| 1978 Liberty Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| 20th Liberty Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | December 23, 1978 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1978 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Memphis, Tennessee | ||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | James Wilder Sr. (RB, Missouri) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Robert E. Carpenter (ACC) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 53,064 | ||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ABC | ||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Chris Schenkel,Ara Parseghian andVerne Lundquist | ||||||||||||||||||
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The1978 Liberty Bowl, acollege football postseasonbowl game, took place on December 23, 1978, atLiberty Bowl Memorial Stadium inMemphis,Tennessee.[1] The competing teams in the 20th edition of theLiberty Bowl were theLSU Tigers of theSoutheastern Conference (SEC) and theMissouri Tigers of theBig Eight Conference. Missouri defeated LSU by a final score of 20–15.[2]
The 1978 LSU squad finished the regular season with a record of 8–3 and losses againstAlabama,Georgia andMississippi State. The appearance marked the first for LSU in the Liberty Bowl, and the school's 21st overall bowl game.[3]
The 1978 Missouri squad finished the regular season with a record of 7–4 and losses againstAlabama,Colorado,Oklahoma andOklahoma State. The appearance marked the first for Missouri in the Liberty Bowl, and the school's fifteenth overall bowl game.
| Scoring summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:[4]
| Statistics[4] | LSU | MU |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 12 | 18 |
| Plays–yards | 77–364 | 71–317 |
| Rushes–yards | 46–194 | 50–200 |
| Passing yards | 170 | 117 |
| Passing: Comp–Att–Int | 14–31–4 | 11–21–1 |
Each program later returned to the Liberty Bowl: Missouri lost toPurdue in1980, then lost toOklahoma State in2018, while LSU fell toBaylor in1985.
Missouri joined theSoutheastern Conference (SEC) in 2012 after playing 16 seasons in theBig 12, which was formed in 1996 when four schools from the formerSouthwest Conference combined with theBig Eight.
LSU defeated Missouri, 42–7, at Baton Rouge on October 1, 2016, in the first regular season meeting between the schools in what was alsoEd Orgeron's first game as LSU head coach. Four years later,Eli Drinkwitz earned his first victory as Missouri coach with a 45-41 decision over LSU at Columbia. The game was originally scheduled for Baton Rouge, but moved three days prior to kickoff due to the approach ofHurricane Delta to the Louisiana coast. The teams are scheduled to meet October 7, 2023 at Columbia.