Orlando, Fla. ? N.C. State’s Philip Rivers said he wouldn’t have wanted it to end any other way.
The senior quarterback left the field Monday at the Tangerine Bowl beaming, with a winner’s smile. He also left it in the fourth quarter with senior wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery while State fans at Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium thundered their affection for two players who have meant so much to the school and the football program the past four years.
The Wolfpack (8-5) was on its way to a 56-26 thumping of Kansas, a victory that eased some of the sting of late-season losses to Florida State and Maryland. For NCSU coach Chuck Amato, for the Pack faithful, this was the proper sendoff for Rivers, Cotchery and the other seniors in their final college game.
“I hate to know it’s my last time ever,” Rivers said. “But if I had to pick a way for it to come to an end, I would want it to be just like this.
“It was a lot of fun for me, but all of us seniors can walk away proud, walk away winners. And it meant so much to do it with Jerricho.”
Rivers, the 2003 ACC player of the year, has had many a splendid game in his career. The last may have been his best. He completed 37 of 45 passes for a career-best 475 yards and matched his career high with five touchdowns to earn game MVP honors.
Predictably, Rivers wouldn’t take the victory stand alone to accept his award. Cotchery had to come up, too.
“We’re both from Alabama and came in together,” Rivers said. “We’re really close. Sometimes, the attention I’ve gotten has overshadowed him, so to include him in the recognition was great.”
Cotchery, as reliable a receiver as any the Pack has had, caught 13 passes for 171 yards and a touchdown. By game’s end, he held school records in career receptions (200) and 100-yard receiving games (15), passing former All-America Torry Holt.
Rivers, given ample time to throw and moving well in the pocket, had TD passes of 45 and 14 yards to Richard Washington, a 40-yarder to Brian Clark and a 3-yarder to T.A. McLendon. His fifth was a 21-yarder to Cotchery that gave the Pack a 49-26 lead early in the fourth, and State pushed the margin to 56-26 on McLendon’s bullish 26-yard run with 10:06 left.
Amato allowed Rivers and Cotchery to stay in the game. On the next possession, Rivers completed throws of 8 and 27 yards to Cotchery, allowing Cotchery to join former FSU star Peter Warrick as the only ACC players with 200 career receptions and 3,000 receiving yards.
Only then, with 7:48 left, did the two leave the game during a timeout as State fans in the crowd of 26,482 roared.
“Those two young men, for what they’ve done, deserved every possible record they could get,” Amato said. “I do not want anyone to think I was running up the score. I told our staff, ‘We owe it to them.’ “
Kansas coach Mark Mangino said he saw nothing wrong with it.
“They have a player they really love in Rivers, and they wanted to showcase him on the national stage,” he said. “That’s fine.”
The Jayhawks (6-7) closed with 463 yards in total offense as quarterback Bill Whittemore passed for 243 yards and two scores and ran for 84 yards and another TD.
But those numbers were dwarfed by State, which had 653 yards in total offense, averaging 9.6 yards a play. The Pack’s constant shifts and motion had the Jayhawks guessing all game, as State built a 21-7 first-period cushion, led 28-10 at the half and then 42-20 after three quarters.
McLendon had a 1-yard TD run on the Pack’s “Rooster” play. Rivers took a snap in the shotgun, then slipped the ball between McLendon’s legs. McLendon hesitated, then plowed in, just as he did last year as State ripped Notre Dame 28-6 in the Gator Bowl.
“We kept them on their toes all night,” added offensive tackle Sean Locklear, another Pack senior. “They were yelling, ‘pass’ when we would run and ‘run’ when we passed. They didn’t have any idea what we were going to do.”
Rivers completed pass after pass, piling up 268 yards in the first half. He used all his receivers, with Washington and McLendon both grabbing seven balls, Clark five and Tramain Hall four.
“He’s a different type quarterback than anybody we’ve faced,” Kansas linebacker Banks Floodman said. “He sits in the pocket, and he can pick defenses apart.”
The Jayhawks sensed a possible comeback when Whittemore threw for a TD on the first possession of the second half. But the Pack responded by going 88 yards in seven plays, with Rivers hitting Clark for the 40-yarder.
Moments later, State’s Manny Lawson blocked a punt, setting up a 10-yard TD run by tailback Reggie Davis. The rout was on.
“You never know if you will be able to blow the doors wide open and hit on everything,” Rivers said. “We were just clicking on all cylinders.”
The last time the Pack played in the Tangerine Bowl, in 2001, it was beaten 34-19 by Pittsburgh. The last time State played a game, on Nov. 22, it was beaten 26-24 by Maryland.
“But this,” Rivers said, “was a whole lot of fun. The atmosphere was great. This is the way you want it to end.”
