The 2004

Champs Sports Bowl The Pop-Tarts Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played in Orlando, Florida, at Camping World Stadium. Originally commissioned as the Sunshine Classic, it has undergone many name changes due to sponsorship rights. The bowl is o ...

was the 15th edition of the

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 ...

and was played on December 21, 2004, featuring the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The teams have also been nicknamed the ...

, and the

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East ...

. This was the first version of the bowl played under the

Champs Sports Champs Sports is an American sports retail Chain store, store, operating as a subsidiary of Foot Locker. Products sold at Champs Sports include apparel, Sports equipment, equipment, footwear, and accessories. As of June 2019, there were 540 store ...

moniker and 15th overall. Syracuse of the

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

was chosen because the

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

did not have enough bowl eligible teams.

Game summary

Georgia Tech started the scoring with a 22-yard interception return for a touchdown, on the second play of scrimmage, giving Georgia Tech the early 7–0 lead. Syracuse quarterback Perry Patterson scored on a 21-yard touchdown run cutting the lead to 7–6. Tech answered with a 10-yard touchdown pass from

Reggie Ball Reginald Lewis Ball (born October 6, 1984) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback. He played college football for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and was signed by the Detroit Lions of the National Football Leag ...

to wide receiver

Calvin Johnson Calvin Johnson Jr. (born September 29, 1985) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for nine seasons with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed "Megatron" after the ''Transforme ...

, increasing Tech's lead to 14–6. Still in the first quarter, Reggie Ball threw an 80-yard touchdown pass to Nate Curry increasing the lead to 21–6. In the second quarter PJ Daniels scored on a 5-yard touchdown run, increasing the lead to 28–6. Later in the quarter, Calvin Johnson scored on a 5 yard wide receiver reverse, increasing the lead to 35–6. That was the half-time score. In the third quarter, Reggie Ball rushed for an 11-yard touchdown to increase the lead to 42–6. PJ Daniels 1-yard touchdown run increased the lead to 49–6. Perry Patterson found Steve Gregory for a 25-yard touchdown pass. The 2-point conversion was successful making the score 49–14. A Georgia Tech safety made the final margin 51–14.

Aftermath

Syracuse did not reach another bowl game again until

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. Georgia Tech reached five more in that time span, though they lost all of them. They did not win a bowl game again until

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. Syracuse announced in 2011 that they would join Georgia Tech 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 ...

, no earlier than 2014. They joined the

in 2013.

External links

*http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores104/104356/20041221NCAAFGATECH----0nr.htm {{Syracuse Orange bowl game navbox

Pop-Tarts Bowl Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football bowl games Syracuse Orange football bowl games American football competitions in Orlando, Florida December 2004 sports events in the United States

2004 in Orlando, Florida