A controversial split national championship, Cougar mania, ties-a-plenty, Buffalo magic, and the beginning of the rise of conference championship games: and with it, the Southeastern Conference. The 1990 college football season had it all.
Foreword
College football has had some ridiculous, head-scratching, jaw-dropping moments throughout its’ history. Consider, for example, the entire 2007 season, dubbed the “Year of the Upset”. Kansas and Missouri—both Big 12 schools at the time—played a rivalry game in late November with national championship implications. I say again, Kansas; Missouri; championship; football. That may not have even been top 5 on the crazy scale that season.
The season started out with a bang during the Big Ten Network debut as App State took down Michigan in the Big House. Big East conference mates Rutgers, UConn, and South Florida were all at one point ranked inside the top 15, with the Bulls ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. Speaking of No. 2, the team holding the second spot in the poll seemed almost destined to lose, with over half a dozen such instances occurring over the final two months of the season. Still, this season of upsets still ended with two of the sports’ blue bloods battling it out in the BCS title game: LSU and Ohio State. But we live for Saturdays in the Fall on campus, not the neutral site Monday night game in early January.
Pre-season Top 25
College football historians have detailed the craziness that ensued during that 2007 season, and it is well deserved. However, there are other seasons that deserve a deep dive. Take 1990, for instance. Imagine explaining to someone who started didn’t start watching college football until the mid-2010’s what the Miami Hurricanes were doing as the top ranked team in the country in the pre-season. Other AP ranked teams entering week 1 included Illinois at 11, BYU at 16, along with Houston and West Virginia rounding out the last two spots in the Top 25.
Cougars
Speaking of the Cougars, Houston would stay in the polls and rank as high as No. 3 in the country, even garnering several first-place votes in early November before suffering a loss to the Texas Longhorns. UH finished the year in the top 10 with a 10-1 record which was capped off by a win over Arizona State in…Tokyo? UH scored 62 against the Sun Devils in the Coca-Cola Classic that wasn’t really a bowl game. In this game, Cougars QB David Klingler would set an NCAA record with 716 yards passing. In only 11 games, the Houston signal caller accumulated over 5,000 yards through the air and tossed 54 touchdowns. Klingler would finish as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy, which would be won by another Cougar quarterback: a BYU Cougar.
A junior and second-year starter at BYU, Ty Detmer would throw for over 5,000 yards and 41 touchdowns. He would finish the season holding over 40 NCAA records and tied for several others. Led by Detmer and a high-powered offense, BYU started off the season with a bang, pulling off an upset of the Miami Hurricanes in Week 2. These Cougars would elevate up to No. 4 in the AP before falling in a road match-up to the Oregon Ducks at the end of September.
After their loss in Eugene, BYU would climb their way back into the top 4 before getting blown out in Hawaii by the Rainbows on the same day that Detmer was awarded the Heisman Trophy. Alongside Detmer and Klingler, other Heisman finalists included Notre Dame WR Rocket Ismail, Virginia QB Shawn Moore, and Colorado RB Eric Bieniemy.
Ties and Split Titles
In an era long before the BCS and the College Football Playoff, the polls alone decided the National Champion, and games ending in ties were not out of the ordinary. This season would see the votes for #1 split between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Colorado Buffaloes, each of whom would have games end in…you guessed it, ties. Tech tied with the North Carolina Tar Heels 13-13 in mid-October. The Buffs started their championship run in the Kickoff Classic with a tie against Tennessee.
Speaking of the Volunteers, they would end the season with two ties, with the latter coming in a Top 5 match-up in late September with the Auburn Tigers. Bowling Green couldn’t seem to figure out the Buckeye State, as they would also end the season tying twice, once with the Ohio Bobcats and the other with the Miami (OH) RedHawks. Other notable ties included Maryland and Louisiana Tech each scoring 34 in the Independence Bowl as well as a 27-27 affair between Ohio State and Indiana during Big Ten conference play. There would be a total of 15 games ending in ties in 1990.
