From Great To Legend: A Look Back At The 1978 Alabama Crimson Tide

Author's note: This article wound up longer than my Master's thesis and took nearly as long to write. OK, I'm telling a half-truth, you guess which half.

I will take several posts to place it here. It is not just a look at the season but an ENTIRE YEAR, starting with the fallout from the 1977 title vote. This involved research of literally thousands of newspapers and watching the games I've had on DVD for years (I've been collecting old Tide games since 1998; sbott and I used to do a lot of swapping).

I hope it bores nobody but rekindles some good memories. Feel free to submit corrections as accuracy is what I'm all about. On occasion I no doubt was dozing or typed a wrong name. As usual I interspersed some humor in the article in hopes of keeping it light. I may get one for 2013 done before the season kicks off but if not, who cares?

RTR

The aftertaste of the 1977 college football national championship polls was bitter and persistent. For the fourth time in eleven years, Alabama watched helplessly as they realized their glory, their cache, and their consistent level of play was no match for the mythical status of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish. Alabama walked off the Superdome carpet a 35-6 dominant victor over a solid Ohio State team only to watch Notre Dame again sneak in at the last moment and take away the prize. Two head-to-head losses (1973 and 1974) and two votes were a constant reminder to Alabama that no matter what they achieved, they would be viewed through the prism of the Irish. After the 1966 heartbreak, Alabama entered a lean period (for them anyway) of four years. While nobody would argue that the poll loss to Notre Dame was the main cause - the necessity to integrate the team played a much larger role - there was little denying that Alabama had not handled their recent failures at the hands of Notre Dame particularly well. How would they respond to this yet latest heartbreak? That was the question in the opening days of 1978 for Alabama.

The voting was incredibly close in 1977, an eleven-point margin that at the time was the closest vote since (wait for it) 1966. An argument could be made that what REALLY cost Alabama the national title was not so much Notre Dame as the plethora of one-loss teams that divided the votes for the rankings of 2-7. No fewer than six teams had only one loss; had Alabama and Notre Dame been the only one-loss teams, the vote may well have gone another direction. (Two clueless morons, in fact, voted for Texas as the nation’s #1 team, presumably Longhorns that had suffered brain damage watching Joe Montana rout the Big Orange. Nebraska may have gotten 4.5 votes after losing to Miami in 1983, but it was a one-point loss and voters basically saying they thought the Miami win was the fluke it was). But the world continued turning. So upsetting was the outcome that the Alabama state legislature passed a resolution voting the Crimson Tide number one.

On April 13, 1978, Bryant was one of several coaches quoted in an AP interview that focused on the crusade of University of Indiana football coach Lee Corso (who would later go on to make a lucrative living putting stupid hats on his head) to rid college football of cheating, an action that brought the United States Congress (speaking of brain damage) into the fray. Suggestions of coaches being given lie detector tests were met with aplomb, but Bryant simply said that Congress needed to handle energy and let the NCAA and the coaches handle the sport. Bryant did advocate a rule requiring coaches notify the NCAA of suspected infractions immediately and getting it over with rather than waiting until you lost a game six months later to get angry and complain. A week later, nearly a dozen players with injuries were held out of the annual A-Day game that ended in a colorless 7-7 tie. His biggest concern was a knee injury to second-string QB Steadman Shealy. Bryant declared his 1978 team would have "a questionable offense, an average kicking game, and a good defense" in the post-A-Day game press conference. Two weeks later, Bryant was thrilled to see the player he called "the greatest tight end in Alabama Crimson Tide history," Ozzie Newsome, drafted in the first round by the Cleveland Browns. And then in June an old rumor popped up again. Former Alabama QB Steve Sloan took the Ole Miss job and a four-year contract, and the gossip began: Sloan had only taken a four-year contract with the Rebels because he was the heir apparent to Bryant at Alabama. Four years would have Bryant retiring after the 1981 season to be succeeded by Sloan. This rumor, in fact, had been around for years, going back to Sloan's first job as the head coach at Vandy in 1973. Sloan, however, was prescient enough to sound a warning to anyone who would listen: nobody wants to be the guy who follows Coach Bryant at Alabama. No matter how much he protested, however, rumors of Sloan succeeding Bryant percolated throughout the SEC for years and unquestionably contributed to his problems recruiting at Ole Miss: why go play for a head coach who isn't even going to be there?

On July 25, Alabama announced a new out of conference foe for the 1979 season, the Wichita State Shockers, a team that serve as a reminder of what could have happened to Marshall University. Six weeks before Marshall's infamous plane crash, half of Wichita State's team (they had two planes) was decimated in a plane crash near Loveland, Colorado, en route to face Utah State. The game was cancelled, and a memorial service held in Logan, Utah. Although the Shockers would pocket plenty of money for facing Alabama, they discontinued football in 1986 due to financial constraints. The same day brought a protest from the son of the late Amos Alonzo Stagg.

Amos Alonzo Stagg, Jr., son of the legendary coach who then held the all-time wins record among college football coaches, contacted NCAA head Walter Byers to demand a recount of Stagg's victories, claiming the old coach had actually won 21 more games than the NCAA credited him. Stagg Jr. even admitted that his motivation was anger over Bryant responding to a question that he would attempt to beat Stagg's record. Junior insisted that Bryant should "have to earn his place in history" by actually beating the “real” wins record. The problem stemmed from the fact that during the time Stagg Jr. cites, it was Stagg, Jr. - NOT Stagg Sr. - who was the head coach at Susquehanna. A week later, the NCAA cited the fact Stagg wasn't the head coach and ended with a pithy, "We consider this matter closed." The ultimate outcome of this episode may be the most bizarre twist of all: in 1993, years of research by the NCAA revealed that Stagg had never even held the actual record for most wins, crediting Glenn "Pop" Warner with six additional victories that moved his total to 319. Further investigation pushed Warner's total to 336, meaning that in the technical sense, neither Bryant nor Stagg ever actually held the NCAA wins record. Bryant had 274 wins as he prepared for the 1978 opener. Asked about the remarks, Bryant said simply that he had "highest regard" for Stagg and called him a "truly great coach." As of this writing, Bryant's 323 wins rank eighth all-time. That same week, Bryant accepted the MacArthur Bowl trophy from the National Football Foundation that had selected Alabama as national champions in 1977. And Bryant, who had had a busy month, then made news with an observation about his work habits.

The good was that after seeing reporters off the first tee at his annual golf charity, Bryant went back to plan for the Nebraska game with the astute observation, "Tom Osborne isn't playing golf today." He then stunned perhaps the entire nation (save the Tide fans who already knew or suspected) with the observation that, "Football has kind of passed me by, but I do know about winning." He then admitted that his assistant coaches were for the most part running the show and that "winning is not as important as it used to be for me." Yes, like Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno in later years, even Paul Bryant was something of a figurehead. (It might be noted he at least had the wisdom to not name a "head coach in waiting").

Before the season began, Tennessee Volunteers Coach Johnny Majors was asked his assessment of what lay ahead, and Majors said that he thought the two best teams heading into the season were Penn State and Alabama.

THE TEAM
Alabama's 1978 team returned 14 starters from a #2 overall ranked squad, an amazing feat considering Bryant was not a believer in naming starters. The offensive backfield returned a couple of All-American candidates in QB Jeff Rutledge and RB Tony Nathan. Fullback Steve Whitman was a solid blocker, and Major Ogilvie looked to have major potential. The receiving game was manned by a trio of small but capable pass catchers in Bruce Bolton, Keith Pugh, and the “he looks too small to play football” Lou Ikner. The offensive line was anchored by future Pro Football Hall of Famer Dwight Stephenson, generally considered Bryant’s second-best ever offensive lineman (behind the legendary John Hannah). Eight starters returned from a solid defense, including Wayne Hamilton and Barry Krauss. Future NFL pros E.J. Junior and Marty Lyons provided support and Don McNeal and Murray Legg anchored what was generally considered the weakest part of the defense, the secondary. The field goal kicking game began with competition while the punting game was ably manned by Woody Umphrey. And the backup QB Steadman Shealy was hardly considered a backup by anyone who had seen him run the wishbone.

One week prior to the season, the Associated Press released their first poll:

AP POLL
1) Alabama (31)
2) Arkansas (13)
3) Penn St (5)
4) Oklahoma (1)
5) Notre Dame (9)
6) Michigan
7) Ohio St
8) Texas (1)
9) USC (2)
10) Nebraska

Washington, also on the Tide schedule, began at 11 and LSU at 13. In other words, Alabama was scheduled to face 4 of the top 13 teams as viewed by the pre-season voting board of the AP. The UPI poll released later that week was.......well......different.

UPI POLL
1) Alabama (18)
2) Oklahoma (4)
3) Penn St
4) Notre Dame
5) Arkansas
6) Michigan
7) USC
8) Ohio St
9) Texas
10) Nebraska

For one particular Alabama player, the off-season was incredible motivation.

John Mauro, a sophomore defensive end, spent the summer in South Bend, Indiana, home of the 1977 national champions. Mauro wasn't a masochist, he was a resident of South Bend who had resisted the call of Notre Dame to play for Alabama. Mauro had taken a lot of ribbing from the hometown fans and got a daily reminder with all the "Notre Dame 1977 National Champions" banners back home. Mauro admitted to engaging in banter with South Bend folks and warned, "This is going to be our year." Alabama's other Indiana (Elkhart) product, Rich Wingo, reported similar experiences. Neither motivation nor talent was lacking as Alabama prepared to open Coach Bryant's 21st season as head coach.

THE SEASON

As unbelievable as this seems now, the run-up to the Nebraska game was marked with criticism of Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne, whose job was hardly regarded as secure, mostly because Osborne was committing the arch sin of not being Bob Devaney. Entering the 1978 season, “Dr Tom” had never beaten the Sooners as the Big Red head coach. Osborne and Bryant were both troubled by the fact that ABC arbitrarily moved the Alabama-Nebraska game, originally been scheduled for Friday, November, 24 1978, up to the earliest (then) date for a college football start in history, September 2. Prime time Saturday night games on ABC in 1978 were as rare as a politician with integrity, but ABC got what ABC wanted and ensured both teams had to start with a game that would immediately put the loser in a serious hole as both hoped to challenge for the national championship. The move seemed to ensure that Nebraska, rather than playing in the cool of late November in Birmingham, would be faced with the heat and humidity of a Southern Labor Day weekend. This turned out to be an overblown concern. Temperatures peaked in Birmingham at 83 degrees that day, 78 at the opening kickoff. On the other hand, it was 85 degrees in Lincoln at kickoff time. Nevertheless, the game was moved because ABC had paid both schools an additional half million dollars for the change. Alabama now had an opportunity to avenge the sole blemish on their 1977 record. Bryant, constantly being asked about being the pre-season #1 for only the second time in Alabama history, reminded anyone who would listen of the first time. "In 1966, we were number one in the pre-season and won all of our games and only finished third." Bryant also announced that David Hannah was to miss the opener with an injury.

Nebraska kicked off to start the game and Lou Ikner downed it in the end zone to start Alabama's first possession of the 1978 season at their own 20. A three and out that netted -2 yards followed by a punt gave Nebraska the ball at their own 46. Nebraska kicker Billy Todd popped a 48-yard field goal on the first drive, and Nebraska led, 3-0. Alabama put together a solid drive that ended with a missed Roger Chapman 35-yarder that kept the Huskers ahead. A defensive struggle marked the rest of the first quarter. Five minutes into the second quarter. and Alabama was facing a mountain. A successful Nebraska punt had Alabama pinned at their own one-foot line facing a tenacious defense. Two plays gained less than two yards, and Rutledge faced a third down and eight at his own two. A routine handoff to Billy Jackson turned out to be the play of the game when he tore through the line with an efficient individual effort that gave the Tide a new set of downs at their own 15. The crowd at the Old Grey Lady turned from concerned to involved, and Alabama rode the running of Tony Nathan and "throw only when necessary" passing of Rutledge right down the field and, facing third and four at the Nebraska five, tossed a perfectly placed touchdown pass to running back Major Ogilvie in a drive that took the heart right out of Nebraska. The drive went 99 yards in 16 plays and took seven minutes off the clock, ending in a touchdown. The second half saw Don McNeal's interception turned into points when the short drive ended with a Nathan touchdown from the two. With less than three minutes left, linebacker Rickey Gilliland recovered a fumble at Nebraska's own three, and Rutledge took it in for a final count of 20-3, Alabama. The Tide defense in particular was impressive, holding Nebraska's excellent running game to just 110 yards, and the overall offense to only 164. Bryant praised the defense but spared no criticism of the offense. Rutledge was only 5 for 13 for 54 yards and the TD toss to Ogilvie. The Tide gained 318 yards, but nearly 1/3 of that came on the one impressive drive. Kicker Chapman was only one of two on PATs and missed a field goal. Alan McElroy replaced Chapman for the final kick, and he would remain the first-string field goal kicker for the duration.

Bama followed this with an off week, and Nebraska only dropped from 10 to 12 in the polls. The Tide, however, was nowhere near as lucky as Penn State, who needed a Matt Bahr 23-yard field goal with ten seconds left to edge Temple, 10-7. In fairness, Temple was a seven-win team in 1978, but Penn State was equally lucky: the second poll of 1978 would not be released until September 11, so the Nittany Lions had another opportunity to excel. They beat Rutgers and suffered no fallout from the narrow win over Temple.

And then Alabama got a break.

The defending national champions, a Notre Dame team Dan Devine had already talked about saying people were going to have a difficult time beating in 1978, watched the Missouri Tigers (where Devine had coached and been AD) walk into South Bend and not only beat his Irish but shut them out in a shocking 3-0 upset of Joe Montana's charges, who were 17-point favorites. Missouri's only score came 13 minutes from the end, but the one field goal was enough. It was sweet vindication for Mizzou DB Russ Calabrese, who mouthed off before the game that Notre Dame was "just another team," then doubled down with the declaration that he hated Notre Dame, the entire state of Indiana, and all Irish people. (This came right after a visit to Mizzou from President Carter, whom Calabrese dismissed as "nothing but a peanut farmer"). Some things never change, folks, they're just easier to access on social media. As soon as Missouri won, their fans began to chant "Bama! Bama! Bama!" in anticipation of the next game. (This was apparently the 1978 version of "We Want Bama").

This set Alabama up perfectly. They were headed to face Missouri, who was coming off the big win. The big win ensured Alabama's players would not take Mizzou lightly while the Tigers would be more likely to suffer a post-euphoric letdown. Best of all, Missouri had been playing a tough road game while Alabama was resting. Indeed, Coach Bryant could not have written a better script to keep his team focused.

And speaking of focus, the spotlight shown on one of Bryant's best-known former players during the Tide's off week. Ken Stabler, busy compiling a Hall of Fame career with the Raiders, won the game against the Chargers with perhaps the most improbable finish in NFL history. Trailing 20-14 with ten seconds to go and the ball at the Charger 14-yard line on second down, Stabler took the snap and dropped back to his own 23. Just as he was about to be tackled for a game-ending sack, Stabler tossed the ball to the ground with an intentional fumble. Running back Pete Banaszak then fumbled it further forward, and Dave Casper bumbled it into the end zone, where he then fell on it for an utterly amazing touchdown that tied the game at 20. When Errol Man made the point after kick, Oakland got away with one forever known as "The Holy Roller." It was also one of those rare instances where the NFL got involved to change the rules to prevent future occurrences. This was the play that inspired the rule that in the final two minutes of a half, anyone on the offense may recover the fumble, but only the one who fumbled it may advance it. If an offensive player who did not fumble it recovers it, the ball is returned to the spot of the fumble. This, of course, was little consolation to the Chargers that day. A win, in fact, would have tied the Chargers with the 10-6 Oilers, who made the playoffs in that first year of the second wildcard.

The Mizzou win over Notre Dame was the latest in a long line of Missouri upsets that dotted the 1970s. These were not the early 60's era Missouri (who held the number one spot for one week in 1960), and they were often unappreciated, but Missouri had been ranked at least once every single year from 1968-1977 despite minimal success. Yet that success was quite uneven. This was a team that had beaten #8 Notre Dame in South Bend in 1972, stunned Ole Miss with a 17-0 shutout and then upset Nebraska in 1973, shutout high-scoring Arizona St, 9-0, and then shocked Nebraska again in 1974, thumped #2 Alabama, 20-7, in 1975, and stunned everyone with road upsets of both USC and Ohio St in 1976. The seniors of 1978 had been freshmen in 1975 when Tony Galbreath ran over, around, and through an excellent Tide defense and mortally wounded one of the national title contenders in the opener. Bryant played the pre-game hype well, too, repeatedly referring to how Alabama was supposed to win the 1975 championship and lost to Missouri. The win over the Irish had bolstered the Tigers to a number 11 ranking. A win over Alabama might well justify putting Mizzou at number one. And the game was in Columbia.

Alabama kicked off to start the game, and Mizzou took the touchback to start at their own 20. On the first play from scrimmage, QB Phil Bradley barely evaded the rush and tossed a 17-yard gainer to tight end Kellen Winslow. No further damage ensued, and Missouri punted. Alabama drove right down the field, and Major Ogilvie scored on a 23-yard pitchout from Rutledge that put the Tide ahead, 7-0. Rutledge hit Neal with a 6-yard TD pass that made it 14-0, Alabama, at the end of one. Bryant replaced Rutledge with Steadman Shealy following a Murray Legg interception, and Shealy got Alabama close enough for a 26-yard Alan McElroy field goal that made it 17-0, Alabama. The game appeared to be over. As it turned out, it had only begun.

Reeling 17-0 and needing to change things, Missouri replaced starting RB Earl Gantt with backup James Wilder. A short toss by Bradley on a critical third down kept the subsequent drive going, and a deep pass to Downer got them well into Tide territory. Mixing runs to Wilder and passes to his receivers (53 yards in 4 successful tosses), a rested Gantt ran it in from the four to cut the Tide lead to 17-7. On the ensuing Alabama drive, Rutledge was sacked for a loss forcing a Tide punt. Lining up in a wishbone formation, Bradley gave Alabama a dose of its own medicine by taking the snap, spinning in a 270 degree motion with his backs, and keeping the ball. When he cleared the line of scrimmage and the Bama pursuit, Bradley was gone with a devastating 69-yard dash that brought both the Tigers and the 73,000-plus home fans back into the game. Missouri missed the PAT, but at least they were close. On a second and 12 from his own 17, Rutledge dropped back on a play action pass intercepted by Russ Calabrese, the "Mouth of Missouri", who beat the receiver on the curl route, intercepted the ball, and raced 30 yards for a stunning Pick Six that put Missouri in the lead for the first time, 20-17. It was the most points Alabama had surrendered in a quarter since the 1969 Iron Bowl. Rutledge then fumbled deep in his own territory and was very fortunate to recover it. Missouri was rocking while Alabama was reeling. Rutledge went deep from midfield just before halftime but Eric Wright picked it off, Rutledge's second interception in the quarter. Missouri ran out the clock, and the Tide stumbled into the half holding the score to just a three-point deficit, but Coach Bryant was livid. So livid, in fact, that in his post-game press conference, Bryant snapped at a reporter who asked him what he'd said that motivated the team with the retort, "It's none of your business what I told them." He then offered one of his rare criticisms of the team in public, saying that the team had done more talking than playing in the first half, and he had straightened that out.

The Bryant teams of the 1970s, like their modern counterparts, had a common trademark: a not great team would hang around and begin believing they could actually beat Alabama only to make a critical mistake that flipped the game out of reach. Missouri's came early in the third quarter and with it any chance to upset Alabama. After an outstanding stop of Nathan on third and short forced a punt, Missouri began a potential back-breaking drive. They drove just inside Alabama territory but failed on their own third and short. With the potential to put Alabama deep inside their own territory, Missouri lined up for a punt. Punter Monte Montgomery fielded the high snap, but the errant hike was just enough for Ricky Gilliland to block the punt, recover it on the bounce, and run the last 35 yards for a touchdown that put Alabama back in front, 24-20. The game wasn't over, but it may as well have been. Alabama owned the game the rest of the way, Nathan scoring on a short run and Lou Ikner hauling in a 23-yard Rutledge TD pass to make the final score 38-20, Alabama. Both wins had exposed some problems for Alabama, and now USC made the return trip with similar thoughts of revenge as Alabama had had for Nebraska. In the other important story, Penn State knocked off Ohio State (note to younger readers: Penn St was not in the Big 10 in 1978), and nobody watching the game forty years ago would have believed Joe Paterno could ever have be more despised than Woody Hayes.

In 1977, USC had been ranked #1 in the country only to see Alabama come to town and walk away a 21-20 winner. In one of those ironies only college football could produce, former Notre Dame coach Ara Parseghian called the game along with not yet a legend Keith Jackson. When USC scored to narrow the gap to one, Parseghian mused aloud, "Now, what are you gonna do for a two-pointer?" Why Parseghian was assuming USC had to go for two while ranked number one is the textbook definition of irony. This time the roles were reversed: Alabama was #1 and USC #7 - literally the opposite of 1977. Alabama was also riding a 12-game winning streak in contrast with 1977 USC's 15-game winning streak before they lost. Alabama entered the contest as an 11-point favorite.

Bryant was concerned, and he said that could never remember his team absolutely collapsing as they had done in the second quarter against Missouri. USC had survived a scare, trailing Texas Tech in the second half before winning. USC Coach John Robinson declared that Alabama's defense was the best he'd seen since the 1972 USC Trojans, a team that not so coincidentally won the national title. To make matters worse for Alabama, who should be calling the game but Satan’s twin brother, Ara.

Alabama won the toss and elected to receive. Nathan took the kickoff in the end zone and opted to bring it out. He cut through the USC coverage leaving just himself and the punter, the last man with a chance to tackle him. He did, but Alabama started at their own 42 with momentum. The first play was a reverse from Rutledge to Bruce Bolton, who was tackled for a three-yard loss. The second play was a basic handoff to fullback Steve Whitman, who fumbled the ball, the Tide fortunate enough to recover it and set up third and long. Momentum from the opening kickoff was apparently gone. Rutledge then passed to Nathan, who snuck out of the backfield and was wide open in the center of the field for a first down at the USC 48. Nathan carried for a short gain and Whitman did the same, setting up a third and three. Alabama then committed a delay of game penalty that backed them up, and Rutledge threw another short toss to Nathan that fell short of a first down at the 41. The penalty had cost Alabama continued possession, so Woody Umphrey punted - and promptly shanked it for a 16-yard punt that put USC at their own 25. USC QB Paul McDonald went midway downfield for the first play, an incompletion. Charles White's first carry gained seven yards to set up a third and short, and White's next carry was just enough for a first down at the 36. For Alabama, it was a sickening prelude to the rest of the afternoon. USC continued with White, who picked up one yard. After a missed toss, QB Paul McDonald tossed 15 yards across the middle to Calvin Sweeney for a first down at the Tide 48. White then gashed Alabama for a 17-yard dash that put the Trojans at the 31. Wayne Hamilton, whose performance in 1977 won him defensive player of the game honors, came out with a hyperextended elbow. Hamilton was gone for the game, and it's likely no accident that USC’s success coincided with Hamilton's departure. McDonald went back to the air, hitting Sweeney on a crossing route that put the Trojans at the 17. Dwight Ford rushed up the middle for six yards on first down, followed by White for nine yards that put USC at the Tide two with a first and goal. On the next play, White never got the handoff from McDonald, and USC fumbled, Alabama's Murray Legg recovering the ball and saving the day for the moment. White would have a similar experience with a different outcome in the 1979 Rose Bowl.

Driving out of the shadow of their own goal line, the Tide went three and out. Umphrey punted it to the Tide 40, where USC took over. And Charles White immediately made the Tide pay, dashing 40 yards on first down to an incredible touchdown that saw him cut back against the grain and only get touched by one potential tackler. Just like that USC was ahead, 7-0. After a quick first down, Alabama was again held without entering USC territory. Umphrey's third poor punt had USC at their own 34-yard line. After a first down, Alabama held the Trojans just short of the first down. A punt into the end zone put the Tide back at their own 20 for their fourth possession. In an effort to get their attention, Bryant sent out the second-string offensive line as well as backup Steadman Shealy in place of Rutledge. And Alabama came to life with a first play option pitch to Ikner that went for 38 yards. Immediately, Eddie McCombs was flagged for a false start. Two short rushes left Alabama in third and nine as the team switched sides to start the second quarter. Shealy then uncorked a 22-yard pass to Bolton that put Alabama in the USC red zone at the 19. Billy Jackson picked up nine on first down. A short carry gave the Tide a new set of downs at the nine. Shealy kept it himself on first for no gain. Jackson then carried it up the middle inside the one-yard line to set up third and goal. Ogilvie's attempt to score from the one was snuffed, and he had to leave when his tear away jersey was torn away. It was fourth and goal from the one, and Alabama decided to go for it. They went with their best, but Nathan was stopped short of a touchdown, and the 11-play drive went up in smoke, USC taking over at their own one. They held the Trojans and forced a punt, but a clipping call on the fourth down punt - before the punt - gave USC a first down that eventually became a 10-0 lead on Frank Jordan's 40-yard field goal. Rutledge later threw an interception, but USC couldn't cash in and it remained a ten-point deficit as the teams went in for the half.

USC had dominated Alabama, 258-135 in yards, won the turnover battle 2-1, and were ahead on the scoreboard, 10-0. Worse, the running game had gashed the Tide defense for 200 of those yards. USC took the second half kickoff in the end zone and began at their own 20. It was more Charles White, a three-yard carry on first down, a short toss to TE James Hunter to the 32 for a first down. The Tide then finally corralled White for his first loss of the game, and in desperation, White tossed the ball back to McDonald, who was tackled for the loss. (The Tide also got away with a face mask on the tackle of McDonald). Lynn Cain carried the ball out to the 32 to set up third and ten. USC went back with White, who made a second effort to break the tackle and had the ball jarred loose by Ricky Tucker, Alabama recovering at the USC 41. On the first play, Major Ogilvie dashed 41 yards to the end zone and just like that, Alabama and the crowd were back in the game trailing just 10-7. USC did not respond particularly well and wound up punting, Alabama taking over at their own 36. The rest of the third quarter was dominant defense, nobody scoring and little movement. USC then seized the momentum and lead when McDonald completed a drive with a six-yard toss to Kevin Williams with 11:15 left and then unloaded a bomb that Don McNeal tipped but Williams held onto for a 40-yard game-breaking touchdown that put USC out front by a comfortable 24-7. Rutledge battled gamely, hitting Bart Krout for a 41-yard TD with a little over seven minutes left. After holding USC to a three and out that ended with a sack of McDonald by Jim Bob Harris, USC had to punt with about 5:33 left and facing a fourth and 33. Nathan's return put the Tide at his own 43. A flea flicker, Rutledge to Nathan to Rutledge, gave Alabama seven yards on a pass to Ogilvie. Rutledge was sacked at midfield to set up third and four. With the defense in hard pursuit, Rutledge hit Keith Pugh for a 22-yard gain that kept the drive going at the USC 32. Rutledge then hit Pugh at the Trojan 18-yard line right in the middle of the field. Rutledge then called his first timeout with 3:35 left. Rutledge pitched to Nathan, who made it to the corner and then fumbled on contact, USC recovering at their own 15. It appeared for the all the world that Nathan was moving right on a halfback option, chose to run, but never tucked the ball away. Nathan was in shock on the sidelines.

The Tide D, though, refused to give up. They held USC to a three and out and even denied White his effort at a 200-yard rushing performance, Marty Lyons making the tackle to force the punt. In a desperate effort to be Superman, Tony Nathan took the punt at his own 20 and just as he was about to be tackled following a huge gain, fumbled again. USC recovered, and the only thing left was to eat up the 1:25 remaining. Nathan's response moved from shocked to tears. Alabama DID block a USC punt late, and the Tide's failure to score a TD in that instance had the effect of making the final score less respectable. USC had walked into Legion Field and robbed Alabama of everything. Even Bryant would admit, "They made us look worse than we are." He also committed the political faux pas of saying USC was the best team in the country, words that would be used against him in the coming months.

