1974 Sugar Bowl

Despite tying for fourth in the Southeastern Conference, Florida was invited to the Sugar Bowl on the basis of their early success, starting 7-1 and ranked #6 at one point. But the Gators lost two of their last three games and was only #18 by the time of the Sugar Bowl, and also the only team ranked in the bottom 20 to appear in any of the New year's Day postseason bowl games. The Cornhuskers finished second in the Big Eight Conference for the 3rd straight year, with a loss to ineligible Oklahoma to end the regular season. This was the second Sugar Bowl for both teams.^[1]

Game summary

Tony Green scored first for Florida on a touchdown run in the first quarter on fourth and goal from the one. Florida added in a field goal in the second quarter to have a 10-0 lead. Nebraska decided to bench QB David Humm in the second half in favor of a running attack. As the fourth quarter began, Monte Anthony scored on a touchdown run to make it 10-7 that culminated a 99 yard drive on 18 plays. Nebraska was given a chance on their next drive, but a critical moment happened on 4th and two on the 49. Osbourne decided to go for it, and Anthony ran for three yards but most importantly got the first down. A few plays later, Nebraska tied the game on a Mike Coyle field goal with 7:12 remaining. But Florida could not concoct a drive and had to punt the ball back to the Huskers at the 25 with four minutes remaining. Nebraska went to work on a drive that covered less than two minutes and set up Coyle's kick from the Florida 29. With 2:22 remaining, Coyle kicked what turned out to be the game winning points as Nebraska held on to win their first Sugar Bowl. The running attack was evident in Nebraska as Monte Anthony went 64 yards on 15 carries for one touchdown while Tony Davis went 126 yards on 17 carries.^[2]

Aftermath

Nebraska has reached two Sugar Bowls since then, 1985 and 1987. Florida has returned seven times.

Statistics

Statistics	Nebraska	Florida
First Downs	18	13
Yards Rushing	304	178
Yards Passing	16	97
Total Yards	320	275
Punts-Average	4-37.0	6-32.5
Fumbles-Lost	3-1	3-1
Interceptions	4	1
Penalties-Yards	1-17	5-41

References

Sugar Bowl Game

History & tie-ins	History Tulane Stadium Georgia Dome Mercedes-Benz Superdome College Football Playoff Broadcasters Southeastern Conference Big 12 Conference

Games	1935 1936 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 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1972 1973 1974 1975 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1995 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Notes	The 2006 game took place in Atlanta, Georgia due to Hurricane Katrina. The game was also the national title game for either the Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, or Bowl Championship Series in 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2004. There was a Sugar Bowl in January and December in 1972 and 1995. The game was a College Football Playoff semifinal in its 2015 edition.

Florida Gators bowl games

Pound sign (#) denotes national championship game.

Nebraska Cornhuskers bowl games

Pound sign (#) denotes national championship game.

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