Marching Virginians, Marching Tar Heels, "Salute to the bowl games of America"
Attendance
54,116
Payout
US$3.2 million (total)
United States TV coverage
Network
NBC
Announcers
Charlie Jones, Bob Trumpy, John Dockery
Nielsen ratings
3.7
Gator Bowl
< 1997
1999 >
The 1998 Gator Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and the North Carolina Tar Heels from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The 53rd edition of the Gator Bowl, it was played at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 1, 1998. The game was the final contest of the 1997 NCAA Division I-A football season for both teams, and ended in a 42–3 victory for North Carolina.
Virginia Tech was selected to play in the Gator Bowl following a 7–4 regular season. Facing the unranked Hokies were the No. 7-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels. The Heels had gone 10–1 during the regular season and were ranked seventh in the Associated Press poll heading into the game. North Carolina narrowly missed an at-large selection to a higher-prestige Bowl Alliance postseason game and was playing under new head coach Carl Torbush for the first time. Torbush had taken over for former head coach Mack Brown on December 8, after Brown announced that he was departing to take the position of head coach at Texas.
The game kicked off on January 1, 1998, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. From the opening kickoff, North Carolina dominated every aspect of the game. In the first quarter, the Tar Heels scored 16 unanswered points, including a defensive touchdown. North Carolina added six points in the second and third quarters before Tech scored its first points of the game—a 40-yard field goal by kicker Shayne Graham. The Tar Heels rounded out the game by scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter. The Tar Heels set school records for largest bowl game margin of victory, most points scored in a bowl game, and most touchdown passes in a bowl game. The eventual 42–3 loss was Virginia Tech's largest bowl loss in school history.
Quarterbacks Chris Keldorf and Nick Sorensen were named the most valuable players of their respective teams, and each team saw multiple players selected in the 1998 NFL draft, which followed the game.
The 1998GatorBowl was a post-season American college football bowl game between the Virginia Tech Hokies from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and...
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Gildersleeve. Sorensen was named Virginia Tech's Player of the Game in the 1998GatorBowl loss to North Carolina. In 1999, Sorensen moved from quarterback to...
1958 season and coached North Carolina to one bowl game, the 1963 GatorBowl, where they won their first bowl game in program history. Bill Dooley succeeded...
last five games before the GatorBowl and had participated in the Liberty Bowl during the previous season. The 2006 GatorBowl was played on January 2,...
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Muschamp. Muschamp coached the Gators to a third-place finish in the SEC East, a 3–5 conference record, a 24–17 GatorBowl victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes...
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ISBN 0-9650782-1-3. Hairston, Jack, Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told, Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign...
and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as the "Gator Nation." The Gators compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)...
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2008. 1998GatorBowl Archived 2008-10-21 at the Wayback Machine Virginia Tech Athletics department, Hokiesports.com, Accessed February 25, 2008. 1998 Music...
ISBN 0-9650782-1-3. Hairston, Jack, Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told, Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign...
that cut the Gator advantage to 3 late in the 3rd quarter. Mississippi's lead in the all-time series was reduced to 11-10-1. The Gator victory broke...
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