- New Years Day is typically the biggest day in the college bowl season and this season was no different. Here's a quick recap:
• Northwestern won their first bowl game since 1949, completing a 10-3 season by defeating Mississippi State 34-20.
• Oklahoma State showed shadows of last season's near-championship contending squad by obliterating Purdue 58-14.
• South Carolina alternated between two quarterbacks and rallied to beat Michigan 33-28, tying their school record for wins with 11.
• Georgia stuck with one QB, record holding Andy Murray who added to his already impressive career totals by throwing another 5 TD's in a 45-31 win over Nebraska.
• Florida State used two late scores to put away pesky Northern Illinois 31-10. Northern Illinois was the first smaller (non-major BCS conference) school to make a BCS game despite losing a game during the regular season (they were 11-1). Despite the final score, they hung around and were only down 17-10 and driving when an interception turned the tide of the game.
• In possibly the most well known annual bowl game, the Stanford Cardinal defeated the Wisconsin Badgers 20-14; Stanford's first Rose Bowl triumph in 40 years.
• (Tuesday Night Bonus) Clemson defeated LSU 25-24 on a last-second field goal in what was possibly the most exciting bowl game of the year so far.
Black Monday’s Far Reaching Effects
- The first Monday of the NFL offseason for 24 of the league’s 32 teams saw multiple firings that effected the Head Coach, General Manager or both, of 10 teams.
- The Chicago Bears (Lovie Smith), Buffalo Bills (Chan Gailey), Kansas City Chiefs (Romeo Crennel), and Philadelphia Eagles (Andy Reid) all fired their head coaches. The Jacksonville Jaguars (Gene Smith) and New York Jets (Mike Tannenbaum) fired only their general managers. Finally, the San Diego Chargers (Norv Turner and AJ Smith), Arizona Cardinals (Ken Whisenhunt and Rod Graves) and Cleveland Browns (Pat Shurmer and Tom Heckert Jr) fired their coach and general managers. There is possibly more fallout to come as the Chiefs are also reviewing their GM position and other teams may not have their trigger fingers so well prepared. Earlier in the season the Carolina Panthers fired their GM (Marty Hurney).
- Some of the dust has already began to settle as it looks almost certain that Andy Reid will land on his feet in Arizona. Some of the other names that are likely to be bandied about over the next few days are: former coach and current Monday Night Football Analyst Jon Gruden, recently fired Ken Wisenhunt, former Super Bowl winner Bill Cowher, current college coaches Doug Marrone, Bill O’Brien and Chip Kelly, and current NFL assistant coaches Bruce Arians, Jay Gruden and Mike McCoy
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