The 1998 Liberty Bowl 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 ...

played on December 31, 1998, at

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (originally named Memphis Memorial Stadium, and later Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium) is a football stadium located at the former Mid-South Fairgrounds in the Midtown area of Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The st ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The 40th edition of the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

, the game matched the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West ...

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 ...

(WAC) and the

Tulane Green Wave The Tulane Green Wave are the athletic teams that represent Tulane University, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tulane competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the American Athletic Conference (The American). There are 14 Green Wave interco ...

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

(C-USA). The game was sponsored by the

Axa Equitable Life Insurance Company Equitable Holdings, Inc. (formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, and also known as The Equitable) is an American financial services and insurance company that was founded in 1 ...

and was branded as the AXA/Equitable Liberty Bowl. Tulane won the game, 41–27, to finish—along with the

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity college athletics, intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in NCAA Division I, ...

—as the only undefeated Division I-A teams for the

1998 NCAA Division I-A football season The 1998 NCAA Division I-A football season, play of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-A level, began in late summer 1998 and culminated with the major bowl games in e ...

Teams

BYU

After opening the season 2–3, BYU won seven consecutive games to earn a spot in the WAC Championship Game. In that contest, the Cougars lost to the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

20–13. Prior to the championship game, the Cougars accepted a bid to play in the 40th Liberty Bowl. The appearance in the game marked BYU's first New Year's Eve bowl, and their first all-time appearance in the Liberty Bowl. In mid-December, BYU head coach

LaVell Edwards Reuben LaVell Edwards (October 11, 1930 – December 29, 2016) was an American football head coach for Brigham Young University (BYU). With 257 career victories, he ranks as one of the most successful college football coaches of all time. Among ...

announced that starting

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

Ronney Jenkins Ronney Jenkins (born May 25, 1977) is a former American football player from Los Angeles, California, who played four seasons in the NFL, primarily as a kick return specialist. High school career Jenkins had an outstanding prep career while pla ...

and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

Heshimu Robertson would be suspended for the Liberty Bowl for violating the

Brigham Young University Honor Code The Church Educational System (CES) Honor Code is a set of standards by which students and faculty attending a school owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) are required to live. The most widely known univ ...

Tulane

The 1998 Tulane squad entered the season with returning C-USA Offensive Player of the Year

Shaun King Jeffery Shaun King (born September 17, 1979) is an American writer, civil rights activist and co-founder of Real Justice PAC. King uses social media to promote social justice causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement. King was raised ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and picked to finish tied for second place with

East Carolina East Carolina University (ECU) is a public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from its orig ...

in the preseason conference rankings. Following their week two victory over SMU, local media started to mention the Green Wave as a potential at-large opponent to play in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

as part of the inaugural

Bowl Championship Series The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...

(BCS). Although Tulane finished the regular season with an 11–0 record, since they finished outside the sixth position in the final BCS standings, the Green Wave did not qualify for a BCS bowl game. Instead they were invited to the Liberty Bowl as C-USA champions. The appearance in the game marked Tulane's first bowl since the 1987

Independence Bowl The Independence Bowl is a post-season National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-sanctioned Division I college football bowl game that is played annually each December at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Independence Bowl ...

, and their third all-time appearance in the Liberty Bowl. Following the conclusion of the regular season, on December 2 head coach

Tommy Bowden Tommy Pearce Bowden (; born July 10, 1954) is a former American football coach. He served as the head coach at Clemson University from 1999 until October 13, 2008. He is a son of Bobby Bowden, former head football coach of Florida State Universi ...

resigned as head coach to accept the same position at Clemson. At that time

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

Rich Rodriguez Richard Alan Rodriguez (; born May 24, 1963), also known as Rich Rod, is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach at Jacksonville State University. Rodriguez previously was the head football coach at Salem Uni ...

was named interim head coach through at least the Liberty Bowl. Although Rodriguez was thought to be the top candidate for the coaching vacancy, on December 7 Tulane announced

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

offensive coordinator

Chris Scelfo Christopher Joseph Scelfo (born September 30, 1963) is an American football coach. He was most recently the offensive line coach for the DC Defenders of the XFL. He was the offensive line coach and run-game coordinator for the Arizona Hotshots o ...

as Tulane's new head coach. At the time of the announcement, officials also stated Scelfo would serve as head coach in the bowl game instead of Rodriguez, and that most of Bowden's staff would remain in place for the Liberty Bowl.

Game summary

In a game ultimately dominated by Tulane, BYU scored the first points of the game. Early in the first, Kevin Feterik hit Ben Horton for an 11-yard touchdown reception, and after

Owen Pochman Owen Pochman (born August 2, 1977) is a former American football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants (2001–2002) and San Francisco 49ers (2003). He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2001 N ...

missed the

extra point The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...

the Cougars took an early 6–0 lead. The Green Wave responded on the following drive with a 31-yard

Brad Palazzo Marcus Brad Palazzo (born June 29, 1975) is a former gridiron football placekicker / punter. He played college football at Tulane. He was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Green Bay Packers. High school career Palazzo atten ...

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

to cut the lead in half. With BYU driving on the ensuing possession, Michael Jordan

intercepted In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

a Feterik pass and returned it 79 yards for touchdown. The return was the longest in the history on the Liberty Bowl and gave Tulane a 10–6 lead. In the second quarter,

scored on a three-yard run and Palazzo hit a 23-yard field goal to give Tulane a 20–6 lead at the half. King continued the scoring in the third with a pair of touchdown passes to cap two 82-yard drives. The first came on a 60-yard pass to Kerwin Cook and the second on a 13-yard pass to Jamaican Dartez. With Tulane leading 34–6 entering the fourth quarter, BYU scored the first of three late touchdowns on a three-yard Aaron Cupp touchdown run. Tulane responded on the next drive with its final points of the game on a five-yard Toney Converse run to extend their lead to 41–13. The Cougars closed the contest with an 18-yard Cupp reception for a score and a three-yard

Reno Mahe Sateki Reno Mahe Jr. (born June 3, 1980) is a former American football running back who played five seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). Mahe played college football for Brigham Young University (BYU), and wa ...

touchdown run to bring the final score to 41–27. For his 276 yards passing, 109 yards rushing and three total touchdowns, Tulane

Shaun King was named the game's

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

References

{{Tulane Green Wave bowl game navbox

Liberty Bowl BYU Cougars football bowl games Tulane Green Wave football bowl games 1998 in sports in Tennessee December 1998 sports events in the United States