The 1997

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 ...

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 ...

between the

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Rambl ...

and the West Virginia Mountaineers. Played at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, it was the final year of the sponsorship between this bowl and

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 ...

, and after this the sponsorship was not renewed.

Background

The Yellow Jackets tied for third 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 ...

while West Virginia finished 3rd in the Big East Conference. Georgia Tech went from 4-1 to going 2-4 in their last six, including a loss to Georgia. The Mountaineers went from #22 ranked after nine games to losing two straight games, including the

Backyard Brawl The Backyard Brawl is an American college football rivalry between the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the West Virginia University Mountaineers. The term "Backyard Brawl" has also been used to refer to college basketball games played ann ...

. The two had just met one previous time in the postseason, the

1954 Sugar Bowl The 1954 Sugar Bowl matched the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the West Virginia Mountaineers in the 20th edition of the Sugar Bowl. Background The Yellow Jackets were in their 2nd straight Sugar Bowl and 3rd in 10 years. They had tied for 2nd in ...

, which Georgia Tech won 42-19.

Game summary

Quarterback Joe Hamilton went 19 for 36 and threw for 274 yards while running for 82 yards with two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown as he led Georgia Tech to a 35-30 win over West Virginia. Hamilton drove the Yellow Jackets 80 yards on the opening drive to set up fullback Ed Wilder’s one-yard scoring run. The Mountaineers answered 6 plays later with running back Amos Zereoué and his run of 14 yards to the end zone to tie the score. Tech scored on its next two drives as Hamilton connected with tailback

Charlie Rogers John Edward "Charlie" Rogers (born June 19, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was a running back and wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Seattle Seahawks (1999–2001), the Houston Texans (2 ...

for a 17-yard catch, and tight end Mike Lillieon a three-yard pass to go up 21–7 with 10:11 remaining. West Virginia quarterback Marc Bulger threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jerry Porter with 4:45 remaining to make it 21–14, but Hamilton ran from nine yards out in the closing seconds to give the Jackets a 28–14 halftime lead. Zereous ran for his second touchdown in the third quarter on a State of Liberty play to narrow the lead five minutes into the quarter, and Jay Taylor's field goal made it 28–24 going into the fourth quarter. Charles Wiley scored the touchdown that would ultimately provide the winning margin from 5 yards out to make it 35–24 with 4:44 to go. Porter caught another pass from Bulger for a touchdown with less than three minutes to go, but the conversion attempt failed, and the Mountaineers did not get the ball again, with the Jackets in Mountaineer territory by the time they ran out the clock. Derrick Steagall had seven receptions for 112 yards. Bulger was 25-of-40 for a career-high 353 yards with 2 touchdowns and one interception. This was West Virginia's seventh straight bowl loss and Georgia Tech's fourth straight win.

Aftermath

Georgia Tech has returned just once to this bowl (Champs Sports Bowl), in 2004. West Virginia returned in 2016 (Russell Athletic Bowl). This bowl, played in Orlando, Florida since 2001, is now called the

Camping World 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 ...

Statistics

References

{{West Virginia Mountaineers bowl game navbox

Pop-Tarts Bowl Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football bowl games West Virginia Mountaineers football bowl games Sports competitions in Miami Gardens, Florida December 1997 sports events in the United States 1997 in sports in Florida