plays in the fourth quarter.

The Midshipmen (10-2) tied for the most wins in school history, last accomplished when Navy went 10-1-1 in 1905. It was a fitting end for the Mids, some of whom will head off to war in the coming year. Less than two months ago, Navy's players dealt with the death of former teammate JP Blecksmith in a military operation in Fallujah, Iraq.

[Last modified December 31, 2004, 00:33:04]