The 2004

Tostitos Tostitos is a brand of Frito-Lay that produces different tortilla chips and a range of accompanying dips. Varieties There are many varieties of Tostitos chips: * Tostitos ''Gold'' (and bite size ''Gold'') - a thicker and larger version of t ...

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been pla ...

, played on January 2, 2004, was the 33rd edition of the

. The game pitted #7

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

against #8

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

. It was a match-up between a perennial powerhouse in Ohio State, and a school that was only recently accustomed to winning in Kansas State. Despite Kansas State's historically losing record, head coach

Bill Snyder William D. Snyder (born October 7, 1939) is a retired college football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2005 and again from 2009 to 2018. Snyder initially retired from the p ...

had turned around the program in the decade before the bowl game, and K-State was actually making its second Fiesta Bowl appearance in 7 years. Kansas State was the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

champion, and came into the game on a seven-game win streak, winning those games by an average of 39–9. In the game immediately before the Fiesta Bowl, Kansas State had soundly defeated #1-ranked

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

35–7 in the Big 12 Championship Game. However, the K-State team was badly distracted one night before the bowl game when its

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 ...

and team leader Ell Roberson was accused of sexual assault. (No charges were ultimately filed against Roberson.) In fact, it was not known whether Roberson would play until game time. Kansas State had been favored to win by 7 points, but some casinos pulled the line over the uncertainty about Roberson. Despite being outgained 378–337 in the bowl game, and has a turnover margin of -1, Ohio State prevailed 35–28. It was Ohio State's second straight

win; they went on to win another one in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Game summary

Kansas State won the coin toss and elected to defer. Ohio State's first drive stalled, but its punt gave Kansas State a horrible field position. On Kansas State's first drive, they went 3 and out, and were forced to punt from their 7-yard line. Harlan Jacobs of Ohio State blocked the K-State punt and John Hollins returned it 7 yards for a

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 Ameri ...

, and Ohio State opened up an early 7–0 lead. Later in the first quarter, Ohio State's quarterback

Craig Krenzel Craig Krenzel (born July 1, 1981) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at Ohio State University. As the starting quarterback, he led the 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes football team to a national championship. He p ...

fired a pass to

Santonio Holmes Santonio Holmes Jr. (born March 3, 1984) is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft after playing college football at Ohio State University. In 2009, Holmes w ...

for a 6-yard touchdown, and Ohio State extended its lead to 14–0. In the second quarter, Krenzel fired a 17-yard pass to Michael Jenkins for his second touchdown pass. At this point, Ohio State appeared to have the game under control, as it had a 21–0 lead. But Kansas State wouldn't quit. The Wildcats' star running back

Darren Sproles Darren Lee Sproles (born June 20, 1983) is an American football executive and former running back and return specialist who is a personnel consultant for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football ...

ran 6 yards for a touchdown to make the score 21–7. Kansas State's defense stopped Ohio State on their next position, and the first half ended with the same score. With 9 minutes to go in the third quarter, Kansas State quarterback Ell Roberson scrambled 14 yards for a touchdown, and Kansas State closed the gap to 21–14. It appeared as though Kansas State was back in the game, but Ohio State wouldn't be denied. With 4 minutes to go in the third quarter Krenzel found Michael Jenkins again for an 8-yard touchdown. Ohio State's lead went back to 14, and the score was 28-14. Later, with only 36 seconds left in the third quarter, Craig Krenzel found Santonio Holmes again for a 31-yard touchdown, and Ohio State led 35–14. Kansas State's Ayo Saba ran 2 yards for a touchdown, and the score was 35–21. Later on, Ell Roberson found the end zone for the second time, and the score was 35–28. However, it was too little, too late for the Wildcats, as there was only 2:47 left to go in the game. Ohio State recovered 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 ...

, and melted the clock to preserve a 35–28 win. Craig Krenzel, with his 4 touchdown passes, was named the Fiesta Bowl Offensive MVP.

References

{{Ohio State Buckeyes bowl game navbox

Fiesta Bowl Kansas State Wildcats football bowl games Ohio State Buckeyes football bowl games January 2004 sports events in the United States 2004 in sports in Arizona