Ramblin’ Wreck
Georgia Tech came into 1990 as a relatively quiet bunch, unranked and without many national expectations after the previous season ended with a mediocre 7-4 record. However, the Bobby Ross-led Yellow Jackets did end the 1989 season with a four-game winning streak, including a rivalry win against the Georgia Bulldogs. Midway through the 1990 season, after extending that win streak to nine with wins over a ranked conference opponent South Carolina and the Palmetto State’s other team, the Clemson Tigers, the Jackets finally started to earn a little respect from the national writers.
The Ramblin’ Wreck’s previously mentioned tie in Chapel Hill would be their only blemish during the season. The Jackets skyrocketed up the polls several weeks later after a late field goal helped them take down the No. 1 ranked team in the country, the Virginia Cavaliers. A week later, Tech-on-Tech crime was committed, as the point-allergic Jackets defeated the scoring-averse Hokies 6 to 3. This game did not see a single point scored until the 4th quarter, all of which were from field goals.
Fast forward several weeks to a December 1st rivalry game in Athens against Georgia, where the boys from Atlanta put up a forty burger on the Dawgs, ending their regular season without a loss. They would go on to score 45 more points as they throttled Tom Osborne’s Nebraska squad in the Citrus Bowl and await the pollster’s—and funny enough, Osborne’s—decision.
Buffs
The 1990 Colorado Buffaloes were the returning Big 8 Conference champs, having been unbeaten in the regular season in 1989. They suffered a 21-6 defeat to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl with the national title in sight.
The 1990 team started out ranked in the top 5 in the polls, but that was short-lived. After a 31-all tie against Tennessee in a neutral site kickoff classic, the Buffs fell to a ranked Illinois team on the road in Champaign several weeks later. Colorado was able to pick themselves up quickly, however, with consecutive wins over Texas and Washington, both of which were ranked opponents. Lady Luck struck in favor of the Buffs on the road against Missouri in their early October match-up. The infamous “Fifth Down” scoring touchdown by backup QB Charles Johnson gave CU the victory amid much confusion and controversy.
Jump forward to November 3rd, on the road in Lincoln against the big red machine that was Nebraska. Colorado was trailing 12-0 entering the 4th quarter, and the season was all but lost. The Buffaloes rattled off 27 unanswered to end the game. Running back Eric Bieniemy rattled off over 130 yards and 4 scores in the victory.
After handling their business for the remainder of the regular season, CU found themselves against a familiar opponent in bowl season with redemption on their minds. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish came into the Orange Bowl having already dropped two games in the regular season and looked to spoil the Buffs season for the second straight year.
The late game Buffalo magic continued, and off the heels of a Bieniemy TD, they took the lead in the third quarter 10-9. The Irish would have a long Rocket Ismail punt return touchdown called back for a questionable penalty with under a minute remaining, and the score would hold. Colorado ended their season 11-1-1.
Final Polls
In addition to the Colorado/Georgia Tech fiasco, the finished versions of the AP and Coaches Polls are something to marvel at, both for who they include and who they do not. Oklahoma, Florida, and Houston were on NCAA probation and thus ineligible for the Coaches Poll. This poll, also known as the UPI, included San Jose State at #20 and Syracuse at #21. Most notably, the UPI gave the edge to Georgia Tech over Colorado by a single point due to the vote of Nebraska Head Coach Tom Osborne. Osborne faced both teams that season, including a loss to the Yellow Jackets in the Citrus Bowl.
SEC
The Final AP poll saw more independents (5) than teams from the SEC (4). Speaking of the SEC, Alabama, Georgia, and LSU were not among these ranked teams. The conference looked very different back then than it does today. Nick Saban was in his first season as the coach of the Toledo Rockets, who went 9-2 and were co-champions of the MAC. Brian Kelly was in the early stages of building his dynasty at Grand Valley State. Kirby Smart was a teenager playing football back home in Bainbridge, Georgia.
