1996 Copper Bowl
| 1996 Copper Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 27, 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Arizona Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Tucson, Arizona | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Ron Dayne (Wisconsin RB) | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1996 edition to the Copper bowl was the 8th edition to the bowl game. It featured the Wisconsin Badgers, and the Utah Utes.
Game summary
Wisconsin scored first on a 38 yard touchdown run from Mike Samuel to open a 7–0 lead. Utah's Daniel Pulsipher answered with a 24 yard field goal to make it 7–3 Wisconsin. Wisconsin's Ron Dayne scored on a 40 yard touchdown run to make it 14–3 Wisconsin.
In the second quarter, Wisconsin's Cyrill Weems intercepted a Utah pass, and returned it 82 yards for a touchdown, making it 21–3 Wisconsin. John Hall added a 38 yard field goal to make it 24–3. Ron Dayne added a 3 yard touchdown run to make it 31–3 Wisconsin at halftime. In the third quarter, Juan Johnson scored on a 1 yard run to make it 31–10. Ron Dayne's third touchdown run of the game, a 1 yarder, made the final score Wisconsin 38, Utah 10.
Freshman running back Ron Dayne would finish the game with a whopping 30 carries for 246 yards and three touchdowns, breaking the Copper Bowl rushing record and the Big Ten single-season rushing record with the accumulated yardage.[1] Ironically, this yardage (and the yardage gained in his other three bowl game appearances) is not included in Dayne's NCAA record-breaking career rushing total of 6,397 yards, as it would be for any back trying to break the record today. Dayne was named the MVP of the game.
