Lumpkin Lifts Georgia Over Purdue

Kregg Lumpkin stood along the sideline, head down. The freshman running back was disconsolate about the fumble that cost Georgia a chance to clinch a victory in the Capital One Bowl on Thursday at Orlando, Fla.

He wanted another chance. And he got it in overtime.

Lumpkin redeemed himself by scoring on a one-yard, fourth-down run in the first overtime, giving No. 11 Georgia a 34-27 victory over No. 12 Purdue.

“I was just happy they were going to give me another chance,” Lumpkin said. “I was thinking, ‘Don’t fumble, just score.’ ”

The Bulldogs (11-3) built a 24-0 lead in the first half. The Boilermakers (9-4) tied it with a 17-point fourth quarter. Georgia finally won it when Lumpkin slipped into the end zone, then Tony Taylor made a game-ending interception.

“We’ve never been in overtime, so we tried to force it into overtime,” said Georgia Coach Mark Richt, able to joke about the hectic finish. “And our scoring average was down, so we were able to get a few more points.”

Richt wasn’t in such a good mood at the end of regulation. The Boilermakers (9-4) tied it thanks to a remarkable turn of events with slightly more than a minute remaining.

Purdue was out of timeouts when Richt called a run on second down instead of ordering quarterback David Greene to take a knee. The coach was trying to avoid a punt with a few seconds left.

Lumpkin got trapped deep in the backfield and tried to reverse his field, but Shaun Phillips stripped the ball. After a wild scramble, Niko Koutouvides recovered for the Boilermakers at the Georgia 34-yard line.

Ben Jones kicked a 44-yard field goal with 49 seconds left to tie the score, at 27-27.

As the teams prepared for the extra period, Richt noticed Lumpkin standing along the sideline, his head down.

“I looked at him and said, ‘Hey, you can’t be down now. We might need you to win this football game.’ ”

Taking the ball first, the Bulldogs got to the three with the help of a pass interference penalty on Bobby Iwuchukwu, then went for it on fourth down from inside the one. Lumpkin managed to slide through a crease for the touchdown.

Purdue still had an opportunity. Although Georgia appeared to get the clinching stop when Kyle Orton threw an incomplete pass on fourth and goal from the eight, the Bulldogs were offsides. But Orton’s final pass was intercepted by Taylor in the end zone, setting off a wild celebration by the Georgia players after a game that lasted nearly four hours.

“We don’t have moral victories at Purdue,” Coach Joe Tiller said. “It was a loss for us, a tough loss.”

Tiller wasn’t happy about the penalty on Iwuchukwu.

“The ball was probably 10, 12 yards over the receiver’s head,” he said. “Last time I checked, Shaquille O’Neal isn’t playing receiver for Georgia.”

No. 23 Maryland 41, No. 20 West Virginia 7 -- Scott McBrien threw for a career-high 381 yards to help the Terrapins beat the Mountaineers in the Gator Bowl at Jacksonville, Fla., in a rematch of a regular-season game that was almost as lopsided.

Playing against the team he left in 2001, McBrien threw for three scores and ran for another to help the Terrapins (10-3) reach 10 wins for the third consecutive year under Coach Ralph Friedgen.

Only Texas, Oklahoma, Miami and Washington State can boast a similar three-year stretch.

They’ve done it thanks in part to playing against West Virginia.

Counting the 34-7 win in the regular season, the Terrapins have defeated the Mountaineers four times in the last three years by an average score of 35-13.

The Mountaineers (8-5) couldn’t break their pattern of losing bowl games. They are 1-10 in their last 11 bowl appearances, 0-2 during Coach Rich Rodriguez’s tenure by a combined score of 89-29.

“Our preparation was probably no different than Maryland’s or anyone else’s,” Rodriguez said.

“We were focused. Our intensity in practice was good. We were excited about playing. We just didn’t play well. Maryland’s a better team.”