Bowl roundup: Cowboys capture Alamo
Justin Blackmon caught two touchdown passes, including a 71-yard strike, and No. 16 Oklahoma State finished its first 11-win season with a 36-10 victory over Arizona in the Alamo Bowl on Wednesday night in San Antonio.
Blackmon, the Biletnikoff Award winner as the nation’s top receiver, set an NCAA record with his 12th consecutive game with at least 100 yards receiving and a touchdown.
The sophomore caught nine passes for 117 yards in perhaps his last college game. He is already projected as a high NFL draft pick,
Brandon Weeden was 25 of 41 for 244 yards for Oklahoma State (11-2). It was the final game plan for Cowboys offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, who is leaving to become the coach-in-waiting at West Virginia.
Arizona (7-6) ended the year with five straight losses.
Illinois 38, Baylor 14
Mikel Leshoure ran for 184 yards and three touchdowns as the Illini (7-6) earned their first bowl victory since 1999, beating the Bears (7-6) in the Texas Bowl in Houston.
The Illini spoiled the Bears’ first bowl appearance in 16 seasons.
Leshoure had a 5-yard TD run in the second quarter, a 13-yard score in the third quarter and another 5-yard touchdown run in the fourth period. The performance gave him the school single-season rushing record with 1,697 yards.
The Illini built a 24-0 lead and Leshoure’s last touchdown put the game out of reach after Baylor cut the lead to 24-14 early in the fourth quarter.
Maryland 51, E. Carolina 20
Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen is heading into unemployment as a winner.
Already the Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year, already the engineer of the second-biggest regular season turnaround in the country, Friedgen ended his 10-year run at his alma mater with a victory over the Pirates (6-7) in the Military Bowl at Washington.
The Terrapins (9-4) forced four turnovers, and Da’Rel Scott ran for 200 yards.
New Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson announced last week that Friedgen was being fired, effective after the bowl game, with the school buying out the final year of the 63-year-old coach’s contract for $2 million.
Friedgen’s last act was the second-biggest margin of victory in Maryland bowl history as well as the most points the school has scored in a bowl. Friedgen went 5-2 in bowl games at the school.
Scott had second-half touchdown runs of 61 and 91 yards on back-to-back Terrapins offensive plays and posted the school’s first 200-yard rushing game since 2003. D.J. Adams had four short touchdown runs for the Terrapins, who finished 9-4 to give Friedgen a 75-50 mark in his decade at Maryland.