The 1998 Oahu 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 ...

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 Air Force Falcons and the

Washington Huskies The Washington Huskies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Washington, located in Seattle. The school competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Pac- ...

. Part of the 1998–99 bowl season, the inaugural

Oahu Bowl The Oahu Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. Played on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, the Oahu Bowl was sponsored by th ...

matched the fifth-place team from the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

(Pac-10) against the champions 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).

Background

The #16 Falcons finished

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

in the WAC and had only lost one game, to

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. They were 10th on points scored, with 36.0 points per game and 7th on points allowed with 14.2 points per game, in their sixth bowl appearance in the 1990s. Washington went from 2–0 and #9 ranked to being unranked and 6–5, though they at least won the Apple Cup. The Huskies were 52nd in points scored, with 25.2 per game and 76th in points allowed, with 28.6 per game, in their seventh bowl appearance in the decade. Air Force was favored by four points.

Game summary

Jemal Singleton scored in both the first and second quarters to give Air Force a 14–0 lead, but Washington responded with a Braxton Cleman touchdown run less than two minutes later. Scott McKay added onto the lead with a touchdown run to make it 20-7 after their two-point conversion attempt failed. Cleman scored his second touchdown of the day to make it 20–13, with Huard's conversion pass attempt falling short to keep the score the same at halftime. Jackson Whiting increased the Falcons' lead to 23–13 with a 42-yard field goal, then Spanky Gilliam extended it to 30–13 with his touchdown run. Matt Farmer caught a 79-yard touchdown pass from

Blane Morgan Blane Morgan (born 1977) is an American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at Lamar University, a position he held from 2020 until 2022. Morgan also played college football as a quarterback at the United States Air Force ...

with :07 remaining in the third quarter. Their conversion attempt to make it a 25-point lead failed, however, and the score remained at 36–13. Husky backup quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo ran in for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to narrow the lead, but the two-point conversion failed, leaving the score at 36–19. McKay caught a 30-yard touchdown from Morgan as the Falcons scored their final points of the day. Manuel Austin caught a pass from Tuiasasopo with 4:09 remaining, but another failed conversion attempt left the final score 43–25. Starter

Brock Huard Brock Anthony Huard (born April 15, 1976) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). His older brother Damon also played quarterback at the University of Washington and had a career in the NFL, while his yo ...

was ineffective for the Huskies, going 23 of 32 with three interceptions and 267 yards before being replaced by Tuiasasopo. Morgan went 12 of 16 for 267 yards and two touchdowns. Farmer caught four passes for 109 yards.

Aftermath

Neither team returned to the

, which disbanded two years later. Washington (6–6) ended their first non-winning season in 22 years. Five days later, sixth-year head coach Jim Lambright was relieved of his duties by athletic director Barbara Hedges. His successor was Rick Neuheisel, the head coach at

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. Air Force (12–1) moved up in the final rankings, thirteenth in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

, and tenth in the Coaches Poll.

Statistics

References

{{Washington Huskies bowl game navbox

Oahu Bowl Air Force Falcons football bowl games Washington Huskies football bowl games December 1998 sports events in the United States 1998 in sports in Hawaii 1990s in Honolulu