The 1992 Liberty 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

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 ...

played on December 31, 1992, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The 34th edition of the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

featured the

Air Force Falcons The Air Force Falcons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the United States Air Force Academy, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The athletics department has 17 men's and 10 women's NCAA-sanctioned teams. The current athl ...

and the

Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893. Originally known as th ...

Background

Air Force tied for fourth place in the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington (state), Washington, and Texa ...

(WAC) while Ole Miss finished in second place in the West Division 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 ...

(SEC). This was Air Force's fourth consecutive Liberty Bowl (due to the policy of the winner of

Commander in Chief's Trophy The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is awarded to each season's winner of the American college football series among the teams of the U.S. Military Academy ( Army Black Knights), the U.S. Naval Academy ( Navy Midshipmen), and the U.S. Air Forc ...

having a bid into the game), and Ole Miss' first bowl game since 1991. This was the third time the two teams faced each other in a 10-year span.

Game summary

Dou Innocent gave the Rebels a 7–0 lead with 2:42 left in the first quarter. He finished the day with 65 yards on 17 carries. Brian Lee kicked two field goals from 24 and 29 yards out to make the final score 13–0 as Air Force was held to 185 yards of total offense. Russ Shows went 9-of-19 for 163 yards. Cassius Ware had 10 tackles and 2 sacks, in an MVP effort.

Statistics

Aftermath

Neither team has returned to the Liberty Bowl since this game.

References

Liberty Bowl Air Force Falcons football bowl games Ole Miss Rebels football bowl games 1992 in sports in Tennessee December 1992 sports events in the United States {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub