The 2009

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 ...

was the 21st edition of the 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 ...

, played at Sun Devil Stadium in

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

. The game matched the

Iowa State Cyclones The Iowa State Cyclones are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Iowa State University, located in Ames. The university is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams (6 men's an ...

against the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

and kicked off at 6:00 PM US EST on Thursday, December 31, 2009. The game was telecast on the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...

and simulcast in Iowa State's home market (Ames/Des Moines, Iowa) by

WOI-DT WOI-DT (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, United States, serving the Des Moines area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside CW affiliate KCWI-TV (channel 23), also licensed to Ames. Both statio ...

, the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

affiliate formerly owned by the university. The game marked the Cyclones' first postseason trip since 2005, and Minnesota's third Insight Bowl appearance in the last four years. The Gophers lost in 2008 to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

and in 2006 to

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 ...

. Iowa State played in the 2000 Insight Bowl, beating

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

37–29. Cyclones first-year coach

Paul Rhoads Paul Robert Rhoads (born February 2, 1967) is an American college football coach. He is currently an analyst at Ohio State Buckeyes football, Ohio State. A long-time Power Five conferences, major conference assistant coach and head coach, he is ...

turned around a team that finished 2–10 in 2008 and was winless in eight Big 12 games. Iowa State's last bowl appearance was a 27–24 loss to TCU in the

2005 Houston Bowl The 2005 EV1.net Houston Bowl was the sixth and final edition of the college football bowl games and was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The game pitted the Iowa State Cyclones from the Big 12 Conference and the TCU Horned Frogs f ...

, now the

Texas Bowl The Texas Bowl is an annual postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game first held in 2006 in Houston, Texas. Each edition of the bowl has been played at NRG Stadium, previously known as Reliant Stadium. The bowl replaced ...

. Given the relative close proximity between them, the two schools have played each other a total of 25 times. Minnesota has dominated the matchup holding the series lead 22–2–1 until the bowl game. However, only one of the games has been played in Iowa and the two teams have only played each other three times since 1924, due to the discontinuation of the series after the controversial death of

Jack Trice John G. Trice (May 12, 1902 – October 8, 1923) was a football player who became the first African-American athlete for Iowa State College. Trice died due to injuries suffered during a college football game against the University of Minnesota ...

(the first African-American to play for the then Big 6 Conference), which was caused by the injuries he suffered during the 1923 game between these two teams. The last meeting between the opponents was a 53–29 Gophers victory in 1997. This was the first bowl game played between the two schools.

Game summary

The Gophers were paced by receiver Da'Jon McKnight, who led both teams with seven catches for 124 yards. With only a few minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Minnesota head coach

Tim Brewster Tim Brewster (born October 13, 1960) is an American football coach and former player who is currently the tight ends coach for the University of Colorado. He also served as the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator for the North Carolina ...

replaced starting quarterback

Adam Weber Adam Weber (born August 3, 1987) is a former American football quarterback. He was signed by the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2011. He played college football at Minnesota, where he finished his career as the Gophers' all-time lea ...

with backup

MarQueis Gray MarQueis Gray (born November 7, 1989) is a former American football tight end. He played college football at Minnesota, and was originally signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2013. He has also been a member of the Cle ...

in order to run a play out of the

Wildcat formation Wildcat formation describes a formation for the offense in football in which the ball is snapped not to the quarterback but directly to a player of another position lined up at the quarterback position. (In most systems, this is a running back, b ...

, in which the Gophers had used Gray with some success during the regular season. While running a

bootleg play In American football, a bootleg play is a play in which the quarterback runs with the ball in the direction of either sideline behind the line of scrimmage. This can be accompanied by a play action, or fake hand off of the ball to a running bac ...

, Gray fumbled the ball at the Iowa State 15-yard line; the fumble was recovered by Iowa State defensive back Ter'ran Benton, preventing Minnesota from taking a late fourth-quarter lead with either a field goal or 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 Amer ...

, and allowing Iowa State to run out the clock. Iowa State quarterback Austen Arnaud threw for 216 yards and a touchdown, adding 77 rushing yards and an additional touchdown and tallying a

passer rating Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football Leag ...

of 140.2, as the Cyclones got their first bowl win since the

2004 Independence Bowl The 2004 Independence Bowl was a post-season college football bowl game between the Iowa State Cyclones and the Miami RedHawks on December 28, 2004, at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. It was the twenty-ninth time the Independence Bo ...

. Weber finished the day with 261 passing yards, one touchdown, one

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team ...

, and a passer rating of 128.8. The game was Minnesota's third straight bowl loss, a streak that eventually extended to seven before the Gophers defeated

Central Michigan Central Michigan, also called Mid Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As its name implies, it is the middle area of the Lower Peninsula. Lower Michigan is said to resemble a mitten, and Mid Michigan cor ...

in the 2015 Quick Lane Bowl. The game was also Minnesota's third straight loss in the Insight Bowl in particular, a new record for that bowl.

Scoring summary

References

{{Minnesota Golden Gophers bowl game navbox

Guaranteed Rate Bowl Iowa State Cyclones football bowl games Minnesota Golden Gophers football bowl games Sports in Tempe, Arizona