The 1986 Liberty 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 ...

played on December 29, 1986, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. The 28th edition of the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic Cit ...

, the game featured the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college athletics, college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 21 (9 men's, 12 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and com ...

and the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Colleg ...

Background

The Golden Gophers were making their second straight bowl appearance, the first time they had gone to bowl games in consecutive appearances since 1961–62. One highlight in the season was beating #2 ranked Michigan in Ann Arbor. This was their first ever appearance in the Liberty Bowl. As for Tennessee, though they did not repeat as SEC champions like they did the previous season, the Volunteers won four straight games to overcome a 2–5 start, finishing 6th in the SEC. This was their six straight bowl appearance and first Liberty Bowl appearance since 1974.

Game summary

Joey Clinkscales William Joseph Clinkscales (born May 21, 1964) is an American professional football executive and former player who recently served as the director of player personnel for the Vegas Vipers of the XFL. Clinkscales was previously the director of ...

caught an 18 yard touchdown pass from Jeff Francis to give Tennessee a 7–0 lead. Fullback William Howard caught a 23 yard pass from Francis to make it 14–0. Chip Lohmiller made it 14–3 on his 27 yard field goal. In the second half, Ricky Foggie scored on an 11 yard touchdown run. Fullback

Darrell Thompson Darrell Alexander Thompson (born November 23, 1967) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a running back for five seasons with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college ...

scored on the conversion attempt to make it 14–11. Lohmiller added another field goal to tie the game at 14 with 13:23 left in the fourth quarter. But the Vols went on a five-play, 66-yard drive that culminated with a Clinkscales catch from 15 yards out to give them a 21–14 lead with 11:21 left that sealed the victory as the Gophers failed to respond from there. Francis went 22 of 31 for 243 yards, and he was named MVP. Clinkscales had seven catches for 72 yards. For the Golden Gophers, Foggie went 10 of 25 for 136 yards.

Statistics

Aftermath

Neither team has appeared in the Liberty Bowl since this game. Minnesota wouldn't play in a bowl game again until the1999 sun bowl.

References

{{Tennessee Volunteers bowl game navbox

Liberty Bowl Minnesota Golden Gophers football bowl games Tennessee Volunteers football bowl games December 1986 sports events in the United States 1986 in sports in Tennessee