Menu

Pitt football history

1976 Pitt Football: A National Championship Run

, , , , ,

Johnny Majors inherited a moribund Pitt Panthers program when he arrived in 1973. The Panthers last winning season was ten years ago. It didn’t take long for Majors to turn things around. He brought in a huge recruiting class in his first year and immediately began winning. Over the next three years, Pitt went 19-12-1 in the regular season, and split a couple of bowl games. The 1976 Pitt football season was the culmination of that effort—an undefeated season and the program’s only national championship.

The Panthers had a ball hawking secondary, with defensive backs Bob Jury, Jeff Delaney and Leroy Felder combining for 23 interceptions. Al Romano was a nose tackle who got All-American mention. The defense ranked seventh nationally for points allowed.

At quarterback was a future coach in Matt Cavanaugh. His 60 percent completion rate was excellent by the standards of the era and his 9.3 yards-per-attempt were outstanding in any era. He played mistake-free football.

But above all, what Pitt had was a running back by the name of Anthony Drew Dorsett.

Tony Dorsett was a local product, playing his high school football at Aliquippa, and the best player of that initial Majors recruiting class. He had been a 1,000-yard rusher each of his first three years at Pitt and in 1976, he went off the charts. Dorsett rushed for 1,948 yards in the regular season, averaging nearly six yards a pop and was a landslide winner of the Heisman Trophy.

Pitt opened the year ranked #9 in the country, and they wasted little time in showing what they could do. They traveled to South Bend to play 11th-ranked Notre Dame. In the first half alone, Dorsett ran for 122 yards. The tone was set quickly, the Panthers pulled away to a 31-10 win, and some chaos around the country got them vaulted to #3 in the polls.

They settled into a stretch of nine games against competition that can be generously described as less than difficult. None of the opponents would have a winning record in 1976. Pitt blew out Temple 42-14, and then went to Duke and won 44-31. They hosted Louisville and racked up a 27-6 win. A visit from Miami resulted in a 36-19 win. Pitt went down to Annapolis to play Navy and cruised home, 45-zip. They hosted Syracuse and won 23-13.  

The Panthers were up to 8-0 and had moved to #2 in the polls. But as the calendar moved to November, they still needed help. Michigan was #1, and the Wolverines were contractually bound to the Rose Bowl, where they would play a highly ranked Pac-8 champ.

On that first weekend of November, help arrived. While Pitt was putting a 37-7 beatdown on Army, Michigan was stumbling against Purdue, losing 16-14. The Panthers were #1 in the country. They responded by beating West Virginia 24-16.

There was one more hurdle left to clear, and it was a big one—a Black Friday game with Penn State that would be played at old Three Rivers Stadium. And in the meantime, bowl bids were being handed out. Where would Pitt go?

USC and Michigan were in the 2-3 spots and slated for the Rose Bowl. Maryland was undefeated and ranked #4. The Terps, like the Panthers, were not committed to any bowl. But that was also a problem. Prior to the emergence of the Fiesta Bowl as a major player in 1981, the prestigious bowls had at least one contractually committed conference champ.

Moreover, football in the East was not necessarily respected. Pitt really needed to play a traditional power conference champ to validate their #1 ranking. Georgia, sitting at #5 and having won the SEC, fit the bill. The Panthers would go to the Sugar Bowl to face the Bulldogs.

In the meantime, they still needed to beat Penn State. This wasn’t a vintage Joe Paterno team, but the Nittany Lions were still ranked #16 and a tough out. But that aggressive Pitt defense was ready to go. On a rainy day in the Steel City, they intercepted three passes. Dorsett got loose in the second half and Pitt pulled away to a 24-7 win. They were set to go to New Orleans and play for a national championship.

It was no secret that stopping Dorsett was the key to stopping Pitt. Georgia came out and stacked eight men in the box. Cavanaugh responded by throwing for 192 yards, a good number in this run-oriented era. And that box on Dorsett? The great running back still went off for 202 yards. The Sugar Bowl was never close, and Pitt won 27-3.

Pitt’s schedule might not have been great, but they had decisively beaten Notre Dame, Penn State and Georgia, and there was no doubt about their standing as the #1 team in the country.

Majors would leave for Tennessee after this season, but the beat went on. Jackie Sherrill, and then Foge Fazio, kept the winning going. Over the next seven seasons, the Panthers would finish in the national top 10 five different times, including a #2 finish in 1980. They produced a quarterback named Dan Marino that turned out pretty good. The late 1970s and early 1980s were the halcyon years of Pitt football, and the highlight was the 1976 national championship.

1982 Pitt Football: Great Expectations Turn Sour

, , , , , ,

1982 Pitt football was a team of great expectation. It was the senior year for quarterback Dan Marino. After three straight 11-1 seasons, including a dramatic Sugar Bowl win over Georgia following the 1981 season, this was to be the year that Pitt won it all and Marino won the Heisman Trophy. It didn’t work out that way.

READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS

Even a coaching change—Jackie Sherrill left for Texas A&M and defensive coordinator Foge Fazio took over—didn’t stop the high expectations and Pitt was ranked #1 to start the year.

There was no shortage of talent. Jimbo Covert and Bill Fralic were both All-Americans on the offensive line and both went on to good NFL careers. Defensive tackle Bill Maas was another All-American. Bryan Thomas rushed for 955 yards and Marino had a good group of receivers led by Dwight Collins.

But the quarterback himself struggled. Marino threw 23 interceptions and his 6.4 yards-per-attempt was nowhere near Heisman-caliber. The problems showed up right away in a high-profile game against North Carolina to open the season. The Tar Heels were ranked #5 and this was a Thursday night game (a rarity then) in Three Rivers Stadium.

Marino threw four interceptions and Pitt only scored seven points. Fortunately, the defense bailed him out. They held UNC’s talented running back Kelvin Bryant to 58 yards and Pitt led 7-6 late in the game. North Carolina reached the 21-yard line late in the game, but rather than play it safe, they tried to throw the ball. Maas came up with the big sack and the drive was turned back.

Pitt may have survived, but they were down to #2 in the polls. And with North Carolina going on to a seven-win season, this wasn’t the elite opponent that was perceived at the time.

The Panthers came up with a more impressive effort at Florida State ten days later, winning 37-17 against a team that would win eight games. Pitt then beat seven-win Illinois by a 20-3 count.

On the first Saturday of October, the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia renewed in the Steel City. This was a good Mountaineer team, one that would go 9-2 and it showed here. The Panthers trailed 13-0 going into the fourth quarter. But they scored one touchdown with 10:52 left, and then Marino connected with Julius Dawkins to get a 14-13 lead.

Maas came up clutch again, sacking WVA quarterback Jeff Hostetler in the end zone for a safety. West Virginia made one last charge, but a tying a field goal attempt hit the crossbar. Pitt was still undefeated, and while Marino wasn’t lighting it up, the team was still beating good opponents each week.

Pitt blew out subpar teams in Temple, Syracuse and Louisville and were back to #1 in the country when October came to a close. Then came the fatal visit from Notre Dame on November 6, where the Panthers played poorly against a team that would struggle to a 6-4-1 finish. A 31-16 defeat sent Pitt plummeting to #8.

They bounced back to beat losing teams in Army and Rutgers and were back up to #5 for the season finale against Penn State. The Nittany Lions were playing for a crack top-ranked Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for a national title. Pitt would need help to make it all the way back, with SMU and Nebraska also ahead of them in the polls.

But a victory over the Lions would heal a lot of wounds, particularly the ones that had opened the previous year when Pitt’s national title hopes had come crashing down in a 48-14 humiliation. It was time for one more disappointment though. Pitt lost 19-10 and went to the Cotton Bowl ranked #6 in the country.

The Cotton Bowl was a what-might-have-been game. SMU was the opponent and they had been #2 while Pitt was #1. This could have been a national championship battle in Dallas. But the Mustangs played Arkansas to a tie. So tonight’s Sugar Bowl between #1 Georgia and #2 Penn State was for the national title. The Cotton Bowl would be for pride and redemption.

It would also be a great talent showcase. SMU was built around their Pony Express backfield, Eric Dickerson and Craig James. Both would join Marino as future pros and Dickerson joined Marino as a future NFL Hall of Famer.

A cold rain and the defenses slowed things to a halt though. Pitt trailed 7-3 in the fourth quarter when Marino led the Panthers on a drive, hoping for a second straight New Year’s Day game-winning drive—albeit this one with eight minutes left. But his pass into the end zone bounced off the hands of one Mustang player and into the arms of another. The 7-3 final held up.

There was no sugar-coating that this was a disappointing year for Pitt and they have not been in the national elite since. The biggest beneficiary of Marino’s disappointing senior year was the Miami Dolphins. Having gone to the Super Bowl in 1982, but still needing a quarterback, they watched as Marino plummeted to the 27th pick in the first round. It’s safe to say Marino put the disappointments of 1982 behind him. The same can’t be said for the Pitt Panthers.

