The 1995 Carquest Bowl (January) 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 ...

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 South Carolina Gamecocks and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Background

The Gamecocks finished third in the East 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 ...

while the Mountaineers finished tied for third in the Big East Conference. In 102 years of play, the Gamecocks had been to eight bowl games, but lost all of them. This was their ninth bowl game and first Carquest Bowl. The Mountaineers were in their second straight bowl game, though they had lost four straight bowl games.

Game summary

Steve Taneyhill Steve Taneyhill (born July 21, 1973, in Altoona, Pennsylvania) is a former American football quarterback and the current co-owner of Group Therapy in Five Points (Columbia, South Carolina), Five Points, Columbia in South Carolina. He also formerly ...

gave the Gamecocks an early lead with his touchdown pass to Boomer Foster with 12:34 remaining in the first quarter. Reed Morton increased the lead to 10 on a 47-yard field goal, the longest in Carquest Bowl and Gamecock bowl history.

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

Walker narrowed the lead on his touchdown run of 24 yards. Tanneyhill ran in for a four-yard touchdown to make it 17–7 at halftime. Lovett Purnell caught a touchdown pass from Chad Johnston to make it 17–14 in the third quarter. Stanley Pritchet ran in for a touchdown to make it 24–14. Purnell caught another touchdown from Johnston to make it 24–21 as the quarter soon ended. West Virginia was driving for points when they failed to convert on fourth down with 3:52 left. Pritchett was going for his second touchdown run when he broke free, but Aaron Beasley stripped him of the ball, and the Mountaineers recovered at their own 3 with 1:14 remaining. But they threw two incompletions and were sacked as the Gamecocks held on to win. South Carolina had won their first ever bowl game while West Virginia now had lost five straight. Taneyhill went 26-of-36 for 227 yards and 1 touchdown. Johnston went 19-of-32 for 240 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

Aftermath

The Gamecocks waited six years until their next bowl game, this time with a different coach. The Mountaineers returned to the Carquest Bowl two years later.

Statistics

References

Carquest Bowl The Cheez-It 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 Clas ...

Pop-Tarts Bowl South Carolina Gamecocks football bowl games West Virginia Mountaineers football bowl games Sports competitions in Miami Gardens, Florida January 1995 sports events in the United States

Carquest Carquest Corporation is an American automotive parts distribution network that is currently owned and operated by Advance Auto Parts via independent retailers associated with the network. As of October 4, 2014 Advance operated 5,305 stores, 109 ...

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