1992 Aloha Bowl
| 1992 Aloha Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 25, 1992 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1992 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Aloha Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Honolulu, Hawaii | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1992 Aloha Bowl was played on December 25, 1992 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. Kansas earned its first bowl win in 31 years over an 8-4 BYU team led by reserve quarterback Tom Young, the younger brother of NFL hall-of-famer Steve Young. Young earned the start after starting quarterback Ryan Hancock went down with a season-ending injury in the regular season finale against Utah.
The Cougars were favored over the 7-4 Jayhawks, who had lost three straight games coming into the bowl games.
Game summary
BYU went up 7-0 on the game's opening play when Hema Heimuli returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Kansas evened the score at 7-7 two plays later when Kansas receiver Matt Gay caught a pass that was ruled a lateral from quarterback Chip Hilleary and hit a wide-open Rodney Harris for a 74-yard touchdown pass. Replays showed that the first pass was in fact 2 yards forward, which would have made the play illegal with two forward passes.
The Jayhawks took a 9-7 lead later in the first quarter when junior lineman Chris Maumalanga burst through the Cougars' offensive line to sack running back Jamal Willis in his own endzone for a safety.
Willis later gained revenge with a 29-yard touchdown run with 10:16 left in the second quarter. Following his score, BYU led 14-9. On the ensuing kickoff, senior running back Maurice Douglas broke free for a 54-yard return that put the Jayhawks on the BYU 43. The return set up a 41-yard field goal from Dan Eichloff that capped the first-half scoring at 14-12.
BYU scored on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Young to Otis Sterling and took a 20-12 lead into the fourth quarter, but Hilleary engineered a six-play, 75-yard drive - capped off by his one-yard run and successful two-point conversion - that tied the score at 20-20. After a Cougar punt, Kansas put together a seven-minute drive that ended in Dan Eichloff’s game-winning 48-yard field goal. BYU did not fare well on its own field goal kicking, with David Lauder missing a pair of short field goals earlier in the half.[1]