The 1995 Las Vegas 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 ...

played on December 14 at

Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hote ...

Whitney, Nevada Whitney (formerly East Las Vegas) is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The population was 38,585 at the 2010 census. Background Stowell E. Whitney, a dairy farmer from Bunkerville, Nevada ...

. The fourth edition of the annual

Las Vegas Bowl The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA Division I FBS annual post-season college football bowl game held in the Las Vegas area. First played in 1992, the bowl was originally held at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada before moving to the ...

, the Thursday night game was a bowl rematch of the

Toledo Rockets The Toledo Rockets are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Toledo. The Rockets compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The ...

and

Nevada Wolf Pack The Nevada Wolf Pack are the athletic teams that represent the University of Nevada, Reno. They are part of NCAA's Division I's Mountain West Conference. It was founded on October 24, 1896 with football as the Sagebrushers in Reno, Nevada. H ...

, who had played in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

during the regular season. Toledo came into the game undefeated at 10–0–1, and Nevada had two losses. This was the first Division I-A game to go into overtime, as the overtime rule was adopted starting with the 1995 bowl season. It remains the only Las Vegas Bowl to go to overtime, with Toledo winning 40–37 and capping an undefeated season.

Game summary

In the first quarter, quarterback Ryan Huzjak scored on a 31-yard rushing touchdown, giving Toledo an early 7–0 lead. Nevada's Ken Minor scored on a 2-yard touchdown run, making it a 7–7 tie. In the second quarter, Wasean Tait scored on touchdown runs of 18 and 31 yards as Toledo claimed a 21–7 lead. With a minute left in the first half, Minor scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, as Nevada cut the deficit to 21–14 at halftime. In the third quarter, Damon Shea kicked a 34-yard field goal to make the score 21–17 in favor of Toledo. Dwayne Harris of Toledo scored on a 16-yard touchdown run, but a missed extra point kept the margin at ten points. Nevada's Eric Bennett came back to score on a 4-yard touchdown run, to reduce Toledo's lead to three points at the end of three quarters. In the fourth quarter, Tait scored on a 36-yard touchdown run to push the lead back up to 34–24 for Toledo. Minor answered with his third rushing touchdown of the game from a yard out, and Shea kicked a 26-yard field goal to tie the game at 34, which headed to overtime. In overtime, Nevada was stopped and Shea kicked his third field goal, a 22-yarder to give the Wolf Pack its first lead of the game. Toledo needed just four running plays to win, as Tait rushed for his fourth touchdown from two yards as Toledo won 40–37 to cap an undefeated season. The Rockets finished at #24 in both major polls.

References

External links

Review of game by Los Angeles Times

Las Vegas Bowl Nevada Wolf Pack football bowl games Toledo Rockets football bowl games December 1995 sports events in the United States

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