Only one thing was wrong – the setting. See, this was the Cotton Bowl, not the national championship game they were a win away from reaching, and it wasn’t the Orange, Fiesta or Sugar Bowl like they thought they deserved.

Motivated instead of deflated, the guys from the “Show-Me State” did their best to prove they belonged in the BCS by routing Darren McFadden and Arkansas 38-7 on Tuesday. Temple led the way, rushing for 281 yards and four touchdowns, both records in the 72-year history of the Cotton Bowl.

“We were upset for a couple of days,” said Martin Rucker, Missouri’s All-American tight end. “We just felt we’d deserved, we’d earned to be in the BCS. But the Cotton Bowl is a great bowl and we were honored to be in it.”

Mizzou (12-2) was ranked No. 1 after beating Kansas in the regular season finale, then lost badly to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game – so badly that the Jayhawks wound up with an at-large berth into the Orange Bowl.

Coach Gary Pinkel kept his team’s spirits up by having them put together a list of reasons why Dallas was a great place to spend New Year’s Day. Recruiting and appeasing their largest out-of-state alumni base likely were near the top.

“They found out what a great game the Cotton Bowl is and then embraced it,” Pinkel said.

Properly focused, the only thing left for the Tigers was figuring out that No. 25 Arkansas (8-5) had loaded its defense with cornerbacks and safeties to neutralize Missouri’s Heisman Trophy finalist quarterback, Chase Daniel.

Temple cracked the code pretty early, finding no linebackers after he broke the line of scrimmage in the first half. He had three carries of 22 yards, a 38-yarder and a 41-yarder as part of his 159 yards and two touchdowns by halftime.

Temple pulled a hamstring in the third quarter and missed several series, but said he was ready to return about the same time Pinkel heard that Temple was close to the record.

He went back for just one play – a spinning, tackle-breaking 40-yard run into the end zone, then rode back to the bench on the arms of Daniel and a lineman. The lift was part-celebration, part-transportation because Temple tweaked his hamstring around the 5-yard line.

“It was one of the best runs I’ve ever seen,” Daniel said. “That was awesome.”

Daniel was 12-of-29 for a season-low 136 yards with an interception. It was his second straight game without a touchdown pass, but he didn’t care because handing off to Temple was the way to go. Daniel enjoyed it so much that he expects to be chastised by coaches for turning into a spectator; he stopped pretending to have the ball after handoffs to stand still and watch.

Temple’s final run broke the Cotton Bowl rushing record of 265 yards set by Rice’s Dicky Maegle in 1954, a performance that’s best remembered for him being awarded a touchdown when Alabama’s Tommy Lewis came off the bench and tackled him on a breakaway run.

Maegle had three touchdowns in that game, as did Texas’ Bobby Layne in 1946 and Syracuse’s Jim Brown in 1957.

Now put Temple’s name above theirs in the record book. Only one thing could top that thrill – the NCAA saying he can play next season. Missouri is asking for a medical red shirt because he hardly played as a freshman in 2004.