The 1991 Aloha Bowl (December) was a post-season

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 ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...

between the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

and the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Rambl ...

played on December 25, 1991, at

Aloha Stadium Aloha Stadium is a closed multi-purpose stadium located in Halawa, Hawaii, a western suburb of Honolulu (though with a Honolulu address). It is the largest stadium in the state of Hawaii. , the stadium ceased fan-attended operations indefinitely ...

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. It was the tenth edition of the bowl game. After trailing for most of the game, with just over a minute to play, Georgia Tech's

Willie Clay Willie James Clay (born September 5, 1970) is a former American football safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, and New Orleans Saints. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 1992 NFL Draft ...

returned a punt 63 yards to the Stanford 31. Quarterback Shawn Jones scored on a one-yard touchdown plunge with 14 seconds remaining and the Yellow Jackets completed a 2-point conversion to take an 18–17 victory.

Teams

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

After being named national champion by the

Coaches' Poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officially ...

in the previous season, Georgia Tech was coming off an uneven season, and a disappointing loss to rival

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. The team was led by its defense, including linebacker

Marco Coleman Marco Darnell Coleman (born December 18, 1969) is an American football coach and former player who is the defensive line coach for Michigan State and former assistant defensive line coach for the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (N ...

, defensive back

(who also returned punts), and lineman

Coleman Rudolph Coleman Rudolph (born October 22, 1970) is a former player in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the New York Jets and the New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York m ...

Stanford Cardinal

Stanford started the season 1–3 before recovering to win the last seven games of the season, including a Big Game win over rival and #6 ranked

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The Cardinal offense was led by "Touchdown"

Tommy Vardell Thomas Arthur "Touchdown Tommy" Vardell (born February 20, 1969) is a former professional American football fullback in the National Football League (NFL). College career Vardell was a star running back for the Stanford Cardinal. In 1990, he was ...

, who had rushed for 1,084 yards and 20 touchdowns during the season, and quarterback

Steve Stenstrom Steve Stenstrom (born December 23, 1971) is a former professional American football quarterback. College career Stenstrom attended Stanford University where he was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity. Stenstrom was the starting quarterback at Stan ...

, who led the Pac-10 in passing.

Game summary

Stanford took the opening kickoff and drove 48 yards on six plays, with Vardell scoring from six yards out. The Yellow Jackets answered with a touchdown drive of their own, 60 yards in 10 plays, tying the game on a two-yard pass from quarterback Shawn Jones to Michael Smith. Georgia Tech got on the board again as time expired in the first quarter with a 24-yard

Scott Sisson Scott O'Neal Sisson (born July 21, 1971) is a former American football placekicker in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the New England Patriots (1993) and the Minnesota Vikings (1996). He played collegiately for the Georgia Tec ...

field goal. In the second quarter, the Cardinal tied the game on a 38-yard

Aaron Mills Aaron Scott Mills (born July 8, 1972) is an American former Arena Football League (AFL) kicker who, in a career lasting two years, played for the San Jose SaberCats (1995–1996). He holds the AFL league record for the longest field goal, with a 6 ...

field goal, and then took the lead on another Vardell run, this one for two yards. In addition to the two touchdowns, Vardell rushed for 104 yards on the day and was named Stanford's MVP of the game. Stanford held the lead through the third quarter, but the Yellow Jackets had a huge scoring opportunity when Cardinal punter Paul Stonehouse fumbled a low snap at the Stanford 18 yard line. Georgia Tech drove to the Stanford one-yard line, but Rodney Williams fumbled, and Stanford linebacker Tom Williams recovered the ball to keep Stanford's lead into the final quarter. As time ran down in the fourth quarter, Stanford still had a 7-point lead but was forced to punt with 1:41 left. Georgia Tech's Clay fielded the punt at his own six-yard line and made the play of the game: he returned the punt 63 yards to the Stanford 31. From there, the Yellow Jackets drove to the Stanford goal line and scored on a one-yard rush from Jones (who was named Georgia Tech's game MVP) to make the score 17–16 with 14 seconds left in the game. Instead of opting for a tie, Tech head coach Bobby Ross called for the two-point conversion and sent Jimy Lincoln over the right end to give Georgia Tech the victory.

Scoring

First quarter

*Stanford -

6-yard run (

kick) *Georgia Tech - Michael Smith 2-yard pass from Shawn Jones (

kick) *Georgia Tech - Sisson 24-yard field goal

Second quarter

*Stanford - Mills 38-yard field goal *Stanford - Vardell 2-yard run (Mills kick)

Third quarter

*No scoring.

Fourth quarter

*Georgia Tech - Jones 1-yard run (Jimy Lincoln run) *Georgia Tech - Griggs 28-yard punt return (Michael Bennet)

Aftermath

Following this game, both head coaches left for head coaching jobs in the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

: Dennis Green was named head coach of the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

and Bobby Ross took the head coaching job for the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

. Stanford hired Bill Walsh to replace Green the next season, and primarily on the strength of Green's recruits, including quarterback Stenstrom, won the

Blockbuster Bowl The Pop-Tarts Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that is played in Orlando, Florida, at Camping World Stadium. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group which also organizes the Citrus Bowl and the Florida Classic ...

and ended the season with a #9 ranking. Stenstrom would play five NFL seasons; Vardell was picked ninth in the

1992 NFL Draft The 1992 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1992, at the Marriott Mar ...

by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

and played eight NFL seasons. Georgia Tech hired

Bill Lewis William Lewis (born 1 August 1953) is an English artist, story-teller, poet and mythographer.Milner, Frank, ed. ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian'', p. 86, National Museums Liverpool 2004, . Pages 6–30, Charles Thomson's essay, "A Stuckist on ...

as its next coach; he was fired in his third season after failing to have a winning record in all three seasons. Quarterback Jones had a short NFL career; linebacker Coleman had a fourteen-year career in the NFL.

References

{{Stanford Cardinal bowl game navbox

Aloha Bowl The Aloha Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) college football bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. History The Aloha Bowl was established in 1982 by Mackay ...

Aloha Bowl Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football bowl games Stanford Cardinal football bowl games December 1991 sports events in the United States 1991 in sports in Hawaii