|
|
Liberty Bowl 1980
Purdue 28 Missouri 25 |
|
That was a typical understatement from Purdue's soft-spoken All-American quarterback and major college football's all-time passing king, who wound up his career by completing 22 of 28 for 289 yards and four touchdowns in the Boilermakers' 28-25 victory over Missouri in the 22nd annual Liberty Bowl.
Herrmann threw scoring passes of 8 and 27 yards to Bart Burrell, his high school teammate from Carmel, Ind., who broke one Liberty Bowl receiving record and tied two others by catching eight of Herrmann's tosses for 113 yards.
"Herrmann is just outstanding," said Purdue coach Jim Young. "He did a great job of reading their secondary. I believe when he is on, he is just unstoppable."
Warren Powers, whose Missouri team had not yielded more than 267 passing yards in a game this season, agreed with Young.
"Herrmann played like we thought he was going to play," Powers said. "If you don't put pressure on him, he's going to do what he did. He just does a good job of passing and their line gives him a lot of protection. If you blitz, he'll pick you apart.”
Missouri had enough to sack Herrmann three times, but for the most part, he had plenty of time to pick out his receivers.
"They played a lot of zone today," said Burrell. "Mark told us just to run until we got open."
Herrmann's first touchdown pass to Burrell opened the scoring at 11:29 of the first period and the 27-yarder gave the Boilermakers a 28-12 lead with five minutes left in the third quarter. It also enabled them to withstand a Missouri rally that produced a 45-yard field goal by Ron Verrilli, a deliberate safety, and Terry Hill's 1-yard touchdown plunge in the final 19 minutes.
The 6-foot-4 sharpshooter also threw second-period touchdown passes of 43 yards to Steve Bryant and 5 yards to All-American tight end Dave Young, the nation's leading receiver during the regular season.
But despite his aerial fireworks, which smashed the Liberty Bowl mark of 218 yards set by David Jaynes of Kansas against North Carolina State in 1973, Herrmann fell 54 yards shy in his attempt to become major college football's first 10,000-yard passer. Including three bowl games, he wound up with 9,946 yards.
Herrmann, who completed 13 of 17 passes for 180 yards in the first half, paced the Boilermakers to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter before Missouri got on the board when George Shorthose handed to Ron Fellows on a reverse for a 92-yard kickoff return, 1 yard shy of the Liberty Bowl record.
James Wilder- Missouri's career rushing leader, but held to 49 yards in 16 carries- scored on a 1-yard run at 8:44 of the second period. However, the Tigers trailed 14-12 because Verrilli missed the conversion try after their first touchdown and Phil Bradley's two point pass attempt after Wilder's touchdown was intercepted.
A record Liberty Bowl crowd of 53,667, plus a national television audience, viewed the contest. Both teams had finished their regular seasons with 8-3 marks.
Sharing the spotlight with Herrmann and his receivers was place-kicker Rick Anderson, whose successful conversion after each of Herrmann's-touchdown passes accounted for the decisive points. Also, the Purdue defense had a brilliant goal line stand, linebacker James Looney stopping Wilder cold at the one.
Bradley, the all-time Big Eight total offense leader, had 16 completions in 29 attempts for 210 yards. |
|
|
|
|
|
All-time passing king, Mark Herrmann's career culminated in the Liberty Bowl. |
|
|
|
|
|
Phil Bradley hands off during Liberty Bowl.
|
|
|
|
|
|
MVP Mark Herrmann. |
|
|
Attendance- 53,667
Scoring Summary
First Quarter PU- Burrell 8 yard pass from Herrmann (Anderson kick)
Second Quarter PU- Bryant 43 yard pass from Herrmann (Anderson kick) MU- Fellows 92 kickoff return (kick failed) MU- Wilder 1 run (pass failed) PU- Young 5 pass from Herrmann (Anderson kick)
Third Quarter PU- Burrell 27 yard pass from Herrmann (Anderson kick) MU- FG Verrtlll 45
Fourth Quarter MO- Safety Purdue quarterback Herrmann knelt deliberately in end zone. MO- Hill 1 run (Tim Hornof pass from Bradley)
Individual Statistics
Rushing PU- McCall 17-85, Macon 16-69 MU- Hill 9-54, Wilder 16-49
Passing PU- Herrmann 28-22-289 MU- Bradley 29-16-210
Receiving PU- Burrell 8-113, McCall 6-38, Bryant 4-86, Young 3-42, Smith 1-10 MU- Gibler 5-63, Fellows 3-35, Blair 3-62
|
|
|
|
|
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - "I had a good time
back there," Mark Herrmann said yesterday.
