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1981 Alabama Football: A Championship Drive Misses & An Era Ends

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1981 Alabama football wasn’t the same loaded team that won back-to-back national titles in 1978-79. They had slipped a bit in 1980, though they still went to the Cotton Bowl and crushed Baylor. The offense lacked explosiveness. Starting quarterback Walter Lewis only threw 66 passes and the Tide relied on a rushing attack where five different backs, along with Lewis ran for between 300-400 yards on the season.

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Defensively, the Tide had two players that got All-American recognition, defensive back Tommy Wilcox and linebacker Tom Boyd. And the respect the legendary head coach Bear Bryant commanded still had Alabama ranked fourth to start the season, even as SEC rival and defending national champion Georgia—with much more talent in the cupboard—was ranked tenth.

Alabama opened the season at LSU, though the Tigers weren’t very good at this time and the result was an easy 24-7 win. It moved the Tide to #2. No one could have expected what happened next. Georgia Tech was a terrible team in 1981 and they won only one game. That game was their September 12 visit to Alabama, a 24-21 shocker that shook up the polls (top-ranked Michigan lost the same day). The Tide were down to #10.

Pedestrian victories over bad teams in Kentucky and Vanderbilt followed, and a 38-7 blowout of Ole Miss, another shaky team, lifted ‘Bama to #7. But their second visit outside the SEC went almost as bad as the first. Alabama played Southern Miss, a team that would finish the year with a losing record, to a 13-13 tie and plummeted back to #15.

A game with Tennessee, a pretty good team that would make a bowl game at a time when such was a bigger accomplishment than it is today, now loomed even bigger. Alabama got back on track with a 38-19 win.

Normally, a non-conference home win over Rutgers wouldn’t mean much, but given the way non-conference games had gone for ‘Bama, this 31-7 victory surely brought relief. It also got them back into the Top 10.

Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi State were all unbeaten in conference play on October 31, and the Tide would host seventh-ranked Mississippi State. One year earlier, MSU, coached by former Bryant assistant Emory Bellard, had upset the Tide. And this game would be another tough battle.

Tough should not be equated with well-played and there were a combined 13 turnovers. Alabama clung to a 13-10 lead when Bulldog quarterback John Bond suddenly rifled three straight completions for a combined 69 yards and put Mississippi State on the Alabama 9-yard line in the closing seconds. Bond stepped back one more time. This time Wilcox was waiting and his interception at the one-yard line preserved the win.

After a week off, Alabama traveled to face fifth-ranked Penn State, who was still in the national championship picture. History was also in the making. All season long, Bryant’s pursuit of the career victories record held by Amos Alonzo Stagg had been on the front-burner of media coverage. The old head coach was only two wins away…and there were only two games left in the regular season.

The Tide did their coach proud, defeating the Lions with surprising ease, 31-16. The respect Bryant commanded was made apparent when he left the field and Penn State fans crowded around the tunnel to give him an ovation as he left.

It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving that Alabama hosted Auburn in the Iron Bowl. The Tide was playing for at least a share of the SEC title with Georgia. The Tigers were 5-5 and playing for a winning season. To say nothing of the rivalry stakes. But the nation was watching to see if Bear would break the record, and he did with a 28-17 win.

Alabama and Georgia were both unbeaten in league play, and the Tide had to play one more conference game (7-0 vs 6-0), but with winning percentage being tied and the Bulldogs ranked #2, while the Tide were #3, it was Georgia chosen for the Sugar Bowl. Alabama still got another Cotton Bowl bid and were hoping for the right confluence of circumstances to win a national championship.

The circumstances were this—‘Bama had to take care of its business against Texas and then hope for Georgia to lose to Pitt and #1 Clemson to lose to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Those games would take place in prime-time, while the Cotton Bowl was in the early time slot. So the hope for the Tide was to get a win and then sit back and hope for chaos at night.

Texas had finished 9-1-1, but also needed the probation of SMU—the actual regular season champion of the old Southwest Conference—to punch its ticket to Dallas. And for three quarters, Alabama looked the part of a team that had a lot on the line, and Texas looked the part of a team that needed the probation of a rival to be here.

The Tide were moving it up and down the field, but couldn’t put the game away. Alan Gray, who shared quarterback time with Lewis killed one drive with a fumble on the Longhorn 15-yard line. Consequently, the score was only 10-0 when the fourth quarter began.

Texas was built on running the ball and playing defense and you would think a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter was secure. But this Longhorn team had already rallied from behind in two of their biggest regular season games. And in the postgame words of Bryant, they “whipped” the Crimson Tide in the fourth quarter of this Cotton Bowl.

A backup quarterback, Robert Brewer, threw for over 200 yards against the ‘Bama defense. He cut the lead to 10-7 and then led a drive to the Alabama 30-yard line. Brewer took off on a quarterback draw for a touchdown. The Tide trailed 14-10.  

Alabama still rallied, starting the final drive with a big kickoff return.  But the season ended with an interception on the one-yard line to preserve the win. After a voluntary safety by Texas, the final was 14-12.

The loss didn’t cost the Tide a national title—while Georgia lost that night, Clemson won and took home an undisputed championship. But it was the end of an era. It was the final time Bear Bryant would coach a team in a major bowl game. The aging Bear only had one more year left in him. He retired following a tough 1982 season and passed away shortly after.

1981 Texas Football: Getting A Proud Program Back On The Map

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The proud Texas football program was struggling–at least by the standards of a national power since the regular season ended in 1977. Texas concluded that year, the first season for head coach Fred Akers, undefeated and ranked #1 in the country. They were promptly blown out by Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl and over the next three seasons went 25-11. The 1981 Texas football team needed to reverse the negative momentum.

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New contenders in the old Southwest Conference were rising. Houston went to consecutive Cotton Bowls and Baylor also reached the league’s showcase bowl game. SMU was moving on up, to say nothing of traditional power Arkansas.

The Longhorns still had respect and were still ranked #9 to start the 1981 season. They rolled over Rice and then looked sluggish in beating North Texas to start the season, but with upsets going down around the country, the Longhorns still rose to #4 in the polls.

Texas beat Miami, a rising national power with Jim Kelly at quarterback, 14-7 at home. September ended with the Longhorns ranked third in the nation and their traditional rivalry game with Oklahoma was next.

The Sooners would not have a good year in 1981, but they were still ranked #10 when the Red River Rivalry went down on October 10th. And Oklahoma started the game quickly, jumping out to a 14-3 lead at halftime.

Texas wasn’t ideally suited to make a comeback. Rick McIvor only completed 40 percent of his passes, and while the standards of 1981 were considerably different then today, this would still be the worst completion percentage of any quarterback of the ten teams who made major bowl games. Nor did McIvor make up for it with big plays, averaging a mediocre 6.6 yards-per-attempt.

The Longhorns did have a well-balanced rushing attack, with Jam Jones and John Walker each finishing in the top eight of the SWC in rush yardage, running behind an offensive line anchored by All-American tackle Terry Tausch. The defense was led by tackle Kenneth Sims, the best interior lineman in the country and soon-to-be #1 overall pick in the NFL draft.

