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Sports

Capital One Bowl Recap

Posted by Steve Jones on 01/04 at 05:14 PM

You can go to Disney World, Universal and Sea world all you want…but the ONLY thing that makes the bowl experience memorable is winning the game.  Penn State will never forget the 2010 Capital One Bowl.

Against a big league team from a major conference Penn State dominated this game except for two series.

The field was a story in itself.  When I walked on it before the game and saw the checkerboard look to it I knew it was gong to be a long day.  When the East-West Shrine game is there in a couple of weeks they will have installed field turf.

Some luck was involved…Penn State fumbled four times and recovered each one.  But…how the Nittany Lions played defense…how they produced in the clutch was not luck.  I always feel the team with the better quarterback and the better defense will win.  Penn State had both.

Darryll Clark had to live under absurd expectations.  Imagine winning a Big Ten title…throwing for 350-yards and four touchdowns in a Big Ten title game where if Michigan State had won they would have been the champs and being told you had never won a big game.  If the Big Ten is what is claims it is…a big time conference with big time teams and big time games then you must have won some big games to get a ring and a trip to Pasadena.

Against LSU Clark made an incredible throw going to his left on the touchdown toss to Derek Moye.  On the game winning drive he made several key throws including a couple to Graham Zug.  Penn State finished the season with eight two-minute drill scores this season.  Very few teams have run the two-minute drill the way Penn State has in the last five seasons.

Collin Wagner, Jeremy Boone and Andrew Pitz deserve a lot of credit.  On a lousy field and in mediocre conditions they were perfect especially when the game was on the line.

11-2 is a great season.  Penn State has won 51 times in the last five seasons including four bowl wins.  Winning ten games is so tough.  Take Pitt for example.  When they beat North Carolina in their bowl game it was their tenth win and it was the first time since 1981 they won ten games in a season.  Penn State has done that three times in the last five seasons.

It is a senior class that leaves among the great ones Penn State has had in its illustrious history.