The 1999 Motor City Bowl was a

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

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 ...

in which the #11

Marshall Thundering Herd The Marshall Thundering Herd is the intercollegiate athletic collection of teams that collectively represent the Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Thundering Herd athletic teams compete in the Sun Belt Conference, which are membe ...

of the MAC defeated 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

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

21–3. It was played on December 27, 1999, at the

Pontiac Silverdome The Pontiac Silverdome (also known simply as the Silverdome) was a stadium in Pontiac, Michigan. It opened in 1975 and sat on 199 acres (51 ha) of land. When the stadium opened, it featured a fiberglass fabric roof held up by air pressure, ...

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 61,606. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Pontiac is about northwest of Detroit. Founde ...

Background

BYU started the season with a win over Washington at home, 35–28. They were thrust into the AP poll at #25 soon after, and they responded with a win over conference opponent #23 Colorado State, which rose them to #17. But a 45–40 loss to Virginia at home dropped them out of the polls. A six game winning streak gradually made them rise back, reaching #15 before a game with Wyoming. The Cougars were beaten 31–17, and a loss the following week to Utah made them fall out of the AP poll for good, though they were still ranked in the Coaches Poll. In the first season of the

, the Cougars finished as co-champions with Colorado State and Utah. Marshall was in the third year of play in Division I-A, and they ran the table by winning all of their games for the second time in three years. They began the season unranked, but rose to #21 before their matchup with Temple. They rose to #15 by the sixth win, and rose gradually to #11 in the AP Polls before their match-up with

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, Michigan, Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region a ...

in the

MAC Championship Game The MAC Football Championship Game is a football game between the winners of the East and West divisions of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to determine the conference champion. History The game has been played since 1997, when the conferenc ...

. Marshall came back from a 20–0 halftime deficit to win 34–30, their fourth straight conference title (1 Southern, 3

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

). With the win, the Thundering Herd had a 49–4 record in four seasons. Marshall's offense was led by future

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

quarterback

Chad Pennington James Chadwick Pennington (born June 26, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football at Marshall, where he won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, and was selecte ...

and running back Doug Chapman. The game was the third installment of the

Motor City Bowl The Little Caesars Pizza Bowl (known as the Motor City Bowl until 2009) was a post-season college football bowl game that was played annually from 1997 to 2013. The first five games (1997–2001) were played at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, ...

, matching the Mountain West Conference against the Mid-American Conference for the first time in its history.

Scoring summary

* BYU –

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 ...

28 yard field goal * Marshall – Doug Chapman 30 yard touchdown pass from

(Malashevich kick) * Marshall – Chapman 87 yard touchdown run (Malashevich kick) * Marshall – Chapman 1 yard touchdown run (Malashevich kick) For Marshall, Chad Pennington went 17-of-28 for 207 yards and 1 touchdown and interception. Doug Chapman rushed for 133 yards on 14 carries for two touchdowns while also catching 4 passes for 40 yards and a touchdown. For BYU, neither of their three quarterbacks were effective. Kevin Feterik had the most yards with his 6-of-11 performance for 125 yards. However, he left the game midway through the third quarter. The other two quarterbacks (Charlie Peterson and Bret Engemann) combined for 10-of-18 for 2 interceptions and 95 yards. The three quarterbacks also had -44 rushing yards on 14 carries, while the rest of the runners had just 28 yards. This was Marshall's 50th win in four years.

Statistics

Aftermath

Marshall finished #10 in the final AP Polls, their highest ever finish. Though the Thundering Herd lost five games the following year, they managed to win the MAC once again and qualify for another

, which they won. BYU won their next Mountain West Conference title in 2001, which gave them the right to play in 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 ...

. They did not win a bowl game until

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

References

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Little Caesars Pizza Bowl BYU Cougars football bowl games Marshall Thundering Herd football bowl games