Poll Controversies Revisited: 1992 - Put a Cork(y) In It: Wide Right, One Great Night

selmaborntidefan

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Alabama won the 1992 college football national championship. Everyone from the Yukon to Key West with a semblance of college football knowledge knows this so the immediate reaction is to the title is to say, "There was no controversy." There wasn't in the end, but the reality for those of us who actually lived through it is that there were TWO controversies, either of which could have changed the sport forever. And indeed had just one play turned out differently, Alabama's 1992 team would be remembered along with the 1966 team as an unbeaten group that never got a fair shake. The sport avoided a disaster by the narrowest of margins.



1991 ended like a bad date among two college students, unfulfilling and dissatisfied. Two teams over 3,000 miles apart hoisted national title trophies, and the sport had now had three straight controversial votes for champions that had given two split decisions the previous two years. The Bowl Coalition was a transitional phase but if anyone has ever paid attention to college football they know that the one scenario that would be a nightmare for the determining the champion is likely to happen immediately. In that sense, 1992 turned out to be a year more free of controversy than any year since 1987.



AP PRESEASON POLL

1) Miami

2) Washington

3) Notre Dame

4) Florida

5) Florida St

6) Michigan

7) Texas A/M
8) Penn St

9) Alabama

10) Syracuse



Miami was an overwhelming favorite with 40 (out of 60) first-place votes, Washington second with 12. The other eight votes were distributed among Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida State, Texas A/M, and a solitary first-place vote for Alabama. Nobody could have known that that solitary voter was shortly to become the most famous voter in the history of the Associated Press poll. It was apparent at the outset that if the top two teams once again ran the table, there would again be a split national champion. While everyone realized the high unlikelihood this could happen, it WAS the one scenario that the Bowl Coalition could not solve. The only true miracle is that this is not what happened.



There was another major change that had disastrous potential for the Southeastern Conference as well: the creation of a playoff game to determine the rightful conference champion and Sugar Bowl representative. The additions of Arkansas and South Carolina permitted SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer to divide the SEC into two divisions and have the winners meet to determine the conference champion. A fierce bidding war ensued for the right to host the inaugural SEC championship game. Birmingham, Alabama - the football capital of the south - won the bid and was set to host the game the first Saturday in December. The pre-season betting favorites (as even the polls show) were Florida in the East and Alabama in the West.



A new face opened the season in Stanford as former 49ers coach (and three-time Super Bowl champion) Bill Walsh took the reins of the Stanford job and squared off in the college football season opener against Texas A/M in the Disneyland Classic at Anaheim. A defensive struggle ensued, and the 7th ranked Aggies won, 10-7, to start a successful year. The East Rutherford Kickoff Classic attempted to match Miami and Washington from 1991, but the teams refused to play so the game was left to NC State and Iowa, the Wolfpack winning, 24-14. The season was underway.



Nothing major happened in the first three polls. Alabama coach Gene Stallings suspended his best offensive player (David Palmer) for the opener against Vandy, and the Tide won going away, 25-8, on six field goals by first-year kicker Michael Proctor. Palmer, scheduled to take the field the following week, got arrested for a DUI in the hours after the game, leading Stallings to suspend Palmer "indefinitely," which was loosely translated as "as long as we keep playing teams we should beat anyway."



The first crack in a top ten team's armor came on September 12, when Notre Dame and Michigan wound up in a 17-17 tie that lowered both teams' ranking, though both remained in the top ten. The following week saw Tennessee - led by fill-in coach Phil Fulmer - end Florida's dreams early with a 31-14 drubbing. Fulmer was filling in for Vols long-time coach (and former Heisman runner-up) Johnny Majors, who had undergone quintuple bypass surgery in August. The win dropped Steve Spurrier's charges out of the top ten while installing the Vols at number eight. And then came the first in a series of close calls that muddied the waters.



On September 26, Miami hosted Pac Ten mediocrity Arizona and escaped by the narrowest of margins. Miami scored an early safety to take a 2-0 lead. Arizona responded with a second quarter touchdown to take a 7-2 lead at halftime. Heisman winner Gino Torretta led a third-quarter drive that yielded a touchdown that gave the Canes an 8-7 lead. Arizona lined up for a game-winning field goal, but Steve McLaughlin's kick barely missed, and Miami escaped with an 8-7 win. They did not, however, escape the voting wrath of the polls: BOTH the AP AND coaches' poll flipped Washington and Miami, giving the Huskies most of the votes. Another near miss occurred in Birmingham, as Alabama barely outlasted Louisiana Tech, 13-0. Indeed, the Tide held a precariously close 6-0 lead in the fourth quarter when the recently suspended David Palmer entered the game and returned a punt 63 yards for the clinching touchdown in a thoroughly inept performance by the Tide offense (only 167 yards). The Tide dropped two places in the polls from 7th to 9th as punishment. And then came October.



On a Thursday night in Starkville, upstart Mississippi State power bombed Florida, 30-6, despite losing their quarterback Sleepy Robinson with a bad knee. Florida's Shane Mathews threw a whopping five interceptions, and the Gators's second loss dropped them to the bottom of the top 25. Notre Dame, still ranked 7th despite a tie, blew a 16-0 lead against Bill Walsh's Stanford team in South Bend and watched the Cardinal rout them, 33-16. Two shutout wins by the Tennessee Volunteers by a combined 60-0 impressed pollsters enough to move the Vols ahead of Alabama. But the most important play of the college season happened in the Miami-Florida State game.



Once again, Miami played Florida State in a game with national title implications. And once again - quite frankly, it seemed to always be this way - Miami won the game. Florida State's lone touchdown came on the opening kickoff when freshman sensation Tamarick Vanover went 94 yards. FSU seized momentum and led, 13-10, entering the fourth quarter. The Noles got a field goal to take a 16-10 lead, the same score by which they had led at the same point in the 1991 game of the year. Gino Torretta then beat a blitz with a 33-yard TD pass to Lamar Thomas that put the Canes up, 17-16. Florida State later surrendered two points on a safety when the punt returner wandered into the end zone and then desperately heaved a forward lateral. Trailing 19-16, Florida State drove to within field goal range. Unlike 1991, this kick would only accomplish a tie. Just like the previous year, however, the kick sailed Wide Right off the leg of Dan Mowery. The Noles lost, but they only dropped five places and were generally considered the better team although they lost.



Apparently looking forward to the Third Saturday in October, the Vols lost a stunning upset at home to upstart Arkansas, 25-24. The Hawgs had lost their opener to Division I-AA the Citadel, fired their head coach (replaced by Joe Kines), been blown out in their SEC opener by Alabama (38-11) and also been blown out by both Memphis and Georgia.....yet they somehow stunned the Volunteers in Knoxville. It was to be the most damaging loss to any coach's career in 1992 - the anti-Johnny Majors faction pinned the loss on him and the cries for his firing began to grow throughout the state. Miami survived a close call with Penn State, 17-14, and the polls now were in a dead heat at the top with the vote split almost 50/50 between Washington and Miami. Alabama added to Majors's misery the following week with a dazzling 17-10 win that knocked the Vols out of the SEC race and Majors out of a job, to be replaced at the end of the season by Phil Fulmer. The Tide win was not without incompetence, however, as Gene Stallings opted to go for a touchdown from the Vols 3-yard line while already leading, 17-3. When the attempt failed - and Stallings didn't get the all important three points - the Vols were in good hands with Heath Shuler, who got the ball trailing by seven with a minute left but threw an interception into the teeth of a stout defense that ended the Vol threat. And it was right about now that ESPN entered the fray.



After the Tide's first really impressive win of the season, ESPN broadcast the name of AP voter Corky Simpson, the lone voter for Alabama as the nation's top-ranked team. The other votes were split about evenly between Miami and Washington, but ESPN decided to hold Simpson up for public scorn. Simpson was quoted as saying that Alabama was the best team in the nation. ESPN's college football coverage on SportsCenter proceeded to note that while Alabama was undefeated, there were six other teams without a loss as well. Why broadcasting Simpson's name was important has never been explained - there have always been lone holdouts. But Simpson was now receiving ridicule and more mail than he ever dreamed possible. The coaches' poll was less impressed with Alabama, as Michigan (despite a tie with Notre Dame) was getting all the ink. An impressive Tide win over Ole Miss, 31-10, did not quiet critics, but an unimpressive Michigan win over Purdue saw the Wolverines drop behind Alabama as the season entered the home stretch. November would be full of more surprises than anyone could have imagined at the time.



