1981 Gator Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Date | December 28, 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Season | 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Stadium | Gator Bowl Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||
Location | Jacksonville, Florida | ||||||||||||||||||||
MVP | TB Kelvin Bryant (North Carolina) TB Ethan Horton (North Carolina) RB Gary Anderson (Arkansas) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Referee | Thomas E. Thamert (CIFOA) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 71,009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||||
Announcers | Al Michaels and Ara Parseghian | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 1981 Gator Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on December 28, 1981, at Gator Bowl Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. The game pitted the Arkansas Razorbacks and the North Carolina Tar Heels. The game was played under foggy conditions, it was 57 degrees at kickoff, but as the game progressed fog came in and made it worse as the game rolled on to the end.
The Razorbacks started the season with three straight wins before a loss to TCU (who finished 2-7-2), though they rebounded to beat Texas Tech before facing off against #1 Texas at home. In that game, they won 42-11, which made them rise to #12 in the polls. A loss to Houston made them fall to #20, but they rebounded to #16 with three straight victories before losing to SMU at home to finish their season fourth in the Southwest Conference and out of the polls. This was their fifth straight bowl appearance and eighth in 11 years. This was their first Gator Bowl since 1960.
The Tar Heels began the season ranked #13, and they responded by winning their first six games of the season, rising to #3 in the polls. But the Tar Heels would finish the season 3-2, with losses to South Carolina (31-13), and #2 Clemson (10-8) and victories over Maryland, Virginia, and Duke while finishing 2nd in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels were invited to their third straight bowl game (their ninth in eleven years) and first Gator Bowl since 1979.
North Carolina outrushed Arkansas, with 283 yards to their 89. The Razorbacks outthrew the Tar Heels 307 to 53, but they also turned the ball over twice while the Tar Heels turned it over once, with 21 first downs to the Hogs' 16. The two MVPs for North Carolina were Kelvin Bryant and Ethan Horton. Bryant rushed for 148 yards on 27 carries while catching 3 passes for 24 yards, while Horton rushed for 244 yards on 27 carries. For Arkanasas, Gary Anderson was named MVP, as he caught 5 passes for 85 yards. [1]
The Razorbacks would go to six more bowl games in the decade, while the Tar Heels would reach three more. The Razorbacks have not returned since this game, while the Tar Heels returned to the Gator Bowl in 1993.
William Mack Brown is an American college football coach. He is currently in his second stint as the head football coach for the University of North Carolina, where he first coached from 1988 until departing in 1997, when he left Chapel Hill to become head coach for the University of Texas. In 2018, Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Two days after Carolina fired Larry Fedora in November 2018, Brown was announced to return as the Tar Heels' head coach after a five-year hiatus from coaching, which he spent as an ESPN analyst.
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The 1981 Arkansas Razorbacks football team represented the University of Arkansas during the 1981 NCAA Division I-A football season. The biggest win of the year was against a #1 Texas team, which the Razorbacks were rivals with already. Although unranked, the Razorbacks came out on top by 31 points, ending Texas' run at the top of the polls.
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The 1982 Sun Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game that featured the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Texas Longhorns.
The 1984 Liberty Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game played on December 27, 1984, at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. The 26th edition of the Liberty Bowl pitted the Auburn Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The 1980 Gator Bowl was an American college football bowl game played on December 29, 1980, at Gator Bowl Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. The game pitted the Pittsburgh Panthers and the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The 2022 Liberty Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 28, 2022, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The 64th annual Liberty Bowl, the game featured the Kansas Jayhawks from the Big 12 Conference and the Arkansas Razorbacks from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The game began at 4:35 p.m. CST and was aired on ESPN. It was one of the 2022–23 bowl games concluding the 2022 FBS football season. The primary sponsor of the game was automotive store AutoZone and the contest was officially named the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
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