It was Jones who stepped up and took over the Oklahoma game. He got the ball 36 times and gained 137 yards. Jones scored a touchdown to cut the lead to 14-10 and Texas never stopped. The game turned into a rout, 34-14 and when it was all over the Longhorns were ranked #1 in the country.

But it only lasted a week. Even though Arkansas would have a fairly average team and lose three league games, Lou Holtz had his Razorbacks ready for this one, and they hung a 42-11 shellacking on Texas. The Longhorns dropped all the way to #10.

SMU was ranked eighth in the country and undefeated when the Longhorns traveled to play the Mustangs. But SMU was also on probation. They could be ranked, and their games counted in the league standings, but the Mustangs were not eligible for the Cotton Bowl. Texas came up with a big 9-7 win, then came home to beat lowly Texas Tech 26-9.

It set up a big prime-time game at the Astrodome against Houston. Both teams, along with Arkansas, were fighting for the Cotton Bowl slot and ideally to do it by finishing ahead of SMU. The Longhorns fell behind the Cougars 14-3 in the fourth quarter. Once again, the team whose offense wasn’t built to come from behind did exactly that.

Walker ran for a touchdown and then threw a pass that converted the two-point play, cutting the lead to three points. With 2:40 left, kicker Raul Allegre, who would eventually kick for the New York Giants, hit a 47-yarder that tied the game 14-14. That’s where it ended. Texas was a game ahead of Houston and Arkansas, and a half-game back of SMU.

SMU’s probation made the end of the season a little anticlimactic. Texas beat up TCU and Baylor easily, the latter struggling to a 5-6 record after winning the conference in a runaway in 1980. When Arkansas lost to SMU it eliminated the Razorbacks. With one week to go, the Longhorns would not catch the Mustangs for the true league championship. They had at least a tie for second place with Houston clinched. But Texas needed to beat Texas A&M to remove all doubt.

A loss to the Aggies would create a second-place tie and with head-to-head unable to settle it between Texas and Houston, the Cotton Bowl would get to pick who it wanted. Now the nod would likely go to Texas anyway, ranked #7 in the polls, the more marquee program and hungry for their first trip to the league’s flagship bowl in four years. So while not overstating the drama of what was at stake, we can still say that Texas wanted to eliminate any doubt about their Cotton Bowl trip–and beat their archrival. They did just that with a 21-13 win on Thanksgiving the ensured sole possession of second place behind SMU.

The Cotton Bowl would feature two of the nation’s great programs. Bear Bryant was bringing in Alabama. The Tide had won national titles in 1978 and 1979, and won this very bowl game a year earlier. Alabama was also ranked #3 in the country and hoping for the right confluence of circumstances to win the national championship.

For three quarters in Dallas, Alabama looked the part of a team that had a lot on the line, and Texas looked like the part of a team that needed the probation of a rival to be here. The Tide were moving it up and down the field, but couldn’t put the game away. Consequently, the score was only 10-0 when the fourth quarter began.

It was fitting end for Texas, in a year where they came from behind to beat Oklahoma and to tie Houston. They “whipped”, to use Bryant’s postgame words, the Crimson Tide in the fourth quarter.

Backup quarterback Robert Brewer got the opportunity here and while he threw for over 200 yards to help the comeback cause, his biggest play came with his feet. With the lead cut to 10-7, and Texas on the Alabama 30-yard line, Brewer took off on a quarterback draw for a touchdown.

The Tide still rallied, with the final drive starting with a big kickoff return. Longhorn defensive back William Graham led the team with seven interceptions this season and the last one came on the one-yard line to preserve the win. After a voluntary safety by Texas, the game ended 14-12.

When second-ranked Georgia lost the Sugar Bowl that night, the door was open for Texas to rise all the way to #2 in the final polls. The Longhorns were back on the national map.

1981 Nebraska Football Gets Over The Oklahoma Hump

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1981 Nebraska football was looking to get some separation from Oklahoma. Tom Osborne became the head coach in 1973 at a time when the program had two recent national championships (1970-71). Osborne continued to win at a high level, but not only were national titles not forthcoming, he couldn’t get past Barry Switzer’s Sooners in the old Big Eight Conference.

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The only year Osborne beat Switzer was 1978, and even that year they still shared the conference title and were forced into a rematch at the Orange Bowl…which Oklahoma won. The Cornhuskers were ranked #6 coming into the 1981 college football season and anxious to finally get over the hump that was the Sooners.

It was all about line play at Nebraska and that started with center Dave Rimington, who won the Outland Trophy. On defense, Jimmy Williams was an All-American at end, while Rodney Lewis was the same in the secondary.

Nebraska didn’t throw the ball match, with Turner Gill and Mark Mauer splitting duty. And when you have running backs like Roger Craig and Mike Rozier, why bother? Craig, a future NFL star with the San Francisco 49ers, rolled up over 1,000 yards and his 12 catches in this ultra-conservative offense were a foreshadowing of the versatility he would show playing with Joe Montana. Rozier ran for 943 yards and the sophomore got rolling on the college career that would lead him to a Heisman Trophy two years later.

The Cornhuskers had a difficult non-conference schedule with Florida State—fresh off back-to-back Orange Bowl appearances—and Penn State. What Nebraska hadn’t counted on was that the season opener at Iowa would also prove to be tough. The previously dormant Hawkeye program came to life this year with a run to the Rose Bowl and they upset Nebraska 10-7.

Osborne’s team bounced back with a 34-14 blasting of Florida State at home, but they next week, the Huskers let Penn State come into their house and control the fourth quarter. Nebraska lost 30-24 and fell out of the national rankings.

A 17-3 win over Auburn and consecutive blowouts of bad Big Eight teams in Colorado and Kansas State got Nebraska back up to #15. The Big Eight was shaping up to be a balanced race, with Oklahoma also having relative struggles and it heightened the importance of Nebraska’s October 24 visit to 19th-ranked Missouri.

The game was scoreless was 2:36 left and it looked like the Cornhuskers were headed for a third blemish on their record. They got the ball on their own 36-yard line, when Gill began to showcase the arm that would be such a weapon for this team in the coming two years. He hit Irving Fryar and Todd Brown on key passes that got the ball to the 3-yard line. Phil Bates blasted it over for the winning touchdown.

Gill’s arm, combined with Nebraska’s 222-85 edge in rush yardage gave them a 6-0 win. In spite of the early losses, the Cornhuskers were still unbeaten in league play. And while OU struggled to a 6-4-1 season, Nebraska rolled past Kansas, Oklahoma State and Iowa State to wrap up the outright conference championship and automatic Orange Bowl spot.

There was still the matter of beating Oklahoma on the football field and with Nebraska now #5 in the polls, they were back in the national championship discussion when they visited Norman for the regular season finale. When the Sooners scored on the first drive, there had to be at least some “here we go again” laments going through Husker Nation.

But this time, Nebraska took over the football game. They ran for 314 yards. Mauer was in at quarterback for this one and he went 11/16 for 148 yards. Rozier and Craig both cleared the 100-yard mark. Nebraska’s power-I formation attack trumped Oklahoma’s wishbone option, and the Cornhuskers won 37-14. They concluded the regular season ranked #4.

The opponent in Miami would be top-ranked Clemson. At the time, the Tigers were a Cinderella program and it taken a crazy and chaotic year in college football as a whole to get Clemson to the top of the polls. A lot of observers were expecting Nebraska to enforce the old traditional order on New Year’s Night.

By the time the Orange Bowl kicked off, everyone knew third-ranked Alabama had lost. Georgia was ranked #2 in playing in the Sugar Bowl at the same time. It turns out, the Bulldogs would also lose.

There’s nothing saying for sure that Nebraska would have vaulted to #1 with a win—Texas was also in the discussion—and the Cornhuskers’ two defeats would surely have come under greater scrutiny. But a championship was definitely in play for both teams, not just Clemson.

Nebraska seemed to have control of the line of the scrimmage in the early going, but two drives inside the 30-yard line ended with lost fumbles. Meanwhile, Clemson put it on the ground three times for the game, but recovered each one. The breaks were going Clemson’s way, and eventually the flow of play did too. A 75-yard touchdown drive from the Tigers in the third quarter was the decisive blow and put Clemson in control. Nebraska lost 22-15.

The Cornhuskers might have come up short of the national championship, but in 1981 it was enough to finally clear the Oklahoma hurdle and get back to playing in the Orange Bowl. And the next two years would be even better.

The Seasonal Narrative Of 1981 Georgia Football

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The 1981 Georgia football team was the defending national champions and had one of the country’s great running backs in sophomore Herschel Walker. The SEC Player of the Year, Walker rolled up nearly 1900 yards (the second-best back in the SEC finished with 622 yards), carried the ball 385 times (the second-best in the SEC was 166) and still finished fourth in the conference in yards-per-attempt at 4.9.

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Walker finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to USC’s record-setting back Marcus Allen, as the two runners were clearly head-and-shoulders above the field in the Heisman race.

Buck Belue did a decent job providing some air support for Walker. He attempted 188 passes, a moderate number in this era and completed a solid 61%. Even more important was that the completions counted for something, as Belue’s 8.5 yards-per-pass was the SEC’s best. His best weapon in that regard was Lindsay Scott, who finished third in the league in receiving yardage.

What the Bulldogs did not have was national respect. In spite of winning a championship and bringing Walker back, they were still perceived as the inferior to Bear Bryant’s Alabama. Georgia opened the season ranked #10 while ‘Bama was ranked fourth.

Georgia gave the pollsters something to think about in their opener at home against a pretty good Tennessee team. Walker rolled up 161 yards on the ground. Belue was 10/15 for 140 yards and twice hooked up with Scott for touchdown passes. The Bulldog offense churned out thirty first downs, 563 total yards and mauled the Vols 44-0 for their worst defeat in 58 years. After a win over lowly Cal the following week, the Dawgs were up to #4.

Then a road trip to Clemson brought Georgia back down to earth and proved to be one of the decisive moments in the national championship race. The Dawgs lost 13-3. Clemson would finish the season undefeated and ranked #1.

Georgia rolled through mediocre teams in South Carolina and Ole Miss by a combined 61-7, then blasted bad teams in Vanderbilt and Kentucky by a combined 74-21. After closing by October with a 49-3 demolition of Temple, the Bulldogs were back up to #4 and were making their annual trip to Jacksonville for the neutral-site rivalry game against Florida.

The Gators were a good team that would win seven games and had the conference’s best pure dropback passer in Wayne Peace. A year ago, they came the closest to defeating Georgia, with only an epic 93-yard Belue-to-Scott touchdown pass saving the Dawgs in a 26-21 win.

This one wasn’t quite as dramatic, but it came close. Walker put on show and had caught two touchdowns and ran for another, but Georgia still trailed 21-20, just as they had in 1980. This time they drove 95 yards to win it, with Herschel tacking on one more rushing touchdown to close his day. He finished with 192 yards and once again, Georgia had escaped their rival in a 26-21 final.

The Bulldogs beat mediocre Auburn 24-13. The victory moved Georgia to #2 in the polls and also assured them of a share of the SEC title—they and Alabama were both unbeaten in league play, though the Tide had a loss and a tie in non-conference games.

Georgia would get the SEC’s Sugar Bowl nod and finished the year by trouncing an awful Georgia Tech team 44-7. Although we should note that the Yellow Jackets lone victory in 1981 did come at the expense of Alabama.

The opponent was Dan Marino’s Pitt Panthers, 10-1 and ranked tenth in the nation. For Georgia, their national title scenario was simple—beat Pitt and hope for Clemson lose to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Both games would be in prime-time on New Year’s Night.

Walker didn’t run well against a good Pitt defense and was kept under 100 yards. Both teams were sloppy, with a combined nine turnovers. What Georgia had been able to do was recover a fumbled punt and turn it into a touchdown. As a result, they held a 20-17 lead and had the ball with 5:29 left.

It was the perfect time for Walker to slam the door shut, but he couldn’t close it out. The Dawg defense had to come back on the field with 3:46 left. Marino moved the Panthers methodically to the Georgia 33-yard line. There was 0:34 left. A tie was as good as a loss for Georgia.

To Pitt’s credit—they had nothing to gain from a tie—they went for the win. To the regret of Georgia, it paid off. Marino hit his tight end, John Brown, with a perfect strike to the deep post for a touchdown. The Dawgs fell 24-20.

If nothing else, Clemson won in the Orange Bowl, so the loss didn’t cost Georgia a national championship. And they would be back in 1982, for another big year with Walker in the backfield.

1981 Pitt Football: The Road To Marino-To-Brown Magic

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The Pitt Panthers were coming off a 1980 season where they finished #2 in the country and had the pieces in place to take the final step in ’81. The program was in the midst of real glory days, going back to its national championship run of 1976. The 1981 Pitt football team continued the pattern, with a dramatic Sugar Bowl win that lives on in program lore.

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They had Dan Marino at quarterback and the junior completed nearly 60 percent of his passes and threw 37 touchdowns. Marino’s top target was All-American receiver Julius Dawkins, who averaged 16.7 yards-per-catch. Tight end John Brown was reliable in short-yardage situations—and would make one particularly big catch from longer range before the season was over.

Bryan Thomas was a versatile back, who ran for over 1,100 yards and caught 46 passes out of the backfield. Wayne DiBartola was the #2 back, whose productivity both running and receiving exceeded that of most starters elsewhere in the country. Up front, Jimbo Covert, a future staple of Chicago Bears’ offensive lines, was an anchor at tackle and linebacker Sal Sunseri got some love in All-American voting.

The Panthers opened the season ranked #8 and opened with decisive victories over winning teams in Illinois and Cincinnati, by a combined 64-13 and they nudged up to #7. A 42-38 shootout win at mediocre South Carolina got Pitt to 3-0 by the time they went to West Virginia on October 10.

West Virginia was a good team, the third-best in the East behind Pitt and traditional power Penn State. What’s more, Marino was injured and Danny Daniels had to go in his stead. To say the Panthers found a new identity understates the case—Daniels did not complete a single pass. The defense delivered this one and Pitt won the heated “Backyard Brawl” 17-0. They were now up to third in the national polls.

Florida State came to town the following week and it was revenge time. One year ago, the Seminoles had been the only team to defeat the Panthers, en route to an undefeated season of their own. Florida State wasn’t as good this year—they would only finish 6-5—but that record came against a brutal schedule. In fact, when Bobby Bowden brought his team to the Steel City, they were fresh off wins at Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Pitt had to make a goal-line stand on the game’s first possession, but they took over after that. Marino was back in the lineup and he threw three touchdown passes. Sunseri took an interception in for a score and Tom Flynn brought a punt return back to the house, completing the trifecta as the Panthers scored in all three phases. The final was 42-14.

Over the next five weeks, Pitt played other Eastern independents rolling through Syracuse, Boston College, Rutgers, Army and Temple. None of the teams finished the year with winning records, though only Army was really bad. BC was the only team to challenge Pitt, with that game ending 29-24.

In the midst of the stretch the Panthers ascended to the top of the polls. They were undefeated when it was time to host Penn State on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Pitt jumped out to a 14-0 and was driving for more when Marino threw an interception in the end zone. To the disbelief of the crowd and quite probably the entire nation, the Panthers came unraveled. They never scored again and Penn State never stopped.

The result was a stunning 48-14 defeat. In one fell swoop, Pitt had lost a rivalry game, the Lambert Trophy as the best team in the East and any shot at a national title as they slipped to #10 in the polls.

Pitt had already accepted a bid to the Sugar Bowl to play Georgia and their great running back, Herschel Walker. Now the Panthers would go to New Orleans looking for redemption rather than a championship. And there was a chance this game would still impact the national title. Clemson was ranked #1 and playing Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. If they lost, the second-ranked Bulldogs were the logical heir to the throne.

This was the first year the Sugar Bowl played on prime-time on January 1 and they gave the nation a great show. Pitt’s defense came up with a strong outing, holding Walker to under 100 yards. But they made a critical special teams blunder, as Flynn fumbled a punt and set up a Georgia touchdown. Overall, each team was sloppy and after a game with nine combined turnovers, the Bulldogs were still clinging to a 20-17 lead, with the ball and only 5:29 left.

Walker was not able to close the deal and Pitt got it back quickly, giving Marino 3:46 to work with. He moved his offense methodically to the Georgia 33-yard line, but there were only 34 seconds left. A tie was as good as a loss for Georgia, and Pitt had nothing to gain by settling for a deadlock.

The Panthers needed a big play, and while Dawkins was a natural target, they called for Brown to go to the post. Marino fired a perfect strike, hit his tight end in stride near the goal line and Brown took it in.

For Georgia, the pain could be somewhat mitigated by the fact that Clemson ended up beating Nebraska anyway. For Pitt, Marino-to-Brown for the 24-20 win is one of the great moments in their football heritage.

1981 Penn State Football: Setting The Stage For Greatness

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Penn State had gone 18-6 in the two years since 1978, when they came up a yard short of the national title in a Sugar Bowl clash with Alabama. Averaging three losses per year was high for PSU in this era, but they had finished in the Top 10 in 1980. The 1981 Penn State edition went one level higher, finishing in the top five, winning a major bowl game and setting the stage for the program’s first national championship a year later.

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The Lions’ offense was keyed by a strong running game led by 1,000-yard rusher Curt Warner, and supported by Jon Williams. Warner was the third-best back in the country, behind USC’s Marcus Allen and Georgia’s Herschel Walker and the Lion back would go on to a good pro career with the Seattle Seahawks. Warner’s offensive line was led by consensus All-American guard Sean Farrell.

Todd Blackledge was the quarterback, and his 50 percent completion rate was good enough by the passing standards of 1981, and his 7.5 yards-per-attempt was pretty good for any era. The receiving corps was led by receivers Kenny Jackson and Greg Garrity, along with tight end Mike McCloskey.

They began the 1981 season ranked #7 and promptly blew out a respectable Cincinnati team 52-0. A week off, combined with a series of upsets, had the Lions ranked #3 when they visited Nebraska on September 26.

The Cornhuskers would win the Big Eight title, but they had already lost to Iowa. Nebraska needed this game and they led 24-20 after three quarters. But Warner was running at will and he finished with 238 yards in an amazing display. Penn State played like the hungrier team on the road and ended up with a 30-24 win.

Penn State rolled through Temple, Boston College and Syracuse, all teams that hovered around the .500 mark and when that stretch concluded the Nittany Lions were ranked #1 in the country. They followed it up with a home win over a good West Virginia team, 30-7. But one week later in Miami, the run at the top came to an end.

The Hurricanes had Jim Kelly at quarterback and head coach Howard Schnellenberger was building the dynasty that would eventually transform college football. Penn State lost 17-14 and slipped to #6.

An unimpressive road win at lowly N.C. State kept Penn State in the title chase, but was a warning sign as they prepared to host Alabama on November 14. The Crimson Tide were on their way to a Cotton Bowl bid and the Lions got manhandled, 31-16 on their homefield. A 24-21 win over fading Notre Dame, who ended the year 5-6, set up the season finale with Pitt.

Penn State was ranked #13, while the rivals from western Pennsylvania were undefeated, ranked #1 and had Dan Marino at quarterback. Playing at old Pitt Stadium, the Lions fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and Marino was driving for more points. Roger Jackson then made the play of the season.

Jackson intercepted a pass in the back of the end zone to kill the threat. Penn State promptly drove down and scored. Warner, playing hurt, was able to rush for 104 yards, but the big story was that Blackledge played the best game of his career to date.

The Lion quarterback went 12/23 for 262 yards and twice hooked up with Kenny Jackson for touchdowns. The game was tied 14-14 by halftime and then the avalanche started in the second half. Penn State stunned the Pitt crowd and the entire nation with 34 more points and a 48-14 win.

In one fell swoop, Penn State moved back into the Top 10, won the Lambert Trophy as the top team in the East and destroyed the title hopes of their archrival. They were riding a wave of momentum as they accepted a bid to the Fiesta Bowl to play #8 USC.

This season was a new era for the Tempe-based bowl game. It represented the effort of the Fiesta to turn itself into a “major bowl”, as they moved their game to January 1.  Penn State had actually won this game a year earlier when it was played on Christmas Day.

A spot in the final Top 10 was on the line when Penn State and USC met. There were also rumors flying as it was being reported—correctly—that the New England Patriots wanted Paterno as their head coach and that the Lion mentor was genuinely interested. In the end, Paterno of course decided to stay at Penn State and with a team like the one that took the field in this game, why not?

Fifteen seconds into the game, Allen fumbled and Penn State recovered. Warner ran in for a touchdown on the next play. It was the first blow in a day when Warner would completely outplay the Heisman Trophy winner, outrushing Allen 145-85. When USC threatened to make a game of it, Blackledge put it away with a long touchdown pass to Garrity. The final was 26-10.

Ironically that same formula—Warner outplaying a Heisman winner and a Blackledge-to-Garrity touchdown pass sealing the win—was what would play out one year later when Penn State beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship. For now, in Tempe, Penn State would be happy with a #3 national finish to end 1981.

