In 1999, Virginia Tech had produced its greatest football season ever. A program that had been gaining steam for several years–a major bowl victory in 1995 and another appearance in a marquee bowl a year later—had gone to the next level when dynamic freshman quarterback Michael Vick arrived on campus. Vick got the Hokies to […]
It was 1995 when Northwestern shocked the college football world by winning an outright Big Ten title and going to the Rose Bowl for the first since 1948. Almost as improbably was the Wildcats following that up in 1996 with a share of the conference championship. But after two losing seasons, and the departure of […]
The Michigan football program was in a good place in 2000. They were just four years removed from having won the national championship in 1997. They were coming off a 1999 season that was capped by an Orange Bowl victory over Alabama and led by a quarterback named Tom Brady. With Brady now gone, the […]
Football in Nebraska was on a high in the early 1970s. The legendary head coach Bob Devaney had won back-to-back national titles in 1970 and 1971. In 1972, the Cornhuskers capped off another strong season by crushing Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. The 1973 Nebraska football season marked the beginning of a new era. […]
Oklahoma football was already an established powerhouse by 1973. The great Bud Wilkinson won consecutive national titles in 1955 and 1956. Chuck Fairbanks had just completed a successful six-year run, marked by consecutive #2 finishes nationally, in 1971 and 1972. The 1973 Oklahoma football season started a new chapter in the great tradition, one that […]
Bo Schembechler made an immediate splash upon his arrival in Ann Arbor in 1969—he upset #1 Ohio State and went to the Rose Bowl. In 1971, Bo returned to Pasadena. The 1973 Michigan football team again played Ohio State in a high-profile showdown with national title implications and a Rose Bowl bid at stake. The […]
Woody Hayes had been in Columbus for over two decades. He had national titles under his belt from 1954 and 1968. The 1973 Ohio State football team nearly gave him a third. Even coming up short, they still gave Woody his fourth Rose Bowl triumph. And along the way, they played one of the most […]
Joe Paterno came to Penn State in 1966. In 1968 and 1969, Paterno’s teams capped off undefeated seasons with major bowl victories. Both times, they came up short in the final national championship voting. The 1973 Penn State football season was more of the same—undefeated, but unrecognized. Although this time, they produced one of college […]
Bear Bryant had arrived in Tuscaloosa back in 1958. In his first eight seasons, he finished #1 in the AP poll three different times and had an unbeaten, but uncrowned team in 1966. He hadn’t been back on top since, but the 1973 Alabama football team came into the season with some momentum. They had […]
Ara Parseghian had come to Notre Dame in 1964 and immediately revived a program that had suffered through a miserable two-win campaign in 1963. Over Ara’s first seven seasons in South Bend, he finished in the national top 10 every year and won a national title in 1966. There was some slippage in 1971 and […]
Football at the University of Wisconsin had been irrelevant for nearly two decades. Since a 1962 run to the Rose Bowl and #2 national ranking, the Badgers had just three winning seasons over the next 19 years. One of those came in 1978 when Dave McClain went 5-4-2 in his first year, but that was […]
Jim Young produced a nice three-year run in his tenure at West Lafayette. The 1980 Purdue football team was the last in that cycle. Just like in 1978 and 1979, the ’80 Boilermakers finished in the Top 20 and won a bowl game. READ ABOUT THE LOU HOLTZ ERA AT NOTRE DAME And just like […]