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Music City Bowl 2008
Vanderbilt 16 Boston College 14
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By Maurice Patton THE TENNESSEAN
December 31, 2008- A half-century of frustration exploded in jubilation Wednesday, as Vanderbilt capped a magical season with a 16-14 victory over Boston College in the hometown Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl.
For the Commodores- and their longsuffering fans- the win at LP Field was their first in a postseason contest since 1955 and sealed the program’s first winning season since 1982.
But in true Vanderbilt fashion, it didn’t come easily.
The Commodores didn’t score an offensive touchdown, had to rally in the final six minutes and couldn’t rest until Myron Lewis intercepted a Dominique Davis pass with 1:36 remaining to snuff out any hopes of a Boston College game-winning field goal (video).
“We wanted to be called ‘winners.’ We wanted to be called ‘champions,’” Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson said after his team closed out a 7-6 season. “We will have a winning season. All those things are extremely important for a team trying to move up, especially in the tough league we play in.”
After three players from last year’s 5-7 team left for the NFL, few gave this group of Commodores a chance to snap the program’s bowl drought. But a five-game win streak to open the season and a late victory at Kentucky set the stage for the historic New Year’s Eve win before a partisan crowd of 54,250.
“We had a young team, but we had a lot of young people out there working hard,” Lewis said. “We had a lot of talent on this team.”
Some of those talented players had been more visible over the course of the season than others. Larry Smith made his first career start against the Eagles, and led Vanderbilt to field goals on each of its first two possessions for a 6-0 lead midway through the opening quarter.
“I’ve been preparing for two weeks,” said Smith, whose 51-yard completion to Sean Walker was the Commodores’ third-longest pass play of the season. “I was pretty comfortable with the offense. I felt pretty good. I felt I was really prepared.”
Vanderbilt only picked up one more first down the rest of the half. However, the Atlantic Coast Conference runner-up wasn’t much better, as Davis completed just 6 of his first 17 passes and gave up an interception to Ryan Hamilton. The Eagles (9-5) finally took a 7-6 lead just before halftime on a 4-yard pass from Davis to tailback Montel Harris (video).
Given the Commodores’ offensive struggles, Boston College took what appeared to be a safe fourth-quarter lead when Davis and Colin Larmond connected for a 55-yard touchdown pass with 6:38 to play (video).
“In my mind it was,” BC Coach Jeff Jagodzinski said after seeing his team’s nation-leading eight-bowl winning streak snapped. “It got the momentum going.”
Vanderbilt flashed back to its 5-0 start, though, and came up with a series of game-turning plays.
The Commodores took advantage of a couple of 15-yard Boston College penalties and a 15-yard Smith pass to sixth-year senior George Smith that set up Bryant Hahnfeldt’s third field goal of the day- a 45-yarder with 3:26 left (video).
Defensively, Vanderbilt forced the Eagles into a three-and-out possession, and Boston College used all three of its timeouts on defense to get the ball back with 2:01 remaining.
After a 16-yard pass moved the Eagles to their 36, Davis’ pass up the right sideline was snagged by Lewis, and a couple of kneel-downs by Smith started the party for Vanderbilt.
“It was exactly like those games early in the year,” Johnson said. “We played well defensively, we were efficient on offense when we had certain opportunities and the kicking game came through for us. Field position was big just like a lot of those wins we had early in the season.
“This gives us a place we can move on from. We want to continue to move forward. We’ve got enough coming back that we can continue to do that.”
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| Hahnfeldt hit three field goals, including the game-winner. | |
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BC's Dominique Davis and Montel Harris hooked up for a touchdown and a lead at the half. |
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Vanderbilt's Sean Richardson recovered a muffed punt in the endzone. |
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BC got the third quarter lead back on Colin Larmond's 55 yard TD reception. |
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Myron Lewis' interception sealed the victory for the Commodores. |
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Attendance: 54,250
Scoring Summary
First Quarter VU- FG Hahnfeldt 42 VU- FG Hahnfeldt 26
Second Quarter BC- Harris 4 yard pass from Davis (Aponavicius kick)
Third Quarter VU- Richardson 0 yd fumble recovery (Hahnfeldt kick) BC- Larmond 55 yard pass from Davis (Aponavicius kick) VU- FG Hahnfeldt 45
Individual Statistics
Rushing BC- Harris 15-68, Haden 17-42, Davis 6-33 VU- Nickson 8-64, Smith 10-31, Hawkins 8-16
Passing BC- Davis 15-36-190 VU- Smith 10-17-121
Receiving BC- Harris 5-25, Purvis 4-29, Robinson 3-40, Larmond 1-55 VU- Umoh 3-29, Walker 2-68, Graham 2-7
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Forced
to punt on their opening possession of the second half, the Commodores
caught a break when Brett Upson’s 21-yard pooch effort deflected off
BC’s Paul Anderson. The ball rolled into the end zone and was recovered
by Vanderbilt freshman Sean Richardson for a touchdown and a 13-7
cushion five minutes into the third period (
