1999 Motor City Bowl
| 1999 Motor City Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowl Game | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 27, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Pontiac Silverdome | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Pontiac, Michigan | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | RB Doug Chapman (Marshall) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 52,449 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The 1999 Motor City Bowl was a National Collegiate Athletic Association bowl game in which the #11 Marshall Thundering Herd of the MAC defeated the BYU Cougars of the Mountain West Conference 21–3. It was played on December 27, 1999, at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan.
BYU started the season with a win over Washington at home, 35-28. They were thrust into the AP poll at #25 soon after, and they responded with a win over conference opponent #23 Colorado State, which rose them to #17. But a 45-40 loss to Virginia at home dropped them out of the polls. A six game winning streak gradually made them rise back, reaching #15 before a game with Wyoming. The Cougars were beaten 31-17, and a loss the following week to Utah made them fall out of the AP poll for good, though they were still ranked in the Coaches Poll. In the first season of the Mountain West Conference, the Cougars finished as co-champions with Colorado State and Utah.
Marshall was in the third year of play in Division I-A, and they ran the table by winning all of their games for the second time in three years. They began the season unranked, but rose to #21 before their matchup with Temple. They rose to #15 by the sixth win, and rose gradually to #11 in the AP Polls before their match-up with Western Michigan in the MAC Championship Game. Marshall came back from a 20-0 halftime deficit to win 34-30, their fourth straight conference title (1 Southern, 3 Mid-American Conference). With the win, the Thundering Herd had a 49–4 record in four seasons. Marshall's offense was led by future NFL quarterback Chad Pennington and running back Doug Chapman.
...
Wikipedia