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

, , , , ,

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.

READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS

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.

1980 Pitt Football: Loaded With Excellence

, , , , ,

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.

READ GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS

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.

The Road To The 1984 Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State & Pitt

, , , , , , , , ,

Ohio State came into the 1984 Fiesta Bowl on a low note, having finished third in the Big Ten and losing to Michigan. Pitt came to the Fiesta Bowl with every reason to feel good about themselves, having gone 8-2-1 in their first year post-Dan Marino. Let’s take a look back on the road these Rustbelt teams took through the 1983 college football season to make it to Tempe.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

The honeymoon was over for Earle Bruce in Columbus. After taking Ohio State to an undefeated season in his first year in 1979, Bruce had lost the Rose Bowl that year and then failed to make any major bowl game—much less the coveted Rose—in the ensuing three years.

Bruce had good skill position talent on hand for 1983, and it started with running back Keith Byars. The big back ran for nearly 1,200 yards and one year later he would finish second to Doug Flutie in the Heisman Trophy voting. Byars was the workhorse of the Big Ten in carries and still finished a solid fourth in yards-per-attempt. His 20 touchdowns also led the conference.

Mike Tomczak had a long NFL career ahead of him, including quarterbacking some playoff teams. In 1983 at Ohio State, Tomczak completed a respectable 55 percent of his passes for a solid 8.2 yards-per-attempt. His top target with tight end John Frank, while wide receiver Cedric Anderson was a big play threat and Thad Jemison a solid third target.

The Buckeyes weren’t loaded defensively, but defensive back Kelvin Bell intercepted five passes. The high expectations that have been in Columbus seemingly forever were in place in 1983, as they were ranked ninth in the preseason poll.

If Ohio State and Oregon played a season-opener today, it would be a nationally televised affair, the rematch of the championship game in the first-ever College Football Playoff. In 1983, Oregon was still a subpar team and they came into Columbus for a perfunctory 31-6 trouncing that got the Buckeyes for their trip to second-ranked Oklahoma.

Frank made a key decision before the game—an observant Jew on Rosh Hashanah weekend, he would play. Whether it was the right move isn’t something for a non-Jew to comment on, but it was a big help for the football team. Frank caught two first-half touchdown passes and Ohio State stunned the crowd in Norman by taking a 21-0 lead by the third quarter. They won 24-14 in a game not as respectable as the score makes it sound.

Oklahoma would prove to be a four-loss disappointment, but for now, Ohio State was riding high and moved up to #3 in the national rankings.

But the start of Big Ten play brought problems and the Buckeyes dropped a tough 20-14 decision at seventh-ranked Iowa. Ohio State slipped to #8, before rebounding with wins over bad Minnesota and Purdue teams, scoring 102 points in the process. The Buckeyes were #6 going into Illinois on October 15.

The Illini were in the midst of a year that would see them reach the Rose Bowl and when they beat Ohio State 17-13, the Buckeyes were realistically out of contention. Not only would they miss the Rose Bowl again, they wouldn’t even play for the prize at Michigan on November 19.

Ohio State posted a pedestrian 21-11 win over a sub-.500 Michigan State team. Wisconsin was up next. The Badgers had beaten the Buckeyes each of the last two seasons and were in the mix to finish in the top three of the conference. The potential for a disappointing conference season to turn even worse was there when Bucky came to Columbus on October 29.

The running of Byars saved the Buckeyes. An up-and-down first half had Ohio State ahead 28-21, but Wisconsin immediately drove for a touchdown to start the third quarter, before missing the extra point. The Buckeyes took the game over from there.

Byars finished with 174 yards, while Tomczak was sharp and efficient, 12/14 for 162 yards. Ohio State controlled the line of scrimmage and pulled away to a 45-27 win. They followed it up with thumpings of lowly Indiana and Northwestern by a combined 111-24.

The Buckeyes might have been out of the Rose Bowl mix, but they were back in the Top 10 and the Sugar Bowl announced it planned to invite the winner of the OSU-Michigan as the foil for third-ranked Auburn.

Another opportunity was met with disappointment though. Ohio State lost 24-21 and Bruce’s decision to try a trick “fumble-rooskie” play (where the quarterback sets the ball on the ground and an offensive lineman scoops it up and goes running) blew up in his face, creating a turnover when the Buckeyes were driving to tie or take the lead.

