In the eleven years since Vince Dooley came to Georgia, the proud Bulldog program had been successful, but were generally submerged behind Bear Bryant’s Alabama in the SEC. 1968 was Georgia’s last conference championship. The 1976 Georgia football team broke through and captured an outright league title.
Georgia had, even by the standards of 1976, a run-heavy offense, led by quarterback Ray Goff. The man who one day would be the Bulldog head coach, was the SEC Player of the Year thanks to his running ability. He ran for 724 yards, and Kevin McLee was the top back, with over 1,000 yards. Mike Wilson and Joel Parrish, a pair of All-American offensive lineman, paved the way for the powerful ground attack. The defense was led by end Dickey Clark and safety Bill Krug, each of whom made all-conference.
The Dawgs opened the season ranked #16 and their first game was at home with Cal, who was ranked #15. The Golden Bears proved to be overrated and Georgia quickly exposed that with an easy 36-24 win. There were a series of upsets around the country and the Bulldogs immediately moved up to #9 in the polls.
Traditional rivals, Clemson, and South Carolina were both pedestrian in 1976. Georgia racked up wins of 41-0 and 20-12 respectively. Now, Alabama was coming to town.
Big games between Georgia and Alabama were rare in the late 1970s and early 1980s, even though both teams were good. There were only six SEC games each year and Bulldogs-Tide didn’t get priority. But they were playing this year in Athens. And the Dawg defense delivered—they held ‘Bama to 86 yards on the ground and won 21-0. Georgia moved to #4 in the rankings.
But a letdown followed—a 21-17 loss at mediocre Ole Miss and the Bulldogs went plummeting to #11. They bounced back with a 45-0 blasting of lowly Vanderbilt. That set up another big game, this time with Kentucky.
Georgia and Kentucky had one conference loss, and were chasing Florida, who had yet to lose in league play. The Bulldogs needed to win this game and set up their annual November rivalry game with the Gators.
The Bulldogs went on the road and made a big statement with an easy 31-7 win. They were now ranked #7 and followed that up by beating a pretty good Cincinnati team, 31-17 at home. It was time for the Cocktail Party rivalry game.
Florida was not the perennial football power that it became in the 1990s, but their 1976 team was one of the best the school had seen to that time. They had overcome a season-opening loss to North Carolina, were 6-1, and ranked 10th in the country. The winner of this game had the inside track to the SEC championship and the automatic bid to the Sugar Bowl.
The Georgia defense couldn’t keep up early in the game and gave up 27 points in the first half, trailing by two touchdowns. Goff quickly got his team back in the game with a touchdown pass and then the defense, aided by some questionable Florida game management, stepped up.
It was 4th-and-1 for Florida on their own 29-yard line and head coach Doug Dickey opted to go for it. “Fourth And Dumb” is how the play lives in Gator infamy. The Dawgs made the stop, scored the touchdown and the momentum irrevocably shifted. Georgia won 41-27.
The Bulldogs still needed to close out their SEC title and they did it with a 28-0 win at a bad Auburn team. Georgia was #4 in the nation. Their path to the national title was realistically blocked, with USC and Michigan both ranked ahead of them and playing each other in the Rose Bowl. But the Bulldogs did have a chance to play spoiler—the #1-ranked Pitt Panthers were ticketed as their opponent in the Sugar Bowl.
Before that happened, Georgia had the traditional Thanksgiving Saturday game with Georgia Tech. A shaky 13-10 win nudged the Dawgs down to #5 in the polls as they got ready for Pitt.
The Panthers had a Heisman Trophy-winning running back by the name of Tony Dorsett, and the Bulldogs stacked the box with eight men to try and deal with him. But things didn’t go as well defensively as they had against Alabama and Kentucky. Pitt was able to open things up in the passing game, Dorsett still went off for over 200 yards, and Georgia was pounded, 27-3.
It was a disappointing ending, but 1976 was still a year when Georgia won an outright SEC championship, and still held on to a final #10 ranking. The Bulldogs slipped back to mediocrity two of the next three seasons. But their ultimate vindication wasn’t far off—the arrival of a freshman running back named Herschel Walker and a national championship year in 1980.
1983 was the year of The Great Rebuild for Georgia athletics. The basketball team saw star forward Dominque Wilkins leave early for the pros. Dawg hoops responded by going to the Final Four. The 1983 Georgia football team was no less impressive—they lost Herschel Walker, one of college football’s all-time greatest running backs, early to the pros. The football Dawgs responded with their own run to the national top four and a big impact on history.
