The 40th Florida Citrus Bowl was to be one of the top offensive showdowns of the season's postseason classics. After all, it pitted the pass-efficient 11-2 Cougars against the perennial midwestern powerhouse Buckeyes at 8-3. The Florida classic was also to be the showcase for two of the nation's top offensive players: BYU quarterback Robbie Bosco and Ohio St. tailback Keith Byars.
Funny how things work out. The only touchdowns scored in the 10-7 Buckeye victory were made by a noseguard off an interception and a reserve wide receiver on a broken play. On the Buckeye's first offensive series, Byars, the nation's leading rusher in 1984 with 1,764 yards, aggravated the foot injury that had limited him to just
208 yards during the season. The preseason Heisman Trophy favorite finished the day with five yards on two carries. Bosco didn't fare much better, throwing four interceptions on the day, including two in the game's waning moments.
As a team, BYU turned the ball over six times, none coming at very opportune times. Return specialist Vai Sikahema returned a punt 38 yards to the OSU 23, but fumbled on the play. Luckily, the Cougars recovered the ball with no harm done. However, on the very next play, Sikahema fumbled a handoff from Bosco and this time was not so lucky: linebacker Thomas Johnson recovered the ball for the Buckeyes.
Rich Spangler tallied the first points of the game on a 47-yard field goal to give Ohio St. a 3-0 lead early in the second period. The BYU offense, which had seemed dormant for the first quarter and one-half was in high gear, driving the ball to the Buckeye six yard-line with under five minutes to play in the half. But Bosco's pass was intercepted by Greg Rogan to apparently end the drive. However, the Buckeye defense was hit with a facemasking penalty on the play, thereby negating the interception and giving the Cougars new life. On the next play, Sikahema took the ball up the middle for what appeared to be the go-ahead touchdown. It was ruled, however, that he had coughed up the ball before crossing the goal line and another opportunity was thwarted.
With three minutes to play in the half, a 22-yard pass reception by Mark Bellini, a 15-yard run by fullback Lakei Heimuli and runs of three and eight yards by Tom Tuipulotu gave BYU the ball at the Buckeye 29. After an intentional grounding call against BYU and a 15-yard pass to Bellini put the ball at the 38, Bosco rolled to his left, then whirled right and threw to wide receiver David Miles cutting across the middle of the field. Miles grabbed the ball over his shoulder in the right corner of the end zone to give BYU a 7-3 halftime advantage.
The luck that appeared to have sided with the Cougars did an about-face when Bosco's pass was intercepted by Larry Kolic early in the second half and returned 14 yards for an Ohio St. touchdown and a 10-7 lead.
The circumstances seemed to be leading the game into yet another bowl-game miracle scenario for the Cougars. But it was not to be. After a nine-play drive gave the Cougars the ball at the Buckeye 37 yard-line, safety Terry White wrestled the ball away from receiver Scott Norberg in the end zone to kill the drive. Then with 10 seconds to play and the ball at the Ohio St. 30, Bosco fired one last miscue-hi fourth interception of the game-into the waiting arms of William White, who was camped under it in the end zone. The play preserved the victory and gave the Buckeyes their second bowl-game win over the Cougars in four years.
On the day, Bosco completed 26 passes out of an arm-wearying 50 attempts and was sacked twice. On the other side of the coin, Ohio St. quarterback Jim Karsatos found life in the pocket to be as difficult as his BYU counterpart. Karsatos, the nation's fifth-rated passer, completed 19 of 35 passes for 196 yards, but found himself running from the persistent Cougar defense all day. With Byars out of the lineup, the backup tandem of John Wooldridge and Vince Workman were unexpected thorns in the side of the BYU defense. The two combined for 115 yards (92 by Woold ridge) to keep the ball out of the hands of the Cougar offense and use up valuable time off the clock late in the game.
Source:1986 BYU media guide
