The 1992 Aloha Bowl was played on December 25, 1992, at Aloha Stadium in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

earned its first bowl win in 31 years over an 8-4

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

team led by reserve quarterback Tom Young, the younger brother of NFL hall-of-famer

Steve Young Jon Steven Young (born October 11, 1961) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

. Young earned the start after starting quarterback

Ryan Hancock Ryan Lee Hancock (born November 11, 1971) is a retired professional baseball player who played one season for the California Angels of Major League Baseball. On June 9, 1996, he was one of two American League pitchers to get a hit during the 1996 ...

went down with a season-ending injury in the regular season finale against Utah.

Background

Kansas won seven of their first eight games, even rising up to #13 in the polls before a matchup with #7 Nebraska. A 49-7 thrashing by the Cornhuskers sent them into a tailspin, as they lost to #13 Colorado and Missouri to close out their season. Despite this, the Jayhawks finished in 3rd place in the

Big Eight Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

, their highest finish in the Big Eight since their 2nd-place finish in 1973. BYU started the season 1–3, with losses to San Diego State, UCLA and Hawaii. Wins over Utah State, Fresno State, and Wyoming got them back on the trail. After a loss to #10 Notre Dame, the Cougars rebounded with a win over #14 Penn State. Wins over New Mexico, Air Force and Utah closed out a season in which they finished in a three-way tie for 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 ...

championship with Hawaii and Fresno State.

Game summary

BYU went up 7-0 on the game's opening play when Hema Heimuli returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Kansas evened the score at 7–7 two plays later when Kansas receiver

Matt Gay Matt Gay (born March 15, 1994) is an American football placekicker for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Utah, and was drafted in the fifth round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2019 NF ...

caught a pass that was ruled a lateral from quarterback

Chip Hilleary Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is a type of immunoprecipitation experimental technique used to investigate the interaction between proteins and DNA in the cell. It aims to determine whether specific proteins are associated with specific genom ...

and hit a wide-open

Rodney Harris Rodney Harris (1932 – 7 December 2017) was a British geneticist. From 1982 to 1989 he advised the United Kingdom Department of Health as Consultant Adviser in Medical Genetics to the Chief Medical Officer. He served as chair of the UK Nati ...

for a 74-yard touchdown pass. Replays showed that the first pass was in fact 2 yards forward, which would have made the play illegal with two forward passes. The Jayhawks took a 9–7 lead later in the first quarter when junior lineman

Chris Maumalanga Christian Netane Maumalanga (born December 15, 1971) is a former American football defensive tackle. He played college football at Kansas. He was drafted by the New York Giants in the 4th round (128th overall) of the 1994 NFL Draft. Early yea ...

burst through the Cougars' offensive line to sack running back

Jamal Willis Jamal Willis (born 1972) is a local level leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a former NFL football player. He also works in administration for the Alpine School District in Utah. Willis was born in Oklahoma. He attended ...

in his own endzone for a safety. Willis later gained revenge with a 29-yard touchdown run with 10:16 left in the second quarter. Following his score, BYU led 14–9. On the ensuing kickoff, senior running back

Maurice Douglas Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor *Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...

broke free for a 54-yard return that put the Jayhawks on the BYU 43. The return set up a 41-yard field goal from

Dan Eichloff Dan or DAN may refer to: People * Dan (name), including a list of people with the name ** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark * Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa **Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...

that capped the first-half scoring at 14–12. BYU scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Young to

Otis Sterling Otis may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Otis (Superman), in the films ''Superman'' and ''Superman II'' and related DC Comics media ** Otis Graves, in the TV series ''Supergirl'' * Otis (''The Walking Dead''), in the Image Comics ...

and took a 20–12 lead into the fourth quarter, but Hilleary engineered a six-play, 75-yard drive – capped off by his one-yard run and successful two-point conversion – that tied the score at 20–20. After a Cougar punt, Kansas put together a seven-minute drive that ended in Dan Eichloff's game-winning 48-yard field goal. BYU did not fare well on its own field goal kicking, with

David Lauder David Ross Lauder VC (31 January 1894 – 4 June 1972) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. De ...

missing a pair of short field goals earlier in the half.

Statistics

Aftermath

The Cougars made five more bowl games in the decade, with victories in two of those games. The Jayhawks went to just one more bowl game in the decade, in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

References

{{Kansas Jayhawks bowl game navbox

Aloha Bowl The Aloha Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision (then known as Division I-A) college football bowl game played in Honolulu, Hawaii at Aloha Stadium. History The Aloha Bowl was established in 1982 by Mackay ...

Aloha Bowl BYU Cougars football bowl games Kansas Jayhawks football bowl games December 1992 sports events in the United States 1992 in sports in Hawaii