The first bomb wiped out the Washington Huskies' effort to repeat as national champions. The day before the showdown with Arizona - the same Wildcats team that had given Miami all it could handle - Washington quarterback Billy Joe Hobert was suspended for the game after the school learned he had received $50,000 in loans from an Idaho businessman the previous spring. Hobert, who wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, proceeded to blab to the newspaper that he had spent the money on cars, guns, and stereo equipment. How this should have affected Washington is open to question - Hobert had been benched earlier in the year in favor of Mark Brunell, so it's not as though Hobert was a starting All-American. However, the implosion of team unity and togetherness may have taken too much of a hit to overcome.



Alabama, still disparaged by critics, lined up an blew out LSU, 31-11. With two minutes remaining in the already decided contest, the remaining Tide fans in Baton Rouge were given the story that Washington was trailing Arizona in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats would hold on to win and end the Huskies' 22-game winning streak, an event that all of a sudden had teams chasing for justifications for inclusion in the national title debate. Miami was home free as far as worrying about Washington anymore, but the real race was now for number two. Alabama got Corky Simpson's vote - but nobody else's - after beating LSU. And the Tide was about to get its own baptism by fire similar to what the Huskies had just endured. On Thursday, November 12, the news media got its own bombshell about Alabama - former RB/DB Gene Jelks, one of the heroes of the 1985 Iron Bowl, alleged that he was "bought and sold by the university" during his playing days at the Capstone. Jelks specifically claimed that an Alabama assistant (Jerry Pullen) had made payments to Jelks's mother. Similar to the Eric Ramsey tapes that were imploding the Auburn program, Jelks likewise claimed to have tapes with Pullen. Jelks also did something similar to Ramsey in that he waited just as the Tide was going into a hostile road environment in a must-win game to make his charge. In fact, Jelks would make more outlandish allegations just days before the Sugar Bowl.



Did it affect Alabama? Well, not for the first half. The Tide came out focused and attentive, ripping into leads of 14-0 and 20-3. The Tide seemed to have the game pretty much in the bag when the Bulldogs climbed off the mat and through a couple of turnovers and sensational catches found themselves leading Alabama, 21-20, at the end of the third quarter. The flip in momentum was nothing short of shocking. Alabama struggled through much of the fourth quarter, but they put enough together to clinch a win. They recaptured the lead on Proctor's field goal with 8:10 remaining and then iced the game with a touchdown and a George Teague interception in the closing moments. Where Washington had failed their test, Alabama had passed with flying colors. The same could not be said, however, of Michigan, who proved an old Southern adage about college football correct: "Y'all worry about the Rose Bowl, we worry about the national championship." Michigan blew up their national title chances in a home scrum with Illinois, Overruling quarterback Elvis Grbac - who wanted to go for a win on fourth and 15 - Michigan Coach Gary Moeller opted for a game-tying field goal with an after-the-game justification, "I didn't want to risk the Rose Bowl by throwing an interception." In a memorable debate on "ESPN College Gameday" after summarizing this game, Lee Corso (the former Indiana coach) took Moeller's side by noting that the goal of any Big Ten team is to get to the Rose Bowl and that Michigan had long odds on the national title anyway. Beano Cook, the legendary commentator, retorted that he could understand that choice if Michigan was Indiana and had never been to the big game but Michigan had been over a dozen times. Cook finished his argument by blasting Moeller and saying that thought processes like this are "why the Big Ten is a mediocre conference." While this cleared Michigan out of the way, it did not net Alabama a single AP vote other than Corky Simpson. But another comment by Lee Corso elicited the anger and wrath of Texas A/M. During all of this give and take, Corso ripped Texas A/M as not being very good and playing in a week conference, noting that he thought Florida State was the second best team in the nation and certainly better than A/M. When the AP voters jumped the Noles over the Aggies on Tuesday morning, a 7.1 Richter scale complaint was lodged by Aggie boosters and supporters. It would cost the Aggies dearly and strike fear in Crimson hearts as well.