Georgia had spent the last three seasons in the elite. They won the SEC title and went to the Sugar Bowl all three years. They won the national title in 1980 and played for it in 1982. But with Herschel gone, the Bulldogs opened the 1983 college football season ranked #15.
The cupboard wasn’t bare in Athens though. Defensive back Terry Hoage was an All-American and finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. Freddie Gilbert was a game-changer at defensive end. And though Georgia didn’t throw the ball much, tight end Clarence Kay was a good blocker and would enjoy a solid nine-year career in the NFL with the Denver Broncos.
Head coach Vince Dooley replaced Walker with a running back-by-committee approach, splitting the load between Keith Montgomery, Barry Young and David McCluskey. Quarterback John Lastinger also did some running, although he never dazzled anyone. And as a passer, Lastinger didn’t bring much to the table. He threw for fewer than 800 yards, completed less than 50 percent of his passes and only averaged 5.8 yards-per-attempt.
Georgia opened the season at home against 20th-ranked UCLA. The led 12-8 in the fourth quarter when the Bruins began driving for the potential game-winning score. Defensive back Charles Dean stepped in front of a Rick Neuheisel throw, intercepted the pass and took it 81 yards to the house, sealing a 19-8 win.
A road trip to Clemson, a nine-win team and two years removed from winning the national championship, resulted in a 16-16 tie, but the Dawgs still nudged up in the polls, now ranked #14. Then they began piling up wins against the soft part of their schedule.
South Carolina, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Temple all were either under .500 or no better than six win-teams. Georgia won them all, with a 20-13 scare at Vandy being the only game that was close. By the time it was done, the calendar was turning to November and Georgia was ranked sixth in the country.
The Dawgs were joined atop the SEC by Auburn. Florida was right behind, and Georgia would play each team on successive weeks in November.
Florida had the conference’s best passing quarterback in Wayne Peace and the Gators moved the ball, getting inside the Bulldog 25-yard line six times. But those trips netted only three field goals. The Bulldogs got a 51-yard field goal from future NFL kicker Kevin Butler, but still trailed 9-3 when they got the ball on their own one-yard line in the fourth quarter.
Twice in the previous three years, Georgia had beaten Florida by driving 90-plus yards in the fourth quarter. In 1980 it was a lightning strike, a 93-yard touchdown pass. In 1982, it was by repeatedly giving Walker the football. This time it was another long drive. The Dawgs went the distance, all 99 yards, and won 10-9.
Now they were up to #4 and hosted Auburn in a head-to-head showdown that could win Georgia a fourth straight conference title. They didn’t get this one, losing a tough 13-7 decision, but with a 27-24 non-conference win over Georgia Tech to end the season, Georgia was still ranked #7. Not bad for a team on a rebuilding year.
The Cotton Bowl noticed and invited Georgia to pair up with second-ranked Texas. The Longhorns were one of two undefeated teams in the country, along with #1 Nebraska. Texas had the best defense in the country and was hoping against hope that fifth-ranked Miami could upset the Cornhuskers in the Orange Bowl and open a path for Texas to get to a national championship.
But Texas was offensively challenged. Even though Georgia punted nine times and did next to nothing offensively, the Dawg defense only allowed three field goals. The deficit was just 9-3, as the clock ticked under the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter.
Georgia resorted to their top weapon of the day—punter Chip Andrews. He kicked another one. Texas fumbled. The Bulldogs recovered on the Longhorn 23-yard line and had new life.
Even so, 23 yards against this defense wasn’t exactly an easy road to travel. Two plays netted six yards. On third down, Lastinger ran the option. The pitch man was covered, forcing the unathletic QB to try and make the play on his own. The quarterback did—he not only got the first down, but he raced for the right corner of the end zone and found it. Improbably, it was 10-9 Georgia and that was it.
It was a stunning upset, even in the moment of late afternoon on New Year’s Day. By nightfall it became monumental. Miami shocked Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. The Hurricanes’ national championship ushered in a new dynasty and has become a watershed moment in the history of college football.
But it should be remembered, the magic of that night would not have happened without the magic of the afternoon, when Georgia capped its “rebuilding” year by winning the Cotton Bowl and ending up fourth in the nation.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
The biggest development in the 1980 college football season was the arrival of a freshman running back that would define the sport for the next three years. Herschel Walker made Georgia must-see television at the outset of the decade and in his first year he led the Bulldogs to an undefeated season and a national championship.
Two more traditional powers played important parts in the drama of the season. Georgia had to displace two-time defending national champion Alabama in the SEC. The Crimson Tide slipped a bit this year, but were still good enough to reach the Cotton Bowl and get what would prove to be the final major bowl victory for the great Bear Bryant.
