Beating Alabama, holding off the Gators: These are Louisville football's 5 best bowl wins
For the third time in four years, Louisville football has earned a bowl game appearance, facing off against former Ohio River Rival Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl at 11 a.m. Saturday in Boston. It’s the program’s 25th time making a bowl with trips ranging from Miami for the 2007 Orange Bowl to the 1977 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
U of L is 11-12-1 in bowl games and 2-3 in the last five postseason contests. The Cardinals have had some big wins over the years, which includes victories over storied football programs like Alabama and Miami.
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Here’s a look at five of Louisville’s best bowl wins in program history:
1991 Fiesta Bowl: Louisville 34, Alabama 7
The contest pitted two of legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant’s former assistant coaches against one another in Louisville head coach Howard Schnellenberger and Gene Stallings, who was in his first season as Alabama’s head coach. Controversy also surrounded the game with multiple teams boycotting the Fiesta Bowl after Arizona voted down making Martin Luther King Day a state holiday. Louisville (10-1-1) and Alabama, however, accepted the invitation.
A nine-point underdog coming into the game, the Cardinals made quick work of the Crimson Tide, scoring 25 points in the first quarter thanks to two touchdown passes from Browning Nagle. The Louisville quarterback and bowl co-MVP ended the game with three TD passes and an interception — a pick-six by Charles Garner — while going 20 for 33 for 451 yards. At the time, it was the most yards given up by an Alabama defense that was ranked No. 1 defending the pass that year.
Meanwhile, Louisville’s defense shut out the Crimson Tide’s offense and recorded eight sacks. The bowl is U of L’s lone win over Alabama in four meetings.
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2013 Athletic Bowl: Louisville 36, Miami 9
A year before becoming ACC mates, Louisville (12-1) and Miami faced off in the Athletic Bowl. John Wallace accounted for 12 points in the win, kicking three field goals of 36, 43 and 42 yards while making three extra points. Louisville’s dominant defensive performance held the Hurricanes to a total of 174 offensive yards, while the Cardinals amassed 554 yards.
In what would be U of L quarterback Teddy Bridgewater’s final game with the program, he threw for a career-high 447 yards and three TDs on 35-for-45 passing, ending the season with a then-school record 31 TD passes in a single season. DeVante Parker was on the receiving end of most of Bridgewater’s passing yardage with 142 yards and a score on nine receptions.
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2013 Sugar Bowl: Louisville 33, Florida 23
Coming into this game, Florida’s defense had only given up 12.9 points per outing during the 2012 season. The Cardinals (11-2), who averaged 31 points, put up 14 points in the first quarter alone on a 38-yard pick-six from Terell Floyd and a 1-yard score from Jeremy Wright. Bridgewater added on two more scores and threw for 266 yards, earning MVP honors in Louisville’s first-ever Sugar Bowl appearance.
The win was Louisville’s first over the Gators after previous losses in 1980 (13-0) and 1992 (31-17). Eli Rogers and Damian Copeland aided in the effort by averaging 15.5 yards per catch in the game.
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1993 Liberty Bowl: Louisville 18, Michigan State 7
Newly appointed Louisville head football coach Jeff Brohm was named the MVP after going 19 for 29 with a touchdown for 197 yards while adding 25 more yards on nine carries while playing with a broken finger on his throwing hand in the win over Michigan State. All three phases scored for Louisville, which had a 31-yard field goal and safety in the first and fourth quarters, respectively.
The Cardinals rushed for 172 yards, led by running back Ralph Dawkins, who had 88 yards and a TD on 14 carries.
It was a strong end to a season where U of L went undefeated at home for the fourth time in program history, going 8-3 on the year and ranked 24th in the final AP poll.
2001 Liberty Bowl: Louisville 28, BYU 10
From sponsors like St. Jude to Axa Equitable Life Insurance Company, no other bowl game has hosted Louisville more than the Liberty Bowl (1993, 2000, 2001, 2004). After U of L lost to Colorado State 22-17 in the Liberty Bowl in 2000, the team downed BYU in the bowl to finish 11-2 in 2001. It was only the second time U of L reached double-digit wins in a season.
The victory was also significant because it was Cardinals head coach John L. Smith’s first bowl win with the program after three prior failed attempts. Dave Ragone, now an offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons, helped his coach break the streak by throwing three TD passes with each going to a different receiver. Deion Branch, the Cardinals’ current director of player development and alumni relations, caught a 34-yard score and ended the game with 88 yards on six receptions. As fate would have it, 21 years later, Branch would be the team's interim head coach for its latest bowl game.
Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football's 5 best bowl wins: Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl
