The 1997 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl game was a post-season

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 ...

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 Penn State Nittany Lions and the Texas Longhorns on January 1, 1997, at

Sun Devil Stadium Mountain America Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in Tempe, Arizona, located on the campus of Arizona State University (ASU). It is the home of the Arizona State Sun Devils football team of the Big 12 Conference. The stadium o ...

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

. Penn State defeated Texas, 38–15. The game was part of the 1996-1997 Bowl Alliance of the

1996 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Florida Gators being crowned National Champions after defeating rival Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, which was the season's designated Bowl Alliance national championship game. Flori ...

and represented the concluding game of the season for both teams. The Longhorns, who were fresh off their upset of No. 3

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in the first ever Big 12 Championship Game, went into their second straight Alliance bowl with a five-game winning streak.

Game Summary

Texas outgained Penn State 242-95 yards in the first half and posted a 12–7 lead at the half. Quarterback

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

completed 13 of 18 passes for 150 yards and Ricky Williams ran for 47 yards and a touchdown on nine carries in the first 30 minutes. However, an interception, two drives which were stopped at the Penn State 11, and a failed two-point conversion allowed the Nittany Lions to remain close. Penn State's opening score was set up by a Brown interception at the Texas 26 on the second play from scrimmage. The Lions drove to the end zone in four plays, which ended in a four-yard touchdown pass from Wally Richardson to Curtis Enis. The Longhorns bounced back and drove to the Penn State seven, and

Phil Dawson Philip Drury Dawson (born January 23, 1975) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a placekicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Longhorns football, Texas Lo ...

connected on a 28-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7–3. The Lions ended with a three-and-out on consecutive possessions and, on their first possession of the second quarter, Texas planned another solid drive and found the end zone as Williams charged ran across the goal line for a seven-yard score. The two-point conversion failed. The third quarter was the turning point in the game. Penn State scored 21 points with three rushing scores and limited the Longhorns to just a field goal. Penn State led 28–15 at the end of the third quarter. On the Lions’ final series of the third quarter, Chafie Fields set up a one-yard touchdown run by Anthony Cleary on an 85-yard double-reverse to the Texas five-yard line. Texas failed to produce any more offense as Penn State scored 10 more points to seal the 38–15 victory. Penn State outgained the Texas offense 425–360, 330–118 in the second half.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1997 Fiesta Bowl (01) Fiesta Bowl Penn State Nittany Lions football bowl games Texas Longhorns football bowl games Fiesta Bowl Bowl Alliance January 1997 sports events in the United States 1997 in sports in Arizona