1980 Sun Bowl

The 1980 Sun Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game played on December 27 in El Paso, Texas, between the 1980 [Nebraska Cornhuskers football team|Nebraska Cornhuskers] and the 1980 [Mississippi State Bulldogs football team|Mississippi State Bulldogs].

Background

An all-too-familiar loss to #9 1980 [Oklahoma Sooners football team|Oklahoma] in the regular season finale cost the Cornhuskers the Big Eight Conference title and an Orange Bowl invitation, and they settled for the Sun Bowl.
The Bulldogs finished third in the Southeastern Conference behind eventual national champion 1980 [Georgia Bulldogs football team|Georgia] and 1980 [Alabama Crimson Tide football team|Alabama] in Emory Bellard's second year as head coach, closing the regular season on a five-game winning streak. Among those November victories were a 6–3 defeat of two-time defending national champion Alabama, a 55–31 rout of 1980 [LSU Tigers football team|LSU], and a conquest of archrival 1980 [Ole Miss Rebels football team|Ole Miss] in the Egg Bowl. All three of those big victories came at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson.

Game summary

Todd Brown gave Nebraska an early 7–0 lead with his 23–yard touchdown run 2:30 into the game. The Huskers scored twice in the second quarter in a span of 86 seconds on a field goal from 22 yards and an eight-yard touchdown pass from to tight end the score was
Dana Moore narrowed the lead with his 47-yard field goal with 7:12 left in the third quarter, but Nebraska responded less than five minutes later on two-yard touchdown run to make it at the end of three quarters.
John Bond scored the Bulldogs' first touchdown from a yard out with 11:44 remaining, but caught a touchdown pass of 52 yards from Quinn and it was it with 3:21 left. ended the scoring at with his 11-yard touchdown reception with a minute remaining, and Nebraska won by fourteen. Quinn was for 151 yards with an interception and two touchdown passes en route to being named MVP. The Cornhusker defense forced two interceptions, four lost fumbles, and
Nebraska climbed to seventh in the 1980 [NCAA Division I-A football rankings|final AP poll] and Mississippi State fell to nineteenth.
The attendance of 34,723 was a Sun Bowl record, aided by favorable weather.

Scoring

First quarter

Nebraska – Todd Brown 23 run

Second quarter

Nebraska – Field goal, Seibel 22
Nebraska – Jeff Finn 8 pass from Jeff Quinn

Third quarter

Mississippi State – Field goal, Dana Moore 47
Nebraska – Andra Franklin 2 run

Fourth quarter

Mississippi State – John Bond 1 run
Nebraska – Tim McCrady 52 pass from Quinn
Mississippi State – Michael Haddix 11 pass from Bond