Liberty Bowl: second effort in more ways than one for SC

By Robert Rousseau  |   Tuesday, January 02, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

College Football
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At halftime of the 2006 Liberty Bowl, the South Carolina Gamecocks trailed the quick-strike Houston Cougars by a score of 28-27. Still, even when Houston's Vincent Marshall's took a Kevin Kolb pass 77 yards for a touchdown with only 11 seconds left in the half, South Carolina's offensive linemen and backs probably knew they were in for a strong effort at the end of the game.

You could see it all coming early when on a first-and-10 play at 5:45 of the initial quarter, Gamecocks running back Cory Boyd ran through a tackle by Houston's Will Gulley like it wasn't even there. Or on a second-and-2 play with 3:58 in the first when Gamecocks running back Mike Davis ran right over Kenneth Fontenette.

In short, the running backs' second efforts against Houston defenders not used to such physicality was going to lead to a big second effort for the team (as in second half).

SC's 14 point fourth quarter was in a large way due to that. The running game's ability to in fact beat up the Houston defense led to successful play-action passing by Blake Mitchell (19-of-29 for 323 yards) later in the game.

That combined with some timely defense at the end of the contest allowed SC to escape with a narrow 44-36 victory.

By the way, if you wanted excitement, this contest sure delivered.

Both teams set a Liberty Bowl record by topping 500 yards of offense apiece. Adding to these totals on SC's side were steamrollers Cory Boyd and Mike Davis (166 yards rushing) and wideouts Sidney Rice (139 yards receiving and one touchdown) and Kenny McKinley (112 yards receiving and two long, fourth-quarter touchdowns).

Houston's Kolb (386 yards passing) and Marshall (201 yards receiving) were absolutely outstanding in losing efforts.

Even so, a good, old-fashioned SEC pounding in the first half led to some big passing yardage for the Gamecocks late in the second half. In other words, some great second efforts by the running backs early on led to an outstanding second effort by the team in the fourth quarter.
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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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