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Three SEC Teams - Georgia, South Carolina And Tennessee - All Lose 2010 Bowl Games

By Ed Bagley

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 03May2011 Word count: 888 Viewed: 112 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Three SEC teams - Alabama, Mississippi State and Florida - all won big on New Year's Day, but three other SEC teams - Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee - suffered embarrassing losses in college football bowl action this year, none worse than Georgia's Bulldogs.

Mark Richt, who had done such a good job building up Georgia's football fortunes early on, has now ended his second consecutive season in danger of losing his job as head coach.

After winning his last four bowl games, Richt and his Bulldogs lost 10-6 to the Central Florida Knights in the Liberty Bowl, leaving the Bulldogs (6-7) with their first losing season since 1996, 14 years ago.

To say the victory by Central Florida was sweet would be the understatement of the bowl season. The Knights, who finished at 11-3, had never won 10 games in a season, and beating Georgia gave the Knights their first ever bowl victory in four tries. The win was just the frosting on the cake for Central Florida, as the Knights won the Conference USA championship.

And the coach at Central Florida? None other than George O'Leary. Dave Huxtable is O'Leary's defensive coordinator, and Charlie Taaffe is his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

O'Leary, who coached the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for 8 years, has now completed his 7th and most successful year at Central Florida. The Knight defense really won this game, but could not have done so without Latavius Murray's 10-yard scoring run in the last quarter. Murray gained 104 yards on 18 carries (5.78 yards per carry).

Steve Spurrier's South Carolina team reminded some Gamecock fans of that old expression . . . "if I had no bad luck, I've have no luck at all". Marcus Lattimore, South Carolina's star freshman running back, was knocked out of the game with a cut mouth and a slight concussion on the Gamecocks first series. Without his presence, South Carolina's offense really suffers.

To add insult to injury, Gamecock quarterback Stephen Garcia was intercepted 3 times, and they fumbled twice and lost both fumbles. When you commit 5 turnovers and lose your key running back at the start of the game, you are in serious trouble, and South Carolina was.

Carolina's misfortune allowed the Florida State Seminoles to win the Chick-fil-A Bowl 26-17.

Florida State suffered some losses too. Starting QB Christian Ponder, a senior, exited the game in the 2nd quarter with a concussion, but the Seminoles had a better answer to their misfortune - a backup named EJ Manual.

Manual, now a sophomore, was the Most Valuable Player in Florida State's 33-21 Gator Bowl win over West Virginia last year. He had lost his job to Ponder, but was quite ready to carry on. Manual's last quarter 7-yard scoring pass to Taiwan Easterling slowed down the Gamecocks enough to preserve the victory.

Manual was 11-for-15 for 84 yards and no interceptions. He also ran 7 times for 46 yards (6.57 ypc).

Florida State cornerback Greg Reid, whose hits caused two fumbles, also deflected a 4th-down pass with 3:23 remaining to end the Gamecocks' last hope. It was Reid's hit on Marcus Lattimore that knocked him out of the game.

South Carolina, which hoped to win 10 games this year, finished at 9-5. Jimbo Fisher and his 23rd-ranked Florida State Seminoles finished at 10-4, reaching 10 victories for the first time since 2003.

Butch Davis and his North Carolina Tar Heels needed a double-overtime at the Music City Bowl to nip the Tennessee Volunteers, 30-27, in a game that just might have had the most dramatic ending this bowl season.

Tennessee players and fans were celebrating on the field after what appeared to be a 20-17 victory when officials reviewed the last play and decided that there was 1 second left when North Carolina QB T. J. Yates spiked the ball to stop the clock.

That allowed Casey Barth to kick a 39-yard field goal that tied it up at 20-all and sent the game into the first overtime. Both teams scored a TD in the first overtime, and North Carolina's Barth kicked a 23-yard field goal to put the Tar Heels ahead, 30-27.

Vol QB Tyler Bray, who threw a 25-yard TD strike in the first OT, was picked off this time by Quan Sturdivant to secure the NC win. Tennessee would end the year at 6-7; North Carolina at 8-5.

It has been a very, very long year for Butch Davis. His Tar Heels have been dogged all year by an NCAA investigation into agent-related benefits for players and academic misconduct that eventually forced 14 Tar Heel players to miss at least one game, and 7 players to miss the entire season.

That said, North Carolina earned the victory fair and square by hanging tough in tough times, intercepting Tyler Bray 3 times, and getting 4 sacks. The Tar Heels also held Tennessee to 27 yards on 29 rushing attempts (a negative ypc), and outgained them on offense, 385 yards to 339 total yards.

On the bright side for the SEC, 15th-ranked Alabama unloaded a 49-7 beat down on 7th-ranked Michigan State, 21st-ranked Mississippi State put a first-class 52-14 whipping on Michigan, and Florida scored 17 last-quarter points to take care of Penn State, 37-24.

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