The 2009

Emerald Bowl The San Francisco Bowl was an annual postseason college football bowl game certified by the NCAA and played in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally named the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl during its first two editions from 2002 to 2003, it w ...

was the eighth edition of the

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

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 Subdivis ...

, and was played at

AT&T Park Oracle Park is a Major League Baseball stadium in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants. Previously named Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, and AT&T Park, the stadium's curren ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The game started at 5:00 PM PST on Saturday, December 26,

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. The game was telecast on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

defeated

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

24–13. The presenting sponsor of the 2009 Emerald Bowl was

Diamond Foods Diamond Foods was an American packaged food company based in San Francisco, that marketed nuts (particularly walnuts and almonds) and other snack foods. Diamond Foods was acquired by Snyder's-Lance in 2016, and as of 2018, Campbell Soup Company ...

, promoting its Emerald Nuts brand of snack foods. The company had served as title sponsor of the game for all eight years of the bowl's existence.

Teams

This marked the first time USC had played in the bowl. The Trojans had played in a BCS bowl game each of the past seven years and had hopes to make it back there again this season before dropping three of their last five games. First,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

defeated USC 47–20, USC's worst loss under

Pete Carroll Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at USC Troja ...

up to that time. This was followed by an even worse loss against

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in the

Coliseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world t ...

by a 55–21 margin that eliminated USC from Rose Bowl contention for the first time in seven years as well as its worst loss in 43 years while Stanford's 55 points were the most points ever scored by an opponent against USC. USC's final regular season game was a 21–17 loss to

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. USC fell out of the AP Top 25 for the first time in eight years after the loss to Wildcats. Boston College was making its 11th straight bowl appearance. The Eagles were the first team to play in the Emerald Bowl twice, beating Colorado State 35–21 in the 2003 San Francisco Bowl (the former name of the Emerald Bowl). Boston College went 8–1 in bowl games in the first decade of the 21st century. This was the third meeting between the two schools and the first one in the post-season. USC had won both games in the series, a 23–17 victory in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in 1987 and a 34–7 win in Chestnut Hill in 1988.

Game summary

USC wore their home cardinal jerseys, and Boston College wore their away white jerseys. USC

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

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 ...

Matt Barkley Matthew Montgomery Barkley (born September 8, 1990) is an American football quarterback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at USC, and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth roun ...

threw touchdown passes to Stanley Havili on the Trojans first two possessions and added a touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Barkley finished the game with a total of 350 yards passing. Of his 350 yards, Damian Williams accounted for 189 of them on 12 catches. Williams was named the game's MVP for his efforts. Boston College was led by tailback

Montel Harris Montel Lamar Harris (born October 30, 1989) is American football running back. He played college football for the Boston College Eagles and Temple Owls. Early years Harris played Pop Warner football for the Normandy Cowboys, until his middle sc ...

, who rushed for 102 yards and also added a touchdown run.

Scoring summary

References

External links

Game summary
at

Box score
via newspapers.com {{USC Trojans bowl game navbox

Redbox Bowl Boston College Eagles football bowl games USC Trojans football bowl games December 2009 sports events in the United States 2009 in sports in California 2009 in San Francisco