1991 Fiesta Bowl
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| 1991 Sunkist Fiesta Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| 20th Fiesta Bowl | |||||||||||||||||||||
 Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, hosted the Fiesta Bowl. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | January 1, 1991 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season | 1990 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stadium | Sun Devil Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Tempe, Arizona | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | QB Browning Nagle & DB Ray Buchanan | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Favorite | Alabama by 8.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Dayle Phillips (ACC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 69,098 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United States TV coverage | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Network | NBC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Announcers | Charlie Jones, Todd Christensen | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nielsen ratings | 6.2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
The 1991 Sunkist Fiesta Bowl, part of the 1990 bowl game season, took place on January 1, 1991, at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. The competing teams were the Alabama Crimson Tide, representing the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and the Louisville Cardinals, competing as a football independent. In what was the 20th edition of the Fiesta Bowl, Louisville won the game 34–7.
Alabama
Under new coach Gene Stallings, Alabama's secondary coach under Bear Bryant from 1958 to 1964, the 1990 Alabama squad opened the season ranked No. 13 only to be upset by Southern Miss, led by quarterback Brett Favre, in the opening game en route to an 0–3 start. The Crimson Tide also lost to Florida and Georgia during the skid.
The Tide recovered to win six of their next seven, losing only to Penn State in the final meeting between the schools for 20 years. Following its 24–3 victory over LSU, Alabama accepted a bid to the Fiesta Bowl.
Alabama concluded the regular season with a victory in the Iron Bowl vs. Auburn, giving it a final regular season record of 7–4.[1] The appearance marked the first for Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl.
Stallings, who was fired by the National Football League's Phoenix Cardinals with five games remaining in the 1989 season, coached in college for the first time since leading Texas A&M in 1971.
Louisville
The Cardinals, known mostly for their basketball prowess under Denny Crum, enjoyed their finest football season to date under Louisville native Howard Schnellenberger, who was an assistant under Bryant with Stallings before the latter was named head coach at Texas A&M in 1965.