But it was now Miami's time to feel the pressure.



Miami visited Syracuse in a game that promised to be little more than a laugher and was - for one half. Miami lead, 16-0, at the intermission. But the Orangemen (as they were then known) shifted strategies to emphasize trap running and pulled the game to a 16-10 margin early in the fourth quarter. Syracuse QB Marvin Graves was forced to use timeouts during the closing drive due to vomiting spells. The comeback attempt fell three yards short when Chris Gedney was tackled in the field with no time remaining at the three-yard line. Despite an unimpressive performance, Miami captured the sole vote in the coaches poll that Alabama had been getting and - yet again - every single AP vote save that of Corky Simpson. And it was right about now that the pundits (in those pre-Kanell, pre-Galloway days) began declaring that the REAL top two teams were Miami and Florida State, and that Alabama didn't have a prayer of beating either one. Because of the sudden drop of Texas A/M, Tide fans had to take Corso's bloviating somewhat seriously, particularly since Corky Simpson was becoming a household name. And it was right about that the third big explosion of November - the second involving Alabama - hit the press wires when Auburn Coach Pat Dye suddenly announced his resignation less than 24 hours before the Iron Bowl. The fallout from the Eric Ramsey saga had been way too much, and Dye had already suffered from hemochromatosis. Alabama would thus meet a fired up and ready to win one for the departing coach Auburn team early the next day on Thanksgiving Day. Between the suspensions of David Palmer, the Jelks allegations, the national ridicule, and the Dye resignation, it was almost as though the trip to the title was a trial by fire.



Blowing multiple opportunities, Alabama went in at the half still deadlocked in a 0-0 tie with Auburn. Auburn began a decent drive to start the second half when a lightning bolt named Antonio Langham sliced in front of a short Stan White pass and raced right past Dye and down the Auburn sidelines with a sensational pick six that gave the Tide all they would need to win the game. Everyone knew it - Alabama fans, Auburn fans, players, coaches. The game was over the moment that Langham crossed the goal line. Just to be sure, however, Alabama added ten more points playing boring and methodical football and winning the inaugural SEC West division title. Angry at what they perceived to be an undeserved snub, Texas A/M sandblasted Texas, 34-13. And the Florida State partisans watched as Bowden's razzle dazzle offense manhandled Steve Spurrier's Gator attack, 45-24. Three losses for the Gators, but they still had a shot at the SEC title, if they could only beat Alabama.



The week prior to the SEC title was a time of frustrating pundits for Alabama fans. The peanut gallery never ceased to express the dogmatic opinion that Florida State and Miami were the two best teams in the nation, and they should meet in a rematch to determine the national champion. Alabama was ridiculed as a champion who played in the run oriented SEC and had not really played anybody anyway. The Gator game would actually give rise to further arguments in favor of Florida State that fortunately went unheeded.



On a cold, overcast Saturday, Florida and Alabama squared off in the first-ever SEC title game, and it was a classic. After slicing the Tide defense on the first possession for a quick touchdown, the Gators fell into a 21-7 hole that appeared for all the world the game was being put away. In fact, it was only beginning. But two quick Florida scores tied the game at 21 with only eight minutes left. Sugar Bowl executives were attending the game and watching a potential disaster unfold. An Alabama win would give the Sugar Bowl a national championship showdown; a Florida win would not only change the showdown to the Fiesta Bowl between Miami and FSU, it would also obligate the Sugar Bowl to find an opponent for a three-loss conference champion. While the executives were sworn to impartiality, they saw a disaster about to unfold. And that's when Antonio Langham did an Iron Bowl encore, snagging a Shane Mathews toss and racing into the end zone and Tide lore forever. The Tide defense held on to win, 28-21, and despite carping from Seminoles fans (who tried to invoke the argument that they had beaten Florida by more points than Alabama had), the Bowl Coalition's first year was destined to be a rousing success no matter what. Well, unless your name was Texas A/M.



It is important to remember what set this entire scenario into play: had Dan Mowery's kick tied the Florida State-Miami game then there is no question based on the attitudes at the time that those two teams would have played in a national title rematch in the Fiesta Bowl. Alabama had a pedestrian offense, and a defense that ran up big numbers playing in a conference lacking good offenses. This was the narrative at the time. As "The Sporting News" would note after the game, Alabama was the perfect argument favoring a sort of limited playoff: had it been left up solely to the pundits on a tie, Alabama would have been left on the outside looking in with no chance. As it was, Texas A/M seemed to have that trouble.



One look at the Aggies' schedule shows why they were not taken seriously either then or later. Yes, they were the SWC champion. But their schedule - other than the opener with Stanford - was littered with teams that had losing records. Indeed, the only teams with winning records that A/M even faced were Stanford (10-3) and Baylor (7-5). The rest of the schedule was littered with 2-9 LSU, 2-8-1 TCU, a couple of .500 teams, and a bunch of five-win teams. The Aggies might not have even made a four-team playoff - depending, of course, on how much damage the three ties Michigan had hurt the Wolverines. They were also hurt by another problem: the Southwest Conference champion was 2-7 in the previous nine Cotton Bowls. Even a decent 10-1 A/M team in 1991 could not beat two-loss Florida State, scoring only two points. The Aggies entered New Year's Day with no chance at the title but were given the consolation of another Cotton Bowl trip against perennial power Notre Dame. The Aggies lost early in the day, mercifully ending any claims they might have made to the title. The game of the year was played that evening in New Orleans.



Four days before the Sugar Bowl, Gene Jelks made the news yet again with another set of allegations. This time, Jelks claimed that during his senior year at Alabama in 1989, a local grocer had co-signed for a $13,000 loan. This bombshell came just days after starting linebacker Michael Rogers was injured in a serious car accident. (In another amusing rumor at the time, Miami Coach Dennis Erickson was rumored by one Alabama newspaper to be replacing Pat Dye in the then open coaching position at Auburn). Few teams had the distractions of the 1992 Tide; few ever rose to the occasion as necessary, either.



The pregame was dominated, as always, by Miami and most notably by wide receiver Lamar Thomas. Referring to Miami's receiving corps as "the Ruthless Posse," Thomas took out both national title rings at a press conference and declared his third ring would be "icing on the cake." He ran down the Tide defense as being average, saying they were not good enough to play "man to man coverage." He further showed little knowledge of what a name Alabama was in history when he declared that Alabama was a program like many others who felt they could elevate their status if they could just keep the game close. Lee Corso and Craig James both gave Alabama no chance, although Corso said that Jay Barker would not be the reason Alabama got beat because the sophomore quarterback was good at protecting the ball. On perhaps the best night in Alabama football history - one of the few times the Tide was a significant underdog - thirteen years' worth of frustration and ridicule was washed away. It was a Crimson bloodbath of biblical proportions.



