2003 Orange Bowl

2003 FedEx Orange Bowl
2003 FedEx Orange Bowl
69th Orange Bowl; BCS Bowl Game
Iowa Hawkeyes	USC Trojans
(11–1)	(10–2)
Big Ten	Pac-10
17	38
Head coach: ; Kirk Ferentz	Head coach: ; Pete Carroll
Date	January 2, 2003
Season	2002
Stadium	Pro Player Stadium
Location	Miami Gardens, Florida
MVP	Carson Palmer (USC QB)
Favorite	USC by 4.5 (55.5)
National anthem	PHIL PHIL MM.
Referee	Jack Childress (ACC)
Halftime show	Default, Shaggy
Attendance	75,971
United States TV coverage
Network	ABC
Announcers	Tim Brant (play-by-play) ; Ed Cunningham (analyst) ; Sam Ryan (sideline)
Nielsen ratings	9.7
Orange Bowl
< 2002	2004 >

The 2003 FedEx Orange Bowl was the 69th edition of the college football bowl game, played at Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Thursday, January 2. It matched the third-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes of the Big Ten Conference and the USC Trojans of the Pacific-10 Conference. Tied at halftime, favored USC pulled away in the second half to win, 38–17.^[3]

Televised in the United States on ABC, the game was part of the 2002–03 Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season and represented the concluding game of the season for both teams.

Teams

Prior to the BCS, the New Year's Day pairings never would have occurred. The Rose Bowl normally features the champions of the Big Ten (in 2002, the Ohio State Buckeyes) and the Pac-10. However, because the Buckeyes had finished No. 2 in the BCS, they were set to play in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship against the Miami Hurricanes.^[4]

The Orange Bowl had the next pick after the Fiesta, and No. 3 (#5 BCS) Iowa was chosen. The Rose Bowl had the next BCS selection. The next, best available team to choose was No. 8 (#7 BCS) Oklahoma, who won the Big 12 Championship Game, to play Pac-10 winner Washington State in the Rose Bowl. When it came time for the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl to make a second pick, both wanted USC. However, a BCS rule stated that if two bowls want the same team, the bowl with the higher payoff has the option.^[5] The Orange Bowl immediately extended an at-large bid to the #5 Trojans and paired them with at-large #3 Iowa in a Big Ten/Pac-10 "Rose Bowl" matchup in the Orange Bowl.^[5] Rose Bowl committee executive director Mitch Dorger was not pleased with the results.^[5] This left the Sugar Bowl with #14 BCS Florida State, the winner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Notre Dame at 10–2 and No. 9 in the BCS standings was invited to the Gator Bowl. Kansas State at No. 8 also was left out.

Iowa Hawkeyes

The Hawkeyes tied for the Big Ten conference championship with Ohio State, and they did not meet this season. Iowa's only setback was a five-point loss to in-state rival Iowa State in mid-September.

USC Trojans

On October 5, in the 300th game for USC on live television, the Trojans lost 30–27 in overtime at Washington State. The Cougars scored with 1:50 left to play to force overtime. The two tied for first place in the Pac-10, but the Cougars won the tie-breaker by virtue of the head-to-head victory. The final game of the conference season was moved to December 2, with WSU at UCLA. Originally it was thought that the Bruins would be the team playing for the Rose Bowl. A 52–21 loss to USC put the Bruins out of contention and the Trojans and Cougars in.^[6] The Cougars defeated UCLA 48–27 in Pasadena to advance to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day; it was the final game for UCLA head coach Bob Toledo, who was soon fired.

This was only the second time a Pac-10 team appeared in the Orange Bowl; eighteen years earlier, Washington won in January 1985.

