The 1995 Copper Bowl was an American

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 ...

play on December 27, 1995, at

Arizona Stadium Arizona Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in the southwestern United States, located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is the home field of the Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-12 Conference. Original ...

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

. It was the seventh edition of the annual bowl Copper Bowl—now known as the

Guaranteed Rate Bowl The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is an annual college football bowl game that has been played in the state of Arizona since 1989. Played as the Copper Bowl from inception through 1996, it was known as the Insight.com Bowl from 1997 through 2001, then ...

. The game featured the Texas Tech Red Raiders, and the Air Force Falcons.

Background

The Red Raiders were 1-2 against ranked opponents, losing to #4 Penn State and #13 Texas but beating #8 Texas A&M. They finished tied for 2nd in the

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 ...

with Texas A&M and Baylor. This was Texas Tech's third bowl game in two seasons. Air Force finished as co-champion of 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 ...

in a rare four-way tie, with Colorado State, BYU, and Utah. Air Force had beaten BYU to begin the season, but they lost to Colorado State and Utah. However, they were the only one of the four to be invited to a bowl game, their 7th in 10 seasons.

Game summary

First quarter *Texas Tech – Stacy Mitchell 38 yard touchdown pass from Zebbie Lethridge (Tony Rogers kick), 14:27 remaining *Air Force – Nakia Addison 2 yard touchdown run (Thompson kick), 8:20 remaining *Texas Tech –

Byron Hanspard Byron Courtnay Hanspard, Sr. (born January 23, 1976) is a former American college and professional American football, football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for two seasons during the 1990s. He played colleg ...

2 yard touchdown run (Rogers kick), 6:19 remaining *Texas Tech – Hanspard 11 yard touchdown run (Rogers kick), 0:23 remaining Second quarter *Texas Tech – Lethridge 1 yard touchdown run (Rogers kick), 8:25 remaining *Air Force – Danta Johnson 71 yard touchdown (kick failed), 1:59 remaining *Texas Tech – Rogers 24 field goal, 0:03 remaining Third quarter *Air Force – Jake Campbell 7 yard touchdown run (Addison run), 11:26 remaining *Air Force – Johnson 60 yard touchdown run (Roberts kick), 8:00 remaining *Texas Tech – Hanspard 2 yard touchdown run (Rogers kick), 5:06 remaining Fourth quarter *Texas Tech – Lethridge 3 yard touchdown run (Rogers kick), 14:51 remaining *Texas Tech – Rogers 31 yard field goal, 11:15 remaining *Air Force – Beau Morgan 1 yard touchdown run (Roberts kick), 7:09 remaining *Texas Tech – Hanspard 29 yard touchdown run (Rogers kick), 4:59 remaining *Air Force – Addison 7 yard touchdown run (Roberts kick), 0:37 remaining Texas Tech scored first on a 38-yard pass from quarterback Zebbie Lethridge to Stacy Mitchell. Air Force countered with a 2-yard run from Nakia Addison to tie it 7–7, but Texas Tech scored the next three touchdowns, amassing a 31–13 lead by halftime. In the second half, Air Force came within a field goal of the lead at 31–28 with a 60-yard run from Danta Johnson, but Texas Tech running back

came alive with 201 yards and two of his four touchdowns in the second half, leading the Red Raiders to a 55–41 victory. Byron Hanspard rushed for 260 yards on 24 carries and four touchdowns while also catching two passes for 18 yards.

Statistics

Aftermath

Both teams went to two more bowl games before the decade ended, although Texas Tech did not win another bowl game until 2002 while Air Force won in 1998.

References

External links

* Copper Bowl Guaranteed Rate Bowl Air Force Falcons football bowl games Texas Tech Red Raiders football bowl games Sports in Tucson, Arizona Copper Bowl December 1995 sports events in the United States Events in Tucson, Arizona {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub