1989 USC Football: Larry Smith Gets Off The Rose Bowl Schneid
After two straight years of reaching Pasadena, but losing, Trojan head coach Larry Smith needed to win a Rose Bowl. Read how 1989 USC football did just that
After two straight years of reaching Pasadena, but losing, Trojan head coach Larry Smith needed to win a Rose Bowl. Read how 1989 USC football did just that
Read about the 1989 Miami-Florida State game, where the Seminoles continued their red-hot play and temporarily derailed the Hurricanes run to a national title.
Read about the 1990 Colorado-Nebraska game that settled the Big Eight, from the backdrop to the game itself to the aftermath.
Jim Young was in his second year as the Purdue head coach, taking over a program that had fallen off the radar and producing very good teams from 1966-69, including a Rose Bowl entrant in ’66. The 1978 Purdue football team would have a breakout year and start a short run of success for the […]
Ohio State came into the 1978 college football season hoping to arrest a modest downturn. After four straight Rose Bowl appearances earlier in the decade, the Buckeyes had lost to archrival Michigan in both 1976 and 1977. The ’77 season ended with a Sugar Bowl humiliation at the hands of Alabama and Ohio State’s final […]
It was a year that produced Joe Paterno’s last major bowl, a prime-time battle in Columbus and a new era in Michigan. Read about 2008 Big Ten football.
Clemson football had been in a funk for about a decade. The great Frank Howard had built the program to greatness in the mid-20th century, but the end of his career in the 1960s was marked by a slow decline. Two successors tried to achieve a restoration, but more mediocrity followed. Then Charley Pell arrived […]
The pressure was on for head coach Gerry Faust in his fourth year. His first three years in South Bend had failed to produce a major bowl bid. 1982 and 1983 were marked by November collapses. The 1984 Notre Dame football team had 17 starters coming back and expectations were that they could save the […]
Even though 1982 had ended on a dour note, with three straight losses ruining hopes for a major bowl bid, the 1983 Notre Dame football team entered the season with high hopes. It was the third year for head coach Gerry Faust, the team had shown significant improvement in his second season and pollsters were […]
Ohio State had missed the New Year’s stage for three straight years after their meeting with USC following Earle Bruce’s electric first season of 1979. The Buckeye program restored a little momentum in 1983 when they reached the Fiesta Bowl and won it. The 1984 Ohio State football edition got back to the Rose Bowl. […]
Michigan was coming off a disappointing year in 1981, one where they were ranked #1 in preseason, but an early upset loss at Wisconsin foreshadowed a tough campaign. The 1982 Michigan football team would be a little more vintage and got to the Rose Bowl for the fifth time in seven years. READ GREAT 1980s […]
Iowa was a dead program when Hayden Fry took over in 1979. No Rose Bowl appearances since 1958 and not even a winning season since 1961. Fry didn’t break either streak his first two years, going 9-13. So when 1981 Iowa football opened the season by upsetting seventh-ranked Nebraska 10-7 it came out of nowhere. […]