1974 Sugar Bowl
| 1974 Sugar Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 31, 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Tulane Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | New Orleans, Louisiana | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | FB Tony Davis (Nebraska) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Nebraska by 12.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 68,890 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Keith Jackson and Barry Switzer | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1974 Sugar Bowl was a college football bowl game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Florida Gators. This was the last Sugar Bowl played in Tulane Stadium, as it would move to the Louisiana Superdome the year after.
Background
Despite tying for fourth in the Southeastern Conference, Florida was invited to the Sugar Bowl on the basis of their early success, starting 7-1 and ranked #6 at one point. But the Gators lost two of their last three games and was only #18 by the time of the Sugar Bowl, and also the only team ranked in the bottom 20 to appear in any of the New year's Day postseason bowl games. The Cornhuskers finished second in the Big Eight Conference for the 3rd straight year, with a loss to ineligible Oklahoma to end the regular season. This was the second Sugar Bowl for both teams.[1]
Game summary
Tony Green scored first for Florida on a touchdown run in the first quarter on fourth and goal from the one. Florida added in a field goal in the second quarter to have a 10-0 lead. Nebraska decided to bench QB David Humm in the second half in favor of a running attack. As the fourth quarter began, Monte Anthony scored on a touchdown run to make it 10-7 that culminated a 99 yard drive on 18 plays. Nebraska was given a chance on their next drive, but a critical moment happened on 4th and two on the 49. Osbourne decided to go for it, and Anthony ran for three yards but most importantly got the first down. A few plays later, Nebraska tied the game on a Mike Coyle field goal with 7:12 remaining. But Florida could not concoct a drive and had to punt the ball back to the Huskers at the 25 with four minutes remaining. Nebraska went to work on a drive that covered less than two minutes and set up Coyle's kick from the Florida 29. With 2:22 remaining, Coyle kicked what turned out to be the game winning points as Nebraska held on to win their first Sugar Bowl. The running attack was evident in Nebraska as Monte Anthony went 64 yards on 15 carries for one touchdown while Tony Davis went 126 yards on 17 carries.[2]
Aftermath
Nebraska has reached two Sugar Bowls since then, 1985 and 1987. Florida has returned seven times.
Statistics
| Statistics | Nebraska | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| First Downs | 18 | 13 |
| Yards Rushing | 304 | 178 |
| Yards Passing | 16 | 97 |
| Total Yards | 320 | 275 |
| Punts-Average | 4-37.0 | 6-32.5 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 3-1 | 3-1 |
| Interceptions | 4 | 1 |
| Penalties-Yards | 1-17 | 5-41 |