Down in Gainesville, FL, Steve Spurrier was just beginning to make his mark on the conference. The Gator legend led the Gators to a 9-2 record in his first season as the head coach of his alma mater. Despite being ineligible for post season and/or conference championships, Florida held the best record in the SEC. Florida’s lone conference loss was in blowout fashion in Knoxville at the hands of a Johnny Majors’ coached Tennessee squad. The Gators also ended the regular season with a loss in Tallahassee to the rival Seminoles. Despite that, Spurrier had returned the Gators to national relevancy and would keep them there for the remainder of the decade.
Shortly before the season started, newly appointed conference commissioner Roy Kramer and the member schools’ presidents voted in the right of expansion. Arkansas and South Carolina accepted invitations to join the SEC beginning in 1991. This would take the conference to 12 teams, setting the table for a conference championship game and alter the course of major college football forever.
Conference Title Games
In 1992, the SEC hosted the first ever college football conference championship game, between Florida and Alabama at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. In 1996, the Big 12 followed suit, with Nebraska squaring off against Texas in St. Louis for the league’s inaugural title game. By 2011, every major conference implemented a championship game. Today these contests are commonplace, but in the early 1990’s, hosting a game to determine the winner of a conference was downright revolutionary.
It almost immediately backfired for the SEC, as the 1992 game featured an undefeated Crimson Tide team against an 8-3 Gators team on the heels of a trouncing against Florida State a week earlier. Florida nearly upset the Gene Stallings-led Tide until Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham picked off Gators quarterback Shane Matthews and took it to the house for a go-ahead score with three minutes remaining. Alabama would go on to beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl and claim their 12th national championship.
In 1996, the Big 12 championship game potentially kept a team from competing for a national title. Nebraska came into the contest against Texas at 10-1 and ranked No. 3 in the AP Poll. Since Florida State took down the top-ranked Gators in the final week of the season, Nebraska was certainly primed to move up to the No. 2 spot if they could take down the 7-4 Longhorns.
Texas would go on to win the game 37-27, putting up over 500 yards of total offense on the Cornhuskers. Nebraska slid down to No. 6 the following day, ending an opportunity to claim a third straight national title.
It would be interesting to know whether voters would have given the No. 2 spot to Arizona State had Nebraska defeated Texas, given the Sun Devils win against Nebraska earlier in the season in Tempe. In the second week of the season, linebacker Pat Tillman and quarterback Jake Plummer led the Arizona State to a 19-0 victory over the Cornhuskers, ending Nebraska’s 26-game winning streak. The voters gave the edge to Florida at 11-1 after the Gators took down Alabama in the SEC championship game, setting up a rematch with FSU in the Sugar Bowl.
Closing Thoughts on 1990
The 1990 season was a memorable and wacky season. The sport was truly regional, with no conferences having more than 10 members. Brett Favre led Southern Miss to a win over Alabama at Legion Field in the second week of the season.
Virginia spent three weeks at No. 1 in the country before being upset at home by Georgia Tech in early November, then proceeded to finish the season at 8-4.
Wyoming had a five-week run inside the top 25, reaching as high as No. 18. In fact, the Cowboys even managed to stay in the polls the week after suffering a loss to Colorado State, dropping to 9-1.
Legendary Miami Hurricanes head coach Howard Schnellenberger was in Louisville, KY, guiding the Cardinals to a 10-1-1 record which included a blowout victory over Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl.
The 1990 season set college football fans up for what would be the most decisive decade in the sport’s history. Big changes would be coming to our game, including overtimes, expanded conferences, and national championship games. If only 1990 could see us now.
Author’s Note
This blog is for the hardcore college football fans. There are no ads, there are no paywalls, and there is no agenda. This is a space for college football talk. Fans of every team are welcome. If you like what you’ve read, share with your friends. Future stories will include the service academies, Ivy League teams, triple option coaches, weather and all other types of shenanigans. Stay tuned for more content that will get you through the dreaded off-season.
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