1980 Alabama Football: Bear Bryant’s Last Major Bowl Win

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Alabama was coming off national championship seasons in both 1978 and 1979, as the coaching career of the legendary Bear Bryant neared its end. The 1980 Alabama football team didn’t make it a three-peat, but they made a run at it and their ultimate Cotton Bowl victory would be Bryant’s last victory in a major bowl game.

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The Crimson Tide had the #1 defense in the country and it was through a cohesive team effort. Defensive end E.J. Junior was the only consensus All-American, though linebacker Tom Boyd got honorable mention and defensive back Jeremiah Castille went on to an NFL career whose biggest moment came when he recovered a fumble that preserved the 1987 AFC Championship Game for the Denver Broncos.

Offensively, the Tide took a step back from their attacks of the previous two seasons. The same balanced rushing attack existed, but at a little less prolific level. Billy Jackson and Major Ogilvie got the bulk of the carries and quarterback Don Jacobs was a runner, not a passer. Jacobs only attempted 76 passes all season.

Alabama was ranked #2 to start the season, behind only Ohio State. The Tide opened with a 26-3 win over lowly Georgia Tech and then crushed woeful Ole Miss 59-35, an uncharacteristic high-scoring game. An unimpressive win by Ohio State the same day nudged the Crimson Tide to the top of the polls, as they gunned for a third straight national title.

Two more shutouts of bad teams followed, the victories over Kentucky and Vanderbilt coming by a combined 86-0. A tough escape at seven-win Rutgers, 17-13 was next and the defense spun yet another shutout at Tennessee, beating the mediocre Vols 27-0.

October 25 saw an unbeaten Southern Miss team come to Tuscaloosa. The Golden Eagles were coached by Bobby Collins, who would go on to take SMU to an undefeated season two years later and be the head coach when that program got the death penalty shortly after that. Southern Miss also had Sammy Winder, who in the NFL would be Castille’s teammate in Denver and score the winning touchdown in the playoff game that Castille ultimately preserved.

Southern Miss was coming off a rout of a good SEC opponent in Mississippi State and hoped that could translate against the #1 team in the country. It didn’t—the Tide won 42-7. Up next was Alabama’s own game with Mississippi State and the result against the common opponent should have made a Tide victory a foregone conclusion.

Sports is never that simple though and Alabama-Mississippi State was a defensive war. The Bulldogs were coached by Emory Bellard, who had taught Bear Bryant the wishbone offense and Mississippi State held a 6-3 lead on their homefield when Alabama drove inside the red zone in the final minute.

A tie wouldn’t do Alabama any good—not with Georgia undefeated and not on the ‘Bama schedule. A tie would be as good as a loss, both in the SEC and nationally. Alabama reached the 4-yard line, but with no timeouts, they had to rush to the line for one last snap. Jacobs took it and tried to run the option right. He was met and a fumble was forced. Mississippi State recovered.

There was one last burst of interest when Mississippi State fumbled the snap on the play to kill the remaining clock and a furious pile-up, reminiscent of a scene in the Tom Cruise movie All The Right Moves, ensued. But State recovered and Alabama slipped to #6 in the polls.

After dispatching seven-win LSU by a 28-7 count, Alabama prepared for the arrival of Notre Dame, who had only an inexplicable tie against Georgia Tech darkening their resume. The game summarized the Alabama season—the defense was great and the only Notre Dame points came after a ‘Bama fumble inside their own 5-yard line. But the offense did literally nothing and the 7-0 defeat eliminated any faint hopes of a national championship.

Alabama still closed the year strong with a 34-18 win over Auburn. The Tide got a bid to the Cotton Bowl to play Baylor, 10-1 and the champion of the old Southwest Conference.  

‘Bama led 6-0, when Baylor missed its best chance to turn momentum. They had gotten a 50-yard pass interference penalty and were on the Tide 8-yard line. The Bears fumbled it away. Jacobs immediately responded with a deep post pass to Jesse Bendross that set up an Alabama touchdown.

The great defense took over from there, and Baylor turnovers kept setting up ‘Bama points. The Tide did allow the Bears to get on the board, but it was the Alabama offense that gave up the points—a safety. The final score was 30-2.

Bryant only had two more years left in his career. He would make it back to another major bowl, reaching this same venue and losing to Texas in 1981. The 1980 season might not have been what Alabama wanted at the beginning, but their January 1 victory gives them a special place in the lore of this proud program.

1980 Florida State: Continued Progress Toward The National Elite

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Bobby Bowden put his up-and-coming program on the map in 1979 with a run to the Orange Bowl. The 1980 Florida State football team was ready to demonstrate it was no fluke. They had All-American nose tackle Ron Simmons back to anchor the defense, along with fellow All-American Bobby Butler in the secondary.

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The offense didn’t have national honorees, but they could move the ball in a system that was very wide-open for the times. Rick Stockstill threw 201 passes and completed 60 percent. Bowden made use of the running backs in the passing game, with Michael Whiting’s 25 catches being the most on the team.

Whiting also ran for 500 yards, while Sam Platt led the team in rushing with nearly 1,000 yards. Hardis Johnson was the top wideout, with 24 catches for 419 yards.

But it was special teams that Florida State excelled at, with All-American choices at kicker and punter. Bill Capece was the placekicker, while Rohn Stark, a future Pro Bowler in the NFL, was the nation’s best punter. Florida State was still searching for respect though, and was ranked #13 to start the season.

The Seminoles went to a pretty good LSU team and won 16-0 to open the campaign, moving to #10. They followed it up by crushing shaky competition in Louisville and South Carolina by a combined 115-7. But a road trip to Miami—a team on its way to nine wins—would prove to be a problem, as it would so often in Bowden’s later career. The ‘Noles lost 10-9 and slipped to #16.

Florida State’s season was now in trouble. They had a road trip to Nebraska and a home game with Pitt next, both teams ranked in the top five. The Seminoles could be out of the major bowl picture before October was halfway through.

They were beaten in the trenches in Nebraska, losing the rushing battle 201-12 and falling behind 14-3 at the half. But Florida State was opportunistic. They capitalized on three second-half turnovers and nudged their way to an 18-14 lead when the Cornhuskers launched one final drive.

The ball was on the 3-yard line with twelve seconds left. Linebacker Paul Piurowski stepped up and forced the fourth turnover of the half, with a sack and fumble. Florida State survived.

Pitt was one of the most talented teams in the country. Hugh Green was the best defensive lineman in the country. Mark May was the best offensive lineman in the country. The roster had 23 future NFL starters on it. And they had a sophomore at quarterback in Dan Marino who didn’t turn out half bad either. The Panthers were unbeaten and smelling their second national championship in four years.

The special teams heroes of Florida State came through. Capece nailed five field goals, including a 50-yarder at the end of the first half that gave the Seminoles a 20-7 lead. Stark crushed punts of 60, 67 and 53 yards and controlled field position. In the meantime, Platt ran for 123 yards and the opportunistic defense continued—they picked off Marino three times, recovered four fumbles and won under the lights in Tallahassee 36-22.

