Michigan was coming off a disappointing year in 1981, one where they were ranked #1 in preseason, but an early upset loss at Wisconsin foreshadowed a tough campaign. The 1982 Michigan football team would be a little more vintage and got to the Rose Bowl for the fifth time in seven years.
Head coach Bo Schembechler had an elite receiver on hand in Anthony Carter, who would be Big Ten Player of the Year with 844 yards receiving and his 19.6 yards-per-catch constantly made secondaries anxious.
Carter’s presence opened up the classic Schembechler running game. Lawrence Ricks ran for nearly 1,400 yards. Quarterback Steve Smith was a better runner than passer, being the second-leading rusher on the team and a tough, physical player.
Michigan opened the year with a 20-9 revenge win over bowl-bound Wisconsin and moved from #12 in the preseason poll up to #10. But then they went to Notre Dame and lost the first prime-time game ever played in South Bend. The 23-17 defeat came in spite of a fluke touchdown going the Wolverines’ way and to an opponent that would only finish 6-4-1.
Another loss followed, this one at home to UCLA. The Bruins were a good team, one that Michigan had not seen the last of and the Wolverines lost 31-27 when their final drive ended on the UCLA eight-yard line.
Michigan might have been 1-2 and out of the national title picture, but none of the losses were in conference. Big Ten play began and the Wolverines got back on track by beating subpar Indiana and lowly Michigan State, albeit not in blowout fashion.
On October 16, Michigan went to play Iowa, who had stepped up and broken the lock on the Rose Bowl bid in 1981, the first time since 1967 a team other than the Wolverines or Buckeyes reached Pasadena. This year’s Iowa team under Hayden Fry would win seven games.
The Michigan-Iowa game was scoreless in the second quarter when the Wolverines blocked a punt for a safety. Kicker Ali Haji-Sheik, a future pro with a good long-range leg, hit from 44 yards. Smith threw an 11-yard touchdown pass and it was 12-0 at halftime. Soon it was 29-0 and only a late Hawkeye touchdown kept it from being a shutout.
This win sent the message to the rest of the Big Ten that Michigan was back and a 49-14 blowout of Northwestern a week later got the Wolverines back in the national rankings. They thumped Minnesota at home, 52-14, to set up a battle at Illinois, the last real test for the Rose Bowl.
The Big Ten was a four-team race, with Michigan at 6-0, Ohio State and Iowa at 4-1 and Illinois sitting on 5-2. The Wolverines had a loss to give with Iowa and a scheduling oddity meant that Michigan would play one more game then Ohio State—which meant that simply winning the next two games before going to Columbus would ensure Michigan could do no worse than finish a half-game ahead of the Buckeyes.
This act of scheduling idiocy, along with the fact that the next game was home with lowly Purdue, meant that the November 6 game at Champaign was realistically for the Big Ten crown. It was 10-10 at half, but the leg of Haji-Sheik delivered from 45 & 47 yards for the only points of the second half.
The Wolverine defense came up with a goal-line stand to preserve the 16-10 win and the take-care-of-business 52-21 blowout of Purdue had the waft of roses again moving through Ann Arbor.
I know that partisans of Michigan and Ohio State never see their rivalry game as anything less than huge, but for those without a dog in the fight, Michigan’s 24-14 loss at the Shoe meant zilch. They were going to the Rose Bowl and would get a rematch with UCLA.
For the first half, the Rose Bowl seemed to promise the same excitement that the September game in Ann Arbor provided. UCLA led 10-7 at intermission, but the Bruin defense was beginning to assert itself. Smith was eventually knocked out by a vicious, but clean hit on his shoulder. Michigan turned the ball over four times and lost 24-14 in a game that didn’t feel that close by the time it was over.
After this Big Ten title run, Michigan stepped back briefly and missed out on the Rose Bowl each of the next three years. But Bo would be back and from 1986-89, the legendary head coach closed his career with three more trips west.
After a rough rookie year in 1981, Gerry Faust’s second year on the sideline in South Bend was looking better. Notre Dame won big games and was poised to get to a major bowl. Then a late fade sent Faust and the Irish back to the drawing board.
The 1982 Notre Dame football team was built on its defense. They ranked 19th in the country in points allowed and were led by ballhawking safety Dave Duerson. A future member of the great Chicago Bears’ defense of 1985, Duerson intercepted seven passes in his senior season for the Irish.
Duerson was joined by linebacker Mark Zavagnin, a who got some votes in the All-American balloting, along with a solid veteran defensive tackle in Bob Clasby.
Notre Dame could also run the football. A balanced three-pronged attack was led by senior Phil Carter who ran for over 700 yards. Freshman Allen Pinkett was getting an outstanding college career underway and cleared the 500-yard mark. So did senior fullback Larry Moriarty.
Moriarty was also the team’s third-leading pass-catcher, which perhaps underscored Notre Dame’s biggest problem. They could not generate passing offense. It wasn’t for a lack of targets. Tight end Tony Hunter caught 42 balls and would be a first-round pick in the coming spring’s NFL draft. Joe Howard was a good deep threat. But the consistency at the quarterback position was not there.
Blair Kiel got the bulk of the snaps and his 54% completion rate was decent in that era. But his 5.8 yards-per-attempt was simply way too low. And while TD-INT ratios from this time period are always worse than what we see today, a 3/10 figure wasn’t going to hack it—not even in 1982.
Notre Dame was ranked #18 to start the season, although a late start to the schedule meant they were actually #20 when the first game finally arrived. But it was a game that would be worth the wait.
Michigan was coming to South Bend and the university would install lights. It was the first night game ever at Notre Dame Stadium. And the Irish looked every bit ready for prime-time.
Notre Dame dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. For 3 ½ quarters, Michigan could only score on special teams and the Irish led 23-10. With just over seven minutes to go, Notre Dame got a bad break—a Wolverine touchdown came when running back Vincent Bean grabbed a deflected pass right off the shoulder pad of the intended receiver and raced for a touchdown.
When Michigan drove to the Notre Dame 30-yard line it looked like Faust’s bad luck from 1981, when his team lost several games at the wire, might continue. Duerson saved the day when he stripped the ball from Bean with 2:14 to play. The Irish had the 23-17 win and moved to #10 in the polls.
Wins over Purdue and Michigan State, both bad teams, kept Notre Dame ranked #10 when Miami came to town. The Hurricanes were ranked #17. Under head coach Howard Schnellenberger their program was building towards what would be a shocking 1983 national championship that upended the entire landscape of college football.
On this October afternoon in South Bend, Miami looked ready to upend Notre Dame’s unbeaten season, taking a 14-10 lead into the fourth quarter. The Irish still trailed 14-13 late when they got a big stop and then drove for a game-winning field goal with 0:11 left.
At 4-0, the Irish were riding high. But two mediocre Pac-10 teams would throw a monkey wrench into the season.
Arizona ended up a six-win team, but one of those victories came in South Bend. A 16-13 upset loss sent Notre Dame tumbling to #15 in the polls. A visit to woeful Oregon resulted in a tie. The Irish dropped out of the rankings.
Notre Dame bounced back with a 27-10 win over an average Navy squad in East Rutherford. A week later they had to make another trip east. This one to Pittsburgh, where Dan Marino and the #1-ranked Pitt Panthers were waiting.
Faust’s defense was ready for Marino and for three quarters, they kept the Irish in the game. Notre Dame trailed 13-10. Then early in the fourth quarter, the Irish offense uncharacteristically erupted.
Kiel threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Howard off a flea-flicker. Pinkett raced 76 yards for a touchdown. Pinkett followed that up by finishing off a 65-yard drive with another touchdown. The freshman running back rolled up 112 yards on just ten carries and Notre Dame stunned the nation with a 31-16 win.
The pollsters responded by re-inserting the Irish into the rankings at #13. Major bowl scouts were watching a team that was 6-1-1. The opportunity was there for Notre Dame to get a breakthrough that might have reshaped Faust’s tenure.
Notre Dame lost at home to Penn State 24-14. But the Lions would be the eventual national champion and even if the Irish could win their final two games, they would be an attractive bowl team at 8-2-1.
But a road trip to Air Force produced another loss. The Falcons were a good team, one Faust consistently struggled against and the final was 30-17. A road trip to archrival USC on the Saturday after Thanksgiving brought a controversial end to the season.
Notre Dame led 13-10 late in the game and appeared to recover a fumble at the goal line. Officials not only ruled the ball belonged to USC, but that it was, in fact, a touchdown. A bitter 17-13 loss was a fitting conclusion to a bitter end of the season.
The Irish had improved from Faust’s first year, but no major bowl wasn’t going to cut it in South Bend. The negative momentum continued and the head coach couldn’t get it turned around over the next three years. Who knows if history might look different had the 1982 edition of Notre Dame football been able to close the deal.
1982 Pitt football was a team of great expectation. It was the senior year for quarterback Dan Marino. After three straight 11-1 seasons, including a dramatic Sugar Bowl win over Georgia following the 1981 season, this was to be the year that Pitt won it all and Marino won the Heisman Trophy. It didn’t work out that way.
Even a coaching change—Jackie Sherrill left for Texas A&M and defensive coordinator Foge Fazio took over—didn’t stop the high expectations and Pitt was ranked #1 to start the year.
There was no shortage of talent. Jimbo Covert and Bill Fralic were both All-Americans on the offensive line and both went on to good NFL careers. Defensive tackle Bill Maas was another All-American. Bryan Thomas rushed for 955 yards and Marino had a good group of receivers led by Dwight Collins.
But the quarterback himself struggled. Marino threw 23 interceptions and his 6.4 yards-per-attempt was nowhere near Heisman-caliber. The problems showed up right away in a high-profile game against North Carolina to open the season. The Tar Heels were ranked #5 and this was a Thursday night game (a rarity then) in Three Rivers Stadium.
Marino threw four interceptions and Pitt only scored seven points. Fortunately, the defense bailed him out. They held UNC’s talented running back Kelvin Bryant to 58 yards and Pitt led 7-6 late in the game. North Carolina reached the 21-yard line late in the game, but rather than play it safe, they tried to throw the ball. Maas came up with the big sack and the drive was turned back.
Pitt may have survived, but they were down to #2 in the polls. And with North Carolina going on to a seven-win season, this wasn’t the elite opponent that was perceived at the time.
The Panthers came up with a more impressive effort at Florida State ten days later, winning 37-17 against a team that would win eight games. Pitt then beat seven-win Illinois by a 20-3 count.
On the first Saturday of October, the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia renewed in the Steel City. This was a good Mountaineer team, one that would go 9-2 and it showed here. The Panthers trailed 13-0 going into the fourth quarter. But they scored one touchdown with 10:52 left, and then Marino connected with Julius Dawkins to get a 14-13 lead.
Maas came up clutch again, sacking WVA quarterback Jeff Hostetler in the end zone for a safety. West Virginia made one last charge, but a tying a field goal attempt hit the crossbar. Pitt was still undefeated, and while Marino wasn’t lighting it up, the team was still beating good opponents each week.
Pitt blew out subpar teams in Temple, Syracuse and Louisville and were back to #1 in the country when October came to a close. Then came the fatal visit from Notre Dame on November 6, where the Panthers played poorly against a team that would struggle to a 6-4-1 finish. A 31-16 defeat sent Pitt plummeting to #8.
They bounced back to beat losing teams in Army and Rutgers and were back up to #5 for the season finale against Penn State. The Nittany Lions were playing for a crack top-ranked Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for a national title. Pitt would need help to make it all the way back, with SMU and Nebraska also ahead of them in the polls.
But a victory over the Lions would heal a lot of wounds, particularly the ones that had opened the previous year when Pitt’s national title hopes had come crashing down in a 48-14 humiliation. It was time for one more disappointment though. Pitt lost 19-10 and went to the Cotton Bowl ranked #6 in the country.
The Cotton Bowl was a what-might-have-been game. SMU was the opponent and they had been #2 while Pitt was #1. This could have been a national championship battle in Dallas. But the Mustangs played Arkansas to a tie. So tonight’s Sugar Bowl between #1 Georgia and #2 Penn State was for the national title. The Cotton Bowl would be for pride and redemption.
It would also be a great talent showcase. SMU was built around their Pony Express backfield, Eric Dickerson and Craig James. Both would join Marino as future pros and Dickerson joined Marino as a future NFL Hall of Famer.
A cold rain and the defenses slowed things to a halt though. Pitt trailed 7-3 in the fourth quarter when Marino led the Panthers on a drive, hoping for a second straight New Year’s Day game-winning drive—albeit this one with eight minutes left. But his pass into the end zone bounced off the hands of one Mustang player and into the arms of another. The 7-3 final held up.
There was no sugar-coating that this was a disappointing year for Pitt and they have not been in the national elite since. The biggest beneficiary of Marino’s disappointing senior year was the Miami Dolphins. Having gone to the Super Bowl in 1982, but still needing a quarterback, they watched as Marino plummeted to the 27th pick in the first round. It’s safe to say Marino put the disappointments of 1982 behind him. The same can’t be said for the Pitt Panthers.
SMU football was a program on the rise, although they were also running afoul of the NCAA in the process. Ron Meyer coached the Mustangs to a 10-1 record in 1981 and the championship of the old Southwest Conference. But probation denied SMU the Cotton Bowl bid that came with the league title. Meyer departed to coach the New England Patriots and Bobby Collins took over. The 1982 SMU football team got that Cotton Bowl bid and nearly won the program’s first national championship since 1950.
The ’82 backfield lives on in college football lore as “The Pony Express”, and the greatness of Eric Dickerson and Craig James was real and not myth. Dickerson rolled up over 1,600 yards on the ground, averaged seven yards a pop, scored 17 touchdowns and made first-team All-American, joining Georgia’s Heisman Trophy-winning Herschel Walker.
James ran for 938 yards, a figure that makes him the leading rusher at most schools, even with only getting the carries of a #2 back. He finished third in the SWC in rushing. Lance McIlhenny was the quarterback and certainly wasn’t required to throw very much, but he was efficient—only three interceptions all year-and he made some big plays when his team desperately needed them.
SMU opened the season ranked #6 and rolled through four non-conference games against Tulane, UTEP, TCU and North Texas. The TCU game was the only that was competitive. But the non-descript competition kept the Mustangs at sixth in the polls.
A victory over a subpar Baylor team opened SWC play and nudged SMU into the top five. The Mustangs escaped mediocre Houston 20-14 and stayed undefeated as they got set to go to Texas. The Longhorns were ranked #19 and had a good running back of their own in Darryl Clark, who finished second in the conference in rushing.
SMU was actually outrushed in this game, 206-183 and the game was tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter. McIlhenny then stepped up with a 79-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Leach, then added a 33-yard touchdown pass. The Mustangs pulled away to a 30-17 win and were now ranked #4.
When they blasted Texas A&M 47-9, SMU vaulted to #2 as the calendar flipped to November. The Mustangs trailed only #1 Pitt in the polls, but with the Panthers not tied to any bowl, the Cotton Bowl would be free to create a 1 vs 2 battle in Dallas.
SMU held up their end of the bargain with a 41-14 blowout of Rice, but a Pitt loss to Notre Dame resulted in Georgia jumping up to #1. Even though SMU was now #2, they no longer controlled their own fate, since Georgia was tied to the Sugar Bowl.
What the Mustangs could control was winning the SWC again and this time getting the Cotton Bowl bid. They beat lowly Texas Tech 34-27 to get to 10-0 and set the stage for the last game of the year against Arkansas.
The Razorbacks, coached by Lou Holtz, were ranked ninth and had just one loss in league play. Arkansas could take control of the conference race—they would still need to beat Texas two weeks later, but SMU needed to win or tie its finale to lock up the Cotton Bowl spot without any doubts.
The game was played in Texas Stadium, then the home of the Dallas Cowboys and it was a great battle. Arkansas took an early 7-0 lead and was driving for more when SMU defensive end Russell Carter blocked a field goal. McIlhenny later converted a 3rd-and-17 with his feet and it set up Dickerson’s tying touchdown run.
After trading field goals, Arkansas took a 17-10 lead and there were just six minutes left in the game. McIlhenny completed a 3rd-and-8 pass to keep the drive going and then a controversial pass interference penalty put the Mustangs on the doorstep. They scored and Collins opted to kick the extra point and at least ensure a tie.
SMU still got a crack at the win, with a 52-yard-field goal. But that came up short. The national title hopes were gone, but the Mustangs were still undefeated, at 10-0-1, and most important, they were going to the Cotton Bowl.
Pitt was still waiting in Dallas, although the game was a what-might-have-been for both the teams and the Cotton Bowl itself. That night’s Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Penn State would settle the national title. This was “only” a really big football game between two really good teams.
The Cotton Bowl was played in a cold rain and the SMU defense slowed Marino to a halt. Pitt got only a field goal, their lowest point total since 1975. But the Panthers still led 3-0, as the slick artificial turf made it very difficult for Dickerson or James to get any footing.
McIlhenny stepped up with two big completions to Leach, one where Leach had to maneuver around an official to get in position for the catch. SMU took a 7-3 lead. They preserved the lead when Blaine Smith intercepted a Marino pass in the end zone, a ball that first bounced off the hands of a Mustang teammate. The 7-3 final held up.
When Penn State beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, SMU was the only undefeated team left in the country. But the lack of a quality non-conference schedule and the fact that undefeated did not mean perfect, with the tie against Arkansas, prevented a groundswell for the Mustangs. They finished #2 in the final poll.
One thing the program couldn’t do was stop getting into trouble with the NCAA. Later in the decade football was suffered a two-year ban, the first-ever imposition of the “death penalty”. 1982 remains SMU’s best season since 1950.
1982 UCLA football came into the season hungry for a Rose Bowl. The program’s last Rose Bowl appearance had come following the 1975 season with Dick Vermeil as head coach. Vermeil then left to coach the Philadelphia Eagles and was succeeded by Terry Donahue. The winning continued—a 44-21-3 record between 1976-81—but the Pac-10’s Rose Bowl bid belonged to either hated rival USC or Washington.
The Bruins had a top passing offense in 1982. Quarterback Tom Ramsey threw for nearly 3,000 yards and completed over 62 percent of his passes. Those numbers were second in the Pac-10, trailing only a Stanford man by the name of John Elway. Ramsey’s 8.9 yards-per-attempt and his 151.5 efficiency rating actually exceeded Elway’s. Ramsey’s 21/10 TD-INT ratio was essentially comparable with Elway’s.
Ramsey’s receiving corps was well-balanced with Jojo Townsell, Cormac Carney and Paul Bergmann, each of whom caught between 40-50 passes. Townsell’s 17.5 yards-per-catch were third in the league.
There still wasn’t great talent defensively although the Bruins had a future NFL safety in hard-hitting Don Rogers. Nor was there was a big-time running game, and UCLA opened the season ranked #20.
A tune-up win over Long Beach State was followed by a 51-26 road thrashing of Wisconsin. This was a decent Badger team that made a bowl game, and growing up in southeastern Wisconsin, I attended this game and still recall watching Ramsey carve up the Badgers.
A road trip to Ann Arbor to face Michigan came next for UCLA and the game was dynamite. The Bruins rallied to take a late 31-27 lead and then held off last-gasp Wolverine drive that reached the eight-yard line. The victory moved UCLA to #9 in the polls.
After a blowout win over lowly Colorado, the Bruins stumbled for the first time when they tied a decent Arizona team 24-24 at home. Before the year was over, the Wildcats would find a way to make it up to the Bruins.
The next three games came with two bad opponents, Washington State and Oregon, sandwiched around a seven-win Cal squad. Ramsey’s offense dropped 40-plus all three times and UCLA won those games by a combined 129-42. They were back into the Top 10 as the calendar flipped to November and a red-hot four-team Pac-10 race was on.
A tough 10-7 loss at Washington seemed to spell the end of UCLA’s Rose Bowl hopes. They were 3-1-1 in league play, with Arizona State at 5-0 and Washington at 5-1. USC was also in the race at 4-1, although probation would render the Trojans ineligible for the Rose Bowl.
Ramsey won a duel with Elway the following week as the Bruins edged the Cardinal 38-35. The conference race stayed open when Washington beat Arizona State. UCLA was within a half-game of the lead.
There was still the traditional season finale with USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum, which UCLA shared with their rival as a home field at this time. A year earlier, a blocked field goal cost the Bruins a Rose Bowl trip. It looked like similar heartbreak might come this year. Leading 20-13, UCLA allowed a last-play touchdown pass.
If USC just kicked the extra point they could finish UCLA’s Rose Bowl hopes, but Trojan head coach John Robinson decided to play for the win in his team’s last game of the season. Robinson dialed up a pass play. Bruin nose tackle Karl Morgan pressured from the inside. Outside linebacker Eugene Leoni came from the perimeter. They met at the quarterback and the sack preserved the 20-19 win.
UCLA got their first break when Washington State stunned Washington. Now it was time to wait a week for the Arizona-Arizona State game. If the Sun Devils lost, the Bruins were Rose Bowl-bound. And sure enough, thanks to two long touchdown passes Arizona won 28-18.
The Wildcats were coached by future USC boss Larry Smith. Ironically, UCLA’s Rose Bowl trip had come thanks to the leadership of a future Trojan coach and the competitive class of the current one, as Robinson placed going for the win ahead of simply breaking the heart of his rival.
The Rose Bowl was a rematch between UCLA and Michigan, something that was a rarity in college football before the age of longer schedules and conference championship games. It was also two teams with different recent histories. Since the Bruins’ last visit to this stage, Michigan had made four trips.
For the first half, the Rose Bowl seemed to promise the same excitement that the September game in Ann Arbor provided. UCLA led 10-7 at intermission, but the Bruin defense was beginning to assert itself. No one did more than Rogers, who made 11 tackles, including a vicious (but clean) hit on Michigan quarterback Steve Smith that separated the quarterback’s shoulder.
UCLA was also getting turnovers, four on the day and they took care of the ball themselves. The Bruins won 24-14 in a game that didn’t feel quite that close by the time the second half dominance was over.
This New Year’s Day breakthrough was the start of something special for Donahue. It was the first of four straight major bowl victories, three of which would be in Pasadena and he would develop a reputation for his bowl success. The 1982 season was the start of that run.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers were as consistent a winner as there was in college football. Unfortunately, there was also as consistent a loser as there was in certain targeted games. They overcame one hurdle in 1981 when they finally beat Oklahoma and won the old Big Eight outright. 1982 Nebraska football overcame another when they won the Orange Bowl, their league’s contract bowl, for the first time under head coach Tom Osborne.
The Cornhuskers were renowned for their running games. Mike Rozier continued the tradition with nearly 1,700 yards on the ground during the 1982 college football season. He got some All-America mention and set the stage for his Heisman run a year later.
Roger Craig would go on to a great NFL career playing with Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers and he was a reliable second running back with this Nebraska team, going for 586 yards. Irving Fryar was a big-play threat at receiver and quarterback Turner Gill was a dual threat. Gill ran for nearly 500 yards himself, while also leading the Big Eight in completion percentage, yards-per-attempt and fewest interceptions.
The offensive front was anchored by All-American center Dave Rimington. National championship hopes were alive in Lincoln and the Cornhuskers opened the season ranked fourth in the nation.
Nebraska visited Iowa to start the season. The Hawkeyes had upset the Huskers a year earlier and it foreshadowed a Rose Bowl season for Iowa. Nebraska got revenge and got it decisively.
They bullied Iowa up front to the tune of a 343-97 in rush yardage, 127 for Rozier. Fryer caught six passes for 127 yards and a touchdown pass that made it 14-0 early. The final was 42-7. After a 68-0 thumping of New Mexico State, the Cornhuskers were up to #2 in the polls and making a visit to State College to play eighth-ranked Penn State.
The result is one that Nebraska fans are still bitter about today and with valid reason. After rallying from 21-7 down to take a 24-21 lead, the Cornhuskers were trying to hold as the Nittany Lions reached the 17-yard line in the closing seconds, but faced 4th-and-10. The pass was completed to tight end Mike McCloskey for a first down, but replays clearly showed McCloskey out of bounds.
For the record, while I’m not a hard-core fan of either team, my sympathies are with Penn State and it’s still very obvious that “blown” is not a harsh enough word for this call. It was massacred. The Lions scored and won the game.
Nebraska continued on in a tough non-conference schedule, winning 41-7 at #20 Auburn, and then settled into Big Eight play. The Cornhuskers blasted lowly Colorado and blew out a respectable, bowl-bound Kansas State team and climbed to #5 in the rankings.
A 23-19 escape at mediocre Missouri resulted in a slip back to #6, but Nebraska gathered themselves to crush Kansas, Oklahoma State and Iowa State by a combined 148-20 and reach the season finale with Oklahoma ranked third in the nation.
The Cornhuskers had their nemesis at home on Black Friday afternoon. Both teams were 6-0 in league play, so it was winner-take-all for the Orange Bowl. After falling behind 10-7 in the second quarter, Nebraska got a pair of rushing touchdowns from Doug Wilkening and took an 11-point lead.