After holding Miami to a three and out, Alabama's David Palmer brought the Superdome crowd (that must have been 80% Alabama fans) into the game with a momentum swinging return. A quick field goal gave the Tide a lead that Miami responded with their own. A second Michael Proctor field goal, however, left Tide fans enraged when Derrick Lassic was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that was really too rigid in its application and probably due more to the officials' fear of Miami retaliating than anything else. A seeming touchdown left the Tide four points short, and a Dane Prewitt career long field goal sent the two teams in with Alabama leading, 13-6. And then came the worst seven minutes of Gino Torretta's football life. After holding Alabama to a punt, Miami prepared the comeback. Torretta's first pass was picked off by Tommy Johnson, putting the Tide in prime position for a score. The Tide scored on a run to make it 20-6 and bring the Alabama-centric crowd even more into the game. After the kickoff Torretta's next pass was snagged by Alabama DB George Teague, who cut in front of the receiver and dashed around the line and high-stepped down the sidelines for a sensational touchdown that put the Tide ahead, 27-6. There was still plenty of time for Miami to win, but the Canes needed to get going soon. After a short run, Gino Torretta let fly on his best pass of the evening. When speedster Lamar Thomas hauled it in, Crimson hearts from coast to coast realized that we now had a ballgame. Thomas was heading towards a quick momentum-shifting touchdown, and the Alabama offense owed its points mostly to Hurricane turnovers. Thomas made it all the way to the eight-yard line, but he didn't make it with the football. Spotting Thomas an eight-yard head start, George Teague raced the track star down from behind, ripped the ball from Thomas's grasp as he shoved the mouthy receiver to the turf, and turned back upfield to begin his return. The play happened so quickly that it seemed like a fantasy. Teague took off his helmet (a penalty in today's game but not in 1992) and raised his finger to the sky proclaiming "number one." The SWC officiating crew huddled to figure out what had happened and delivered the verdict: offsides Alabama. Had Teague simply tackled Thomas, this would have been irrelevant. But the strip meant that Miami had a choice of either taking the five-yard penalty or giving Alabama the ball around the 11-yard line. Indeed, it is possible that had the score still been 13-6, maybe Miami would have treated the play as a longer punt than they could have ever made. The 21-point deficit, however, meant the Canes needed the ball and points quickly. They never got them. Indeed, the Hurricanes' offense never made a legitimate threat the entire game. Miami's sole touchdown came early in the fourth quarter on a Kevin Williams punt return. Alabama, however, finished the job with a late touchdown and 36-plus minutes of possession time. In a year of trials and controversy, Alabama had prevailed but not without one final insult from the voting public. In the final poll of the year, Florida State was ranked ahead of Miami. Yes, despite the head-to-head loss against the Hurricanes - the same Hurricanes team that Alabama had just shellacked - the voters chose to ignore the game results and put Florida State at number two. The implication was clear: "Yeah, Alabama might have won the title, but if they'd had to play Florida State, they would have lost."



It was crystal clear that despite repeated humbling by the teams who actually won games, the pundits still lived by their own rules. "The Sports Reporters" got into deep conversation, with one of them (time has dimmed the memory of whom it was) at least ripping Florida State, by noting that every single year the Noles were said to be playing the best ball of the year and every single year they choked in the one game that actually mattered.



The Bowl Coalition had worked. As it turned out, the pundits would accomplish in 1993 what they failed to do in 1992 - rigging the outcome in favor of Florida State.
 

boatmax

Scout Team
Sep 10, 2004
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Wow, that brought back memories and filled in memory lapses. Alabama was always criticized as winning "ugly", but in the end, Corky Simpson was given his due respects.
 

DzynKingRTR

TideFans Legend
Dec 17, 2003
42,213
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I remember Corky Simpson saying no one else did their homework in regards to Alabama.

I did not remember Texas A&M actually being "good" that year. I do remember FSU and Bowden doing a lot of talking that year. That was when my hatred of FSU and Bowden started.
 

skrayper77

All-American
Sep 4, 2003
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Teague has an INT for a touchdown against the Heisman winner, and it isn't even his most memorable play of that GAME.

Crazy. :)
 

tusks_n_raider

Hall of Fame
May 13, 2009
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Fantastic recap Selma!! Lots of good memories in there.

That 1992 Miss. St game was CRAZY. It's kind of a forgotten classic. We jumped all over them with a big Lassic TD and Langham blocked a punt and recovered it for a TD and shucked and jived into the Endzone....lol

It looked like we were about to run them off the field. Then we had some turnovers ourselves with Barker INT's and fumbles. They scored a TD and 2-pt conversion and grabbed momentum fully with the crowd going nuts.

At 21-20 in the 4th things were looking BLEAK. Thankfully we had a few great catches from Prince Wimbley late after MSU had fumbled on a Punt return that netted us another Proctor FG....

Then Teague's INT around the 10-15 yard line helped us seal the deal with an Anderson TD.

I was 14 at the time but that game felt like it aged me into my 20's that night...LOL
 

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