Which bowl game did Penn State go to in the 1986 season?
Which bowl game did Penn State go to in the 1986 season?
By Jason Bolton May 20, 2023 11:49
It must have been fun for Penn State followers to watch the 1986 college football season considering it was a stellar season for the Nittany Lions, who finished 9-3 and earned an invitation to one of college football's elite bowl games. But which bowl game did Penn State go to in 1986? Here is the team's third year in college football on January 2.
To begin with, we will rewind the clock back to the 1986 Penn State season. This team started the season in that 'strong contender' category, opening 4–0. And then they tripped with a loss at Alabama, and everything was right again after wins over Boston College and Syracuse. Notre Dame, Maryland, and Pitt would follow in consecutive weeks after the season-opening win at Wisconsin.
Even with the three losses, Penn State still finished with a good record and probably will receive an invite to one of the big bowl games. The game just so happened to be the Fiesta Bowl.
The 1987 Fiesta Bowl happened on January 1 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. For Penn State, that put it up against Miami for a second time this season. This was a slugfest both teams played good defense, but neither had it going on offense.
Miami stumbled out of the Beaver Stadium with a 14-10 win, but the Penn State defense played well and held Miami to just 239 yards of total offense. Penn State, meanwhile, never got off the ground on offense and finished with just 185 yards.
Overall, it was not a bad result for Penn State going to the Fiesta Bowl. Penn State had just competed in one of the oldest and most prestigious college football bowl games against a very talented opponent.
Clearly, it was a team that was serious on and off the field. They played their hearts out to get that bowl-eligible status and worked like dogs all season for a shot at the opportunity of seeing some money in one large, major college bowl game - so you better believe it when I tell you they didn't give TCU about an inch.
Penn State's presence in the Fiesta Bowl does nothing to solve how bowl games good ones at that are a stage on which teams can compete against top-level competition across the nation and cache for your program has a value of its own in attracting better recruiting classes. It was just another fine bowl, the fiesta variety shedding more light on what Penn State football is these days in some respects.
Penn State won its only Fiesta Bowl against Miami, and that remains about as impressive of a victory the program could ever have hoped to attain so long as all parties agreed on what truly constituted peak greatness. While they ultimately fell in a tough loss to an eventual national champion Miami squad, the competitiveness and wins is a representation of how Penn State football had raised itself into one of college's best.
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