The 1994 Independence Bowl was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

postseason

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

between the

TCU Horned Frogs The TCU Horned Frogs are the athletic teams that represent Texas Christian University. The 18 varsity teams participate in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I and in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for football, competi ...

and the

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as Wahoos or Hoos, are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic Coast C ...

Background

TCU were co-champions of the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

with four other teams, due to Texas A&M being ineligible for the conference title due to sanctions. This was TCU's first conference championship in 35 years. This was also TCU's first bowl appearance in 10 years. Virginia was third in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

and in a bowl game for the second time in the calendar year of 1994. After a loss to #4 Florida State in their first game, they won six straight games, jumping up to #13 before losing to Duke. They went 2–1 after that, with a loss to NC State making them fall from #13 to #18.

Game summary

In a rain drenched mess laid the Frogs, who failed to win a bowl game once again, the fourth since 1959. The Frogs had a 411.6 yards per game offense, but on this day were limited to 191, as Virginia limited the junior tailback

André Davis André N. Davis (born June 12, 1979) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver and kick returner in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Virginia Tech, earning first-team All- ...

to 97 yards on 24 carries and made quarterback Max Knake (8 for 24 with 65 yards and 1 touchdown and 1 interception) ineffective. The Cavaliers utilized the rushing attack of

Charles Way Charles Christopher Way (born December 27, 1972) is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for five seasons for the New York Giants. He has been the Second Gentleman of New Je ...

and Kevin Brooks, who ran for 114 and 90 yards, respectively.

Mike Groh Albert Michael Groh III (born December 19, 1971) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the wide receivers coach for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the wide receivers coach ...

went 14 for 23 with 2 interception and 1 touchdown. When asked what he would have done differently after the game, Knake responded "I'd probably stay out of the casinos before having to get up at 8:30 the next morning. . . . The truth of it is, I played terrible."

Aftermath

While TCU wouldn't make another bowl game under Sullivan, they would return to a bowl game

four years later ''Four Years Later'', originally titled ''Four Years'' is an eight-part Australian-Indian romance drama, premiering on SBS and SBS on Demand on 2 October 2024. It is created, co-written, and executive produced by Mithila Gupta, and stars Shah ...

. Virginia would reach bowl games in five of Welsh's six final years, including a conference title in 1995.

Statistics

References

Independence Bowl The Independence Bowl is a post-season National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that is played annually each December at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Independence Bow ...

Independence Bowl TCU Horned Frogs football bowl games Virginia Cavaliers football bowl games December 1994 sports events in the United States 1994 in sports in Louisiana {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub