Ohio State football was, even by its own high standards, on a good roll coming into the 2006 season. Over the previous four years, head coach Jim Tressel had won the national title in 2002 and added two more top-5 national finishes. The Buckeyes were primed for more in ’06 and for the entire regular […]
Michigan football came into the 2006 season looking for a bounce back year. They were coming off a 7-4 season that ended with a bowl loss. During an otherwise successful tenure for head coach Lloyd Carr, that was below standard. The ’06 Wolverine edition got right back into the national picture and stayed in the […]
Wisconsin football was at a threshold point entering the 2006 season. Barry Alvarez, the “godfather” of the program’s modern era, was stepping down after a 14-year run where he transformed the Badgers from Big Ten bottom-dwellers into a team that went to three Rose Bowls and became a consistent contender. Bret Bielema was the new […]
Penn State football came into 2006 looking to sustain a comeback. After going through four losing seasons in five years from 2000-04 and raising questions over whether the legendary Joe Paterno was finished, the Nittany Lions won a piece of the Big Ten title in 2005 and finished third in the nation. Was that comeback […]
The University of California football program has had a bit of a star-crossed history, at least since winning two national championships in the early 1920s and going to three straight Rose Bowls from 1948-50. The 1975 Cal football team was the last edition of the Golden Bears to even share a conference championship. AN EXPLOSIVE […]
John McKay came to USC in 1960. Over the next fifteen seasons, the great head coach took the Trojans to the Rose Bowl eight times and won five of those games. He won three outright national championships and also took home the UPI coaches poll in 1974. McKay churned out wins, talent, and titles. But […]
Dick Vermeil came to UCLA in 1974 to take over a football program that, while generally successful, labored in the backdrop of its powerhouse basketball program. And, more importantly, labored in the backdrop of crosstown rival USC, who consistently dominated the Pac-8 Conference, as it was then called. Vermeil’s 6-3-2 showing in ’74 more or […]
Woody Hayes had the Ohio State football program humming as they entered the 1975 season. Starting with the national championship run of 1968, the Buckeyes were on a seven-year run where they had gone to the Rose Bowl five times and finished in the national top 10 each year. They added to those strings this […]
Bo Schembecler’s first six seasons in Ann Arbor had been a clear success. Michigan went 58-7-1 over the regular seasons from 1969-74. But the Wolverine program is ultimately defined by what happens against Ohio State. That’s true in any era, and it was even more true in the 1970s when these two teams were clearly […]
In this new era of the 12-team playoff, it’s impossible for the unbeaten champion of a major conference to be denied the chance to play for a national title. Even in the 10-year era of the four-team playoff (2014-23), it would have been difficult to fathom. It gets even more difficult for a modern audience […]
Bob Devaney is a legend at the University of Nebraska, both as the head football coach and later as the athletic director. But for the first eight years of a coaching tenure that started in 1962, he was simply a good, but not legendary figure, making four major bowl games in that stretch. It was […]
Oklahoma was seeking their first national championship since 1956, when they were still under the direction of the great Bud Wilkinson. Chuck Fairbanks became the head coach in 1967, promptly won an Orange Bowl and finished #3 in the nation. But a 20-12-1 record over the next three years cooled the momentum. The 1971 Oklahoma […]