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 is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...
, and was played at
AT&T Park
Oracle Park is a ballpark in the South of Market, San Francisco, SoMa district of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). The stadium stands along San Francisco Bay ...
in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. The game started at 5:00 p.m.
PST on Saturday, December 26,
2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
. The game was telecast on
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
.
USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
defeated
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
24–13.
The presenting sponsor of the 2009 Emerald Bowl was
Diamond Foods
Diamond Foods, Inc. 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 ...
, 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
BCS may refer to:
American football
* Bowl Championship Series, a system that selected matchups for major college football bowl games between 1998 and 2013
* BCS conferences, the six FBS conferences with automatic major bowl bids under that sys ...
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 United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
defeated USC 47–20, USC's worst loss under
Pete Carroll
Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American professional American football, football coach who is the head coach for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as head coach for the NCAA's ...
up to that time. This was followed by an even worse loss against
Stanford
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
in the
Coliseum
The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ...
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 is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
. 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
Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. It was founded in 1870 as Colorado Agr ...
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, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
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 colloquially 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 in ...
quarterback
The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...
Matt Barkley
Matthew Montgomery Barkley (born September 8, 1990) is an American professional football quarterback. He played college football for the USC Trojans, setting set the Pac-12 Conference season record for touchdown passes as a junior. Due to suffer ...
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 an American football running back. He played college football for the Boston College Eagles and Temple Owls.
Early life
Harris played Pop Warner football for the Normandy Cowboys, until his middle s ...
, who rushed for 102 yards and also added a touchdown run.
Scoring summary
References
External links
Game summaryat
ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
Box scorevia newspapers.com
{{USC Trojans bowl game navbox
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 ...
Redbox Bowl
Boston College Eagles football bowl games
USC Trojans football bowl games
December 2009 sports events in the United States
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 ...
2009 in San Francisco