2003 Orange Bowl
| 2003 FedEx Orange Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 69th Orange Bowl BCS Bowl Game | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 2, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | Pro Player Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Miami Gardens, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Carson Palmer (USC QB) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | USC by 4.5 (55.5)
Nielsen ratings 9.7[2] | | |||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2003 FedEx Orange Bowl was the 69th
Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Thursday, January 2. It matched the third-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference and the USC Trojans of the Pacific-10 Conference. Tied at halftime, favored USC pulled away in the second half to win, 38–17.[3]
Televised in the United States on
ABC, the game was part of the 2002–03 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season
and represented the concluding game of the season for both teams.
Teams
Prior to the
Big Ten (in 2002, the Ohio State Buckeyes) and the Pac-10. However, because the Buckeyes had finished No. 2 in the BCS, they were set to play in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship against the Miami Hurricanes.[4]
The Orange Bowl had the next pick after the Fiesta, and No. 3 (#5 BCS) Iowa was chosen. The
Big 12 Championship Game, to play Pac-10 winner Washington State in the Rose Bowl. When it came time for the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl to make a second pick, both wanted USC. However, a BCS rule stated that if two bowls want the same team, the bowl with the higher payoff has the option.[5] The Orange Bowl immediately extended an at-large bid to the #5 Trojans and paired them with at-large #3 Iowa in a Big Ten/Pac-10 "Rose Bowl" matchup in the Orange Bowl.[5] Rose Bowl committee executive director Mitch Dorger was not pleased with the results.[5] This left the Sugar Bowl with #14 BCS Florida State, the winner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Notre Dame at 10–2 and No. 9 in the BCS standings was invited to the Gator Bowl. Kansas State
at No. 8 also was left out.
Iowa Hawkeyes
The Hawkeyes tied for the Big Ten conference championship with Ohio State, and they did not meet this season. Iowa's only setback was a five-point loss to in-state rival Iowa State in mid-September.
USC Trojans
On October 5, in the 300th game for USC on live television, the Trojans lost 30–27 in overtime at
Pasadena to advance to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day; it was the final game for UCLA head coach Bob Toledo
, who was soon fired.
This was only the second time a Pac-10 team appeared in the Orange Bowl; eighteen years earlier, Washington won in January 1985.
Game summary
Scoring
- First quarter
- Iowa – C. J. Jones 100-yard kickoff return (Nate Kaeding kick)
- USC – Justin Fargas 4-yard run (Ryan Killeen kick)
- Iowa – Kaeding 35-yard field goal
- Second quarter
- USC – Killeen 35-yard field goal
- Third quarter
- USC – Williams 18-yard pass from Carson Palmer (Killeen kick)
- USC – Fargas 50-yard run (Killeen kick)
- Fourth quarter
- USC – Sultan McCullough 5-yard run (Killeen kick)
- USC – Sunny Byrd 6-yard run (Killeen kick)
- Iowa – Maurice Brown 18-yard pass from Brad Banks (Kaeding kick)
- Source:[7]
Statistics
| Statistics | IOWA | USC |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 18 | 30 |
| Plays–yards | 58–323 | 80–550 |
| Rushes–yards | 22–119 | 49–247 |
| Passing yards | 204 | 303 |
| Passing: comp–att–int | 15–36–1 | 21–31–0 |
| Time of possession | 21:54 | 38:06 |
- Source:[7]
| Team | Category | Player | Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa | Passing | Brad Banks | 15/36, 204 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT |
| Rushing | Fred Russell | 9 car, 45 yds | |
| Receiving | Dallas Clark | 4 rec, 97 yds | |
| USC | Passing | Carson Palmer | 21/31, 303 yds, 1 TD |
| Rushing | Justin Fargas | 20 car, 122 yds, 2 TD | |
| Receiving | Mike Williams | 6 rec, 99 yds, 1 TD |
References
- ^ "Orange Bowl Odds: College football". Vegasinsider. January 1, 2003. p. C10. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
- ^ a b "BCS Game Results". orangebowl.org. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on June 2, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2008.
- ^ "Iowa (3) 17, USC (5) 38". SI.com. January 3, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
- ^ 2002 BCS Standings
- ^ a b c Rosenblatt, Richard – BCS: Orange Bowl has a Rosy look Associated Press, December 9, 2002
- ^ Whiteside, Kelly – USC biggest question mark of teams jockeying for BCS. USA Today, December 2, 2002. Archived November 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b "Game-by-game recaps: 2003" (PDF). 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl media guide. January 2019. p. 45.