1992 Independence Bowl

The 1992 Independence Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Oregon Ducks.

1992 Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl
Independence Bowl XVII
Oregon Ducks Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6–5) (7–4) Pac-10 ACC 35 39 Head coach:  Rich Brooks Head coach:  Bill Dooley
1 2 3 4 Total Oregon 13 9 7 6 35 Wake Forest 7 3 14 15 39
Date	December 31, 1992
Season	1992
Stadium	Independence Stadium
Location	Shreveport, Louisiana
MVP	SE Todd Dixon, Wake Forest CB Herman O'Berry, Oregon
Referee	Terry Monk (Big East)
Attendance	31,337
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Sean McDonough Craig James Steve Cyphers
Independence Bowl  < 1991  1993 >

Background

The Ducks finished 6th in the Pac-10 Conference. The Demon Deacons rebounded from a 1–3 start to win six of their next seven games to finish fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference. This was Wake Forest's first bowl game since 1979 and Oregon's first since 1990.

Game summary

John Leach scored on a touchdown run to give Wake Forest a 7–0 lead. But Oregon would dominate the quarter and the first half with a Sean Burwell touchdown run from 40 yards and ended the quarter on a Herman O'Berry 24 yard fumble recovery for a touchdown to have a 13–7 lead at the end of one quarter. Wake Forest narrowed the lead on a Mike Green field goal, but Oregon increased their lead on a Vince Ferry touchdown catch from Danny O'Neil, with a Thompson field goal making it 22–10 with :47 remaining in the half. Oregon increased their lead to 29–10 on an Alex Molden interception return for a touchdown with 9:43 in the third. Wake Forest took over from this point, scoring 29 straight points in the third and fourth. Ned Moultrie made it 29–17 on a touchdown run with less than four minutes remaining in the 3rd. Todd Dixon made it 29–24 on a 30 yard touchdown catch from Keith West with :45 in the quarter. Dixon caught another touchdown pass, this time from Bobby Jones, to give the Deacons a 32–29 lead after the two point conversion succeeded. Leach scored his second touchdown from 6 yards out to make it 39–29 with 5:19 remaining. Ronnie Harris scored for the Ducks on a 10 yard touchdown pass from O'Neil to make it 39–35 (after a missed kick) with 1:05 remaining, but the Demon Deacons held on to win their first bowl game since 1946.^[1][2][3]

Aftermath

Dooley retired after the bowl win, and the Demon Deacons would not return to a bowl game until 1999. As for Oregon, they returned to a bowl game three years later, in the Rose Bowl. Neither team has returned to the Independence Bowl since this game.

Statistics

Statistics	Wake Forest	Oregon
First downs	18	17
Rushing yards	193	112
Passing yards	323	227
Interceptions	3	1
Total yards	516	339
Fumbles–lost	3–3	0–0
Penalties–yards	11–108	6–55
Punts–average	4–39.5	7–35.9

References

1. "Deacons' revival swamps Ducks". The Shreveport Times. January 1, 1993. Retrieved February 4, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 1, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. "1992 Independence Bowl - GoDucks.com - the University of Oregon Official Athletics Web Site". Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2015.