Colorado State University Athletics
Bowl Rewind: 2000 Liberty Bowl
12/14/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
2000 Liberty Bowl Photo Gallery
Colorado State entered the 2000 Liberty Bowl having won a second straight Mountain West title. Coach Sonny Lubick’s Rams featured eight players — the most in school history — who were named first-team all-league. Included in that group were quarterback Matt Newton and linebacker Rick Crowell, named the league’s offensive and defensive players of the year, respectively. For the fourth time in seven seasons, Lubick was named the league’s coach of the year.
Running back Cecil Sapp’s 2-yard scoring run in the second quarter tied the game, and wide receiver Frank Rice’s 16-yard reverse late in the first half put the Rams ahead to stay, 16-10. The Cardinals would get within two, 19-17, before C.W. Hurst nailed a 32-yard field goal to keep the Rams in front. On Louisville's final drive, John Howell sacked Louisville's Dave Ragone on 4th-and-7 to allow the Rams to run out the clock.
Sapp set a bowl and school bowl game record with 36 rushes (still a CSU bowl record), and 160 yards (currently ranks third). Louisville had previously allowed just one 100-yard rusher and ranked fourth in the nation for rushing defense. CSU limited the Cardinals to 17 points; Louisville entered the contest avearging 35.3 points per game.
Colorado State was later voted 14th by the Associated Press, the highest end-of-season AP ranking in school history.
Individual Statistics
Rushing - Colorado State: Sapp 36-160-1; Rice 2-39-1; Rebstock 1-6-0; Sanders 3-4-0; Newton 7- -50-0. Louisville: Stallings 15-63-0; Ragone 7-19-0; Lester 1-1-0; Parker 1- -7-0.
Passing - Colorado State: Newton 28-13-1-158-0. Louisville: Ragone 37-24-0-321-2.
Receiving - Colorado State: Rebstock 3-34-0; Layne 2-46-0; Ochoa 2-22-0; Rice 2-20-0; Cuppari 2-19-0; Woolstenhulme 1-9-0; Sapp 1-8-0. Louisville: Branch 10-170-1; Jackson 5-47-0; Parker 4-14-0; Ghent 3-23-0; Dorsey 1-58-1; Stallings 1-9-0.
Tackles - Colorado State: Howell 7-1-8; Crowell 6-1-7; Gibson 4-1-5-; Ju. Gallimore 4-0-4; Sprague 3-1-4. Louisville: Floyd 7-4-11; Freitag 4-6-10; Burns 7-1-8; Roundtree 6-2-8; Arp 5-3-89; Harris 3-3-6.