7 24 5 5 7 0 | 4 4 Florida State 7 0 0 | |
The 1980 Orange Bowl was a postseason college football bowl game played on January 1, 1980, at the Miami Orange Bowl between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Florida State Seminoles.
Contents
Background
Oklahoma was champion of the Big Eight Conference for the seventh straight year and third consecutive Orange Bowl appearance. This was Florida State's first Orange Bowl appearance as they tried to finish their season off with a perfect undefeated season.
Game summary
Mike Whiting gave the Seminoles a 7–0 lead on his touchdown run, but that would be their only score of the day. A fumbled field goal snap, three turnovers, over 100 yards of rushing by J. C. Watts and Billy Sims, and 24 unanswered points by Oklahoma doomed the Seminoles. It all started with a Watts run for a touchdown in the second quarter. After the kickoff, the Seminoles turned the ball over on an interception, giving the ball back to Oklahoma. Stanley Wilson then scored a touchdown run to make it 14-7. Mike Keeling added a field goal just before halftime to give the Sooners a 17-7 lead. The final score occurred as Watts ran for 12 yards before lateralling the ball to Sims, who ran it in for the final 22 yards for the final touchdown, as the fourth quarter went scoreless. The Sooners ran for 447 yards on 59 carries, an average of nearly seven yards per carry, while having two times as many total yards as the Seminoles.
Aftermath
The two teams met again in the 1981 Orange Bowl.