The climb to success has been dramatic for the Florida International Golden Panthers - from snapping a 23-game losing streak 3 years ago to a last-play 34-32 upset victory over the Toledo Rockets in the 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
Four other major college teams also won bowl games recently - Air Force, Louisville, San Diego State and Boise State - but none held the excitement of the Golden Panthers, who were down by 14 and then 17 points before launching two wild comebacks.
Florida International was down 24-7 in the 3rd quarter before scoring 24 unanswered points to go up 31-24 with 3:18 remaining in the game. The 4 scores were jump-started by T. Y. Hilton's 89-yard kickoff return touchdown run.
Toledo quarterback Terrance Owens, who had thrown 3 interceptions in the 2nd half, settled down to lead the Rockets on a 62-yard drive that culminated with Owens scampering 14 yards to make the score 31-30.
With 1.14 remaining, Toledo coach Tim Beckman went for a 2-point conversion and got it on an Owens-to-Eric Page pass, giving the Rockets a 32-31 lead and the apparent victory. Toledo then tried a squib kick to prevent T. Y. Hilton from returning the kickoff, but the Panthers took possession.
When it looked like all was lost, Florida International coach Mario Cristobal had one trick play left, a hook-and-ladder. Jacob Young hauled in a pass near midfield and flipped the ball to the trailing Hilton, who took off on a mad dash down the sideline toward the first down marker. In a disputed call, Hilton reached the marker before going out of bounds, giving FIU (Florida International University) an improbable conversion on a 4th-and-17 play.
Moments later, Jack Griffin' 34-yard field goal on the last play lifted the delirious Panthers to a 34-32 victory, the school's first-ever bowl appearance and bowl victory.
Earlier this year, Panther running back Kendall Berry was stabbed to death on campus, yet his teammates fought through the tragedy and never lost faith.
"It means so much to me and my class," said junior Darriet Perry. "I believed in coach when he told we'd go to a bowl (game) and here it is. There were a lot of hard times, a lot of ups and downs, we lost a teammate. Everybody came in and stuck it out."
The win gave the Sun Belt Conference bragging rights over the Mid-American Conference. The leagues are matched up in three bowls this season, but the Sun Belt has already won the first two as Troy won earlier, giving the Sun Belt a perfect 2-0 record against the Mid-American teams. The last game pits the Sun Belt's Middle Tennessee against the Mid-American's Miami of Ohio team in the Godaddy.com Bowl.
If Florida International's win was the best of the 5 bowl victories, Georgia Tech's was the worst performance. The Yellow Jackets fumbled 4 times and lost 3 of them, the most critical coming on a muffed punt in the 2nd half that resulted in Air Force scoring its only touchdown and adding a 2-point conversion run to go up 14-7 and win the Independence Bowl.
The win was pretty heady for Air Force since the Falcons play in the mid-major Mountain West Conference and Georgia Tech is in the major Atlantic Coast Conference. The contest pitted the nation's top two rushing teams.
Georgia Tech's Yellow Jackets, who finished their year at 6-7, dropped their 6th consecutive bowl game and posted their first losing season in 14 years.
When teams lose, the excuses follow. Georgia Tech's QB Joshua Nesbitt missed the game with a broken right arm, and top receiver Stephen Hill and starting safety Mario Edwards were among 4 players declared ineligible because of various academic issues.
Air Force was 9-4 on the year.
Charlie Strong made good on his pledge to bring the Louisville Cardinals program back to life after taking over a team that was 4-8 last year and had lost 6 of 7 games in the Big East Conference. Strong was the former defensive coordinator at Florida under Urban Meyer.
Louisville's Justin Burke threw for 2 touchdowns and Jeremy Wright scored on a 95-yard kickoff return to help the Cardinals nip Southern Mississippi, 31-28, in the Beef 'O' Brady Bowl. The win gave Louisville (7-6) its first winning record in 4 years.
The Cardinals overcame a 14-point deficit to win on Chris Philpott's 36-yard field goal with 6:30 remaining, giving Louisville its first lead of the game. Wright's dramatic TD return tied the score at 28-all. The Southern Miss Golden Eagles ended their year at 8-5.
Torrential rains had dumped more than 1.5 million gallons of water at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium for the Poinsettia Bowl, but workers pumped out the water and Ronnie Hillman did the rest.
The San Diego State freshman sensation never missed a step, rushing for 228 yards on 28 carries (8+ ypc) and scoring 4 touchdowns to lead the Aztecs over Navy, 35-14. Hillman scored on runs of 37, 22 and 1 yard and on a 15-yard pass. It was the 6th time this year that Hillman had gained at least 150 yards rushing in a game.
Hillman's 228 yards broke the school record of 164 yards by Marshall Faulk (as in NFL great) in the 1991 Freedom Bowl. Hillman was also the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year. San Diego State finished the year at 9-4; Navy was 9-4.
Boise State's players moused around for awhile before finally figuring out that they were in a bowl game, and then the 10th-ranked Broncos put away 20th-ranked Utah 26-3 in the MAACO Bowl.
Boise State had been flying high at 10-0 before running into Nevada (only the 2nd real competitor they played all year) and coming up on the short end of a 34-31 overtime win by the Wolf Pack.
Against Utah, the Broncos fumbled 3 times and then finally Doug Martin cut loose on an 84-yard touchdown run midway through the 2nd quarter, and the game was suddenly over. The Broncos finished the season at 12-1; Utah (vastly overrated all year) was 10-3.
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