The 1996 Carquest Bowl was the final game of the

1996 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1996 NCAA Division I-A football season ended with the Florida Gators being crowned National Champions after defeating rival Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, which was the season's designated Bowl Alliance national championship game. Florida ha ...

for the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

and the

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as ''Wahoos'' or ''Hoos'', are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic C ...

Background

The Hurricanes were co-champion (along with Virginia Tech) of the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and M ...

for the third straight season (second under Davis), but playing in a bowl game for the first time since the 1995 Orange Bowl due to a scandal that had made them ineligible the season before. The Cavaliers had finished 4th in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

after three losses by an average of 7 points and a late Virginia Tech (who had beaten Miami) loss knocked them out of the Top 25. This was Virginia's 2nd appearance and Miami's first in this bowl game, as Virginia had appeared in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Game summary

Despite outrushing the Hurricanes and having less penalties than them, Virginia was beset by injuries to quarterback Tim Sherman (who only went 3 of 10 for 27 yards before his arm injury) and tailback

Tiki Barber Atiim Kiambu "Tiki" Barber (; born April 7, 1975) is an American former football running back who played for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons. He played college football for the University of Virginia. B ...

(who had only 14 yards on 7 carries) early in the game.

Yatil Green Yatil Devon Green (born November 25, 1973) is a former professional American football player. A 6'2", 205 lbs. wide receiver from the University of Miami, he was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the 1st round (15th overall pick) of the 199 ...

caught a touchdown pass from

Ryan Clement Ryan Clement (born October 25, 1975) is a former American football quarterback. He played college for the Miami Hurricanes and professionally in NFL Europe, XFL, United Indoor Football and the Indoor Football League. High school career Clement ...

early in the first quarter and

Tremain Mack Tremain Ferrell Mack (born November 21, 1974), also known as T-Mack, is a retired professional American football player in the National Football League (NFL). He played four years for the Cincinnati Bengals, primarily as a return specialist. In 1 ...

recovered a fumble and returned it 79 yards for a touchdown to give Miami a 14–0 lead with 4:47 left in the first. But Virginia responded :39 seconds later with an

Germane Crowell Germane L. Crowell (born September 13, 1976) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). In the 1998 NFL draft, Crowell was selected in the second round (50th overall) by the Detroit Lions. He played five s ...

touchdown catch from Aaron Brooks to narrow the lead. Andy Crosland made it 17–7 early in the 2nd with a field goal, his only of the day. Late in the quarter, Virginia was driving when Mack returned a Brooks pass 42 yards for a touchdown, giving them a commanding 24–7 lead going into halftime. Brooks had a touchdown run late in the 3rd quarter to narrow it to 24–10. The Cavaliers tried to make it a one possession game with Rafael Garcia's field goal attempt, but Mack blocked the kick and a few plays later,

Trent Jones Trent Jones is an American soap opera writer, singer, and actor. Life and career Jones is a graduate of Choate Rosemary Hall school in Wallingford, Connecticut. He began playing rock star Ken George Jones on the ABC soap opera ''Ryan's Hope''. ...

made it 31–10 with a touchdown run. Virginia could only respond with a Thomas Jones touchdown run, but by that point there was only 7:74 left. This was Miami's first bowl win since the

1992 Orange Bowl The 1992 Orange Bowl was the 58th edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on January 1. Part of the 1991–92 bowl game season, it matched the top-ranked Miami Hurricanes of the Big East Confer ...

Aftermath

The Cavaliers would not win a bowl game in Welsh's four remaining years, and would not win one until 2002, with Al Groh as coach. The Hurricanes would return to the bowl game two years later, this time known as the MicronPC Bowl, in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

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 Miami Hurricanes football bowl games Virginia Cavaliers football bowl games Sports competitions in Miami Gardens, Florida December 1996 sports events in the United States 1996 in sports in Florida {{Collegefootball-bowl-stub