It was Ohio State’s good fortune to be given another chance for redemption, as the Fiesta Bowl passed over 10-1 and sixth-ranked SMU for the marquee program out of Columbus. Now the Buckeyes needed to make the most of it.

Pitt was unranked to start the season, a departure from what had been expected of this program over the previous seven years when they had either Tony Dorsett at quarterback or Marino at quarterback, won a national title in 1976, been ranked #1 at various points and had two straight major bowl appearances on their resume.

John Congemi stepped in at quarterback, and while he didn’t fling it around like Marino had, the future Hall of Famer had endured an interception-prone senior season. Congemi had a sparkling TD-INT ratio of 16-8, while completing 59 percent of his passes. While there’s no comparison between these two quarterbacks in the bigger picture, Pitt was better off in 1983.

One reason was the running game, with consensus All-American offensive tackle Bill Fralic leading the way for Joe McCall, who ran for 961 yards. The receiving corps was balanced, with Bill Wallace and Dwight Collins. And the first game of the season made it apparent that Pitt wasn’t going to go quietly into the night.

The Panthers went to Tennessee to play former coach Johnny Majors, who had departed after winning the ’76 title. The Vols had one of the best defensive tackles of all-time in Reggie White.  Pitt coach Foge Fazio knew something about defense himself and the game was low-scoring battle. Collins caught the game’s only TD pass and Pitt had a 13-3 road win over a team that would go on to an 8-3 season.

It still didn’t get the Panthers any love in the national rankings, although a 35-0 whitewash of Temple got Pitt up to #16. They suffered their first loss of the season, 13-7 at Maryland and moved out of the rankings. But it was another strong defensive outing against a Terps team that had Boomer Esiason at quarterback and would win the ACC.

The defense didn’t come through against Jeff Hostetler and seventh-ranked West Virginia in a 24-21 road loss. But the season began to turn decisively in Pitt’s favor at home against Florida State. It was the first of several games against top-flight running backs, in this case FSU’s Greg Allen, who got some All-American votes. Pitt won 17-16.

They followed it up with two road wins. It started with a 55-0 blasting of lowly Louisville and then a 21-14 win over Navy, who had another back with some All-American recognition in Napoleon McCallum. When Pitt edged an average Syracuse team 13-10 at home, it set up a November 5 trip to Notre Dame

It was another game against a top back in Allan Pinkett. The Irish were ranked #18 and making noises about the Fiesta Bowl spot themselves. But Pitt struck quickly. Congemi threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Wallace, the Panthers recovered a fumble, McCall scored and it was 14-0.

McCall went to rush for 116 yards and scored one more touchdown. Pitt’s stingy defense intercepted four passes and they won 21-16, moving back into the polls at #20. They rolled over Army to nudge up to #17 and the season ended with a 24-24 tie against archrival Penn State, who struggled to a four-loss season.

At 8-2-1, it’s also fair to say that Pitt could have been passed over for SMU as easily as Ohio State could have. It’s also fair to say that Pitt was a lot happier about their season than Ohio State when the Fiesta Bowl arrived.

Congemi threw for a first-half touchdown, while both Tomczak and Byars ran in, and Ohio State led 14-7 at the half. The score held into the fourth quarter when suddenly things got crazy. Pitt tied the game, but Byars, who told the press afterward how much he wanted this game, took the kickoff back 99 yards for a touchdown.

Another touchdown pass by Congemi put Pitt into position to tie the game, but they opted for a two-point try that missed. No matter, the Panthers got the ball back and kicked a field goal with 2:39 left. Trailing 23-21 against a good defense, the Buckeyes looked ready to endure one more disappointment.

Tomczak, often underappreciated for his importance in the offense due to the excellence of Byars, responded to the moment. He pushed Ohio State just past the Pitt 40-yard line, closing on field goal range. But the field goal wouldn’t be necessary. The number 39 proved to be magic–Tomczak found Jemison a 39-yard touchdown strike with 39 seconds left and the Buckeyes had a 28-23 win.

For Ohio State, the road to redemption led to a Rose Bowl return a year later. For Pitt, the loss was the signal that the good years of their program were over, as they would not make a major bowl game until coming back to this same venue in 2004.

The Road To The 1983 Cotton Bowl: SMU & Pitt

, , , , , , , , ,

The 1983 Cotton Bowl was a what-might-have-been game. Pitt and SMU had reached the 1-2 spots in the national rankings by the end of October in the 1982 college football season. But each team, particularly Pitt had some disappointment in November and while the Cotton Bowl was still a good game between two highly ranked teams, it wasn’t a national title battle.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

SMU was a program on the rise, although they were also running afoul of the NCAA in the process, something that would get the program suspended for two years later in the decade.