It was to be Pitt’s only loss. Florida State was back on the national scene, ranked #7 and a player for a New Year’s Day bid.

The Seminoles rolled through the next four games without incident, beating Boston College, Memphis, Tulsa and Virginia Tech, with the former and latter teams being competitive and the middle two not so much. FSU got a tougher battle from rival Florida, an eight-win team, but the ‘Noles survived 17-13.

FSU was #2 in the country and headed back for the Orange Bowl. They were getting a rematch with Oklahoma. The Sooners were ranked fourth. Florida State fans had two things to think about in the run-up to the game—would their ‘Noles be as overmatched as they had been the previous year in South Beach, a decisive 24-7 loss to the Sooners? And would they get a shot at the national championship?

The answer to the first question was negative. On January 1, top-ranked Georgia won the Sugar Bowl early in the day, so by the time Florida State and Oklahoma took the field, the national championship was settled. But the Seminoles were certainly not overmatched in this game and the two teams gave college football fans one final thrill before the season ended.

The FSU defense held a potent Sooner running game to 156 yards on 55 carries. The Seminole defense continued to get turnovers, six in in all. One of them was a botched punt that was recovered in the end zone. FSU led 17-10 late in the game.

But earlier, the Seminoles had missed a key opportunity when Capece uncharacteristically missed a short field goal. Oklahoma was still in the game when they got the ball on their own 22-yard line with 2:37 left. The Sooners, a team that couldn’t pass the ball, managed to drive78 yards for the touchdown and then converted the two-point play for an 18-17 lead.

Florida State made one last gasp, reached the Oklahoma 40-yard line and sent Capece out to try a desperation 57-yarder. He got good leg into it, but not quite enough. The ‘Noles came up just short.

It was a crushing loss, but on a deeper level, the program’s progress was clear. Last year, they had made the New Year’s stage. This year, they showed they could legitimately compete with the nation’s best programs.

Even so, FSU took a brief step back from the national elite. They continued to win and go to bowl games but their next trip to a major bowl would be in 1987 when they arrived in the national elite to stay.

1980 Michigan Football: Getting Bo His First Rose Bowl Win

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Michigan football coach Bo Schembecler had reached the Rose Bowl five times in his first eleven years at the helm of the Wolverine program and gone home with a loss on occasion. It was the 1980 Michigan football team that would get Bo that elusive win in the Grandaddy of Them All.

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Schembecler’s teams were renowned for how often they ran the football, but compared to other teams that made major bowl games following the 1980 college football season, Michigan was on the high end of pass attempts. There was a reason for that—with Anthony Carter, Schembecler had one of the best receivers in the country. Carter caught 57 balls for 818 yards and 14 touchdowns, while making All-American.

That’s not to say Bo lost sight of the running game. Butch Woolfolk ran for over 1,000 yards. Stan Edwards added over 900 more, and Lawrence Ricks rushed for 850 yards, as the trio ranked 4-5-6 in the Big Ten in rushing. George Lilja, the center, was the best of the offensive lineman, getting honorable mention in the All-American voting.

The numbers for quarterback John Wangler weren’t great, but “Johnny Wangs”, as his coach affectionately called him in his autobiography, had a special leadership quality. He came back from an injured leg and was often a virtual one-legged quarterback, but he made plays and was a winner.

Michigan opened the season ranked #12, sliding relatively under the radar, as rival Ohio State was the preseason #1. The start of the season was tough for the Wolverines. They were unimpressive in a 17-10 win over Northwestern. Then two crushing losses followed.

Wangler had led a comeback at Notre Dame, bringing Michigan from 14-0 down to lead 27-26 in the waning minutes. The Wolverines lost when Irish kicker Harry Oliver hit a 51-yard field goal into the wind. One week later, Michigan came home to face South Carolina and soon-to-be Heisman Trophy winning running back George Rogers. The Wolverines dropped a tough 17-14 decision and were unranked when the ensuing polls came out.

Michigan rebounded with a 38-13 win over a bad Cal team. Schembecler’s crew still hadn’t lost a conference game, and they won five straight Big Ten contests. After a tough 27-23 decision over a three-win Michigan State team, the Wolverines found their mojo. They crushed Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin in rapid succession, the latter two with shutouts.

The defense didn’t produce any All-Americans but they were peaking at the right time, and their best moments would come against Purdue and Ohio State. The Boilermakers were still in a three-way mix for the Rose Bowl bid when they came to Ann Arbor on November 15, and they had the nation’s first-string All-American quarterback in Mark Hermann. Michigan hung a 26-0 shutout on Purdue.

Ohio State had lost a game and was ranked #5 when Michigan arrived in Columbus to play for the Big Ten championship the following week. The Buckeyes still had respect and were a four-point favorite, slightly outside the field goal window oddsmakers give for homefield advantage. Michigan was still perceived as narrowly inferior to its rival.

The game was tied 3-3 into the second half, when Wangler put together a drive and finished it with 13-yard touchdown pass to Carter. Even though Michigan missed a key extra point, the defense made it stand up. Ohio State reached the 18-yard line, but Michigan held, a field goal was missed, the Buckeyes never got close again and the game ended 9-3.

Michigan had come from the heartbreak of September to a #5 national ranking. The structure of the bowl matchups did not offer them a path to the national championship but that wasn’t the prize that folks in Ann Arbor had their mind on—they wanted to finally win the Rose Bowl.

The opponent was Washington. In 1977, a Huskie team led by Warren Moon had upset Michigan, the most surprising loss of Schembecler’s previous trips west. That Washington team had lost four games coming in. The ’80 edition of the Huskie program was a solid 9-2.

And the way the day started, it seemed like this would be another one day for Bo. The Huskies drove to the one-yard line on their second drive before Michigan came up with a fourth down stop. Washington didn’t stop moving the ball in the first half, accumulating 269 yards. But Michigan didn’t stop making the critical play on defense and the Huskies only had six points for all that activity.

The momentum turned after halftime. Woolfolk began to take over on the ground, finishing with 182 rushing yards. Wangler got Carter worked into the offense. The defense completely flipped the script on Washington, holding them to 23 total yards in the second half. The Wolverines pulled away to a 23-6 win.

Schembecler would never be the master of Pasadena, losing three of his remaining four trips out west. But he was finally off the schneid.

1980 Georgia Football: Herschel Leads The Way To The Top

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1980 Georgia football was the latest edition for a program that had been consistent and competitive, not unlike today. But they hadn’t won a major bowl game since 1966, nor appeared in one since their SEC title in 1976. The Bulldogs were coming off a 6-5 year in 1979, one that ended without a bowl appearance in the more stringent postseason world of the late 1970s.

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A freshman running back named Herschel Walker came blazing onto the scene and transformed the team immediately. He ran for over 1,600 yards in 274 attempts, at 5.9 yards-per-carry and scored 15 touchdowns—all of which were the best in the SEC.

Buck Belue at quarterback wasn’t a great passer, but his 49% completion rate was still fourth in the conference, and with over 1,300 passing yards he was second in the SEC. And before the year was over he would complete the biggest pass in the history of the Georgia program.