The teams traded touchdowns, before OU cut it to 28-24 and made one last drive, getting inside the Husker 40-yard line with 26 seconds left. Defensive end Scott Strasburg then came up with the interception that sealed the conference title.
Nebraska would go to the Orange Bowl ranked #3, but there was no possible scenario for the national championship. Top-ranked Georgia was tied to the Sugar Bowl and they were going to play the #2 team in the country…Penn State.
The Cornhuskers would play LSU, ranked #13 and coming off a loss to Tulane to end their regular season. The Orange Bowl was opposite the Sugar Bowl in prime-time, so getting viewers outside the local fan bases would be tough. The most serious problem though, was riots in the Overtown ghetto near the stadium. It resulted in 14,000 no-shows.
All of which put the Nebraska-LSU game under a cloud, but for the Cornhuskers there was still the matter of finally getting Osborne a win on this stage.
Nebraska fullback Mark Schellen scored the first touchdown and then a turnover deluge began. Rozier fumbled on his own eight-yard line and LSU scored. Fryar fumbled away a punt that ultimately set up a Hilliard touchdown when he scooted around the left side on 4th-and-1. A drive of Nebraska’s was snuffed out when Schellen fumbled in the end zone.
In spite of it all, Gill hit Fryar with a 28-yard touchdown pass to put the team on the doorstep and Gill leapt over the top for the touchdown. Nebraska took a 21-17 lead. LSU got one more field goal, but in spite of turning it over six times, the Cornhuskers won the football game.
Nebraska’s frustration would only get worse as the word came in that Penn State had beaten Georgia and to this day it’s taken as a given that the Cornhuskers would have won the national title if the officials hadn’t screwed up in September.
It’s possible, but not a guarantee—SMU finished 11-0-1, won the Cotton Bowl and nudged away of Nebraska to #2 in the final polls. And we don’t know if an undefeated Nebraska would have ranked ahead of Georgia at the end of the regular season or how the bowl matchups might have shaken out.
No matter, the Cornhuskers still have a valid gripe and by winning the Orange Bowl in spite of a slew of a mistakes they at least staked their claim in history as one who got robbed of more.
The Georgia Bulldogs were the showcase of college football during the three years of the Herschel Walker Era. They displaced Bear Bryant’s Alabama atop the SEC. The Dawgs won the national championship in 1980. They reached the Sugar Bowl in 1981. The 1982 Georgia football team went back to New Orleans for another Sugar Bowl and in position to win another title before coming up short.
Herschel was one of the great backs in college football history and he ran for over 1,700 yards this season. He blew away the rest of the SEC in rush yardage, scored 16 touchdowns and grabbed the Heisman over a field that included SMU running back Eric Dickerson and Stanford quarterback John Elway.
Other All-American talent included defensive tackle Jimmy Payne and defensive back Terry Hoage. And even though Jeff Sanchez didn’t make All-American, the defensive back was one of the best ballhawks in the country, picking off nine passes.
John Lastinger didn’t have a lot put on him at quarterback, which was a good thing. Lastinger only completed 42 percent of his passes, only threw for 6.1 yards-per-attempt and still threw nine interceptions in spite of only throwing for 907 yards and eight touchdown passes. The Bulldog offense was all about Herschel.
The season opened on Labor Day Night against defending national champion Clemson. It was a defensive war, but Georgia was able to get a 13-7 lead and then come up with two key fourth-quarter stops to preserve the win. They continued to play a good non-SEC schedule with a home date against an eight-win BYU team five days later and survived it, 17-14.
Georgia went to South Carolina—then an independent and not very good—and won 34-18. A so-so win over a so-so team followed, 29-22 at Mississippi State, but the Dawgs finally moved into the national top five in early October.
A 33-10 blowout of a subpar Ole Miss team moved Georgia to #4 and then a 27-13 over a surprisingly good Vanderbilt squad got the Bulldogs to #3. Two games against terrible teams followed—Kentucky and Memphis only won a single game between them in 1982. The Bulldogs weren’t inspiring in a 27-14 win over the Wildcats, before beating the Tigers 34-3.
It was time for the rivalry game with Florida at a neutral site in Jacksonville, just as this game is today. The Gators were ranked #20, would ultimately win eight games and had the conference’s best quarterback in Wayne Peace. What followed was a complete demolition.
Georgia won 44-0 in their best performance of the year—indeed, probably their best game of the entire Walker era. On the same day, top-ranked Pitt was upset by Notre Dame, and Georgia moved to the top of the polls.
The Bulldogs were holding on to a half-game lead in the SEC over LSU, who had one tie. Auburn was in the mix with just one loss and Georgia had to play at Auburn on November 13. It was their final SEC game of the season, so a victory would wrap up the conference title and Sugar Bowl bid.
Auburn took a 7-3 lead in the second quarter, but Walker galloped 47 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. It was 13-7 in the third quarter, before Tiger back Lionel James answered with an 87-yard TD run to give Auburn the lead.
With the season on the line, head coach Vince Dooley put the ball in Walker’s hands. An 80-yard drive was highlighted by Herschel getting the football eight times. On the day, Walker ran for 177 yards and this drive ended with a go-ahead touchdown.
There were still anxious moments—the Dawgs missed the two-point conversion and the score stayed 19-14. Auburn drove it down to the Georgia 11-yard line with 2:39 left. The Tigers had a freshman running back who would eventually supplant Walker as the feared physical specimen in the entire country—Bo Jackson.
But Georgia stopped Bo on first down and then Dale Carver came up with a huge sack to put the Tigers in 3rd-and-26. The Dawgs closed out the win. They closed out the undefeated season two weeks later with a 38-18 victory over a six-win Georgia Tech squad.
The Bulldogs were undefeated and headed to the Sugar Bowl for a showdown with #2 Penn State. The Nittany Lions were looking to win Joe Paterno his first national championship and Joe Pa’s pursuit against Herschel’s greatness was the storyline throughout December in the media run-up to the game.
On New Year’s Night, Georgia did not play well. They dug themselves a quick 20-3 hole in the first half, unprepared for a Penn State offensive assault that came at them through the air. But the Bulldogs didn’t roll over and die.
They got a touchdown just prior to intermission to change the momentum and make the deficit manageable at 20-10. Lastinger did what most people thought he couldn’t do, and hadn’t done all season and it was rally the Dawgs. They cut the lead to 20-17 and were in position to tie or take the lead before Lastinger threw an interception in the end zone.
There were still chances, but the Lions hit another long pass for a touchdown and the final score ended up 27-23. Georgia’s bid for a second perfect national championship season in three years was over.
So was the Herschel Era. Early entries to the pros were rare—if not unheard of—in the early 1980s, but there was a new United States Football League (USFL) that was aggressively bidding for talent and for a couple years the USFL was making the NFL sweat. The new league had a flamboyant owner of the New Jersey franchise that you may have heard of—Donald J. Trump. He got Walker to come to the USFL after his junior season.
Georgia still had a good year in 1983, getting a Cotton Bowl bid and upsetting unbeaten Texas when they got there. But the Dawgs would not get be a steady national championship contender until our own era with Kirby Smart as head coach arrived.
The 1982 college football season was a historical landmark, as the legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno won his first national championship, defeating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl to seal the deal. It was also a year where highly regarded early favorites did not play to form. This blog compilation tells the season-long story of the 10 teams who ultimately made it to the January 1 major bowl games.
In this compilation you’ll read season-long narratives that include the following…
*The controversial win Penn State had over Nebraska in September, one that shaped the national championship race all the way through the finish line.
*Georgia’s undefeated season and the dominance of Heisman Trophy-winning back Herschel Walker, especially on a season-defining drive at Auburn.
*Speaking of great running backs, how about SMU’s Pony Express of Eric Dickerson and Craig James? Read how they led SMU to a coveted Southwest Conference title.
*Pitt’s push for the top spot in the polls until Marino’s surprising inconsistency undid him and his team in November against Notre Dame and Penn State.
*Nebraska’s power running game led by Mike Rozier and why the controversy at Penn State may have denied the Cornhuskers a national championship. Nebraska still kept themselves ahead of archrival Oklahoma for the second straight year, as the Sooners made it to January 1, but struggled to find their footing as an elite power.
*The surprise rise of LSU, then a middling SEC program, to first push Georgia for the conference title and then win a big November game with Florida State to reach the Orange Bowl.
*UCLA’s run to the Pac-10 title, highlighted by some great quarterback play from Tom Ramsey and a miracle finish where both Washington and Arizona State failed to close the deal on the Rose Bowl bid.
