Minnesota Gopher Holiday Bowl Win was a Sockeroo

The Minnesota Golden Gopher football team defeated the Washington State Cougars 17-12 Tuesday in the lowest scoring game in Holiday Bowl history.

Washington State came into the game with the second best passing attack in Division One football.

Highly heralded Cougar quarterback Luke Falk announced Monday he would be coming back for his senior season after some experts projected he would be the fourth quarterback taken in the draft if he declared himself to go that route.

Minnesota was without two starting defensive backs and a backup in the secondary, so you can understand why I walked into Qualcomm Stadium thinking it could be a long day for the Golden Gophers.

I ended up sitting on the Washington State side and boy did I have fun reminding them they were unable to score on a defense with multiple reserves in it's secondary.

My seats were on the 45 yard line and if the people in front of me would have been in their seats it would have been great, but they stood every ticky tock of the clock.  Why do people do that?

The first half was an absolute yawner.  Washington State led 6-3.

On the Cougars opening drive they went right down the field but had to settle for a 26 yard field goal by their kicker Erik Powell with 6:23 to go in the first quarter.

The drive covered 76 yards in 17 plays.  It took 6:33 off the clock.

Minnesota answered with a Emmit Carpenter (Green Bay,Wi. so.) 43 yarder that capped a 6 play 14 yard drive of 2:53.

Senior Gopher quarterback Mitch Leidner (Lakeville, Mn. North) was 2 of 9 at the half for 26 yards.

Yawner.

The halftime show was awesome after the Gopher and Washington State bands performed there was a very nice fireworks display.

I will also note the Minnesota band was excellent and even the Cougar fans around me said they were better than their marching band.

Minnesota scored after an impressive drive the first time they had the ball in the second half.

Shannon Brooks (Atlanta,Ga. so.) caught a tipped 13 yard pass from Leidner to cap off a 10 play 84 yard drive that took 5:22.  There were 3:23 to go in the third quarter.

Washington State couldn't do anything offensively in the third quarter.

With 3:05 to go in the game, Falk was intercepted on fourth down by Adekunle Ayinde (Blaine, Mn. jr.)

He took it to the house but a review,(and there were a lot of those in this game) showed he stepped out of bounds at the Cougar 31 yard line.

That may have been a blessing for Minnesota because while they were on offense Washington State used two timeouts.

With 2:06 to go in the game Rodney Smith (Jonesboro,Ga. so.) vaulted into the end zone after a nine yard run.  The drive was 4 plays 31 yards in :59.  Remember Washington State used two timeouts.

The Cougars would score with :19 to go on an 8 yard pass and fail multiple times to get the two point conversion (thanks to penalties).

Minnesota would recover the onside kick and the Gophers (9 point underdogs) would complete the upset.

The Cougars set a school record during the season for points scored with four games of over 50 points.

Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach said after the game he wasn't sure what the problem was, but he did say his team was playing "frantic."  He added, "We unraveled. We were pouting on the sidelines."

Gopher Head Coach Tracy Claeys said he was proud of the performance of his replacements in the secondary.  "They did a tremendous job.  All of them played their tails off."

Rodney Smith was named the offensive player of the game and sophomore linebacker Blake Cashman (Eden Prairie,Mn.) the defensive MVP.  Smith finished with 17 carries for 74 yards and a score and Cashman had 12 total tackles, 9 solo, 1 sack and 2 tackles for loss.

Minnesota finishes their season 9-4 and Washington State 9-5.

The announced attendance was over 47,000 and the stadium seats 92,182.

I can see why the Chargers want to leave.  Qualcomm Stadium really has no amenities although everyone  was very friendly and the food was pretty good.  A beer however was $13 and it was probably 12 ounces.

Final statistics for the game saw Minnesota with 17 first downs and Washington State 16. The Cougars had 264 yards passing to Minnesota's 129.  The Gophers collected 150 rushing yards and the Cougars 39.

Leidner was 11 of 20 and Falk 30 of 51.

Third down efficiency, Minnesota 3 of 13 and Washington State 7 of 19.

Gordy's stat of the game:  Gophers 6.4 yards per pass and Cougars 5.2.