Head coach Vince Dooley had a great secondary, with two All-Americans in Jeff Hipps and Scott Woerner. Kicker Rex Robinson also made All-American. Georgia had modest respect when the season opened and were ranked #16 in the first polls.

The Dawgs opened with a narrow win at Tennessee. Even though the Vols were on their way to 5-6, the 16-15 win moved Georgia up four spots in the polls. Then they crushed shaky Texas A&M 42-0 and got into the Top 10.

Georgia edged Clemson 20-16, a win that looks more important in retrospect than it was at the time. The Tigers were unranked and finished 6-5, but it was the core of a team that won the national championship the following season. Georgia then smoked hapless TCU 34-3 and were ranked sixth in the nation by the time October began.

Wins over three bad teams, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Kentucky followed. The former was close, 28-21, the latter two were blowouts, with a combined final of 68-zip. Now it was time for two big November tests, against South Carolina and Florida, with the Dawgs up to #4 in the nation.

Walker and South Carolina’s George Rogers were far and away the two best running backs in the nation. Rogers was a local boy who’d gone to Columbia and then beaten the Bulldogs in 1978 and 1979. Now he came to Athens with a worthy foe in Walker waiting. Both running backs put on a show, with Walker going for 219 yards and Rogers rushing for 168 yards. Georgia ground out a 13-10 win.

More good news came elsewhere in the SEC—Alabama, undefeated, ranked #1 and the two-time defending national champion had been upset by Mississippi State. The Bulldogs and Tide would not play each other and now Georgia had the inside track to the conference’s Sugar Bowl bid.

The annual trip to Jacksonville to play #20 Florida was up next. Walker picked up where he left off, bolting on a 72-yard touchdown run on the game’s third play. He rushed for 238 yards for the game and Georgia got out to a 14-3 lead.

But Florida had a good passing game with Wayne Peace at quarterback and a wide receiver named Cris Collingsworth, who was the best in the SEC. Even though Georgia still led 20-10 after three quarters, Florida rallied with a touchdown, two-point conversion, field goal and then got the ball with 5:53 left and a 21-20 lead.

The Bulldogs held and got their offense the ball back, but Georgia was on its own eight-yard line with 1:35 left. On 3rd-and-11 Belue dropped back and found Lindsay Scott over the middle. He got behind the secondary and the race was on. “Run Lindsay Run!” was the legendary call over the Bulldogs radio station by broadcaster Larry Munson. And run he did. Scott found the end zone and Georgia survived, 26-21.

Georgia closed the season with a 31-21 win at mediocre Auburn and then rolled woeful Georgia Tech 38-20 to complete the undefeated season. The Dawgs were 11-0. Walker didn’t get the Heisman Trophy—the bias against freshman was too strong and would not be broken until Johnny Manziel won it for Texas A&M in 2012—but the team was #1 in the country.

Notre Dame was the opponent. As the regular season was winding down, the Sugar Bowl thought this would be a winner-take-all battle for the national championship. But the Irish lost their early December finale at USC. That dimmed the luster of the matchup a little, but as far as the Bulldogs were concerned, the stakes were the same. President Jimmy Carter was on hand in the Superdome to watch his home state team.

Notre Dame got a 50-yard field goal to start the scoring, and then Walker had to briefly leave the game with a separated shoulder. The freshman told the trainer to do what was necessary to get it back in place—“I didn’t come all this way to not play.”

The Irish started missing opportunities. They missed three field goals and fumbled a kickoff on the 1-yard line, setting up an easy Georgia score. Walker was running well for the Dawgs, injured shoulder and all, and even without Belue completing a pass, Georgia still led 17-10 late in the game.

Notre Dame made one more drive, but Kiel threw an interception. All that was left was for the Bulldogs to run out the clock—and for Belue to complete that elusive pass. Georgia was national champions.

Georgia continued to be a national power, reaching the Sugar Bowl with national title hopes each of the next two years. But the state of Pennsylvania got in the way—they lost to Dan Marino’s Pitt in 1981 and then to Penn State in 1982. The Bulldogs would not get this close to a national title until 2017 and a loyal fan base continues to wait for the first crown since that memorable 1980 run.

1980 Pitt Football: Loaded With Excellence

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The 1980 Pitt football team fit the profile of the kind of team the program put out in the years from 1975-83. It was the best stretch of Panther football since the days of Jock Sutherland in the late 1930s. It included a national championship in 1976 and it included a long line of notable players coming through Pittsburgh. Perhaps never more so than 1980.

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To go through Pitt’s starting lineup in ’80 is to read a who’s who of future NFL talent and eventual inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame (and in some cases, to Canton). The offensive line was led by Mark May, Russ Grimm and Jimbo Covert. All three would be NFL stalwarts and May won the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman.  

Bill Maas, an exceptional defensive tackle was in his freshman year and already making an impact. Rickey Jackson, who enjoyed a long career in the pros was at one defensive end. The defensive backfield had future NFL starters in strong safety Carlton Williamson and corner Tim Lewis.

And the quarterback? A guy named Dan Marino, in his sophomore year, was taking snaps. Marino completed 52% of his passes for 7.2 yards-per-attempt and the final TD-INT ratio was 15-14. While those numbers may look ugly to a modern reader, they were good in 1980.

Marino had good targets, starting with tight end Benjie Pryor. A second-team All-American, Pryor caught 47 passes for just over twelve yards a pop. On the flanks, Willie Collier and Dwight Collins could stretch the field. Randy McMillan was a steady running back who rushed for nearly 700 yards while averaging 4.7 yards per carry.

It all sounds like a pretty good team, right? We haven’t even gotten to the crown jewel. Hugh Green was at defensive end and was the most physically dominant football player in the country. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting. At the time it was the highest a defensive player had ever finished.

That was eventually eclipsed in 1997 when Michigan corner Charles Woodson won the award. But considering Woodson enhanced his resume as a kick returner, it’s fair to say that Green has the highest Heisman finish of any pure defensive player.

So the Panthers were loaded and everyone knew it. They were ranked third in the country to start the season. And they won their first four games. A 14-6 home win over a respectable Boston College team got the ball rolling. They knocked off mediocre teams in Kansas and Temple, then blew out a pretty good Maryland squad, 38-9. Pitt was poised for its first big test of the year in Tallahassee.

Florida State had enjoyed a breakthrough year in 1979, reaching the Orange Bowl under a young head coach named Bobby Bowden. The Seminoles were undefeated again this year and the October 11 showdown with Pitt was a big national game. But the Panthers weren’t ready for prime-time. Marino threw three interceptions. They lost four fumbles. They allowed FSU to get a ground game going. And they lost 36-22.

Pitt fell to #11 in the polls and disappeared from the national championship conversation. Then Marino got hurt early the next week in a home game against West Virginia and was gone for the year.

Fortunately, head coach Jackie Sherrill had some experience to fall back on. Rick Trocano had been the quarterback prior to Marino. Trocano’s passing could be erratic, but he was a good athlete who played safety while Marino was under center. And Rick Trocano helped get Pitt’s season back on track.

