Daniel, Harrell, Stafford get bowl wins

Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel, who built his reputation while leading Southlake Carroll to Class 5A state titles, returned home to pick up a Cotton Bowl victory on Tuesday. Missouri got a record-setting day from running back Tony Temple in a 38-7 victory over Arkansas.

Temple, whose NFL draft stock keeps rising, set the single-game and career Cotton Bowl rushing records, with 265 yards piled up by Dicky Maegle in Rice's 28-6 win over Alabama way back in 1954.

Temple bettered Maegle's mark with 281 yards on 24 carries.

"Everybody talked about Arkansas' running backs," Daniel said. "No disrespect to those guys, but I wouldn't trade my back for anything."

Daniel completed just 12-of-29 passes for 136 yards and did not throw a touchdown for just the second time all season.

"They were dropping nine, sometimes ten guys into coverage," Daniel said. "It's hard to throw the ball like that.

"At one point, I said to coach Yost, 'Let's just keep feeding Tony the ball.'"

Temple, a 5-foot-9 senior who is often overlooked in Missouri's pass-heavy offense, broke longstanding Cotton Bowl records with 281 yards and four touchdowns. Both records fell on his last run, a spinning, tackle-breaking, 40-yarder into the end zone.

Daniel and a lineman celebrated by carrying Temple back to the sideline, adding to the delight of a black-and-gold throng enjoying the program's first New Year's Day game since 1970.

Mizzou (12-2) was ranked No. 1 after beating Kansas in the regular season finale, then lost badly to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game - so badly that the Jayhawks wound up with an at-large berth into the Orange Bowl.

The seventh-ranked Tigers claimed to have gotten over the snub, hyping Dallas as a great destination for recruiting and because it's home to their second-largest alumni base. Still, their performance suggested a team with something to prove.

Arkansas, meanwhile, played like a team ready to move on to next season.

The No. 25 Razorbacks (8-5) made a horrible first impression on incoming coach Bobby Petrino, from the defense allowing the most yards rushing by a single player to the sloppiness of five turnovers - an interception that was returned for a touchdown and four fumbles, one by a defensive lineman and another by a punt returner who tried catching the ball with his back to the play while inside his 10 yard line.

The final offensive play summed things up: Interim coach Reggie Herring ran about 20 yards trying to get officials to let him call timeout, but they didn't acknowledge it and a fourth-down pass was dropped in the end zone.

Teams with interim coaches are now 0-5 this bowl season, with West Virginia left to go. SEC teams had been 5-0 until Arkansas' loss.

Texas Tech 31, Virginia 28

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Texas Tech didn't score 40 or more points, as it had all season. Through three quarters, the nation's top passing offense couldn't score much at all.

But Graham Harrell of Ennis stayed with it, finishing 44-of-69 for 407 yards and three TDs, and the Red Raiders scored just enough to overcome a 14-point deficit and stun No. 21 Virginia 31-28 on a late field goal in the Gator Bowl on Tuesday.

Alex Trlica hit from 41 yards, despite swirling wind, with 7 seconds remaining. It was the third game-winner of the senior kicker's career, and came at an appropriate time: Earlier in the game, Trlica became the first kicker in school history to score at least 100 points in a season.

Georgia 41, Hawaii 10

Sophomore quarterback Matthew Stafford led the Bulldogs to a second straight bowl win since he led Highland Park to the 2005 Class 4A state title.

Against Hawaii, Stafford completed 14 of 23 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown.

Hawaii's Texas flavor included DBs Myron Newberry of Denton Ryan, Erik Robinson of South Oak Cliff, Jacob Patek of Victoria Memorial and Gerard Lewis of North Shore.