1984 Orange Bowl Redux: What If Osborne Had Played For the Tie?

selmaborntidefan

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My combing through - literally - thousands of newspapers to prepare my write-up for 1966 (it will be up before we the Louisville kickoff, but I can't say much more than that) and the fallout the infamous "Tie One for the Gipper" provided has pushed me to ask what I think is an obvious question:

What if Tom Osborne had kicked the PAT against Miami to tie the 1984 Orange Bowl?

What would have happened?

And I'm thoroughly convinced that Nebraska would have won the national championship regardless - and because of the circumstances, nobody really would care all that much now anyway.


Here's your poll prior to the bowl games:

1) Nebraska, 12-0 (51)
2) Texas, 11-0 (3)
3) Auburn, 10-1
4) Illinois, 10-1
5) Miami, 10-1
6) SMU, 10-1
7) Georgia, 9-1-1
8) Michigan, 9-2
9) BYU, 10-1
10) Iowa, 9-2

You eliminate the two-loss teams, so Iowa and Michigan are out anyway.
BYU didn't play anyone, either.

Alabama wipes out SMU in the Sun Bowl.

On New Year's Day - PRIOR to the Nebraska game:
Georgia shocks Texas, 10-9
UCLA ramrods Illinois, 45-9

Concurrent with the Orange Bowl, Auburn beats Michigan late in the Sugar Bowl, 9-7.

At this point, there are only THREE potential champions......and since Auburn lost to Texas and both have one loss, it's pretty hard to make the case for them anyway. That leaves us with Miami and Nebraska........and Miami's ENTIRE case for their national title that year is, "We beat Nebraska," aka "we beat the team the press spent all autumn hyping as the greatest ever football team."

Without the win, Miami has NO CASE AT ALL for a title. And seriously, how can you put them in ahead of Auburn without the win over Nebraska?

You can't. Since Nebraska had the advantage of knowing that Texas had already lost, they could have pulled an Ara Parseghian and walked away with a title. There were no unbeaten teams behind them like happened in 1966. I think it's good they played for the win, but I'm also convinced that Nebraska could have won with a tie anyway.

Trivia: Tom Osborne may have brought additional baggage to the game. He was an assistant on that 1966 Nebraska team that Alabama rolled in the bowl game. If Nebraska had not tripped up against Oklahoma that year (right after the tie), the Huskers would have had a legit claim of "the winner of our game should be national champions".

Just my two pennies worth. He would have been lambasted and years later it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Your thoughts?
 

saturdaysarebet

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I think with a tie Nebraska wins the national championship. Osborne could have stated there was precedent in doing it that way with Ara and Notre Dame in '66. However, I think Osborne gained a lot more respect for playing to win. Now is that worth a national championship?

When time has moved on decades from now, people may not remember the circumstances but they would have seen the national championship listed Nebraska '83 like they do for Notre Dame in 1966 and that's all they'll know or care about.
 

Isaiah 63:1

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Osborne’s mIstake was not going for two on the previous score. Had they converted that, the final touchdown and a one point conversion win the game outright. Had they failed on the first, they need a two pointer to tie after the second, and the polls would surely have rewarded them for the tie borne of aggression. If they’d failed on both, they’re no worse off than they were with what actually happened.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

BamaJama17

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I respect Osborne for going for the win. Miami was not yet “The U” and Nebraska was already being talked up is the best team of all time along with being an 11 point favorite. It probably would not have looked good that he couldn’t blow out let alone win against what was probably perceived to be an inferior team at the time.
 

CullmanTide

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If I recall correctly, announcers at the game said a tie and Nebraska is champion. They respected him for going for it though. Miami wasn't Miami until after that game, if that makes sense. I think if Auburn had scored a touchdown instead of only field goals against Michigan, they would have had a stronger case.
 

deliveryman35

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Nebraska would have been awarded the AP NC by its voters most likely. They were a very dominant team that year with Turner Gill, Irving Fryar, and Mike Rozier. That being said, had that happened, I think a legitimate case could have been made for Auburn to be awarded the AP title and it might have even possibly been a split title like 1978 and 1997–though I seriously doubt that the poll voters would have given it to them in the end.

I’ll say this—I have always respected Osborne after that night. Correctly, in my view, he reasoned at the moment that a true champion always plays to win.
 
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ccc2259

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I agree Nebraska wins the MNC with a tie. And you're right in that most people today would not remember the tie. But, it would forever be linked to Osborne like it is to Parseghian for those of Osborne's generation.

I would have preferred Nebraska wins the championship instead of Miami, but I respected Osborne a lot for going for the win. That's what real champions do.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Btw, I should make a point here that gets lost in the whole discussion.

When the two-point conversion failed, Miami still had 48 seconds left and 2 timeouts as well. Bernie Kosar had already set an Orange Bowl record of passing for 300 yards, and Miami had over 430 yards of total offense. Now granted....their kicker was 11 for 20 on the year and had just missed a 41-yarder that would have put the Huskers down by ten with 1:51 to play. But even if Nebraska makes the two, it's no GUARANTEE that they win the game. Nebraska had not stopped Miami all evening.


Amusing side note: John Brodie was the color analyst with Don Criqui, who just happened to be a Notre Dame grad. They were discussing what would happen and Brodie was trying to talk round about regarding the Notre Dame-Michigan State 1966 game. Criqui, of course, had to defend the home team with a lie, claiming that Michigan State had punted "afterwards." After what, Don? They punted and Notre Dame ran the ball every play but the last one.

I thought Osborne was right then, I still think he was right, and it's not "exactly" the same as the Ara Parseghian issue because unlike 1966 there were no other teams in the rankings with the same record as Nebraska had. Texas, Georgia, Auburn, BYU and Miami all already had losses BEFORE the game. Plus, Nebraska had won TWELVE games and nobody else had won more than 11.

Osborne would not have been locking out a Miami team with the same record had he played for the tie.


But if you don't think it matters, just go read Ara's obits, virtually of them mentioning the tie. What do you think will be said about Osborne when he dies? That he won 3 national titles and lost a fourth with the "courageous" decision to go for the win.
 

selmaborntidefan

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If I recall correctly, announcers at the game said a tie and Nebraska is champion. They respected him for going for it though. Miami wasn't Miami until after that game, if that makes sense. I think if Auburn had scored a touchdown instead of only field goals against Michigan, they would have had a stronger case.
Yeah, going into it that was the general thought. And I know what you mean. Actually, Miami didn't really become Miami until the day they ran up the score on Notre Dame in a game Ara Parseghian was calling from the booth (which to be blunt was hilarious).
 

CullmanTide

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Yeah, going into it that was the general thought. And I know what you mean. Actually, Miami didn't really become Miami until the day they ran up the score on Notre Dame in a game Ara Parseghian was calling from the booth (which to be blunt was hilarious).
That is funny. I always thought of Ara as a great coach in spite of '66 but couldn't stand him as a broadcaster.
 

TitleWave

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When I first read the title I wondered what angle you had on Osborne playing for the Tide...Hahaha.
Well, he is on his "No More Tours 2" tour, so how do you know Saban didn't book him to "play" a pregame concert for the team when 'Bama gets into the heavy metal stretch of the schedule?
 

78Alum

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It did cost him another National Championship, but the respect for him went up around the country. I would hope given the scenario we would go for it too.
 

selmaborntidefan

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Whatever respect Osborne got for that orange bowl he lost it all with Lawerence Phillips.
Nah, that won't be remembered but by a select few.

Because that can be viewed as an exception rather than his typical m.o. and because it didn't cost him his job (Paterno, Briles), it won't even be known by the generations after him and will be mostly forgotten by those who covered him (unless their name is Christine "Every Man A Rapist" Brennan).
 

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