Louisville Caps 11-1 Season With AutoZone Liberty Bowl Victory

2004 AutoZone Liberty Bowl Champions

In the highest scoring Liberty Bowl ever, it was a defensive play by Louisville that ended Boise State's 22-game winning streak. Louisville safety Kerry Rhodes intercepted a pass in the end zone as time expired to preserve No. 7 Louisville's 44-40 victory over 10th-ranked Boise State on Friday.

"It's a great way to end it," Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said. "A national audience, two teams that were supposed to score over 84 points. I think we hit it right on the top."

Louisville handed Boise State its first loss since September, 2003 in a game that was among the most important in school history for both programs.

"This was big for us," Boise State receiver Chris Carr said. "We don't see ourselves as a non-BCS school or a little school. We see ourselves on the same level as any school we play.

"We wanted to come out here and prove to everybody that we're not a team in the WAC that's not very good, and we just beat up on little teams."

Eric Shelton scored on the go-ahead touchdown on a 1-yard run with 6:48 left. Stefan LeFors threw two touchdowns and ran for a third as the Cardinals (11-1), who have never finished ranked higher than 13th, matched a school record for victories in a season.

The Cardinals won their third Liberty Bowl in their final appearance as a Conference USA team.

The Broncos (11-1) had one last chance to win after Art Carmody's 19-yard field goal with 1:10 left put Louisville up four.

Quarterback Jared Zabransky drove the Broncos to the Louisville 30 before his final pass into the end zone as time expired was intercepted by Rhodes. He more than atoned for his missed interception opportunity in a 41-38 loss on Oct. 14 to then-No. 3 Miami.

"God blessed me to put me in position to make the play, and I made the play," Rhodes said.

LeFors said the Cardinals had no problems focusing on the task at hand with all the rumors about Petrino's future.

"We wanted to play the game between the lines and let all that other talk, just put it in the back of your minds and not even worry about it," LeFors said.

Everyone expected a high-scoring game in a bowl pairing the nation's top two offenses, and the teams didn't disappoint as they swapped the lead five times. The 84 combined points topped the 80 points by Colorado and Alabama in 1969 and was one of a handful of records set.

Louisville won only for the second time in seven bowls despite a season-high four turnovers. The Cardinals rolled up 564 yards, topping 500 yards for the ninth time this season.

LeFors was 18-of-26 for 193 yards and ran 12 times for 76 yards. The Cardinals rushed for 329 yards against a defense that had been the nation's fourth-best against the run.

"He, particularly running the football, killed us," Boise State coach Dan Hawkins said of LeFors. "That doesn't mean he didn't make some throws because he obviously did. But I think where he made some big plays, huge plays, was running the football. On key downs and in key situations, he really sparked them."

This was the biggest game in school history for Boise State, a program that moved up to Division I-A in 1996. The Broncos, who played their first three bowls on their home field known for its blue turf, thought they could keep up with an offense that had trailed only Louisville for most yards and points.

But the Broncos, who lost 12 starters from their 2003 squad, finished with 284 yards offense, well below their 511.6-yard average.

The teams still rewrote the Liberty Bowl record book.

They combined for the most points in the first quarter with 24, and their 52 points were the most for the first half.

Boise State kicker Tyler Jones had a record 48-yard field goal on the Broncos' first drive, and Broncos linebacker Andy Avalos had a 92-yard interception return off LeFors in the first quarter that bested the 79-yarder by Michael Jordan of Tulane in 1998.

Boise State led as much as 34-21 early in the third quarter after scoring 24 straight points.

The Cardinals settled down when LeFors drove them on an 81-play drive in eight plays, which he capped with a 14-yard TD toss to J.R. Russell. LeFors then gave Louisville the lead back at 35-34 when he ran in from a yard out with 2:17 left in the third.

Boise State last led at 40-35 when Jon Helmandollar plunged in from 2 yards with 10:51 left.

2004 AUTO ZONE LIBERTY BOWL POSTGAME NOTES

Most Valuable Player: Stefan LeFors, Louisville (18-of-26, 193 yds, 2 TDs, 1 rush TD)
Louisville Offensive Player of the Game: Stefan LeFors, QB
Louisville Defensive Player of the Game: Antoine Harris, CB (4 tackles, 2 PBU)
Boise State Offensive Player of the Game: Jared Zabransky, QB (14-29, 199 yds, 2 TDs)
Boise State Defensive Player of the Game: Andy Avalos, LB (92-yard INT ret. for TD)

GENERAL NOTES
Today’s attendance of 58,355 marked the eighth consecutive year that the AutoZone Liberty Bowl has produced a crowd of more than 50,000.

