Oh, the numbers. The Alamo Bowl's twitter feed was on fire Thursday night with the records that were being broken And whether you like this kind of football or not, there are some Alamo Bowl records that may stand for a very, very, long time.
One team had 28 first downs and 620 total yards while their quarterback accounted for seven touchdowns and they scored 56 points and.....and.........lost. That would be Washington.
That was because Baylor racked up 777 yards - 482 on the ground - and scored 67 points. And the funny thing was, their Heisman winning quarterback wasn't even the star of the show, although he was phenomenal most of the night. (So good that Mark May and Dr. Lou proclaimed him to be the number one pick in the upcoming NFL draft during the halftime show. Andrew Luck might have something to say about that, but back to the game).
That honor would go to running back Terrance Ganaway who racked up 200 yards on 21 carries and five touchdowns. Baylor had two other players top the 100-yard mark, as well. Wide receiver, Tevin Reese carried the ball on two end-arounds and had 101 yards to go along with second string running back, Jarred Salubi, who also totaled 101 yards.
You can't talk about this game without mentioning the performance of Washington's quarterback, Keith Price, either. The kid is only a sophomore and he capped off a great season with a 438 yard, four touchdown performance while rushing for another three scores. Steve Sarkisian and Washington has a good one on their hands for the next two seasons and the future looks bright, on offense at least.
Baylor and Washington set a new bowl record (any bowl game) with 1397 total yards crushing the mere 1,211 yards Rutgers and Arizona State put up in the 2005 Insight Bowl.
And then there were the defenses who could do nothing about the offensive onslaught. Color commentator, Chris Spielman, a fairly good linebacker in his time, was beside himself in the booth at the lack of defense.
He made the comment several times that he had never seen defense so bad at this level of football and he had a point. There were gaping holes on run plays and wide receivers were running uncovered all over the place. Neither defense was very good during the season, but neither was that bad, either.
As for Griffin, he completed 73% of his passes for a ONLY 295 yards and a touchdown. He also had probably the highlight run of the night on his 24 yard scramble for a touchdown after it looked like he was going to be sacked. It's hard to choose one highlight, however, as there were six touchdowns over 20 yards in the game and a plethora of plays worthy of filling up a top ten highlight reel.
The Heisman winner said after the game his decision to turn pro will probably be made soon leading most to believe his decision has already been made. If he does anything but enter the draft, I'll be floored. Not to say the entire country wouldn't love to see him play another season of college ball, but on an individual level, there's really nothing left for him to do.
Will he be successful in the NFL? I'll say yes without a doubt, but even if not, he's gotten to the point where the college game if far too easy for him and he's more than ready for the next challenge.
As for Baylor, they get their first bowl win since 1992 and cap off a 10 win season. I'm not sure people know exactly what that accomplishment means for a school like Baylor. Coming into this season, Baylor had 18 all-time wins in 15 years of the Big 12's existence and four of those wins came last year when the Bears broke their bowl drought. Ten wins in a season once seemed impossible only three or four years ago and now it's a reality. It's truly remarkable the job Art Briles had done in Waco.
But as Spielman said in during the postgame show, if they want to take the next step and start winning championships, their defense has to be better. No question there, but that sounds like a good post for spring football. For now, Baylor is a bowl champion and a double-digit game winner. Congrats to the Bears.
