The 1990 Cotton Bowl Classic featured the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity college athletics, intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in NCAA Division I, ...

and the

Arkansas Razorbacks The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot (ori ...

Background

The Razorbacks won their 2nd consecutive

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

championship, attended their 6th consecutive bowl appearance and second consecutive Cotton Bowl Classic. A loss to Texas midway through the season made them fall from #7 to #18, but they bounced back to finish #10 at the end of the season. The Volunteers were co champions of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

with Auburn and Alabama (who gave the Vols their only loss) after a 5-6 campaign the previous year. It was their first Cotton Bowl Classic since

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

Game summary

Despite being outgained in yards and first downs, Tennessee edged out a win, aided by Chuck Webb's 250 yards of rushing on 26 attempts and Arkansas' three turnovers. It was a Greg Burke field goal that started off the scoring less than five minutes into the game. But Arkansas retaliated with a Barry Foster touchdown run four minutes later. Nine minutes into the second quarter,

Carl Pickens Carl McNally Pickens (born March 23, 1970) is a former American football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cincinnati Bengals and Tennessee Titans. Early life Pickens attended Murphy High School in Murphy, ...

intercepted a

Quinn Grovey Quinn Grovey (born July 19, 1968) is a former American football quarterback for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team from 1987 to 1990. Early life and high school Grovey grew up in Duncan, Oklahoma. He was named the player of the year in Oklaho ...

pass while the Razorbacks were in Vols territory, returning it to the 13. Two plays later, Anthony Morgan caught an 84 yard touchdown pass from Andy Kelly. Chuck Webb added in a touchdown run to make the lead 17-6 at halftime. Arkansas was driving and was at the Vols 32 when Barry Foster fumbled and Martin Williams recovered it. 8 plays and 68 yards later,

Greg Amsler Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (more commonly spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people * Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canad ...

scored on a touchdown run to make the lead 24-6. Midway through the quarter the Razorbacks narrowed the lead with a James Rouse touchdown run. But Webb ran in for his second touchdown of the day to make the lead 18 again. 14 seconds into the fourth quarter, Foster scored on another touchdown run and scored a conversion to make it 31-21. Arkansas had three more drives in the quarter, but only managed seven points out of them, turning the ball over on downs on one, and missing a field goal on the other. The Razorbacks scored with 1:25 remaining on a

Billy Winston Billy may refer to: * Billy (name), a name (and list of people with the name) Animals * Billy (dog), a dog breed * Billy (pigeon), awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945 * Billy (pygmy hippo), a pet of U.S. President Calvin Coolidge * Billy, a young ...

pass from Grovey to narrow it to 31-27 after the missed conversion. Arkansas tried to get the ball back on the onside kick, but

Alvin Harper Alvin Craig Harper (born July 6, 1967) is a former football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the firs ...

of the Vols recovered, as they ran out the clock and won their first Cotton Bowl Classic since 1951.

Aftermath

Hatfield left for Clemson after the season, and Arkansas has not won a conference championship since 1989. It would take Arkansas 10 years to reach another Cotton Bowl Classic. The Volunteers would not reach the Classic again until 2001.

Statistics

References

Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game was originally played at its namesake stadium i ...

Cotton Bowl Classic Arkansas Razorbacks football bowl games Tennessee Volunteers football bowl games Cotton Bowl January 1990 sports events in the United States 1990 in Texas 1990s in Dallas {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub