The 2001 GMAC Bowl, a college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

held on December 19 at

Ladd–Peebles Stadium Ladd–Peebles Stadium (formerly Ernest F. Ladd Memorial Stadium) is a stadium located in Mobile, Alabama. Opened in 1948, it has a seating capacity of 33,471. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field for the Senior Bowl ...

in Mobile, Alabama, pitted the

Marshall Thundering Herd The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are member ...

, then of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

, against the

East Carolina Pirates The East Carolina Pirates are the athletic teams that represent East Carolina University (ECU), located in Greenville, North Carolina. All varsity-level sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division ...

from Conference USA. This game featured what was then the biggest comeback in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I-A (now Division I FBS) bowl history, as Marshall came back from a 38-8 halftime deficit to force

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

and eventually win 64-61 in double overtime. It was also the highest-scoring bowl game in history, breaking the previous record set when

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

defeated

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

55-41 in the 1995 Copper Bowl. Although the record for greatest bowl comeback was broken by Texas Tech when it returned to the Copper Bowl, by then renamed the

Insight Bowl The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 through 2001, then ...

, in 2006, the 2001 GMAC Bowl remains the highest-scoring bowl game ever. The game, with an official attendance of 40,139, was telecast on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

. It was a rematch of one of Marshall's most historically significant games. On November 14, 1970, the two teams met at East Carolina, with the Pirates winning 17-14. That night, the plane carrying the Herd back to Huntington, West Virginia crashed just before landing, killing all 75 on board. The two teams had only met one time since the crash, a 45-0 East Carolina win in 1978. They later played every year from 2005 to 2013, when both schools were members of the C-USA East Division.

The buildup

This game was expected to be a high-scoring affair, as both teams featured "high-flying

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

s" who would go on to become teammates on the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

—senior

David Garrard David Douglas Garrard (born February 14, 1978) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons, primarily with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played college football at East Carolina and wa ...

for East Carolina, who would join the Jags in 2002, and junior

Byron Leftwich Byron Antron Leftwich (born January 14, 1980) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He previously played in the NFL for ten seas ...

for Marshall, who joined the team a year later. The two remained teammates until 2007, when Garrard beat out Leftwich for the team's starting position in the preseason and Leftwich was released, soon signing with the Atlanta Falcons.

Game summary

First quarter

The start of the game could not have been much better for East Carolina or worse for Marshall. On the second play from scrimmage, Leftwich threw a

screen pass A screen pass is a play in gridiron football consisting of a short pass to a receiver who is protected by a screen of blockers. During a screen pass, a number of things happen concurrently in order to fool the defense into thinking a long pass is b ...

deep in his own territory that bounced off the arms of intended receiver Denero Marriott into the hands of Ty Hunt, who returned the interception 12 yards for the game's first

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...

. On Marshall's second possession, a snap out of the shotgun went over Leftwich's right shoulder, and Jerome Stewart picked up the ball and ran it back 43 yards for another Pirates touchdown. Marshall appeared to be finding its rhythm on its third drive, with Leftwich completing five consecutive passes. However, that drive also ended in a turnover, with Leftwich throwing an interception to Stewart in the

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...

. The quarter would end with the Pirates up 21-0, with Garrard scoring on a 9-yard run.

Second quarter

After the Pirates' Kevin Miller kicked a field goal, the Herd finally got on the board when Leftwich connected on a 35-yard touchdown pass to

Darius Watts Darius Orlando Watts (born December 19, 1981) is a former NFL football player who was originally drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round (54th overall) of the 2004 NFL Draft. In the NFL, Watts played for the Denver Broncos and New Y ...

. The ensuing two-point conversion made the score 24-8. However, the Pirates' domination continued, with Leonard Henry scoring the first of his three rushing touchdowns on the night and Garrard scoring on another short run after Marshall fumbled on an attempted punt return. The half ended with East Carolina up 38-8, and several thousand fans left the game then.

Third quarter

Marshall dominated the third quarter much as East Carolina had controlled the first quarter. The comeback started early, with Ralph Street returning a Garrard interception for a touchdown. Leftwich then ran for another touchdown; after the Pirates added another Miller field goal, the Herd's Terence Tarpley returned another Garrard interception for a touchdown, a play that was seen as the game's turning point. Marshall added another touchdown on a Franklin Wallace run before the end of the quarter, making the score 41-36.

