The 2014 Quick Lane Bowl 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

Rutgers Scarlet Knights The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football ...

and the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels (also Carolina Tar Heels) are the college sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to ...

played on December 26, 2014, at

Ford Field Ford Field is a domed American football stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It primarily serves as the home of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), the Michigan Panthers of the United Football League (UFL), the Mid-Americ ...

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. It was the first edition of the

Quick Lane Bowl The GameAbove Sports Bowl is a post-season college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that began play in the 2014 season. The game was previously known as the Quick Lane Bowl with Ford Motor Company serving as title sponsor of the game fo ...

, replacing the

Little Caesars Pizza Bowl The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (known as the Motor City Bowl until 2009) was a post-season college football bowl game that was played annually from 1997 to 2013. The first five games (1997–2001) were played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, M ...

, and the final game of the

2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season The 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season was the highest level of college football competition in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The regular season began on August 27, 2014, and ended on ...

for both teams. For 2014 bowl season the Quick Lane Bowl had contractual tie-ins with the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

and 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 ...

. With the discontinuance of the Little Caesars Bowl, successor to the

Motor City Bowl The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (known as the Motor City Bowl until 2009) was a post-season college football bowl game that was played annually from 1997 to 2013. The first five games (1997–2001) were played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, M ...

, it was the first time since 1997 that a

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

team did not play a post-season game in Detroit. The game was sponsored by

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

through its service-center brand

Quick Lane Quick Lane Tire and Auto Center is a global automotive chain that provides oil changes, tire rotation, multi-point inspections and other express services. Currently headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, Quick Lane is owned by Ford Motor Company, the ...

Team selection

This was the seventh overall meeting between these two teams, with the series tied 3–3 coming into the game. The previous time these two teams met was in 2011.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights posted a 7–5 record (3–5 conference) in their first year competing in the Big Ten after moving over from the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

. As the regular season came to a close Rutgers officials entered into negotiations with several bowls, hoping to secure a post-season berth. Although apparently preferring the

TaxSlayer TaxSlayer LLC (formerly known as TaxSlayer.com) is a privately held tax preparation and tax software company based in Augusta, Georgia. The company offers online tax preparation technology for American consumers and tax professionals, allowing t ...

and

Music City Bowl The Music City Bowl is a post-season American college football bowl game certified by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA that has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998 in sports, 1998. Since 2020, it has been sponsored by ...

, both of which had obligations to accept Big Ten teams, Rutgers accepted when

Tom Lewand Thomas J. Lewand is a Detroit-area business leader and a former executive for the Detroit Lions. The son of lawyer and Detroit economic development leader F. Thomas Lewand, Tom Lewand began his career with the Detroit Lions in 1995. By 2008, he w ...

, president of the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

and CEO of the Quick Lane bowl, extended an invitation on December 7, 2014. With the acceptance head coach

Kyle Flood Kyle J. Flood (born January 20, 1971) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for the Texas Longhorns football team. He is also the former head football coach of the Ru ...

became the first in Rutgers history to reach a bowl game in his first three seasons.

North Carolina Tar Heels

The North Carolina Tar Heels finished the regular season 6–6 (4–4 conference) under third-year head coach

Larry Fedora Herbert Lawrence Fedora (born September 10, 1962) is an American football coach and former player who is the former coach and General manager (American football), general manager for the New Orleans Breakers (2022), New Orleans Breakers of the Un ...

. This is the first time North Carolina will play a bowl game in the state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Other possible destinations for UNC were the

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 ...

, Military Bowl, and the

St. Petersburg Bowl The Gasparilla Bowl is an annual NCAA-sanctioned post-season college football bowl game played in the Tampa Bay area. It was first played in 2008 as the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, one of several new bowl gam ...

Game summary

Scoring summary

Source: Stats
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Statistics

References

External links

Game summary
at

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

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2014 in Detroit