This will go down as the highest scoring game in Liberty Bowl history. The 84 combined points in today’s game surpasses the previous record of 80 set in 1969 (Colorado 47, Alabama 33).

The 24 points scored in the opening quarter (Louisville 14, Boise State 10) marked the highest-scoring first quarter in Liberty Bowl history. The previous record was 23 points in 1989 (Ole Miss 14, Air Force 9). The 52 points scored in the first half (Boise State 31, Louisville 21) marked the highest-scoring first half in Liberty Bowl history. The previous record was 50 points in 1969 (Colorado 31, Alabama 19).

Despite breaking team scoring records for quarter, half and game, not one player on either team rushed for 100 yards, caught passes for 100 yards or threw for 200 yards.

Today’s victory marked the seventh time in the last nine years that the Conference USA school has won the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. C-USA teams are 9-5 all-time in the game.

LOUISVILLE NOTES
Today’s victory gave Louisville the best record in school history at 11-1. The 2001 team, which defeated BYU in the Liberty Bowl, held the previous best mark at 11-2.

J.R. Russell extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one catch to 35 with a first quarter grab. He closes out his U of L career with the fourth-longest consecutive catch streak in school history. Russell’s third quarter touchdown reception moved him into fourth place in all-time TD catches at Louisville with 19.

Stefan LeFors’ 14-yard TD pass to J.R. Russell in the third quarter moved him into a tie for fourth place on the school’s all-time single-season TD list with 38. He is tied with current U of L quarterbacks coach Jeff Brohm. LeFors finished the season with a 73.5 completion percentage, second-best in NCAA history, just missing the record of 73.6.

Eric Shelton’s fourth quarter touchdown was his 20th rushing TD of the season, setting a new Louisville single-season record. The old record was 19, set by Leroy Collins in 1998. The 20 touchdowns trail only DeAngelo Williams of Memphis (22) in the national rankings. Shelton has 30 rushing touchdowns in just 21 games at U of L (second in school history).

Redshirt freshman WR Harry Douglas scored his first career touchdown on a 65-yard reverse run late in the first quarter. It was the first rushing attempt of his collegiate career.

Louisville’s three first half turnovers matched their season high set vs. Kentucky in the season opener. Boise State scored 14 points off those turnovers. The Cardinals set a new season high in turnovers on their first offensive series of the second half when Stefan LeFors fumbled deep in Boise State territory. Louisville entered the game ranked fourth in the nation in turnover margin with a +14 mark.

Louisville generated 564 yards of total offense, meaning that they topped the 400-yard mark in all 12 games this season and 15 straight overall, dating back to the 2003 season.

The 329 rushing yards produced by Louisville was the fourth-highest total in Liberty Bowl history and the most since Syracuse ran for 396 in 1996.

Today marked the ninth time this season that Louisville has scored 40 or more points this season. Utah, which plays Pittsburgh in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, is the only other Division I-A team to top the 40 point mark in nine outings.

BOISE STATE NOTES
The 40 points scored by Boise State was the highest total scored in a bowl game by the Broncos. The previous record was 38 in the 2000 Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl vs. UTEP.

Today’s loss marked the Broncos first loss in a bowl game after winning their previous four postseason outings. It also snapped their nation-long winning streak of 22 games, dating back to the third game of the 2003 season. USC takes over the longest streak, at 21 games, entering the FedEx Orange Bowl on Jan. 4.

The loss also marked the first time that Boise State had ever lost a game that was televised on ESPN or ESPN 2. The Broncos were 15-0 in front of the ESPN cameras, dating back to their first season in I-A in 1996.

Andy Avalos’ 92-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter was a new Liberty Bowl record. It was just the third interception thrown this season by Louisville’s Stefan LeFors.

Tyler Jones’ 48-yard field goal in the first quarter was his longest of the season and also marked the longest in the 46-year history of the Liberty Bowl.

The 31 first half points scored by Boise State matched a Liberty Bowl record for points by a team in one half, originally set by Colorado in 1969 vs. Alabama.