1997 Florida Citrus Bowl

The 1997 Florida Citrus Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1997 at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The game featured the Northwestern Wildcats and the Tennessee Volunteers.

Background

This was the Volunteers' fourth appearance in the Citrus Bowl and third in four seasons. Once again, they had finished second in the Eastern Division in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). This was Northwestern's second consecutive bowl game appearance after winning their second straight Big Ten Conference title. This was the Wildcats' first appearance in the Citrus Bowl. They have not returned since.

Game summary

Peyton Manning gave the Vols an early 21–0 lead with two touchdown passes and a touchdown run. But Northwestern responded with three touchdowns of their own, two of them on from Darnell Autry on a run and a Steve Schnur touchdown pass to Brian Musso. But Manning threw another touchdown pass and Jeff Hall added in a field goal before time expired to give the Vols a 31–21 halftime lead. Tyrone Hines increased the lead when he intercepted a Schnur pass and returned it for a touchdown. After a Hall field goal, Schnur threw another touchdown pass to narrow the lead to 41–28. But Manning threw his fourth touchdown pass of day, this time to Dustin Moore, to seal the game for the Volunteers. Manning went 27 of 39 passes for 408 yards while Schnur went 25 for 45 for 228 yards but threw three interceptions.^[1]

Aftermath

Tennessee reached the Citrus Bowl four years later. Fulmer coached at Tennessee until 2008.

Barnett coach two more seasons for the Wildcats before resigning . Northwestern did not win their next bowl game until 2013.

Statistics

References