Fourth quarter

This quarter was a back-and-forth affair. A Miller field goal, increasing the Pirates' lead to 44-36, was followed by a Marshall drive ending with a Leftwich touchdown pass to Marriott, giving the Herd the chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion, which failed. Henry then ran for a second touchdown. With 1 minute 53 seconds left, Curtis Head kicked a field goal for Marshall to cut the lead to 51-45. Marshall then tried an

onside kick In gridiron football, an onside kick is a kickoff deliberately kicked short in an attempt by the kicking team to regain possession of the ball. This is in contrast with a typical kickoff, in which the kicking team intends to give the ball to the ...

which East Carolina recovered. The Pirates were unable to move the ball on three downs and punted. The kick went for a

touchback In American football, a touchback is a ruling which is made and signaled by an official when the ball becomes dead on or behind a team's own goal line (i.e., in their end zone) and the opposing team gave the ball the momentum, or impetus, to tra ...

, giving the Herd the ball on their own 20 with 50 seconds and no timeouts left. Leftwich then led the Herd on a furious last-minute drive, connecting with three passes of 20 yards or more before finding Watts in the end zone for a touchdown with 7 seconds left. All Marshall needed to cap a historic comeback was for Head to kick the extra point—but for the seventh time that season, he missed, leaving the game tied at 51-51. The game was already the highest-scoring in bowl history even before going to overtime, with the two teams combining for 102 points, breaking the previous record of 96.

Overtime

Both teams scored rushing touchdowns in the first overtime period, with Wallace's second score of the night matched by Henry's third. In the second overtime, the Herd defense was able to hold the Pirates to a Miller field goal. When Marshall got the ball, Leftwich connected with Marriott on a pass that put them first-and-goal at the Pirates' 4-yard line. Two running plays lost a total of 4 yards. On third-and-goal, Leftwich connected with Josh Davis on what appeared to be an 8-yard touchdown pass. The drama was not over, as a penalty was called on the play. The call turned out to be against the Pirates, and the touchdown stood, capping an improbable comeback. This was the last of five games that the Pirates lost by seven points or fewer over the course of that season.

Scoring summary

Statistics

Records

Leftwich's 576 passing yards for the game tied the bowl game record set by

Ty Detmer Ty Hubert Detmer (born October 30, 1967) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. D ...

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

in the 1989 Holiday Bowl (Detmer's total was set without overtime play)—these still stand . East Carolina earned the dubious honor of scoring the most points ever by a losing team in a bowl game. The two teams combined for 16 touchdowns and 125 points, also bowl game records. Until 2011, this game remained the highest-scoring bowl game at the end of regulation time, with the total 102 points scored in regulation. The only other bowl game, at that time, to see 102 total points scored was the

2003 Hawaii Bowl The 2003 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl was played on Christmas Day 2003, in Honolulu and matched the hometown Hawaii Warriors with the Houston Cougars. This was the second Hawaii Bowl, and the first time Hawaii and Houston played each other. The game was ...

, in which

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

defeated

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

, 54-48 in three overtimes. These games edged out the 101 points scored in

California's California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

52–49 win over

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

in the 2003 Insight Bowl.

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and Baylor broke the record for most points in regulation in the 2011 Alamo Bowl, scoring 123 combined points with Baylor winning, 67–56.

References

External links

Box score
via newspapers.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2001 Gmac Bowl

Gmac Bowl The LendingTree Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that has been played annually in Mobile, Alabama since 1999. In 2021, the game was moved from Ladd-Peebles Stadium to Hancock Whitney Stadium, on the c ...

LendingTree Bowl East Carolina Pirates football bowl games Marshall Thundering Herd football bowl games

GMAC Bowl The LendingTree Bowl is a postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game that has been played annually in Mobile, Alabama since 1999. In 2021, the game was moved from Ladd-Peebles Stadium to Hancock Whitney Stadium, on the c ...

December 2001 sports events in the United States