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Bowl season

Chris Relf threw three touchdown passes, Vick Ballard ran for three scores and No. 21 Mississippi State overwhelmed Michigan 52-14 Saturday in the Gator Bowl.

Mississippi State pounds Michigan in Gator Bowl

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Chris Relf threw three touchdown passes, Vick Ballard ran for three scores and No. 21 Mississippi State overwhelmed Michigan 52-14 Saturday in the Gator Bowl.

The 38-point drubbing was the worst bowl loss in Michigan’s storied history and may have sealed the fate of Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez. His three-year tenure has been tainted by consecutive losing seasons, NCAA sanctions and late-season slides.

Michigan (7-6) was out of this game early, done in again by a defence that made a middle-of-the-pack Southeastern Conference offence look like a juggernaut.

Relf and Ballard posed problems all day. Relf completed 18 of 23 passes for 281 yards, and added 49 yards on the ground. Ballard ran for 77 yards. The Bulldogs (9-4) finished with 485 yards and punted twice.


Alabama rolls past Michigan State in Capital One Bowl

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mark Ingram ran for two scores to break the Alabama career touchdown record, and the No. 15 Crimson Tide rolled past seventh-ranked Michigan State 49-7 on Saturday in the most lopsided Capital One Bowl in history.

The 2009 Heisman Trophy winner had 59 yards rushing against the team he rooted for as a kid, Greg McElroy threw for 220 yards and one touchdown, and Alabama (10-3) pulled most of its starters in the third quarter. Ingram moved past Shaun Alexander’s mark (41) with 42 career touchdowns.

The Crimson Tide found the end zone on their first four possessions, held the Spartans (11-2) to 171 total yards and sacked Kirk Cousins four times in their most dominant performance all season.

The margin of victory topped East Texas State’s 33-0 victory over Tennessee Tech in the 1953 game, then known as the Tangerine Bowl. The bowl dates back to 1947.


Texas Tech holds off Northwestern in TicketCity Bowl

DALLAS — Taylor Potts threw four touchdown passes and scored another on a trick play, and Eric Stephens ran 86 yards for a TD to carry Texas Tech to a 45-38 victory over Northwestern in the inaugural TicketCity Bowl.

The Red Raiders (8-5) led by 22 points early in the second half, then had to sweat it out.

The Wildcats (7-6) got within a touchdown twice in the fourth quarter, with freshmen quarterbacks Evan Watkins and Kain Colter combining to lead three straight touchdown drives and Jordan Maybin returning an interception 39 yards for a score with 5:37 left.

The game wasn’t decided until the final play, a heave by Watkins that was intercepted.

Northwestern remains winless in a bowl since 1949. The Wildcats have lost eight in a row, including three straight close ones.

The game was played at the Cotton Bowl, site of more bowl games than any stadium but the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. The building was empty last bowl season because the namesake game moved to Cowboys Stadium. Attendance was announced as 40,121, well under half of capacity.