Underdogs by seven points, No. 18 Houston took it to No. 9 Florida State at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Thursday at the Georgia Dome. The Cougars’ 38-24 victory was their first in a major bowl since the 1980 Cotton Bowl.
Houston held FSU to 1-for-8 on third downs in the first half, giving the Cougars’ offense enough chances to take a 21-3 lead that withstood the Seminoles’ second-half rally. Cougars quarterback Greg Ward Jr. led Houston (12-1) with 305 yards of total offense and two rushing touchdowns. Since 2011, only two teams have scored more on FSU (10-3) than Houston did Thursday.
1. Orlando makes name for himself
The Houston defensive coordinator unleashed his unit on the FSU offense, particularly flummoxing the Seminoles’ offensive line. Formerly the defensive coordinator at Utah State and Connecticut, Orlando enabled his line and linebackers to get free runs at quarterbacks Sean Maguire and J.J. Cosentino.
Perhaps more notably, despite having inferior talent against a lineup with no shortage of future NFL draft picks, the Cougars stopped All-American running back Dalvin Cook cold, limiting him to 33 rushing yards on 18 attempts. His previous low this season was 54 yards against Boston College, No. 2 in the country in rushing yards per attempt.
“Much like the offensive game plan, we knew we couldn’t sit there in base defense and go man for man with these guys matchup-wise,” Houston coach Tom Herman said. “We had to be creative, we had to be unconventional a little bit and we had to confuse the offensive line and allow some penetration, allow some guys to get to the quarterback or to the running back.”
2. No surprise
Going back to the BCS era, the “BCS buster” teams were 5-3 against power-conference teams, most memorably Boise State’s 43-42 defeat of Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Last year, in the first year of the College Football Playoff, which guaranteed a spot to a “Group of 5” team in a New Year’s Six game, Boise State took down No. 10 Arizona.
The gap between most power-conference teams and their less-moneyed brethren is not so vast and is reduced in a bowl game, when intangibles like motivation can play such a significant role. Feeding at the trough of disrespect, the Cougars had more to play for than did FSU and the way they delivered big hits and ran with abandon indicated as much.
Herman played on that theme, telling his team Wednesday night that recruiting stars don’t measure toughness or purpose and that “we’re not going to back down, we’re going to be the aggressor.”
3. Horrendous second quarter
After FSU’s Maguire left the game with a lower-leg injury late in the first quarter, the Seminoles scored their first points of the game on a 20-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-3.
Due in part to both sides spinning their wheels on offense, the FSU offense had six possessions in the quarter, and the Seminoles turned them into 16 plays that produced minus-15 yards, two turnovers and no first downs. Looking for footing against the No. 9 team in the country, Houston found it in the success it had with its blitzes and also with an up-tempo pace on offense with quick-hitting pass and run plays that limited FSU’s ability to create havoc in the backfield.
With enough chances, Houston put together two touchdown drives, biting off 56 yards on three plays on one and taking advantage of a drive start at the FSU 17-yard line on the other. The 14-0 differential in the second quarter proved the difference in the game.
4. Gary Stokan is on the clock
The president and CEO of the Peach Bowl will host one of the College Football Playoff semifinals a year from now, the first playoff game that the bowl will host. Stokan said that the procedure for executing the game will remain unchanged, with only the magnitude of the game changing.
“We’ll have more people from around the country here, but at the end of the day, that’s what we love best,” Stokan said. “We love hospitality, we love to put on big events.”
Over the next two years, the Peach Bowl team will have Georgia-North Carolina in its kickoff game in September, a national semifinal next New Year’s Eve, Alabama-Florida State and Georgia Tech-Tennessee in the 2017 kickoff games (in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium), the Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day in 2018 and then the national championship game seven days later.
“That’s a heck of a run in two years for Atlanta and college football,” he said.
5. Grist for ACC bashers
Following the FSU loss, ACC backers looked to Clemson to carry the conference’s banner. Fair or not, the league will be judged (again) for a so-so bowl effort thus far. The FSU loss dropped the league to 3-5 with other losses to Mississippi State (N.C. State), Baylor (North Carolina), Navy (Pittsburgh) and Washington State (Miami). The conference’s conquests: Texas A&M (Louisville), Tulsa (Virginia Tech) and Indiana (Duke).
In fairness, while Houston and Navy are not brand-name teams, both are in the top 25, as is Baylor.
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