1979 HOLIDAY BOWL

12.21.79 San Diego, California (52,200) 

No. 9 BYU37
Indiana38

The 1979 season ended with BYU leading the nation in scoring, passing and total offense. At 11-0, the Cougars were one of the few undefeated, untied teams in the nation. Those kinds of credentials, along with its No. 9 national ranking in the UPI and AP polls made BYU the favorite over the at-large entry, Indiana. The opportunistic Hoosiers played the Cougars tough, holding a 21-17 lead at the half. BYU jumped ahead in the third quarter, 24-21, on a 13-yard pass from All-American Marc Wilson to Homer Jones. The Cougars fell behind, 31-24, but regained the lead at 34-31 on a 15-yard pass to Eric Lane. With 12:14 left to play, BYU padded the lead on the third field goal of the game by Brent Johnson. But midway through the fourth quarter, Indiana’s Tim Wilbur returned a punt 62 yards to push the Hoosiers ahead 38-37. With 2:06 remaining, the Cougars moved the ball 69 yards to the Indiana 10. Then, with 11 seconds left, Johnson missed a 27-yard field goal that would have won the game. Wilson was voted the MVP on offense (28 of 43 for 380 yards) and Indiana’s Wilbur won the honor for defense. Clay Brown caught nine passes for 142 yards. Lane grabbed nine passes for 79 yards and also scored a rushing touchdown. Jones scored a touchdown and had 126 yards on seven kickoff returns.

 TEAM STATSBYUINDIANA
Rushes-Yards30-14059-183
Passing Yards380171
Passes28-43-311-30-1
SCORING SUMMARY 
 TEAM PLAY
BYULane 1-yard run (kick)
IndianaStephenson 38-yard pass from Clifford (kick)
IndianaClifford 1-yard run (kick)
BYUWilson 3-yard run (kick)
BYUJohnson 40-yard FG
Indiana Clifford 1-yard run (kick)
BYUJones 13-yard pass from Wilson (kick)
IndianaHarkrader 1-yard run (kick)
Indiana Kellog 26-yard FG
BYUJohnson 29-yard FG
BYULane 15-yard pass from Wilson (kick)
BYUJohnson 28-yard FG
IndianaWilbur 62-yard punt return (kick)
SCORING BY QUARTERS1234FINAL
No. 9 BYU14317337
Indiana14710738