Hawkeyes rout Gamecocks in Outback Bowl

Iowa running back Shonn Greene shredded the South Carolina defense for 121 yards and 3 touchdowns as the Hawkeyes pounded the Gamecocks in the Outback Bowl by a 31-10 score.  After the game, Greene announced his intention to head to the NFL suggesting that he’d done everything he could at the college level.

In his postgame comments, Greene dismissed suggestions that he stick around to make a run at the Heisman Trophy with his correct assessment that it’s more of a political game than an award for excellence:

"I don't think there's really a lot more I can do here. People talk about the Heisman, but I think that's a lot of politics. I don't like getting caught up in all of that, so I just figure I'll try my chances."

The Hawkeyes shot out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and never looked back.  QB Richard Stanzi started the scoring when he found Trey Stoss in the end zone for a 6 yard TD pass, and Greene ran in his first TD of the day less than three minutes later.  Greene would score again on a 1 yard TD run midway through the second quarter, and Iowa took a 21-0 advantage into the locker room.  They’d add 10 more points in the third quarter on an 18 yard Daniel Murray FG and Greene’s third TD of the day, this one run in from 11 yards out.  The Gamecocks avoided the shutout with a TD and a FG in the fourth quarter, but the game had long been decided by that point.

Gamecocks’ coach Steve Spurrier took much of the responsibility for the loss, particularly his decision to start redshirt freshman Stephen Garcia at QB.  Garcia is from the Tampa area, started for only the third time in his collegiate career and played horribly.  He finished with only 79 yards passing and three costly interceptions before he was replaced at the start of the second half.   Spurrier was very candid in his post game comments about Garcia and his team’s shabby performance:

"I thought he would play a little bit better, but maybe he just wasn't ready. Maybe that's the answer. I thought we had pretty good practices ... and I thought we had a decent game plan. Then we throw it right to them and fumbled right to them. ... And we're not, obviously, good enough to do that."

For all of Spurrier’s collegiate coaching success, he doesn’t have a particularly impressive record in bowl games with only a 7-8 record overall, 1-2 at South Carolina.   For his part, Garcia suggested that his dismal showing in front of his hometown fans would serve to motivate him in the future:

"I can't take a lot from this. The way it ended was not the way it was supposed to go. It's pretty frustrating for me, playing in my home city and to not do well. I've just got to get better. Losing a bowl game in general is pretty frustrating, but doing so in my hometown in front of my family is worse."

Garcia is already on thin ice with South Carolina football supporters due to his inability to avoid trouble off the field with two citations for underage drinking along with an arrest for “keying” a professor’s car.  Many questioned Spurrier’s decision to start Garcia before the game, and his performance will certainly not ingratiate him to the Gamecock faithful.