The 2010 Capital One Bowl was the sixty-fourth 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 the
Citrus Bowl in
Orlando, Florida
Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
. The game was played on January 1 and matched the
LSU Tigers against the
Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State won the game 19–17 after a 21-yard
field goal by Penn State kicker Collin Wagner with 57 seconds left in the game.
Although the game marked LSU's third appearance in the Capital One Bowl and Penn State's fifth, it was the first time the two teams faced each other in the bowl's history, and only the second time the two teams met overall (the first being the
1974 Orange Bowl). The two teams represented the highest ranked
SEC team and
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...
team not appearing in a
Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl game.
The game was notable for its poor field conditions. Eight state
high school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
championship games had been played at the stadium in recent weeks, but the turf was replaced immediately after the last games on December 19. The
Champs Sports Bowl, played ten days later, badly damaged the new turf. The grounds crew worked frantically over the next three days in an attempt to get the field in shape for the Capital One Bowl, but ultimately failed. As a result, this was the last Capital One Bowl to be played on grass as
artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...
was installed at the Citrus Bowl several months later.
Game summary
Penn State coach
Joe Paterno
Joseph Vincent Paterno (; December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012), sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football, Penn ...
got his record 24th bowl win and handed
Les Miles his first loss in five bowls as LSU coach. A driving
rainstorm
Rain is a form of precipitation where water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. ...
turned the field into a mud bowl. Bad footing and dropped passes were normal in the first half, and PSU fumbled the snap exchange twice though both were recovered by the offense.
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 ...
Daryll Clark finished the game with 216 yards passing and one
touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...
pass. LSU signal caller
Jordan Jefferson threw for 202 yards 1 TD and 1 Interception, however the Tigers were held to just 41 total yards rushing. Collin Wagner's 21-yard field goal with 57 seconds left sealed the victory for the Nittany Lions.
It was Joe Paterno's 24th career bowl victory, extending his own
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
record. It had been the fourth win for Penn State in their last five bowl games.
Scoring summary
References
{{Penn State Nittany Lions bowl game navbox
Capital One Bowl
Citrus Bowl (game)
LSU Tigers football bowl games
Penn State Nittany Lions football bowl games
Capital One Bowl
Capital One Bowl