The Panthers erupted for 28 second-quarter points in the 42-14 blowout of the Mountaineers. Then they went to Tennessee to visit their old friend Johnny Majors. It was Majors who rebuilt the program in the early ’70s and then left for Knoxville after the championship year of ’76. The Vols still had a ways to go and it showed in this game, as Pitt won 30-6.

The Panthers cleaned up on mediocre teams from Syracuse and Louisville, averaging over 40 points per game. They went to West Point on November 15. Army was the weakest team on the schedule and Pitt blew out the Cadets 45-7.

The Panthers were back up to #4 in the polls and the season’s biggest game was at hand. Joe Paterno’s Penn State was ranked #5 and also 9-1. The winner of their Black Friday battle in State College would go into the bowl season with a chance at the national championship.

Pitt started slowly and trailed 3-0 in the second quarter. Trocano flipped a screen pass to running back Randy McMillan, who picked up 32 yards. Trocano then looked for Pryor in the end zone and found him for a 16-yard TD pass. It was 7-3 at half. The Panthers recovered a fumble at the Penn State 36 early in the third quarter. They turned the short field into another touchdown, a nine-yard bootleg run from Trocano.

At 14-3, with the Pitt defense dominating, it looked like a blowout might be in the offing. But Penn State rallied. They got into the end zone, although Pitt stopped the two-point play to keep the margin at five points, 14-9.

Penn State made two drives inside the Pitt 40 in the closing moments and both times it was Williamson coming up with the big play. The defensive back stuffed Lion running back Curt Warner on 4th-and-1 to end the first drive. And Williamson picked off a Todd Blackledge pass in the closing minute to seal the win.

Pitt was up to #3 in the polls. Bowl commitments were made by mid-November in those days, so they weren’t going to a major bowl. But they would get to play #18 South Carolina and Heisman Trophy-winning running back George Rogers in the Gator Bowl on December 29. And a path to the top of the polls did exist.

The Sugar Bowl had a matchup of #1 Georgia facing Notre Dame, who was 9-0-1. But the Irish had one more game to play, at USC. Florida State was #2 and headed for the Orange Bowl to face a really good Oklahoma team.

Pitt’s formula was simple—they needed Notre Dame to lose at Southern Cal. They needed to take care of business in Jacksonville. And they needed Notre Dame to turn around knock off Georgia, while Oklahoma knocked out Florida State.

On the first Saturday of December, USC gave western Pennsylvania some hope with an easy 20-3 rout of the Fighting Irish. Pitt was up to #3 going into the bowl games.

The Gator Bowl was no contest. Pitt forced a Rogers fumble on his first carry and turned the short field into a quick touchdown. They were ahead 17-3 by halftime and won 37-9. Rogers’ final numbers of 116 yards look respectable, but it took him 27 carries to get there and it was well below the 150-160 he routinely churned out.

Pitt’s hopes on January 1 came close to being realized, but not quite. Notre Dame missed a number of good opportunities in the Sugar Bowl and Georgia sealed the national title with a 17-10 win. Oklahoma nipped FSU in a thrilling Orange Bowl, allowing the Panthers to move up to #2 in the final polls.

Even without the national championship, it had been a tremendous year in Pittsburgh. The good news is that Marino would get back healthy and lead this program to major bowls in both 1981 and 1982. The bad news is they wouldn’t get a second national championship to go along with the banner from 1976.

1990 Michigan Football: The Post-Schembecler Era Begins

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The 1990 Michigan football team marked the dawn of a new era in the long history of the proud program. After the last two decades in charge, the legendary Bo Schembecler stepped aside and offensive coordinator Gary Moeller was elevated.

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Coming off back-to-back Rose Bowl trips, Michigan football was at its peak. It took longer than the faithful would have liked in 1990 to get started, but Moeller eventually got the Wolverines back to championship level.

The Michigan offense was well-balanced and explosive. Desmond Howard had a 1,000-yard receiving year and set the stage for his Heisman run of 1991. Jon Vaughn rushed for over 1,300 yards and was first-team All-Big Ten. Ricky Powers and Jarrod Bunch were reliable changes of pace in the backfield, combining for over 1,200 yards. And the traditionally powerful Wolverine offensive line was led by All-Conference picks in Dean Dingman, Tom Dohring and Greg Skrepenak.

Quarterback was never considered a strength in the Michigan program, and in the world of 1990, Elvis Grbac was as good as it got for the maize-and-blue. Grbac’s stats of 58% completions, 7.2 yards-per-attempt and 21-10 TD/INT ratio were good by the standards of the time.

The defense wasn’t quite as deep in individual names, but they still had an All-American safety in Tripp Welborne and Lance Dottin picked off five passes. And collectively, the defense was good enough to rank 18th in the nation in points allowed.

A prime-time visit to Notre Dame for the opener set the tone for the season’s first half. Michigan coughed up a 24-14 lead in the fourth quarter and lost 28-24. The Wolverines righted the ship with wins over UCLA, Maryland and Wisconsin and in the historically chaotic season that was 1990, managed to get to the top of the polls by mid-October with one loss.

More heartbreak followed. Trailing 28-21 at Michigan State, the Wolverines drove for a late touchdown and the pre-overtime era of college football, went for two to win it. Howard ran a slant-in and was open, but stumbled. Michigan fans insist he was held and the bad blood still lingers over this game today.

One week later, Iowa got their first win in Ann Arbor since 1981, driving 85 yards late in the game for a 24-23 win. Michigan was 3-3 and while they were only three plays from 6-0, it didn’t stop the wolves from howling at Moeller’s door when Michigan came to Indiana on the final weekend of October.

The Hoosiers were a consistent bowl team in this era and well-coached under Bill Mallory. The Wolverines dismantled them 45-19 and found their footing for the stretch run. They blew out a bad Purdue team and then came up with big wins over Illinois and Minnesota, both of whom were contending in a packed Big Ten race.

A third straight Rose Bowl appearance wasn’t on the table when Michigan went to Columbus for the season-ending battle with Ohio State. But in the event of an Iowa loss, a Wolverine win would achieve the parlay of denying the Buckeyes a trip to Pasadena and also secure at least a piece of the league championship for themselves.

Michigan and Ohio State were locked in a 13-13 tie with 1:47 left. A tie did the Buckeyes no good, so they went for it on their own 29-yard line. Michigan’s defense made the stop and they got a field goal on the last play to win it. Later in the day, Iowa fell at Minnesota. The Big Ten race ended up with four teams tied for first and while it was Iowa that got the Rose Bowl trip, Michigan still got a trophy.

They were also up to #12 in the polls and met up with 15th-ranked Ole Miss in the Hall of Fame Bowl (today’s Outback Bowl). Grbac hit Howard with a 63-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and tossed a seven-yard TD pass to Bunch in the second quarter. It was 14-3 at half and the Wolverines blew it open in the third quarter, en route to a 35-3 win and a final ranking of #7.

The three losses and not making the Rose Bowl were a disappointment in the moment, but the importance of the quad-championship in the Big Ten grew in the coming years. Michigan reasserted themselves and won outright league titles in 1991 and 1992. The late surge of 1990 Michigan football ensured that this era would go into the history books with five consecutive championship seasons in the Big Ten. And Moeller had the program in good hands.

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