1978 Cotton Bowl Classic

The 1978 Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic was the 42nd edition of the college football bowl game played January 2, 1978, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. The bowl game featured the Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus the Southwest Conference champion Texas Longhorns. A record crowd turned up to see the coronation of the Longhorns championship season, but fifth-ranked Notre Dame spoiled everything as they dominated the Longhorns 38–10. The loss by the Longhorns resulted in complete chaos in the polls, with Notre Dame vaulting past Alabama to win the national championship.^[1]

Scoring summary

First Quarter

Notre Dame - Dave Reeve 47 yard field goal, 11:35 remaining (this set up by a fumble recovery by Ross Browner)
Texas - Russell Erxleben 42 yard field goal, 6:07 remaining.

Second Quarter

Notre Dame - Terry Eurick 6 yard touchdown run (Reeve kick), 14:56 remaining (set up by a fumble recovery by Jim Browner)
Notre Dame - Eurick 10 yard touchdown run (Reeve kick), 11:37 remaining (this happening after a fumblerecovery by Willie Fry)
Notre Dame - Vagas Ferguson 17 yard touchdown pass from Joe Montana (Reeve kick), 7:28 (This occurring after a pass interception by Doug Becker)
Texas - Mike Lockett 13 yard touchdown pass from Randy McEachern (Erxleben kick), 0:01 remaining

Third Quarter

Notre Dame - Ferguson 3 yard touchdown run (Reeve kick), 6:49 remaining (this happening after a pass interception by Steve Heimkreiter)

Fourth Quarter

Notre Dame - Ferguson 26 yard touchdown run (Reeve kick), 9:41 remaining (after a fake punt attempt)

Aftermath

Texas' loss opened the door to the national championship for several teams. However, second-ranked Oklahoma was beaten 31–6 by Arkansas in the Orange Bowl, and fourth-ranked Michigan was beaten 27–20 by Washington in the Rose Bowl. That left third-ranked Alabama and fifth-ranked Notre Dame as the teams left standing. Alabama felt that if they won, they would be champions due to the losses by Texas and Oklahoma, but the pollsters saw it differently. Notre Dame was voted number one in every poll. Perhaps the victory by fellow Southwest Conference member Arkansas in the Orange Bowl made the difference as it made Notre Dame's victory over Texas (who had beaten Arkansas 13–9 in October) even more impressive.

Statistics

Statistics	Notre Dame	Texas
First Downs	26	16
Rushing Yards	243	131
Passing Yards	156	160
Total Yards	399	291
Fumbles-Lost	1-0	3-3
Penalties-Yards	4-37	1-5
Punts-Average	5-30.4	3-40.0

References

↑ http://media.attcottonbowl.com/resource/history/1978/rsrc/1978-Classic-Recap.pdf

1977–78 NCAA football bowl game season

Independence (Dec. 17) Liberty (Dec. 19) Hall of Fame Classic (Dec. 22) Tangerine (Dec. 23) Fiesta (Dec. 25) Gator (Dec. 30) Peach (Dec. 31) Sun (Dec. 31) Bluebonnet (Dec. 31) Sugar (Jan. 2) Cotton (Jan. 2) Orange (Jan. 2) Rose (Jan. 2)

Cotton Bowl Classic

History & conference tie-ins	History Cotton Bowl AT&T Stadium College Football Playoff Broadcasters Playoff At-Large Group of Five

Games	1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1966 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2015 2017

Notes	There was a Cotton Bowl Classic in January and December in 1966 and 2015. There was no Cotton Bowl Classic in 1967. The game was a College Football Playoff semifinal in its December 2015 edition.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish bowl games

Pound sign (#) denotes national championship game.

Texas Longhorns bowl games

Pound sign (#) denotes national championship game.

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