Rutgers can't slow down Arizona St.
Rudy Carpenter threw for 467 yards and four touchdowns and Arizona State amassed an Insight Bowl-record 678 yards last night, holding off Rutgers for a wild 45-40 victory at Phoenix.
The teams combined for 1,210 yards, a record for a bowl game. The mark of 1,158 yards was set by Hawaii and Houston in the 2003 Hawaii Bowl.
The Scarlet Knights (7-5), in their second bowl game in school history and first since 1978, led, 33-31, after Jeremy Ito's 48-yard field goal with 12:56 to play.
But the favored Sun Devils (7-5) took the lead for good when Carpenter threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Matt Miller. The 2-point conversion pass to Brent Miller was good and Arizona State led 39-33 with 10 minutes left.
The Sun Devils scored again on an eight-play, 69-yard drive, Rudy Burgess getting his second TD on a 4-yard run to put Arizona State up, 45-33, with 4:26 remaining.
Ryan Hart's 29-yard touchdown pass to Tres Moses kept it close at 45-40 with two mintues to go, but Zach Miller recovered the onside kick and the Sun Devils ran out the clock to win consecutive bowl games for the first time since 1987.
Hart, in his final game for Rutgers, completed 24 of 38 passes for 374 yards and three scores, two to Moses.
Burgess had 103 yards in 16 carries. Ray Rice, the Knights' 18-year-old freshman, gained 108 yard in 20 attempts.
Ito kicked four field goals, including a career-long and bowl record 52-yarder.
Carpenter, a redshirt freshman who took over for injured Sam Keller eight games into the season, also had a 42-yard touchdown pass to Matt Miller, a 1-yarder to Zach Miller, and a 22-yard TD toss to Terry Richardson.
Rutgers led, 24-10, in the first half before Arizona State scored late to make it 24-17 at the break.
The Scarlet Knights went 80 yards in eight plays on the game's first possession. Hart was 4 for 4 on the drive. His 21-yarder to Moses put the ball on the 14, and his 12-yard pass to Brian Leonard made it first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. Hart threw a yard to Clark Harris for the touchdown.
Arizona State matched it with an 80-yard drive after the kickoff. Carpenter connected with Matt Miller for the 43-yard score.
Rutgers mowed through the ASU defense again on its next possession. Leonard took a short pass from Hart and gained 38 yards, then caught another and ran 31 yards down the sideline for a touchdown to put the Scarlet Knights ahead, 14-7.
Preston Jones fumbled the next time Arizona State had the ball, and Ramel Meekins recovered at the ASU 46. The subsequent Rutgers drive stalled at the Sun Devils 8, and Ito's 25-yard field goal made it 17-7.
Leonard's two-yard TD run put the Scarlet Knights up, 24-10, 2:29 before halftime.
That was plenty of time for ASU, averaging more than 500 yards per game, to go 80 yards. Carpenter tossed a 1-yard TD pass to Zach Miller to cut the lead to 24-17 with 39 seconds to go in the half.
The Sun Devils tied it on their first possession of the second half.
Champs Sports Bowl -- James Davis ran for 150 yards and a touchdown, Charlie Whitehurst scrambled for a score and No. 23 Clemson beat Colorado, 19-10, at Orlando, Fla., handing the Buffaloes their fourth consecutive loss.
Davis's 6-yard TD run with 1:38 remaining sealed a fourth straight victory for Clemson (8-4) and capped a disappointing season for Colorado (7-6).
The Buffs made it close, though, something they didn't do in their previous two games -- losses to Nebraska and Texas by a combined score of 100-6.
Backup quarterback Brian White replaced starter James Cox midway through the fourth quarter and led Colorado on a 69-yard scoring drive that made it 13-10. His 2-yard TD pass to Quinn Sypniewski ended a streak of 14 quarters without a touchdown and gave the Buffs a chance.
White rolled right on third down, then threw left to Sypniewski, who was wide open in the end zone.
But Davis and Whitehurst answered, moving the Tigers 61 yards in 4:07 to put the game away.