Ron Meyer coached the Mustangs to a 10-1 record in 1981 and the championship of the old Southwest Conference, where the principal rivals were Texas and Arkansas.

But probation denied SMU the Cotton Bowl bid that came with the league title. Meyer departed to coach the New England Patriots and Bobby Collins took over for 1982.

The backfield lives on in college football lore as “The Pony Express”, and the greatness of Eric Dickerson and Craig James was real and not myth. Dickerson rolled up over 1,600 yards on the ground, averaged seven yards a pop, scored 17 touchdowns and made first-team All-American, joining Georgia’s Heisman Trophy-winning Herschel Walker.

James ran for 938 yards, a figure that makes him the leading rusher at most schools, even with only getting the carries of a #2 back. He finished third in the SWC in rushing. Lance McIlhenny was the quarterback and certainly wasn’t required to throw very much, but he was efficient—only three interceptions all year-and he made some big plays when his team desperately needed them.

SMU opened the season ranked #6 and rolled through four non-conference games against Tulane, UTEP, TCU and North Texas. The TCU game was the only that was competitive. But the non-descript competition kept the Mustangs at sixth in the polls.

A victory over a subpar Baylor team opened SEC play and nudged SMU into the top five. The Mustangs escaped mediocre Houston 20-14 and stayed undefeated as they got set to go to Texas. The Longhorns were ranked #19 and had a good running back of their own in Darryl Clark, who finished second in the conference in rushing.

SMU was actually outrushed in this game, 206-183 and the game was tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter. McIlhenny then stepped up with a 79-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Leach, then added a 33-yard touchdown pass. The Mustangs pulled away to a 30-17 win and were now ranked #4.

When they blasted Texas A&M 47-9, SMU vaulted to #2 as the calendar flipped to November. The Mustangs were right behind Pitt in the polls, but with the Panthers not tied to any bowl, the Cotton would be free to create a 1 vs 2 battle in Dallas.

SMU held up their end of the bargain with a 41-14 blowout of Rice, but a Pitt loss to Notre Dame resulted in Georgia jumping up to #1. Even though SMU was now #2, they no longer controlled their own fate, since Georgia was tied to the Sugar Bowl.

What the Mustangs could control was winning the SWC again and this time getting the Cotton Bowl bid. They beat lowly Texas Tech 34-27 to get to 10-0 and set the stage for the last game of the year against Arkansas.

The Razorbacks, coached by Lou Holtz, were ranked ninth and had just one loss in league play. Arkansas could take control of the conference race—they would still need to beat Texas two weeks later, but SMU needed to win or tie its finale to lock up the Cotton Bowl spot without any doubts.

The game was played in Texas Stadium, then the home of the Dallas Cowboys and it was a great battle. Arkansas took an early 7-0 lead and was driving for more when SMU defensive end Russell Carter blocked a field goal. McIlhenny later converted a 3rd-and-17 with his feet and it set up Dickerson’s tying touchdown run.

After trading field goals, Arkansas took a 17-10 lead and there were just six minutes left in the game. McIlhenny completed a 3rd-and-8 pass to keep the drive going and then a controversial pass interference penalty put the Mustangs on the doorstep. They scored and Collins opted to kick the extra point and at least ensure a tie.

SMU still got a crack at the win, with a 52-yard-field goal. But that came up short. The national title hopes were gone, but the Mustangs were still undefeated, at 10-0-1, and most important, they were going to the Cotton Bowl.

1982 was a year of great expectation for Pitt. It was the senior year for quarterback Dan Marino. After three straight 11-1 seasons, including a dramatic Sugar Bowl win over Georgia following the 1981 season, this was to be the year that Pitt won it all and Marino won the Heisman Trophy.

Even a coaching change—Jackie Sherrill left for Texas A&M and defensive coordinator Foge Fazio took over—didn’t stop the high expectations and Pitt was ranked #1 to start the year.

There was no shortage of talent. Jimbo Covert and Bill Fralic were both All-Americans on the offensive line and both went on to good NFL careers. Defensive tackle Bill Maas was another All-American. Bryan Thomas rushed for 955 yards and Marino had a good group of receivers led by Dwight Collins.

But the quarterback himself struggled. Marino threw 23 interceptions and his 6.4 yards-per-attempt was nowhere near Heisman-caliber. The problems showed up right away in a high-profile game against North Carolina to open the season. The Tar Heels were ranked #5 and this was a Thursday night game (a rarity then) in Three Rivers Stadium.