*And before we just focus on Arizona State’s big loss, how about their nine-win campaign that put the Sun Devils on the national stage?
*Michigan overcame a slow start in non-conference play to come barreling through the Big Ten, with conference Player of the Year Anthony Carter. But you’ll also see how some foolish conference scheduling rendered their game at Ohio State meaningless.
This compilation pulls together five different articles, one on each bowl game that tells about the season-long paths of its participants—their key players and season defining moments. The articles are edited for this compilation and together they tell the story of the 1982 college football season through the eyes of its best teams.
The 1983 Sugar Bowl was a landmark game in college football history. Penn State and Georgia played a national championship battle that featured two of the country’s great running backs in Curt Warner and Heisman winner Herschel Walker, both with good NFL careers ahead of them. And above all, it brought the legendary Joe Paterno his first national title.
Penn State had been in New Orleans before with a chance to win it all—four years earlier against Alabama. But a goal-line stand cost Paterno and the Nittany Lions that national championship battle and they stepped back from the national elite over the ensuing two years.
In 1981, a strong closing finish ended with a Fiesta Bowl win over Heisman winner Marcus Allen and a #3 national ranking.
Expectations were high, but not through the roof when the 1982 college football season began. Penn State was ranked eighth in the preseason polls.
Warner ran for over 1,000 yards in 1982, although with Walker and SMU’s Eric Dickerson leading up a great running back class, Warner did not make first-team All-American. Kenny Jackson did at wide receiver, part of a balanced Nittany Lion offense.
Todd Blackledge threw for over 2,200 yards, completed a 55 percent of his passes (an above-average number in 1982), averaged a solid 7.6 yards-per-attempt and the TD-INT ratio was a respectable—for the era—22/14.
Penn State’s defense wasn’t as loaded as previous editions had been, but they were still good and All-American defensive back Mark Robinson led the way.
The Lions opened the season with an easy win over a bad Temple team and then beat a good Maryland squad that had Boomer Esiason at quarterback, 39-31. A 49-14 blowout of Rutgers followed. The nation awaited the September 25 home game with third-ranked Nebraska.
It was a great—and highly controversial—football game. Penn State led 21-7 early in the third quarter, with Blackledge’s 83-yard touchdown pass to Jackson the big blow. But Nebraska began clawing its away back. They cut the lead to 21-17 and with Penn State driving for an insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter, Blackledge threw an interception in the end zone.
The Cornhuskers responded by driving 80 yards and taking the lead for the first time. On the ensuing kickoff, the Lions got a break when Nebraska committed a personal foul, moving the ball up to the PSU 35-yard line. Penn State steadily drove to the Nebraska 28-yard line, but faced 4th-and-11. Blackledge found Jackson for exactly the yardage needed and the drive continued in the closing minute.
Another 4th-and-long awaited from the 17-yard line. Blackledge found tight end Mike McCloskey at the 2-yard line in a play that lives in infamy. Video replay clearly showed McCloskey was out of bounds. I was cheering for Penn State as a 12-year-old fan at the time and remain happy in retrospect that they won. But the call was one of the worst we’ve ever seen in a truly big game.
Paterno and McCloskey later conceded the pass should have been ruled incomplete and video evidence makes it clear it would never have stood up to replay scrutiny today. Blackledge threw a touchdown pass with four seconds left to win the game and move up to #3 in the polls.
As quickly as the Lions had moved up to the polls, they dropped back to #8 just as fast, playing poorly in a 42-21 loss at fourth-ranked Alabama. Tide legend Bear Bryant was in his final year and his team would fade in the second half of the season. This was his last big win.
Penn State began to turn it back around with a 28-7 win over lowly Syracuse and then they hammered a good Boston College team that had Doug Flutie at the helm, 52-7. Another blowout of a winning team, N.C. State, moved the Nittany Lions backed into the top five. A week later they went to Notre Dame with the Irish on a high, having just upset top-ranked Pitt.
This was still an average Irish team and Penn State won 24-14. They vaulted to #2 in the polls, right behind Georgia and in line to play the Bulldogs in the Sugar Bowl. But one big obstacle remained and it was a Black Friday visit to Pittsburgh, who had Dan Marino at quarterback, All-American talent on both sides of the line of scrimmage and were still ranked #5 in the country.
Penn State struggled early, turning the ball over three times in the first half in the game at old Three Rivers Stadium. The fact the Lions only trailed 7-3 was probably a good sign and things got better in the second half.
Warner rushed for 118 yards. PSU moved out to a 16-7 lead and came up with a big goal-line stand to hold Pitt to a field goal. The Lions added one more field goal of their own and won 19-10. They would get another chance to play an SEC champ in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.
Georgia had already been where Penn State was trying to get. Two years earlier, led by the freshman Walker, the Bulldogs came into the Sugar as an undefeated #1 team and took care of business, beating Notre Dame for the national championship.
The Dawgs lost a game in 1981, but still reached the Sugar Bowl before losing a heartbreaker to Pitt. Georgia was ranked #7 for 1982 as Walker entered his junior year.
Herschel was one of the great backs in college football history and he ran for over 1,700 yards this season. He blew away the rest of the SEC in rush yardage, scored 16 touchdowns and grabbed the Heisman over a field that included Dickerson and Stanford quarterback John Elway.
Other All-American talent included defensive tackle Jimmy Payne and defensive back Terry Hoage. And even though Jeff Sanchez didn’t make All-American, the defensive back was one of the best ballhawks in the country, picking off nine passes.
John Lastinger didn’t have a lot put on him at quarterback, which was a good thing. Lastinger only completed 42 percent of his passes, only threw for 6.1 yards-per-attempt and still threw nine interceptions in spite of only throwing for 907 yards and eight touchdown passes. The Bulldog offense was all about Herschel.
The season opened on Labor Day Night against defending national champion Clemson. It was a defensive war, but Georgia was able to get a 13-7 lead and then come up with two key fourth-quarter stops to preserve the win. They continued to play a good non-SEC schedule with a home date against an eight-win BYU team five days later and survived it 17-14.
Georgia went to South Carolina—then an independent and not very good—and won 34-18. A so-so win over a so-so team followed, 29-22 at Mississippi State, but the Dawgs finally moved into the top five in early October.
A 33-10 blowout of a subpar Ole Miss team moved Georgia to #4 and then a 27-13 over a surprisingly good Vanderbilt squad got the Bulldogs to #3. Two games against terrible teams followed—Kentucky and Memphis only won a single game between them in 1982. The Bulldogs weren’t inspiring in a 27-14 win over the Wildcats, before beating the Tigers 34-3.
It was time for the rivalry game with Florida at a neutral site in Jacksonville, just as this game is today. The Gators were ranked #20, would ultimately win eight games and had the conference’s best quarterback in Wayne Peace. What followed was a complete demolition.
Georgia won 44-0 in their best performance of the year—indeed, probably their best game of the entire Walker era. On the same day, top-ranked Pitt was upset by Notre Dame, and Georgia moved to the top of the polls.
The Bulldogs were holding on to a half-game lead in the SEC over LSU, who had one tie. Auburn was in the mix with just one loss and Georgia had to play at Auburn on November 13. It was their final SEC game of the season, so a victory would wrap up the conference title.
Auburn took a 7-3 lead in the second quarter, but before Walker galloped 47 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. It was 13-7 in the third quarter, before Tiger back Lionel James answered with an 87-yard TD run to give Auburn the lead.
With the season on the line, head coach Vince Dooley put the ball in Walker’s hands. An 80-yard drive was highlighted by Herschel getting the football eight times. On the day, Walker ran for 177 yards and this drive ended with a go-ahead touchdown.
There were still anxious moments—the Dawgs missed the two-point conversion and the score stayed 19-14. Auburn drove it down to the Georgia 11-yard line with 2:39 left. The Tigers had a freshman running back who would eventually supplant Walker is the feared physical specimen in the entire country—Bo Jackson.
But Georgia stopped Bo on first down and then Dale Carver came up with a huge sack to put the Tigers in 3rd-and-26 and the Dawgs closed out the win. They closed out the undefeated season two weeks later with a 38-18 victory over a six-win Georgia Tech squad.
The stage was set for the Battle Of New Orleans. And Penn State came out swinging. After giving the ball to Warner on first down, Blackledge rifled four straight completions and put the Lions on the doorstep. Warner ran it in for a quick touchdown. It set the tone for most of the first half and Penn State roared to a 20-3 lead.
