John Mackovic was in his third year in Champaign. He inherited an Illinois program that, after early 1980s success that included a Rose Bowl trip in 1983, had suffered a couple of losing seasons and then went on NCAA probation. Mackovic got things turned immediately back upward, going to a bowl game in 1988. In […]
1990 Michigan State football entered the season on a good run for the program under George Perles. The Spartans won the Rose Bowl in 1987. They had good seasons in the two ensuing years and had made five bowls in the past seven seasons. A 1990 season that was crazy across the country, and especially […]
John Cooper came to Columbus in 1988 after Earle Bruce stumbled to a 6-4-1 finish in 1987. But at least Bruce had produced Rose Bowl teams in 1979 and 1984. Cooper’s first year with the Buckeyes produced a losing season. 1989 saw improvement and an eight-win regular season. But that wasn’t why Cooper was hired. […]
Badger football was in the toilet when Barry Alvarez arrived as head coach in 1990. Wisconsin had won nine games in the preceding four years. Alvarez’s first year wasn’t any better, a 1-10 disaster. But the Badgers had shown progress in 1991, getting to 5-6. The 1992 Wisconsin football team also finished 5-6, but did […]
The 1990 Texas football team was looking to get back onto the national radar. The proud program hadn’t won a national title since 1969. They hadn’t made a serious run at the top since 1983. The Longhorns fired Fred Akers following a sub-.500 season in 1986, but the first three years under new coach David […]
Don James had already enjoyed a successful coaching run at the University of Washington. He went to the Rose Bowl in 1977, 1980 and 1981, winning it twice. He won the Orange Bowl in 1984 and finished #2 in the country. But the latter part of the 1980s saw the Huskies slip a bit, with […]
The era of football excellence in Tallahassee began in earnest in 1987 when Bobby Bowden took Florida State to a #2 national finish. From 1987-89, the Seminoles did two things—they finished in the national top five and they won major bowl games. The downside was they always found themselves chasing archrival Miami, who won the […]
Bill Mallory came to Bloomington in 1984 and inherited a football program that was on hard times. Since their 1967 Rose Bowl trip, the Indiana Hoosiers only had three winning seasons. Mallory’s first year was an 0-11 train wreck, but the program quickly got better. By 1986 he started a run that saw the Hoosiers […]
To say the University of Virginia football program had a dry history prior to the arrival of head coach George Welsh in 1982 would understate the case. The Cavaliers joined the ACC in 1954 and had never won it. Only sporadically were they even a good team. It didn’t take Welsh long to turn things […]
The Colorado Buffaloes had a breakthrough season in 1989. They picked the Nebraska-Oklahoma lock on the old Big Eight. The Buffs had an undefeated regular season and played for a national championship before losing to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. The 1990 Colorado football team was back for more. And in spite of one […]
The Nebraska Cornhuskers cleared a big hurdle in 1988 when they finally defeated their archenemy, the Oklahoma Sooners after four straight years of losing, and won the championship of the old Big Eight Conference. When offseason turmoil hit Oklahoma, the Cornhuskers appeared ready for an era of dominance in this top-heavy league. But the 1989 […]
The 1980s were a dry stretch for the powerful Alabama football program. After closing the previous decade with national championships in 1978 and 1979, the Crimson Tide hadn’t reached a major bowl game since 1981. Bear Bryant retired the following year and Ray Perkins couldn’t keep the Tide in the national elite. Bill Curry got […]