Georgia Tech: 13
Miami: 28

On New Year’s Day the 17th ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets would square off against the 23rd ranked Miami Hurricanes in the Gator Bowl. The teams were pretty evenly matched, as the Yellow Jackets would put their 9-3 record against the 8-4 record of the Hurricanes. Miami’s losses had come against Penn State, East Carolina, Florida State, and Virginia Tech. The Canes were playing in their first New Year’s Day Bowl game in five years, and boasted a defense that had not given up a touchdown in three consecutive weeks. Georgia Tech, on the other hand, brought perhaps the best offense in the country to Jacksonville, entering the game with the #1 offense in total yardage and the #2 offense in total scoring.

Miami made the most of the game’s first possession, moving 66 yards and scoring on an 8 yard run by James Jackson to take an early 7-0 lead.

But Tech’s high powered offense bounced back quickly, and Heisman runner-up Joe Hamilton had the Jackets in scoring position at the Miami 31 yard line with relative ease. Hamilton’s march ended prematurely, however, when Matt Sweeney intercepted a pass in the backfield for the Hurricanes.

While Miami basically dominated the remainder of the first quarter, they had no additional points to show for it. But late in the period, the Canes began a promising drive that included a 30 yard pass from Kenny Kelly to Santana Moss to advance to the Ramblin’ Wreck 15 yard line. On the first play of the second quarter, Kelly threw a 15 yard strike to Andre King to increase the Hurricane lead to 14-0.

Ten minutes would pass before the game saw any more points, those coming from the Yellow Jackets. Hamilton finally got into a groove, leading the offense 77 yards for the Tech’s only touchdown. The senior quarterback completed three passes to Dez White on the drive and added the exclamation point with a 17 yard run for the score to bring the Jackets within a score at 14-7 with 4:12 to play in the half.

Tech did not celebrate long though, as Miami’s Clinton Portis broke off a 73 yard touchdown run on the second play of the ensuing drive, pushing the Hurricane lead to 21-7 with 3:09 remaining. The Canes would take their fourteen point lead into halftime.
The Jackets picked up their play on both sides of the ball in the second half, but while the defense held the Canes scoreless, the offense could only muster up a couple field goals to cut the lead to 21-13.

Miami’s defense woke back up in the final period, holding Tech scoreless while Ken Dorsey was able to connect with Reggie Wayne for a 17 yard touchdown that extended the lead to 28-13 with 9:18 to play.

Neither team would score again, and the Jackets would go on to lose their first bowl game since dropping the 1978 Peach Bowl to Purdue by a score of 41-21.

Statistics:

Rushing Yards:
GT – 176
MIA – 220

Passing (Comp-Att-Yds):
GT – 20-40-245
MIA – 16-32-208

Fumbles (Total-Lost):
GT – 0-0
MIA – 0-0

Interceptions thrown:
GT – 2
MIA – 1

Penalties (Total-Yards):
GT – 7-65
MIA – 9-90

References:
Game Summary: http://www.ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/010100aaa.html