This Date in College Football Belt History – September 16

Posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 and is filed under CFB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

wilson-leather-official-ncaa-football The top-ranked, 1-0 Alabama Crimson Tide of coach Paul “Bear” Bryant traveled to Missouri to battle the 11^thranked, 1-0 Missouri Tigers coached by Warren Powers in his first year. Missouri was coming off a 3-0 upset of the 5^th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Alabama rallied for three 2^ndhalf touchdowns to claim a 38-20 victory over the Tigers to retain The Belt. The 1^stquarter belonged to the Crimson Tide as RB Major Ogilvie scored on a 23-yard touchdown run & QB Jeff Rutledge threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to TE Rick Neal. When PK Alan McElroy hit a 26-yard field goal for a 17-0 lead with 12:07 to play in the half, it looked like the Crimson Tide would roll to an easy victory. Missouri got on the board with a 4-yard touchdown run from RB Earl Gant midway through the quarter. Missouri’s All-Big 8 QB Phil Bradley broke loose for a 69-yard touchdown run with 3:44 left in the half as the Tigers closed to within 4 points at 17-13. On the next series, Missouri’s All-Big 8 CB Russ Calabrese intercepted Rutledge & returned the pick 30 yards giving the Tigers a 20-17 halftime lead. The 3^rdquarter belonged to Alabama as Crimson Tide’s All-SEC DE E.J. Junior blocked a punt that LB Rickey Gilliland returned 35 yards for a touchdown that gave the Crimson Tide a lead they would not relinquish. Late in the quarter, RB Tony Nathan pushed in from 1 yard putting Alabama in front 31-20. On the first play of the 4^thquarter, Rutledge threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to RB Lou Ikner to finish the scoring. Rutledge finished with 70 yards passing with 2 touchdowns but 2 interceptions. Bradley threw for 114 yards with an interception as well as rushing for 60 yards with a touchdown & All-American TE Kellen Winslow had 3 catches for 49 yards in the loss. Alabama finished the season 11-1; SEC Champions & National Champions while the Tigers finished 8-4, ranked 15^th nationally. Missouri would play for The Belt again in 1991.