TICKETS THE CLASSIC FAN ZONE AT&T STADIUM MEDIA PORTAL
NEWS RELEASES
Cotton Bowl Classic Notes
MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYERS
Baylor’s Bryce Petty, who finished 36-51 passing with 550 yards and three touchdowns, earned The Sanford Trophy presented to the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic’s Outstanding Offensive Player. The Bears’ Taylor Young, who finished with 15 tackles and one interception, earned The McKnight Trophy, presented to the Classic’s Outstanding Defensive Player.
COMEBACK
Michigan State trailed 41-21 entering the fourth quarter today and scored 21-unanswered points for the victory. The only other team this season to come back from 20 or more points in the fourth quarter was Baylor, who came back to defeat TCU, 61-58, on Oct. 11. The Bears scored 24-unanswered points to win that contest.
COMEBACK PART II
Michigan State’s 20-point comeback is the second largest deficit overcome to win a Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic game. Notre Dame trailed 34-12 in the fourth quarter in 1979 against Houston, winning 35-34.
ONE-POINT CLASSIC GAMES
Today’s was the seventh Classic to be decided by one point, the first since Georgia defeated Texas 10-9 in 1984.
ALL PASSING, NO RUSHING
Baylor finished the game with 603 yards passing, but -20 yards rushing. This is the biggest rushing-passing differential in Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic history.
PASSING BEST
Baylor’s 603 passing yards are the most by a team in bowl history. The previous high was 576 yards by Marshall (2001 GMAC Bowl) and BYU (1989 Holiday Bowl).
FIRST-EVER
This is the first Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic ever to have both teams eclipse 500 total yards. Baylor finished with 583 yards and Michigan State 552.
TEAM TRAILING AT HALF-TIME & AFTER THREE QUARTERS
By overcoming a 24-14 deficit at half-time, Michigan State becomes the 29th team to comeback in the second half to win the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classics in 79 games, and only the 21st team to win after trailing through three quarters. The Spartans trailed 41-21 after three periods.
TEAM SCORING FIRST
Teams scoring first have won 44 times in 79 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classics.
RECEIVING PRODUCTION
Baylor receivers KD Cannon and Corey Coleman both surpassed the 100-yard mark in receiving. Cannon had eight catches for 197 yards and two touchdowns and Coleman had seven catches for 150 yards and one score.
CONFERENCE RECORDS
Michigan State is only the second Big Ten team to ever play in the Classic, and the Big Ten record now stands at 2-0. With the setback, Baylor drops the Big 12 Conference record in the Classic to 5-14. This was the 32nd post-season bowl game featuring teams from the Big Ten and Big 12 conferences with both leagues winning 16 times.
GAME’S OPENING DRIVE
Michigan State became the 19th team in Classic history to score the game’s opening drive. - 6 plays (four rushing, 2 passing), 75 yards, 2:33 time. The Spartans were successful on two third down plays (65 yard run and 2-yard touchdown run)
BAYLOR’S OPENING DRIVE
The Bears scored on a 10-play, 93-yard, 3:28 drive after a 7-yard kickoff return. Baylor was successful on three third-down plays. All four first down plays in the drive where passes (2 completions, 58 yards).
MICHIGAN STATE OPENS WITH TWO SCORING DRIVES
The Spartans scored on a 7-play, 60-yard, 3:42 drive after a 37-yard kickoff return by R. J. Shelton, who also ended the drive with an 11-yard scoring run on a first-down play. Michigan State was successful on its only third-down play on the drive. The Spartans opened the drive with a 24-yard pass completion to Tony Lippett from Connor Cook.
SNAPPED
After three-straight scoring drives (238 combined total yards) to open the game, the two teams traded 3-and-outs (-8). Baylor went 3-and-out on its second drive with three-straight incompletions.
TRICKERY
Baylor tied the game on a 53-yard scoring pass from wide receiver Jay Lee to Corey Coleman and an extra point. The drive was 3 plays, 65 yards, 35 seconds.
FIRST QUARTER - SIX-PLUS DRIVES
Michigan State had 145 total yards (84 rushing, 61 passing) with 7 first downs for three-plus drives. Baylor had 163 (-1 rushing, 164 passing) with six first downs for three drives. The two teams combined for 308 yards, including 225 yards passing).
LANGFORD JOINS 100-PLUS CLUB
Jeremy Langford is the 23rd player during the 2014-2015 bowl season to rush for more than 100 yards. He moved past the century mark on a 10-yard run in the second quarter to give him 102 yards on his 12th carry in the game. He finished the game with 162 yards on 27 carries with three touchdowns rushing.