Notre Dame was looking to return to the top and to do it for outgoing coach Dan Devine. The Irish made a serious run at #1, highlighted by a dramatic head-to-head win over Alabama. A late season loss ultimately ended those dreams, but Notre Dame got a crack at Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
Another pair of traditional powers didn’t make a serious run at a national title, but they impacted the season and won major bowl games. Oklahoma survived a challenge from Nebraska and won its third straight Big Eight title, earning the automatic ticket to the Orange Bowl. Michigan won the Big Ten, which by itself wasn’t unusual. But they also won the Rose Bowl and that was outside the norm—in fact, for current head coach Bo Schembecler it was unprecedented.
Outside, the world of the “Bluebloods”, Florida State showed that their run to the Orange Bowl in 1979 was no fluke, by doing it again this year and this time matching up much better with Oklahoma. And Pitt, with a who’s who of future NFL talent up and down its lineup, made a run at the top and settled for the #2 spot in the final polls.
This articles below take you on a season-long run through the seven most consequential teams in college football’s 1980 season:
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 Sugar Bowl had hosted the #1 team in each of the previous two years and the annul game following the 1980 college football season no different. The Georgia Bulldogs were undefeated and atop the polls. Notre Dame was playing the final game in the tenure of head coach Dan Devine. On New Year’s Day, the 1981 Sugar Bowl might have marked the end for Devine, but it was just the beginning for the great Georgia freshman, Herschel Walker.
Georgia had been a consistent, competitive program, 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.
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 was far from a great passer, as the Sugar Bowl itself would demonstrate, 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 Georgia Bulldogs football history.
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. 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 had won the national championship in 1977 and then won the Cotton Bowl following the 1978 season, but the first year after Joe Montana was a difficult one in ’79. The Irish had a comeback year, motivated by the desire to win for Devine after he announced his retirement.
The defense was anchored by All-Americans in the front seven, with defensive end Scott Zellek and linebacker Bob Crable. On the offensive side, John Scully at center also got All-American honors. A freshman quarterback, Blair Kiel, got the nod as the starter and Notre Dame was ranked #11 to start the year.
Notre Dame quickly sent a message they were on the way back with a 31-10 pounding of Purdue—a good team with the best quarterback in the country in Mark Herrman. It set up the rivalry game between the Irish and Wolverines and what would be one of the now-defunct rivalry’s great moments.
The Irish jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but by the time the final minutes arrived, they were trailing 27-26 and trying a last-ditch drive into a stiff wind. They reached the 34-yard line and sent kicker Harry Oliver out to try what seemed like a hopeless kick given the conditions. Unbelievably, Oliver made it, sending the South Bend crowd into a frenzy and sparking hope that this really could be Devine’s destiny year.
Between the 29-27 win over Michigan, and the end of October, Notre Dame relied on attrition to move up the polls. They beat Michigan State, Miami, Arizona and Army. On November 1, the same day Georgia was beating South Carolina and Alabama lost to Mississippi State, the Irish rolled Navy 33-10. Second-ranked UCLA also lost.
Notre Dame concluded the day at the top of the polls, with Georgia at #2. The Irish couldn’t handle prosperity though. Georgia Tech was awful and would finish the season 1-9-1, but their game with Notre Dame was the one tie, a 3-3 final. Notre Dame slipped to sixth.
There was still a trip to Alabama on tap, and even though each team had recent blemishes, there were still national title implications. In a defensive war, Notre Dame got the game’s only touchdown when they recovered a fumble inside the 5-yard line and Phil Carter went over the top for the score in a 7-0 win.
The Irish beat Air Force and moved back up to #2, back in control of their national championship destiny and the Sugar Bowl date with Georgia locked in. Notre Dame still had to beat USC if it was to be a 1 vs. 2 battle. But the Irish, facing a talented Trojan team with Ronnie Lott and Marcus Allen, lost 20-3 and slipped to #7. There was no national title in the cards, but Notre Dame could still send Devine out with a bowl victory over a #1-ranked opponent.
President Jimmy Carter was on hand in the Superdome to watch his home state Bulldogs, the last time an American president would attend a championship sporting event until Bill Clinton went to the 1994 Final Four to cheer on his alma mater, Arkansas.
Notre Dame got a 50-yard field goal from Oliver, 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. Oliver missed three field goals, and they 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, but 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.
The Bulldogs haven’t won a national title since, but with Walker, they would continue to be the power of the SEC for the next couple years. The Irish would take a brief step back from national prominence until Lou Holtz arrived in 1986.
