Cotton Bowl Post-Game Notes
1/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 2, 2008
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- The No. 7 Tiger football team improved to 12-2 on the season and 11-14 in bowl games after shutting down No. 25 Arkansas 38-7 in the 72nd annual AT&T Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.
- With the victory, Missouri has now won three of its last five bowl games.
- Missouri running back Tony Temple was crowned the AT&T Cotton Bowl Most Valuable Player after managing a record-setting day on the field. Tallying 281 rushing yards and four touchdowns, Temple becomes the first Tiger running back to earn the honor of MVP.
- Notching 38 points in the game, Missouri tied its previous bowl best high set twice (vs. South Carolina, 2005 Independence Bowl and vs. Oregon State, 2006 Brut Sun Bowl).Additionally, by holding Arkansas to only seven points, Missouri increased its greatest margin of victory to 31. The previous mark of 25 was set vs. Alabama in the 1968 Gator Bowl.
- Of the numerous records broken on the day, Temple becomes Missouri's newest leader for most points scored in a bowl game at 24, most touchdowns scored, four, most net yards at 281 and most rushing touchdowns, four.
1st Quarter
- Arkansas won the coin toss and chose to receive, driving 48 yards in 13 plays, but the Tiger defense held, forcing a 35-yard FG attempt, which was missed. Mizzou MLB Brock Christopher was big on the drive, as he was credited with five tackles on the series...
- True freshman LB Luke Lambert made his first career start today...
- TE Martin Rucker broke the MU career pass-catching record on a seven-yard reception on Mizzou's second play from scrimmage. The catch gave Rucker 201 career receptions, which moved him into first, past former WR Justin Gage (200 from 1999-2002)...Rucker finished the day with three receptions, bringing his career total to 203.
- The catch by Rucker also tied Gage's single-season receptions record of 82 (2002 by Gage). Rucker later caught an 11-yard pass on MU's second drive that gave him 83 for the season, breaking Gage's previous mark. Rucker finished the day with three receptions and set the new high at 84.
- The Tigers got on the board first as TB Tony Temple scored on a 22-yard TD run with 2:29 left. His run capped a six-play, 73-yard drive that consumed just 1:53 of clock time. The TD run is the third for Temple in bowl games, as he had two rushing scores in the 2006 Brut Sun Bowl against Oregon State (running 20 times for a-then MU bowl-record 194 yards in the game)...
- Temple also opened scoring for the Sun Bowl in 2006, when his seven-yard TD run made it 7-0 MU in the first quarter...
- The Tiger defense again came up with a big stop, as it held onto a fourth-down fake punt attempt with 1:05 left, as DE Stryker Sulak stopped Arkansas' Farod Jackson for a loss of one-yard on a fourth-and-four from the Tiger 35-yardline...
- The quarter ended with MU holding a 7-0 lead...
2nd Quarter
- After the teams traded possessions, the Tigers took a two-TD lead, on Temple's second rushing TD of the day (four yards) at the 4:34 mark. Temple's score capped a six-play, 82-yard drive that took only 2:12...
- Following the drive, Temple had 147 yards rushing on 11 carries...
- The half ended with MU holding a 14-0 lead. That marked the second first-half shutout in MU's last three games, with the score identical to a 14-0 halftime lead Mizzou held over Kansas on Nov. 24th in Kansas City, Mo...
3rd Quarter
- The Tigers took the opening kick and after recovering a squib kick, drove 48 yards in six plays (1:22 TOP) to take a 21-0 lead as Temple got his third TD of the day (four-yards). He tied the Cotton Bowl record for most rushing TDs in a game (the last player to rush for three TDs in a Cotton Bowl was Syracuse great Jim Brown in 1957)...
- Temple got his first three-TD rushing game of his career. Coming into today's game, he had 4 games with two TDs in his career...
- Temple later lost a fumble in the quarter, and that was his first fumble of the 2007 season...
- FS William Moore came up big on consecutive possessions, as he forced a fumble at the MU 37-yardline after a long Arkansas gain, and the ball was recovered by teammate Lorenzo Williams to thwart a Razorback threat. On the very next possession, Moore intercepted a pass and ran untouched 26 yards for a TD to make the score 28-0 with 7:37 left...
- The INT for Moore was the eighth of his season, and that broke the MU single-season record for INTs he held coming into the game with former All-American Roger Wehrli (seven, in 1968)...
4th Quarter
- With 10:25 left in the fourth quarter, Tiger kicker Jeff Wolfert tacked on an additional three points to Missouri's total, managing his 16th straight field goal dating back to the Illinois State game Sept. 22. The kick gave the Tigers a 31-7 advantage. Wolfert becomes the fourth Tiger to score five PAT's in a bowl game, tying Bill Sangster's 1968 mark in the Gator Bowl, Adam Crossett's mark set against South Carolina in the 2005 Independence Bowl and his own mark set last season against Oregon State in the Brut Sun Bowl.
- Tony Temple's 40-yard touchdown with 8:33 remaining in the game set two Cotton Bowl records. Temple became the Cotton Bowl all-time leading rusher with 281 yards on the day, besting the previous high of 265 set in 1954 by Dicky Maegle of Rice. Additionally, Temple now stands at the top of the Most Rushing Touchdowns scored in a Cotton Bowl game, with four. Temple surpasses previous greats Bobby Layne of Texas (1946), Dicky Maegle of Rice (1954) and Jim Brown of Syracuse (1957) who totaled three. For his work, Temple was carried off the field by his teammates.
- Temple also tied the Cotton Bowl record for most touchdowns in a game, at four. Temple's four touchdowns ties Texas' Bobby Layne's record of four set in 1946 vs. Missouri. Additionally, Temple tied Missouri's record for most rushing touchdowns, a mark that was previously set in the 1968 Gator Bowl.
- Temple became the first Mizzou running back with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. Former quarterback Brad Smith had three, 1,000-yard seasons.
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