Georgia got a touchdown just prior to intermission to change the momentum and make the deficit manageable at 20-10. Lastinger did what most people thought he couldn’t do, and hadn’t done all season and it was rally the Dawgs. They cut the lead to 20-17 and were in position to tie or take the lead before Robinson intercepted a pass in the red zone.
Warner would rush for two touchdowns and for the second straight year outperform a Heisman winner in a bowl game, as Walker struggled to find running room. Blackledge gave the Lions breathing room when he hit Greg Garrity on a 47-yard touchdown strike down the left sideline.
Penn State return man Kevin Baugh had a huge night, with over 100 return yards, although his one mistake—a fumble in the fourth quarter—briefly gave Georgia some life. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown. A two-point conversion missed and the game stayed 27-23.
Dooley deserves credit for going for playing to win—a 27-27 tie would almost certainly have given Georgia the national title, but like Nebraska’s Tom Osborne a year later, the Georgia coach chose playing for the win over backing into a championship on a deliberately chosen tie.
Penn State converted a big third down throw and closed out the win. They would hold off 11-0-1 SMU in the final vote. Even with PSU having a loss, this was fair—SMU’s schedule was much weaker and they would have needed a perfect 12-0 to justify a #1 vote.
Although it was ironic—after having undefeated teams denied national titles in 1968, 1969 and 1973, Paterno finally got his crown over another unbeaten and unheralded team.
The 1983 Cotton Bowl was a what-might-have-been game. Pitt and SMU had reached the 1-2 spots in the national rankings by the end of October in the 1982 college football season. But each team, particularly Pitt had some disappointment in November and while the Cotton Bowl was still a good game between two highly ranked teams, it wasn’t a national title battle.
SMU was a program on the rise, although they were also running afoul of the NCAA in the process, something that would get the program suspended for two years later in the decade.
Ron Meyer coached the Mustangs to a 10-1 record in 1981 and the championship of the old Southwest Conference, where the principal rivals were Texas and Arkansas.
But probation denied SMU the Cotton Bowl bid that came with the league title. Meyer departed to coach the New England Patriots and Bobby Collins took over for 1982.
The backfield lives on in college football lore as “The Pony Express”, and the greatness of Eric Dickerson and Craig James was real and not myth. Dickerson rolled up over 1,600 yards on the ground, averaged seven yards a pop, scored 17 touchdowns and made first-team All-American, joining Georgia’s Heisman Trophy-winning Herschel Walker.
James ran for 938 yards, a figure that makes him the leading rusher at most schools, even with only getting the carries of a #2 back. He finished third in the SWC in rushing. Lance McIlhenny was the quarterback and certainly wasn’t required to throw very much, but he was efficient—only three interceptions all year-and he made some big plays when his team desperately needed them.
SMU opened the season ranked #6 and rolled through four non-conference games against Tulane, UTEP, TCU and North Texas. The TCU game was the only that was competitive. But the non-descript competition kept the Mustangs at sixth in the polls.
A victory over a subpar Baylor team opened SEC play and nudged SMU into the top five. The Mustangs escaped mediocre Houston 20-14 and stayed undefeated as they got set to go to Texas. The Longhorns were ranked #19 and had a good running back of their own in Darryl Clark, who finished second in the conference in rushing.
SMU was actually outrushed in this game, 206-183 and the game was tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter. McIlhenny then stepped up with a 79-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Leach, then added a 33-yard touchdown pass. The Mustangs pulled away to a 30-17 win and were now ranked #4.
When they blasted Texas A&M 47-9, SMU vaulted to #2 as the calendar flipped to November. The Mustangs were right behind Pitt in the polls, but with the Panthers not tied to any bowl, the Cotton would be free to create a 1 vs 2 battle in Dallas.
SMU held up their end of the bargain with a 41-14 blowout of Rice, but a Pitt loss to Notre Dame resulted in Georgia jumping up to #1. Even though SMU was now #2, they no longer controlled their own fate, since Georgia was tied to the Sugar Bowl.
What the Mustangs could control was winning the SWC again and this time getting the Cotton Bowl bid. They beat lowly Texas Tech 34-27 to get to 10-0 and set the stage for the last game of the year against Arkansas.
The Razorbacks, coached by Lou Holtz, were ranked ninth and had just one loss in league play. Arkansas could take control of the conference race—they would still need to beat Texas two weeks later, but SMU needed to win or tie its finale to lock up the Cotton Bowl spot without any doubts.
The game was played in Texas Stadium, then the home of the Dallas Cowboys and it was a great battle. Arkansas took an early 7-0 lead and was driving for more when SMU defensive end Russell Carter blocked a field goal. McIlhenny later converted a 3rd-and-17 with his feet and it set up Dickerson’s tying touchdown run.
After trading field goals, Arkansas took a 17-10 lead and there were just six minutes left in the game. McIlhenny completed a 3rd-and-8 pass to keep the drive going and then a controversial pass interference penalty put the Mustangs on the doorstep. They scored and Collins opted to kick the extra point and at least ensure a tie.
SMU still got a crack at the win, with a 52-yard-field goal. But that came up short. The national title hopes were gone, but the Mustangs were still undefeated, at 10-0-1, and most important, they were going to the Cotton Bowl.
1982 was a year of great expectation for Pitt. It was the senior year for quarterback Dan Marino. After three straight 11-1 seasons, including a dramatic Sugar Bowl win over Georgia following the 1981 season, this was to be the year that Pitt won it all and Marino won the Heisman Trophy.
Even a coaching change—Jackie Sherrill left for Texas A&M and defensive coordinator Foge Fazio took over—didn’t stop the high expectations and Pitt was ranked #1 to start the year.
There was no shortage of talent. Jimbo Covert and Bill Fralic were both All-Americans on the offensive line and both went on to good NFL careers. Defensive tackle Bill Maas was another All-American. Bryan Thomas rushed for 955 yards and Marino had a good group of receivers led by Dwight Collins.
But the quarterback himself struggled. Marino threw 23 interceptions and his 6.4 yards-per-attempt was nowhere near Heisman-caliber. The problems showed up right away in a high-profile game against North Carolina to open the season. The Tar Heels were ranked #5 and this was a Thursday night game (a rarity then) in Three Rivers Stadium.
Marino threw four interceptions and Pitt only scored seven points. Fortunately, the defense bailed him out. They held UNC’s talented running back Kelvin Bryant to 58 yards and Pitt led 7-6 late in the game. North Carolina reached the 21-yard line late in the game, but rather than play it safe, they tried to throw the ball. Maas came up with the big sack and the drive was turned back.
Pitt may have survived, but they were down to #2 in the polls. And with North Carolina going on to a seven-win season, this wasn’t the elite opponent that was perceived at the time.
The Panthers came up with a more impressive effort at Florida State ten days later, winning 37-17 against a team that would win eight games. Pitt then beat seven-win Illinois by a 20-3 count.
On the first Saturday of October, the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia renewed in the Steel City. This was a good Mountaineer team, one that would go 9-2 and it showed here. The Panthers trailed 13-0 going into the fourth quarter. But they scored one touchdown with 10:52 left, and then Marino connected with Julius Dawkins to get a 14-13 lead.
Maas came up clutch again, sacking WVA quarterback Jeff Hostetler in the end zone for a safety. West Virginia made one last charge, but a tying a field goal attempt hit the crossbar. Pitt was still undefeated, and while Marino wasn’t lighting it up, the team was still beating good opponents each week.
Pitt blew out subpar teams in Temple, Syracuse and Louisville and were back to #1 in the country when October came to a close. Then came the fatal visit from Notre Dame on November 6, where the Panthers played poorly against a team that would struggle to a 6-4-1 finish. A 31-16 defeat sent Pitt plummeting to #8.
They bounced back to losing teams in Army and Rutgers were back up to #5 for the season finale against Penn State. The Nittany Lions were playing for a crack top-ranked Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for a national title. Pitt would need help to make it all the way back, with SMU and Nebraska also ahead of them in the polls.
But a victory over the Lions would heal a lot of wounds, particularly the ones that had opened the previous year when Pitt’s national title hopes had come crashing down in a 48-14 humiliation in Happy Valley.
It was time for one more disappointment though. Pitt lost 19-10 and went to the Cotton Bowl ranked #6 in the country. They would play for pride and redemption, rather than a championship.
The Cotton Bowl was played in a cold rain and the SMU defense slowed Marino to a halt. Pitt got only a field goal, their lowest point total since 1975. But the Panthers still led 3-0, as the slick artificial turf made it very difficult for Dickerson or James to get any footing.