BAYLOR SCORES ON FOUR OF FIRST SIX DRIVES
With a 25-yard field goal by Chris Callahan to cap a 6 plays, 77-yard drive, 1:48, the Bears scored on four of their first six first-half drives. During the drive, Baylor completed three of three passes on first down.
BAYLOR FIRST-HALF, FIRST-DOWN SUCCESS
In the first half, Baylor threw the ball on all of its first down plays, completing 10 passes for 227 total yards (15.1 yards per play), including touchdown passes of 49 and 53 yards. On second and third downs, however, the Bears amassed only 65 yards on 19 plays (3.4 yards per play).
SLUMPING
After scoring on its first two drives (13 plays, 135 yards) of the game to take a 14-7 lead, Michigan State did not score on its next five drives (36 plays, 106 yards), including two 3-and-outs.
SURGING
While the Spartans were in a scoring drought, Baylor scored on five of six drives to take a 34-14 lead with 27 consecutive points (11:23 left in the third quarter).
DROUGHT ENDED
The Spartans ended their scoring drought by ending Baylor’s 27-point run by scoring on a 9-play, 63-yard drive, 4:26 drive to cut the Bear lead to 34-21 with 6:50 mark in the third quarter.
TRICKERY PART II
Reserve guard LaQuan McGowan caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Bryce Petty to cap a 7-play, 75-yard drive in 2:47 to give the Bears a 41-21 lead with 4:03 left in the third quarter. It was McGowan’s first career reception.
BEAR SCORING MACHINE
Baylor opened the second half with three-straight scoring drives to net 17 points. The Bears ran 16 plays for 175 total yards.
SPARTANS RESPOND
After falling behind by 20 points, Michigan State responded with a 5-play, 71-yard drive in 2:09 to cut the lead to 13 points with 12:09 left in the fourth quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, the Spartans recovered the on-side kick to take over on the MSU 47-yard line. But an interception with the Spartans at the Baylor 14 stopped the drive. However, Baylor could not score on the turnover and Michigan State put together a 9-play, 60-yard, 4:20 drive to cut the deficit to 41-35 with 5:11 left in the contest.
TODAY’S OFFICIALS were from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Referee - Jeff Flanagan
Umpire - Terrence Ramsey
Head Linesman - Matt Fitzgerald
Line Judge - Rick Page
Field Judge - Wayne Rundell
Side Judge - Watts Key
Back Judge - Pat Ryan
Center Judge - Jeff Heaser
Replay Official - Dan Post
Communicator - John Armstrong
GAME CAPTAINS
MICHIGAN STATE - 27 Kurtis Drummond S, 63 Travis Jackson OL, 89 Shilique Calhoun DE
BAYLOR - 2 Shawn Oakman DE, 5 Antwan Goodley WR, 14 Bryce Petty QB, 44 Bryce Hager LB
COIN TOSS
Michigan State won the coin toss and elected to receive and will defend the north goal. There was no return on the opening kickoff.
Dana Blair, the Director of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, tossed the coin, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Kilgore Rangerettes and the 65th-consecutive appearance in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic.
VISITING TEAM SUCCESS
Michigan State was the designed visiting team. The visiting teams have now 39 of the 79 Classics. The home team has won 36 times with four ties.
INDOORS
Today’s game was the seventh to be played indoors during the 2014-2015 bowl season (R+L Carriers New Orleans, Quick Lane - Detroit, BITCOIN St. Petersburg, AdvoCare V100 Texas - Houston, Chick-fil-A Peach - Atlanta, and Fiesta - Glendale). The Miami Beach game was played with the roof open at Marlins Park.
WEATHER OUTSIDE
The weather outside at kickoff in Arlington was 34° with rain and calm winds.
ATTENDANCE
Today’s official attendance is 71,464.
LONG GAME
The official time of the game was 4:10, the longest thus far for the 2014-15 bowl season.
ESPN
The 2015 Classic marks the first time in history that the Goodyear Cotton Bowl was televised by ESPN. ESPN Radio is broadcasting the game for the third-straight year.
GOODYEAR COTTON BOWL CLASSIC & AT&T STADIUM
Today’s game was the sixth Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic to be played at AT&T Stadium and the Big 12 representative has failed to win in each game.
GOODYEAR COTTON BOWL CLASSIC
Goodyear reached an agreement on November 7 with ESPN and the Cotton Bowl Association to become the Classic’s title sponsor. The Mobil Corporation sponsored the game from 1989 through 1996. AT&T became the title sponsor for the 2006 Classic.
