1989 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 1989 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I-AA National Championship Game | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | December 16, 1989 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1989 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Paulson Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Statesboro, Georgia | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Wally Righton[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 25,725[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | ESPN | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Barry Tompkins (play-by-play), Stan White (color)[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 1989 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason college football game between the Georgia Southern Eagles and the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks. The game was played on December 16, 1989, at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia. The culminating game of the 1989 NCAA Division I-AA football season, it was won by Georgia Southern, 37–34.[3]
Georgia Southern Eagles
The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1989 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 16-team bracket.[4] The location of the final, the Georgia Southern Eagles' Paulson Stadium, had been predetermined via a three-year agreement the university reached with the NCAA in February 1989.[5]
Georgia Southern finished their regular season with an 11–0 record.[6] Ranked first in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll[7] and seeded first in the tournament, the Eagles defeated Villanova, Middle Tennessee State, and Montana to reach the final. This was the fourth appearance for Georgia Southern in a Division I-AA championship game, having two prior wins (1985 and 1986) and one prior loss (1988).
Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks
Stephen F. Austin finished their regular season with a 9–1–1 record (5–0–1 in conference); their only loss was an away game against Boise State.[8] Ranked third in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll[7] and seeded third in the tournament, the Lumberjacks defeated Grambling State, Southwest Missouri State, and second-seed Furman to reach the final. This was the first appearance for Stephen F. Austin in a Division I-AA championship game.
Game summary
Scoring summary
| Scoring summary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Game statistics
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lumberjacks | 7 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 34 |
| Eagles | 14 | 6 | 0 | 17 | 37 |
| Statistics | SFA | GSC |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 18 | 21 |
| Plays–yards | 73–377 | 81–387 |
| Rushes–yards | 32–74 | 66–274 |
| Passing yards | 303 | 113 |
| Passing: comp–att–int | 15–41–5 | 7–15–0 |
| Time of possession | 26:50 | 33:10 |
| Team | Category | Player | Statistics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen F. Austin | Passing | Todd Hammel | 15–40, 303 yds, 3 TD, 5 INT |
| Rushing | Larry Centers | 22 car, 63 yds | |
| Receiving | Joe Bradford | 4 rec, 102 yds, 1 TD | |
| Georgia Southern | Passing | Raymond Gross | 7–15, 113 yds |
| Rushing | Joe Ross | 31 car, 152 yds, 1 TD | |
| Receiving | Karl Miller | 2 rec, 53 yds |