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Louisville-Toledo Bowl Game Erupts Into Huge Brawl in Final Minutes

Liam McKeone

A brawl broke out in the waning minutes of Louisville’s win over Toledo in the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans.
A brawl broke out in the waning minutes of Louisville’s win over Toledo in the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans. / ESPN
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Louisville and Toledo met in the Bush’s Boca Raton Bowl of Beans on Tuesday as one of the numerous bowl games scheduled in the lead-up to the second round of the College Football Playoff. It was a competitive game but the Cardinals wound up victorious, beating the Rockets 27–22. Louisville running back Keyjuan Brown had a great day on the ground with 112 yards on 15 carries and quarterback Miller Moss tossed a pair of TD passes to hold off a furious late comeback by Toledo and secure a Cardinals bowl win for the season.

Things got tense near the end of the game, though. As part of a 19-point fourth quarter, Toledo scored a touchdown with two and a half minutes remaining to pull within a few points of Louisville. After a failed two-point conversion the Rockets kicked off while down 27–22. The Cardinals gave the ball to Brown and asked him to finish off his big day with a few key runs to wind down the clock. He obliged, rushing for 17 yards on his first carry and gaining another 14 yards on the next play.

However, during that second carry, Brown got lit up by a Toledo defender on his own sideline. He was sent flying into the bench area and his teammates were very unhappy with what they clearly felt was a late hit. As a result, a huge brawl sparked between the two sides that featured a giant scrum of dozens of players and empty benches on both sides of the field.

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An ugly scene. Predictably there were numerous flags thrown on the play; the final result was offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and no ejections.

Louisville held on after that to prove victorious. Their reward? A gigantic bowl of baked beans.

There truly is nothing like college football.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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