Marino threw four interceptions and Pitt only scored seven points. Fortunately, the defense bailed him out. They held UNC’s talented running back Kelvin Bryant to 58 yards and Pitt led 7-6 late in the game. North Carolina reached the 21-yard line late in the game, but rather than play it safe, they tried to throw the ball. Maas came up with the big sack and the drive was turned back.

Pitt may have survived, but they were down to #2 in the polls. And with North Carolina going on to a seven-win season, this wasn’t the elite opponent that was perceived at the time.

The Panthers came up with a more impressive effort at Florida State ten days later, winning 37-17 against a team that would win eight games. Pitt then beat seven-win Illinois by a 20-3 count.

On the first Saturday of October, the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia renewed in the Steel City. This was a good Mountaineer team, one that would go 9-2 and it showed here. The Panthers trailed 13-0 going into the fourth quarter. But they scored one touchdown with 10:52 left, and then Marino connected with Julius Dawkins to get a 14-13 lead.

Maas came up clutch again, sacking WVA quarterback Jeff Hostetler in the end zone for a safety. West Virginia made one last charge, but a tying a field goal attempt hit the crossbar. Pitt was still undefeated, and while Marino wasn’t lighting it up, the team was still beating good opponents each week.

Pitt blew out subpar teams in Temple, Syracuse and Louisville and were back to #1 in the country when October came to a close. Then came the fatal visit from Notre Dame on November 6, where the Panthers played poorly against a team that would struggle to a 6-4-1 finish. A 31-16 defeat sent Pitt plummeting to #8.

They bounced back to losing teams in Army and Rutgers were back up to #5 for the season finale against Penn State. The Nittany Lions were playing for a crack top-ranked Georgia in the Sugar Bowl for a national title. Pitt would need help to make it all the way back, with SMU and Nebraska also ahead of them in the polls.

But a victory over the Lions would heal a lot of wounds, particularly the ones that had opened the previous year when Pitt’s national title hopes had come crashing down in a 48-14 humiliation in Happy Valley.

It was time for one more disappointment though. Pitt lost 19-10 and went to the Cotton Bowl ranked #6 in the country. They would play for pride and redemption, rather than a championship.

The Cotton Bowl was played in a cold rain and the SMU defense slowed Marino to a halt. Pitt got only a field goal, their lowest point total since 1975. But the Panthers still led 3-0, as the slick artificial turf made it very difficult for Dickerson or James to get any footing.

McIlhenny stepped up with two big completions to Leach, one where Leach had to maneuver around an official to get in position for the catch. SMU took a 7-3 lead. Marino led Pitt back, hoping for a second straight New Year’s Day game-winning drive—albeit this one with eight minutes left. But his pass into the end zone bounced off the hands of one Mustang player and into the arms of another, Blaine Smith. The 7-3 final held up.

When Penn State beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, SMU was the only undefeated team left in the country. But the lack of a quality non-conference schedule and the fact that undefeated did not mean perfect, with the tie against Arkansas, prevented a groundswell for the Mustangs. They finished #2 in the final poll.

As for Pitt, the biggest beneficiary of Marino’s disappointing senior year was the Miami Dolphins. Having gone to the Super Bowl in 1982, but still needing a quarterback, they watched as Marino plummeted to the 27th pick in the first round. It’s safe to say Marino put the disappointments of 1982 behind him.

The Road To The 1982 Sugar Bowl: Pitt & Georgia

, , , , , , ,

The 1982 Sugar Bowl didn’t settle a national championship, but it had almost everything else. It offered two of college football’s signature players, each of whom had a huge impact on the NFL. It produced a great game decided by a last-minute touchdown. And as far as the national title went, there was at least the possibility of impact when the game began.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 

That’s what Pitt and Georgia gave the country on January 1, 1982 in New Orleans. Here’s a look at the paths each team took through the 1981 college football season to get there.

Pitt was coming off a 1980 season where they finished #2 in the country, although the politics of the bowl games kept them out of a New Year’s Day game. The program was in the midst of real glory days, going back to its national championship run of 1976.

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. They would still go to the Sugar Bowl, but now it was to look for redemption rather than a championship.

Georgia 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 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 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 Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl would both be in prime-time on New Year’s Night. Clemson was bound for South Beach, and the scenario—at least for Georgia–was simple. Beat Pitt, hope for Clemson to lose to Nebraska and claim a repeat national title.

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.