McIlhenny stepped up with two big completions to Leach, one where Leach had to maneuver around an official to get in position for the catch. SMU took a 7-3 lead. Marino led Pitt back, hoping for a second straight New Year’s Day game-winning drive—albeit this one with eight minutes left. But his pass into the end zone bounced off the hands of one Mustang player and into the arms of another, Blaine Smith. The 7-3 final held up.
When Penn State beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, SMU was the only undefeated team left in the country. But the lack of a quality non-conference schedule and the fact that undefeated did not mean perfect, with the tie against Arkansas, prevented a groundswell for the Mustangs. They finished #2 in the final poll.
As for Pitt, the biggest beneficiary of Marino’s disappointing senior year was the Miami Dolphins. Having gone to the Super Bowl in 1982, but still needing a quarterback, they watched as Marino plummeted to the 27th pick in the first round. It’s safe to say Marino put the disappointments of 1982 behind him.
The 1983 Orange Bowl didn’t have national implications, the way its predecessors often had or its famous immediate successor would. But they still produced an exciting, if sloppy game with Nebraska and LSU.
Nebraska had yet to win the Orange Bowl under head coach Tom Osborne. Given that Osborne had taken over from the legendary Bob Devaney in 1973 and the Orange was the contract bowl for the old Big Eight Conference, this was a significant omission from Osborne’s resume.
But Oklahoma usually stood in the way, and Osborne had only taken his talent to South Beach for New Year’s twice—once had resulted in a loss to Oklahoma and the previous year’s trip was a defeat at the hands of top-ranked Clemson.
Nebraska was still a consistent national power and renowned for their running games. Mike Rozier continued the tradition with nearly 1,700 yards on the ground during the 1982 college football season. He got some All-America mention and set the stage for his Heisman run a year later.
Roger Craig would go on to a great NFL career playing with Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers and he was a reliable second running back with this Nebraska team, going for 586 yards. Irving Fryar was a big-play threat at receiver and quarterback Turner Gill was a dual threat. Gill ran for nearly 500 yards himself, while also leading the Big Eight in completion percentage, yards-per-attempt and fewest interceptions.
The offensive front was anchored by All-American center Dave Rimington. National championship hopes were alive in Lincoln and the Cornhuskers opened the season ranked fourth in the nation.
Nebraska visited Iowa to start the season. The Hawkeyes had upset the Huskers a year earlier and it foreshadowed a Rose Bowl season for Iowa. Nebraska got revenge and got it decisively.
They bullied Iowa up front to the tune of a 343-97 in rush yardage, 127 for Rozier. Fryer caught six passes for 127 yards and a touchdown pass that made it 14-0 early. The final was 42-7. After a 68-0 thumping of New Mexico State, the Cornhuskers were up to #2 in the polls and making a visit to State College to play eighth-ranked Penn State.
The result is one that Nebraska fans are still bitter about today, and with valid reason. After rallying from 21-7 down to take a 24-21 lead, the Cornhuskers were trying to hold as the Nittany Lions reached the 17-yard line in the closing seconds, but faced 4th-and-10. The pass was completed to tight end Mike McCloskey for a first down, but replays clearly showed McCloskey out of bounds.
For the record, while I’m not a hard-core fan of either team, my sympathies are with Penn State and it’s still very obvious that “blown” is not a harsh enough word for this call. It was massacred. The Lions scored and won the game.
Nebraska continued on in a tough non-conference schedule, winning 41-7 at #20 Auburn, and then settled into Big Eight play. The Cornhuskers blasted lowly Colorado and blew out a respectable, bowl-bound Kansas State team and climbed to #5 in the rankings.
A 23-19 escape at mediocre Missouri resulted in a slip back to #6, but Nebraska gathered themselves to crush Kansas, Oklahoma State and Iowa State by a combined 148-20 and reach the season finale with Oklahoma ranked third in the nation.
The Cornhuskers had their nemesis at home on Black Friday afternoon. Both teams were 6-0 in league play, so it was winner-take-all for the Orange Bowl. After falling behind 10-7 in the second quarter, Nebraska got a pair of rushing touchdowns from Doug Wilkening and took an 11-point lead.
The teams traded touchdowns, before OU cut it to 28-24 and made one last drive, getting inside the Husker 40-yard line with 26 seconds left. Defensive end Scott Strasburg then came up with the interception that sealed the conference title.
Nebraska would go to the Orange Bowl ranked #3, but there was no possible scenario for the national championship. Top-ranked Georgia was tied to the Sugar Bowl and they were going to play the #2 team in the country…Penn State.
LSU is a respected national contender today, but that was not the case when the 1982 college football season began. The Tigers had not won a major bowl game since 1967 and while they had five consecutive winning seasons under Charles McClendon and Jerry Stovall from 1976-80, the program slipped back to 3-7-1 under Stovall in 1981.
The resurgence of 1982 was led by a good running game, with Dalton Hilliard leading the way and Garry James providing valuable support. Hilliard’s 910 yards were second in the SEC behind only Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker at Georgia (although it was a very distant second). James added 710 more.
Eric Martin’s 800-plus receiving yards were second in the SEC and quarterback Alan Risher operated at high efficiency. While Risher only threw for a little over 1,800 yards on the year, that was still respectable by 1982 standards. And more to the point, his 64% completion rate, 7.8 yards-per-attempt and 17-8 TD/INT ratio were all excellent.
LSU also had an offensive coordinator who would go on to some notoriety—a guy named Mack Brown. And they had an All-American defensive back in the secondary with James Britt.
The Tigers opened the season by blasting two bad teams in Oregon State and Rice, 45-7 and 52-13 respectively. On the surface it’s not impressive, but when you’ve been a bad team yourself, blowing out others suggest improvement is coming.
And the results at fourth-ranked Florida on the first Saturday of October sent an even louder message. LSU stopped Gator quarterback Wayne Peace, the top passer in the SEC and won 24-13. Now the Tigers had the attention of the pollsters and they were ranked #18.
LSU played Tennessee—a good, but not outstanding team—to a 24-24 tie, but still nudged up to #16. The Tigers blew out a Kentucky team that ended the year winless and then won a tough 14-6 game over subpar South Carolina. After another win over a bad team, a 45-8 pounding of Ole Miss, LSU was up to #11 and still undefeated as they entered November.
A trip to Alabama to face the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide in what would be the legendary Bear Bryant’s final season was next. LSU played its best game of the year, recovering four fumbles, while Risher efficiently carved up ‘Bama with short passes and completed 20/26. LSU built a 17-0 lead and won 20-10.
Now they were 4-0-1 in SEC play and trailing only undefeated Georgia, who was 5-0. The Sugar Bowl, the reward for the conference champ was in play, but LSU had a letdown at mediocre Mississippi State and lost 27-24.
There was still opportunity to play on New Year’s Day and the following week brought seventh-ranked Florida State to town. The Orange Bowl had already settled on inviting the winner of this game, while the loser would go to the Gator.
The high stakes made it attractive for national television, but two things happened that show how different the world of 1982 was. The first is that TV was only interested if LSU would agree to move the game to the afternoon. The second is that someone actually said no to TV. “We want them under the lights” said Stovall. There was no TV and that leads us to something about 1982 that’s exactly the same as it is today—no one wanted to go to Death Valley.
It was tied 14-14 in the second quarter when LSU took over. Hilliard finished with 233 all-purpose yards. The Tigers as a team gained 620 yards of offense. Two second-quarter touchdowns put them in control and then the rout was on, all the way to a 55-21 win and an Orange Bowl bid.
Bowl bids in those days were formalized early, so LSU’s surprising 31-28 loss to Tulane on the Saturday after Thanksgiving was more about hurt pride and lost national standing than anything else. They entered the Orange Bowl ranked #13.
The LSU loss was the first thing to go wrong as far as Orange Bowl organizers were concerned and by far the least serious. The game was also alongside the Georgia-Penn State Sugar Bowl in prime-time, so getting viewers outside the local fan bases would be tough. The most serious problem though, was riots in the Overtown ghetto near the stadium. It resulted in 14,000 no-shows.
Nebraska fullback Mark Schellen scored the first touchdown and then a turnover deluge began. Rozier fumbled on his own eight-yard line and LSU scored. Fryar fumbled away a punt that ultimately set up a Hilliard touchdown when he scooted around the left side on 4th-and-1. A drive of Nebraska’s was snuffed out when Schellen fumbled in the end zone.
