Liberty Bowl : Schnell Tosses South Carolina for a Loss

Anthony Thompson and Todd Ellis received top billing before Wednesday night’s Liberty Bowl game, but quarterback Dave Schnell stole the spotlight.

Schnell, the game’s most valuable player, completed 16 of 31 passes for 378 yards and 2 touchdowns, leading Indiana past South Carolina 34-10.

“I never, never thought I was going to have a game like this,” said Schnell, who has one year of eligibility remaining. “This is just a real confidence booster for me. I just felt real confident tonight against their man-to-man defense and I had a lot of confidence in my receivers.

“I thought we would be able to throw the deep ball and do about anything we wanted if the offensive line picked up South Carolina’s blitz--and they did.”

Schnell broke the game open with an 88-yard scoring strike to Rob Turner to open the fourth quarter. It was the longest pass play in Liberty Bowl history.

“Our kids had their jaws locked and they went after them (South Carolina),” Indiana coach Bill Mallory said. “I think we did a good job of keeping them well-contained.”

The Hoosiers held South Carolina to 23 yards on the ground, intercepted Ellis 3 times and recovered 1 fumble.

“Their quarterback had a great night,” Gamecocks Coach Joe Morrison said. “They really hurt us with the long pass and their long gains off of first down. We just couldn’t stop the long pass.

“The long TD pass after we had come back with the blocked punt really hurt. We just weren’t able to put enough pressure on Schnell.”

The victory capped an 8-3-1 season for Indiana, of the Big Ten, and snapped the Hoosiers’ 2-game postseason losing streak. South Carolina, an independent, ended the year 8-4 in running its postseason record to 0-8.

Collin Mackie had kicked a 43-yard field goal for South Carolina, making it 20-10. But Schnell then put the game away on the first play of the fourth quarter. He spotted Turner, who pulled in the pass at the Gamecocks’ 40.