The 1980 Sun Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

postseason

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played on December 27 in

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, between the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

and the

Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State Bulldogs is the name given to the athletic teams of Mississippi State University, in Mississippi State, Mississippi. The university is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I. Sports sp ...

Background

An all-too-familiar loss to #9

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in the regular season finale cost the Cornhuskers the

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title and an

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

invitation, and they settled for the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

. The Bulldogs finished third in the

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behind eventual national champion

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and

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Emory Bellard Emory Dilworth Bellard (December 17, 1927 – February 10, 2011) was a college football coach. He was head coach at Texas A&M University from 1972 to 1978 and at Mississippi State University from 1979 until 1985. Bellard died on February 10, 2011 a ...

's second year as head coach, closing the regular season on a five-game winning streak. Among those November victories were a 6–3 defeat of two-time defending national champion Alabama, a 55–31 rout of

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

, and a conquest of archrival Ole Miss in the

Egg Bowl The Egg Bowl (traditionally named the “Battle for the Golden Egg”) is the name given to the Mississippi State–Ole Miss football rivalry. It is an American college football rivalry game played annually between Southeastern Conference memb ...

. All three of those big victories came at

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Game summary

Todd Brown gave Nebraska an early 7–0 lead with his 23–yard touchdown run 2:30 into the game. The Huskers scored twice in the second quarter in a span of 86 seconds on a field goal from 22 yards and an eight-yard touchdown pass from to tight end the score was Dana Moore narrowed the lead with his 47-yard field goal with 7:12 left in the third quarter, but Nebraska responded less than five minutes later on two-yard touchdown run to make it at the end of three quarters. John Bond scored the Bulldogs' first touchdown from a yard out with 11:44 remaining, but caught a touchdown pass of 52 yards from Quinn and it was it with 3:21 left. ended the scoring at with his 11-yard touchdown reception with a minute remaining, and Nebraska won by fourteen. Quinn was for 151 yards with an interception and two touchdown passes en route to being named MVP. The Cornhusker defense forced two interceptions, four lost fumbles, and Nebraska climbed to seventh in the final AP poll and Mississippi State fell to nineteenth. The attendance of 34,723 was a Sun Bowl record, aided by favorable weather.

Scoring

First quarter *Nebraska – Todd Brown 23 run (Kevin Seibel kick) Second quarter *Nebraska – Field goal, Seibel 22 *Nebraska – Jeff Finn 8 pass from Jeff Quinn (Seibel kick) Third quarter *Mississippi State – Field goal, Dana Moore 47 *Nebraska –

Andra Franklin Andra Bernard Franklin (August 22, 1959 – December 6, 2006) was an American football player, a running back in the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 NFL season, 1981 to 1984 NFL season, 1984 for the Miami Dolphins. Franklin played Co ...

2 run (Kevin Seibel kick) Fourth quarter *Mississippi State – John Bond 1 run (Moore kick) *Nebraska – Tim McCrady 52 pass from Quinn (Klein kick) *Mississippi State – Michael Haddix 11 pass from Bond (Moore kick) :

Statistics

: :

References

{{Nebraska Cornhuskers bowl game navbox

Sun Bowl Mississippi State Bulldogs football bowl games Nebraska Cornhuskers football bowl games December 1980 sports events in the United States 1980 in sports in Texas