January 2, 1997, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, La.
Attendance: 78,344
The third-ranked Gators lay claim to their first national championship as they stop top-ranked Florida State's hopes for a perfect season with a 52-20 victory before a Superdome Sugar Bowl record crowd of 78,344 and an ABC national television audience in the 1997 Nokia Sugar Bowl. With Ohio State's defeat of undefeated Arizona State the day before in the Rose Bowl, Florida is voted national champions in both major polls for the first time in school history.
Both teams open the contest throwing the football, combining for 238 yards passing and a 10-3 Gator lead at the end of the first quarter on a nine-yard touchdown pass from Danny Wuerffel to Ike Hilliard and a 32-yard Bart Edmiston field goal. Florida, which worked out of the shotgun for much of the game, twice extended its lead to 14 points in the second quarter on a two-yard scoring run by Fred Taylor and another Hilliard touchdown, this one a 31-yarder from Wuerffel. But the Seminoles responded each time, cutting the UF lead to 24-17 on a 12-yard run by Warrick Dunn with under a minute to play in the half.
Scott Bentley trimmed the Gator lead to 24-20 on a 45-yard field goal less than five minutes into the second half, but the Seminoles would not score again. Florida seals the victory by scoring the final 28 points of the game, a run that began with Hilliard's third touchdown reception of the game on an eight-yard strike from Wuerffel. Wuerffel scrambles 16 yards for a score to put UF up 38-20 with 13 seconds left in the third quarter, and Terry Jackson adds two fourth quarter scoring runs, including a 42-yarder, for the final margin.
The Gator defense is strong from start to finish, stopping the Seminoles on downs at the UF 23 on the game's opening possession and holding FSU to just 42 net yards rushing total, just two yards shy of the UF bowl record set against Baylor in the 1960 Gator Bowl. The Seminoles are successful on only five of 18 third downs and the Gators pick off two FSU passes.
The Gator special teams also play well, with punter Robby Stevenson pinning the Seminoles inside the five-yard line on two different occasions while averaging 48.1 yards per punt.
Other Game Notes:
- The 32-point margin of victory is the largest against a No. 1 ranked team in bowl history.
- The win marked Florida's first-ever victory over the nation's top-ranked team. It had been 0-4 (0-3 regular season, 0-1 in bowl games) in four previous meetings versus the nation's top-ranked team at gametime.
- Florida's 52 points is the most in Sugar Bowl history and UF bowl history.
- Wuerffel's three touchdown passes and Hilliard's three touchdown receptions both tied UF bowl records.
- Hilliard's 150 yards receiving was the second-best single-game performance in UF bowl history, trailing only Cris Collinsworth's 166 in the 1980 Tangerine Bowl.
- With Terry Jackson's 118 yards rushing, it marked the third time in Sugar Bowl history that a member of the Jackson family has gained over 100 yards rushing or receiving in a Sugar Bowl game. His brother, Willie Jackson, eclipsed the 100-yard receiving mark in both the 1992 (148 yards vs. Notrre Dame) and 1994 (131 yards vs. West Virginia) Sugar Bowl games.
- Wuerffel's 300-yard game was the fourth 300-yard passing performance in UF bowl history, with all four coming in the Sugar Bowl. The other 300-yard games: Wuerffel - 394 (1995 Sugar Bowl vs. Florida State), Shane Matthews - 370 (1992 Sugar Bowl vs. Notre Dame), Steve Spurrier - 352 (1966 Sugar Bowl vs. Missouri).