In spite of it all, Gill hit Fryar with a 28-yard touchdown pass to put the team on the doorstep and Gill leapt over the top for the touchdown. Nebraska took a 21-17 lead. LSU got one more field goal, but in spite of turning it over six times, the Cornhuskers won the football game.
Nebraska’s frustration would only get worse as the word came in that Penn State had beaten Georgia and to this day it’s taken as a given that the Cornhuskers would have won the national title if the officials hadn’t screwed up in September.
It’s possible, but not a guarantee—SMU finished 11-0-1, won the Cotton Bowl and nudged away of Nebraska to #2 in the final polls. And we don’t know if an undefeated would have ranked ahead of Georgia at the end of the regular season or how the bowl matchups might have shaken out.
No matter, the Cornhuskers still have a valid gripe and by winning the Orange Bowl in spite of a slew of a mistakes that at least staked their claim in history as one who got robbed of more.
The 1983 Rose Bowl was a rematch between UCLA and Michigan, something that was a rarity in college football before the age of longer schedules and conference championship games. It was also two teams with different recent histories. UCLA came into the 1982 college football season having missed out on Pasadena each of the previous six years. Michigan had made four trips in that same timeframe.
UCLA’s last Rose Bowl appearance had come following the 1975 season with Dick Vermeil as head coach. Vermeil then left to coach the Philadelphia Eagles and was succeeded by Terry Donahue. The winning continued—a 44-21-3 record between 1976-81—but the Pac-10’s Rose Bowl bid belonged to either hated rival USC or Washington.
The Bruins had a top passing offense in 1982. Quarterback Tom Ramsey threw for nearly 3,000 yards and completed over 62 percent of his passes.
Those numbers were second in the Pac-10, trailing only a Stanford man by the name of John Elway. Ramsey’s 8.9 yards-per-attempt and his 151.5 efficiency rating actually exceeded Elway’s. Ramsey’s 21/10 TD-INT ratio was essentially comparable with Elway’s.
Ramsey’s receiving corps was well-balanced with Jojo Townsell, Cormac Carney and Paul Bergmann, each of whom caught between 40-50 passes. Townsell’s 17.5 yards-per-catch were third in the league.
There still wasn’t great talent defensively although the Bruins had a future NFL safety in hard-hitting Don Rogers. Nor was there was a big-time running game, and UCLA opened the season ranked #20.
A tune-up win over Long Beach State was followed by a 51-26 road thrashing of Wisconsin. This was a decent Badger team that made a bowl game, and growing up in southeastern Wisconsin, I attended this game and still recall watching Ramsey carve up the Badgers.
The road trip to Ann Arbor came next for UCLA and the game was dynamite. The Bruins rallied to take a late 31-27 lead and then held off last-gasp Wolverine drive that reached the eight-yard line. The victory moved UCLA to #9 in the polls.
After a blowout win over lowly Colorado, the Bruins stumbled for the first time when they tied a decent Arizona team 24-24 at home. Before the year was over, the Wildcats would find a way to make it up to the Bruins.
The next three games came with two bad opponents, Washington State and Oregon, sandwiched around a seven-win Cal squad. Ramsey’s offense dropped 40-plus all three times and UCLA won those games by a combined 129-42. They were back into the Top 10 as the calendar flipped to November and a red-hot four-team Pac-10 race was on.
A tough 10-7 loss at Washington seemed to spell the end of UCLA’s Rose Bowl hopes. They were 3-1-1 in league play, with Arizona State at 5-0 and Washington at 5-1. USC was also in the race at 4-1, although probation would render the Trojans ineligible for the Rose Bowl.
Ramsey won a duel with Elway the following week as the Bruins edged the Cardinal 38-35. The conference race stayed open when Washington beat Arizona State. UCLA was within a half-game of the lead.
There was still the traditional season finale with USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum, which UCLA shared with their rival as a home field at this time. A year earlier, a blocked field goal cost the Bruins a Rose Bowl trip. It looked like similar heartbreak might come this year. Leading 20-13, UCLA allowed a last-play touchdown pass.
If USC just kicked the extra point they could finish UCLA’s Rose Bowl hopes, but Trojan head coach John Robinson decided to play for the win in his team’s last game of the season. Robinson dialed up a pass play. Bruin nose tackle Karl Morgan pressured from the inside. Outside linebacker Eugene Leoni came from the perimeter. They met at the quarterback and the sack preserved the 20-19 win.
UCLA got their first break when Washington State stunned Washington. Now it was time to wait a week for the Arizona-Arizona State game. If the Sun Devils lost, the Bruins were Rose Bowl-bound. And sure enough, thanks to two long touchdown passes Arizona won 28-18.
The Wildcats were coached by future USC boss Larry Smith. Ironically, UCLA’s Rose Bowl trip had come thanks to the leadership of a future Trojan coach and the competitive class of the current one, as Robinson placed going for the win ahead of simply breaking the heart of his rival.
Michigan was coming off a disappointing year in 1981, one where they were ranked #1 in preseason, but an early upset loss at Wisconsin foreshadowed a tough campaign. Bo Schembecler still had an elite receiver on hand in Anthony Carter, who would be Big Ten Player of the Year with 844 yards receiving and his 19.6 yards-per-catch constantly made secondaries anxious.
Carter opened up the classic Schembecler running game. Lawrence Ricks ran for nearly 1,400 yards. Quarterback Steve Smith was a better runner than passer, being the second-leading rusher on the team and a tough, physical player.
Michigan opened the year with a 20-9 revenge win over bowl-bound Wisconsin and moved from #12 in the preseason poll up to #10. But then they went to Notre Dame and lost the first prime-time game ever played in South Bend. The 23-17 defeat came in spite of a fluke touchdown going the Wolverines’ way and to an opponent that would only finish 6-4-1.
The home loss to UCLA followed and knocked Michigan out of the polls, but none of the losses were in conference. Michigan got back on track by beating subpar Indiana and lowly Michigan State, albeit not in blowout fashion.
On October 16, the Wolverines went to play Iowa, who had stepped up and broken the Michigan/Ohio State lock on the Rose Bowl bid in 1981, the first time since 1967 a team other than the Wolverines or Buckeyes reached Pasadena. This year’s Iowa team under Hayden Fry would win seven games.
The Michigan-Iowa game was scoreless in the second quarter when the Wolverines blocked a punt for a safety. Kicker Ali Haji-Sheik, a future pro with a good long-range leg, hit from 44 yards. Smith threw an 11-yard touchdown pass and it was 12-0 at halftime. Soon it was 29-0 and only a late Hawkeye touchdown kept it from being a shutout.
This win sent the message to the rest of the Big Ten that Michigan was back and a 49-14 blowout of Northwestern a week later got the Wolverines back in the national rankings. They thumped Minnesota at home, 52-14, to set up a battle at Illinois, the last real test for the Rose Bowl.
The Big Ten was a four-team race, with Michigan at 6-0, Ohio State and Iowa at 4-1 and Illinois sitting on 5-2. The Wolverines had a loss to give with Iowa and a scheduling oddity meant that Michigan would play one more game then Ohio State—which meant that simply winning the next two games before going to Columbus would ensure Michigan could do no worse than finish a half-game ahead of the Buckeyes.
This act of scheduling idiocy, along with the fact that the next game was home with lowly Purdue, meant that the November 6 game at Champaign was realistically for the Big Ten crown. It was 10-10 at half, but the leg of Haji-Sheik delivered from 45 & 47 yards for the only points of the second half.
The Wolverine defense came up with a goal-line stand to preserve the 16-10 win and the take-care-of-business 52-21 blowout of Purdue had the waft of roses again moving through Ann Arbor. I know that partisans of Michigan and Ohio State never see this game as anything less than huge, but for those without a dog in the fight, Michigan’s 24-14 loss at the Shoe meant zilch.
For the first half, the Rose Bowl seemed to promise the same excitement that the September game in Ann Arbor provided. UCLA led 10-7 at intermission, but the Bruin defense was beginning to assert itself. No one did more than Rogers, who made 11 tackles, including a vicious (but clean) hit on Smith that separated the quarterback’s shoulder.
UCLA was also getting turnovers, four on the day and they took care of the ball themselves. The Bruins won 24-14 in a game that didn’t feel quite that close by the time the second half dominance was over.
This New Year’s Day breakthrough was the start of something special for Donahue. It was the first of four straight major bowl victories, three of which would be in Pasadena and he would develop a reputation for his bowl success.
Michigan stepped back briefly, missing out on the Rose Bowl each of the next three years. But Bo would be back and from 1986-89, the legendary head coach closed his career with three more trips west.
