This year’s yet-to-be-completed bowl season has already seen its fair share exciting games. Contests such as the Michigan State/Georgia triple-overtime thriller, Oregon’s track-meet style win over Wisconsin, and Oklahoma State’s comeback win over Stanford top the list as best bowl games of the season, and we haven’t even reached the title match.
With that in mind, below are the best non-title bowl games of the past 15 seasons:
5. 2006 Sugar Bowl: West Virginia 38, Georgia 35—Rich Rodriguez was officially put on the national map after his squad hung on for this win. His Mountaineers, led by a freshman backfield duo of quarterback Pat White (952 yards rushing) and running back Steve Slaton (1,128 yards rushing) jumped out to a 28–0 lead just 16 minutes into the game.
But Georgia had a comeback in them. Behind a couple of long touchdown runs and a pair of D.J. Shockley touchdown throws, the Bulldogs pulled to within 31–28 late in the third quarter. Slaton, though held them off with a 52-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run to push the lead back to 10 points.
After a third Shockley touchdown pass to pull within three points, West Virginia converted a daring fake punt on fourth down to close the door.
4. 2000 Orange Bowl: Michigan 35, Alabama 34—Michigan quarterback Tom Brady and Alabama running back Shaun Alexander both had clutch performances in this battle of top-ten teams.
Alexander scored twice in the second quarter to put the Tide up 14–7 at the half. Alexander would then add another touchdown run in the third quarter, but Brady rallied the Wolverines with two touchdown passes in the third quarter alone to tie the game up at 28.
Brady’s fourth and final touchdown—a 20-yarder to receiver David Terrell—put Michigan ahead in the first overtime. The Crimson Tide responded with a touchdown in the bottom of the first overtime, but incredibly, Alabama kicker Ryan Pflugner’s extra point sailed a few inches wide and the Tide lost by that margin.
Brady finished with 369 yards through the air while Alexander totaled 182 yards from scrimmage.
3. 2009 Fiesta Bowl: Texas 24, Ohio State 21—Colt McCoy put on quite a show in this back-and-forth affair as the Longhorns’ one-dimensional offense needed every one of his 414 passing yards (completing 41 of 59 attempts) to edge the Buckeyes.
The first half scoring consisted of only field goals as Jim Tressell’s squad held a 6–3 advantage to start the third quarter. But McCoy found the end zone twice that quarter, both through the air and on the ground to seemingly put the Longhorns in control with a 17–6 lead heading into the fourth.
Ohio State struck back though, with a pair of touchdowns and another field goal to go up 21–17 with 2:05 remaining—more than enough time for McCoy, who found receiver Quan Cosby in the end zone with 16 seconds left to win the game.
2. 2001 GMAC Bowl...
2. 2001 GMAC Bowl: Marshall 64, East Carolina 61 (2 OT)—Two future NFL quarterbacks in David Garrard and Byron Leftwich starred in one of the longest, highest-scoring bowl games of all time.
Garrard and the ground-heavy offense of East Carolina grabbed a seemingly insurmountable 38–8 halftime lead on the strength of three rushing touchdowns and a pair of defensive scores.
Amazingly, Marshall came right back with a pair of defensive scores and then two more on the ground—all in the third quarter—to pull back to 41–36 entering the fourth. Down 51–45 with a minute left, Leftwich drove Marshall into the end zone again for what appeared to be the game-winning score, but kicker Curtis Head missed the extra point to send the game into overtime. In the second overtime though, Leftwich competed the last of his 70 attempts (for 576 yards), finding Josh Davis for the winning score.
1. 2007 Fiesta Bowl: Boise State 43, Oklahoma 42 (1 OT)—Not many experts knew what to expect when little-known Boise State crashed the BCS party in 2007. Most assumed their 12-0 record entering the contest was a result of a soft-schedule and that they'd struggle against a big-time BCS program like the Sooners.
The Broncos came out poised for an upset though and held leads of 21–10 at the half and 28–17 after three quarters. By the fourth, the Sooners came alive and when Oklahoma quarterback Paul Thompson found Quentin Chaney in the end zone with 1:26 left to tie the game, it seemed like a perfect setting for the Broncos two-minute offense to score.
Instead, Broncos’ quarterback Jared Zabransky was picked off by Marcus Walker who returned it 33 yards for a touchdown to give Oklahoma their first lead of the game with just 62 seconds remaining, sending the Broncos faithful into panic mode.
The ensuing drive found the Broncos’ season on the line, facing a fourth-and-18 from the 50-yard line with seconds remaining. Head coach Chris Peterson called for a hook-and-lateral pass that was executed perfectly as Zabransky found Drisan James at the 35 who immediately pitched the ball to a streaking Jerard Rabb who outran the defense for the daring score to send it to overtime.
After OU’s Adrian Peterson put the Sooners up 42–35 with a 25-yard touchdown run, the Broncos came back again to possibly tie the game on a five-yard touchdown pass. Instead of kicking the extra point though, Boise State went for two on a trick play. Quarterback Jared Zabransky faked a pass to the side and handed the ball off—behind his back—to running back Ian Johnson who ran in for the game-winning score.