Game summary

Scoring

First quarter

Iowa – C. J. Jones 100-yard kickoff return (Nate Kaeding kick)
USC – Justin Fargas 4-yard run (Ryan Killeen kick)
Iowa – Kaeding 35-yard field goal

Second quarter

USC – Killeen 35-yard field goal

Third quarter

USC – Williams 18-yard pass from Carson Palmer (Killeen kick)
USC – Fargas 50-yard run (Killeen kick)

Fourth quarter

USC – Sultan McCullough 5-yard run (Killeen kick)
USC – Sunny Byrd 6-yard run (Killeen kick)
Iowa – Maurice Brown 18-yard pass from Brad Banks (Kaeding kick)

Source:^[7]

Statistics

Statistics	IOWA	USC
First downs	18	30
Plays–yards	58–323	80–550
Rushes–yards	22–119	49–247
Passing yards	204	303
Passing: comp–att–int	15–36–1	21–31–0
Time of possession	21:54	38:06

Source:^[7]

Team	Category	Player	Statistics
Iowa	Passing	Brad Banks	15/36, 204 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT
	Rushing	Fred Russell	9 car, 45 yds
	Receiving	Dallas Clark	4 rec, 97 yds
USC	Passing	Carson Palmer	21/31, 303 yds, 1 TD
	Rushing	Justin Fargas	20 car, 122 yds, 2 TD
	Receiving	Mike Williams	6 rec, 99 yds, 1 TD

References

^ "Orange Bowl Odds: College football". Vegasinsider. January 1, 2003. p. C10. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "BCS Game Results". orangebowl.org. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on June 2, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2008.
^ "Iowa (3) 17, USC (5) 38". SI.com. January 3, 2003. Archived from the original on January 4, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2008.
^ 2002 BCS Standings
^ ^a ^b ^c Rosenblatt, Richard – BCS: Orange Bowl has a Rosy look Associated Press, December 9, 2002
^ Whiteside, Kelly – USC biggest question mark of teams jockeying for BCS. USA Today, December 2, 2002. Archived November 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b "Game-by-game recaps: 2003" (PDF). 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl media guide. January 2019. p. 45.

[ppglatln-1] "Orange Bowl Odds: College football". Vegasinsider. January 1, 2003. p. C10. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2020.

[attendance-2] "BCS Game Results". orangebowl.org. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on June 2, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2008.

[2003_Orange_Bowl_recap-3] "Iowa (3) 17, USC (5) 38". SI.com. January 3, 2003. Archived from the original on January 4, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2008.

[4] 2002 BCS Standings

[ROSYORANGE-5] Rosenblatt, Richard – BCS: Orange Bowl has a Rosy look Associated Press, December 9, 2002

[6] Whiteside, Kelly – USC biggest question mark of teams jockeying for BCS. USA Today, December 2, 2002. Archived November 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

[gbgmrec-7] "Game-by-game recaps: 2003" (PDF). 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl media guide. January 2019. p. 45.

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v t e 2002–03 NCAA football bowl game season
New Orleans (Dec. 17) GMAC (Dec. 18) Tangerine (Dec. 23) Las Vegas (Dec. 25) Hawai'i (Dec. 25) Motor City (Dec. 26) Insight (Dec. 26) Houston (Dec. 27) Independence (Dec. 27) Holiday (Dec. 27) Alamo (Dec. 28) Continental Tire (Dec. 28) Seattle (Dec. 30) Music City (Dec. 31) Humanitarian (Dec. 31) Sun (Dec. 31) Silicon Valley (Dec. 31) Liberty (Dec. 31) Peach (Dec. 31) San Francisco (Dec. 31) Cotton (Jan. 1) Outback (Jan. 1) Gator (Jan. 1) Capital One Bowl (Jan. 1)
Bowl Championship Series games: Rose (Jan. 1) Sugar (Jan. 1) Orange (Jan. 2) Fiesta (Jan. 3)
All-Star Games: East–West Shrine Game (Jan. 11) Senior Bowl (Jan. 18)

v t e Orange Bowl
History & conference tie-ins	History Miami Orange Bowl Hard Rock Stadium College Football Playoff Broadcasters Atlantic Coast Conference Big Ten Conference Southeastern Conference Notre Dame
Games	1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 (January) 1996 (December) 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 (January) 2014 (December) 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 (January) 2021 (December) 2022 2023
Notes	The game was also the national title game (Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, or Bowl Championship Series) in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2005. There was an Orange Bowl in January and December in 1996, 2014, and 2021. The 2015, 2018, and 2021 (December) editions were College Football Playoff semifinals.