Independence Bowl: Cowboys get Savage

By Robert Rousseau  |   Tuesday, January 02, 2007  |  Comments( 0 )

College Football
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OK, you're Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach Mike Gundy. With a little over 11 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, you're beating the Alabama Crimson Tide, 31-17, in the Independence Bowl. Not only that, you have the ball.

Looks good, right?

Then a couple of things occur that immediately put your first bowl win since 2002 in jeopardy. First, this small, rather insignificant thing happens -- an 84-yard punt return for a touchdown by Alabama's Javier Arenas brings the Tide within seven. Still, you're about to get the ball, right? No problem.

Until Grant Jones fumbles the kickoff and Alabama's Chris Rogers recovers. Moments later, Tide interim head coach Joe Kines pulls a big play out of his bag of tricks, and a pass to left tackle Andra Smith goes in for a score.

Suddenly, it's a tie game.

Still want to be Mike Gundy?

After that play Oklahoma State got its shot; then the Tide got theirs. Neither capitalized.

Oklahoma State got the ball back.

Now as a head coach, you have to decide what you're going to do because the whole game rides on it. Answer for Oklahoma State? You need to get Savage. Dantrell Savage, that is.

On the day, Savage rushed 19 times for 112 yards against the Tide. He also caught three passes for 39 yards. However, his most important contributions happened on that last game-winning field goal drive.

On the first play of the drive, Savage took the ball up the middle and rumbled for over 20 yards and a first down.

Then came what amounted to the game winner. On a third-and-9 at the Alabama 42 toward the end of the drive, Savage took a screen pass from Cowboys quarterback Bobby Reid and scampered 26 yards for another key first down that put them into field goal range.

Moments later, Jason Ricks put the ball through the uprights to pull out a 34-31 Cowboys victory, and finalize one of the best bowl games that will be played this year.

We can all gain a couple of things from this one. First, Savage, a junior, is a player to watch. Second, so is Oklahoma State next season.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or...
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