The only good news for Alabama was that Michigan had upended Notre Dame, the Irish now with a two-game losing streak since being voted champions in January. Penn St struggled but eventually pulled away to beat SMU.

The new number one was Oklahoma, followed by Arkansas, USC, Michigan, Penn St, and Texas. Alabama fell to number seven, USC's previous spot. Alabama had to get ready for Vanderbilt, although the Commodores had only beaten Bryant once, in 1969. This among other factors led to fear Alabama might look past Vandy to their following game in Seattle against the Washington Huskies. Grambling coach Eddie Robinson suggested that very week that he would only coach up to five more years at most and then retire. Robinson, of course, would go on to become the winningest coach in NCAA history (a record now held by Joe Paterno).

The Vandy game was held at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, a home field advantage so pronounced that the Tide had not lost there since a 1963 loss to Florida, a streak that now reached 42 games. But there was apparently some hangover from the USC loss, a looking ahead to Washington, or perhaps a little bit of both. Alabama scored on a four-yard run by Rutledge to take a 7-0 first quarter lead, but Vandy came right back with a 79-yard TD gallop by junior Frank Mordica to tie it. In the second quarter, a McElroy field goal and short six-yard run by Shealy along with a missed PAT put Alabama ahead, 16-7. Van Heflin's 37-yard TD strike to Martin Cox took the Commodores in down only 2 at the half. A 39-yard strike to Charles Edwards put Vandy in front, 21-16, midway through the third quarter. That's when Alabama finally got serious about playing football. First, Nathan went 63 yards to a touchdown and helped the Tide recapture a lost point with a successful two-point conversion. Rutledge then hit Rick Neal with a 41-yard TD pass, only to see another botched PAT. Rutledge from 3, Jackson from 28, and Ikner from 61, and the blowout was well in hand. The Tide surrendered a cosmetic TD in the fourth yet turned a 21-16 midway through the third deficit into a 51-28 wipeout of the Commodores. And Alabama got ready for what turned out to be one of their longest trips ever, heading up to Seattle to face Don James's Huskies. The Huskies had begun the year at number 11 but were unranked in October, thanks to an opening loss to UCLA and then a stunning upset to Indiana. Washington was also smarting from a beating Alabama had delivered them in 1975.

Alabama took the opening kickoff (surprise!) in their own end zone and began at their own 20. Nathan carried for six on first down. Whitman gained two on his first carry and four on the next carry for a first down. Nathan for four, Rutledge for five, and Nathan for three at their own 44. A false start followed by four to Nathan on first, and then Rutledge went for his first pass. Forced to scramble, he hit Whitman for a two-yard gain setting up third and nine. Whitman got eight, setting up fourth and one at midfield. Rather than play field position, Bryant daringly went for it on fourth and one, Whitman getting two for a new set of downs at the Washington 45. Whitman got three more on first down, followed by Ogilvie for 7 - behind Whitman's block - and a first down. After Nathan was tackled for a one-yard loss making it 2nd and 11, Rutledge ran a reverse to Bolton who was buried for an eight-yard loss. On 3rd and 19, Rutledge hit Rick Neal in the worst possible place for a receiver - his hands - and the drive was over. Umphrey's punt was fair caught, so Washington began at their own ten. Ron Gipson got the first carry of the game, a four-yard pickup, and Huskies' leading rusher Joe Steele got seven, good enough for a first down at the 21. Steele's next carry netted five, but Washington went to him for a third straight carry, and Murray Legg got him for a one-yard loss setting up third and six at their own 25. QB Tom Porras hit Scott Greenwood for a 16-yard gain and a first down. Washington kept riding Steele, but he then fumbled at the 47, Gilliland recovering for Alabama. Rutledge went to the air with a pass to Ogilvie in the flat, but the normally reliable back bobbled the ball, and when he focused to catch it, he was tackled by Greg Grimes for a three-yard loss. Billy Jackson then gained six to set up third and seven. Rutledge went for Keith Pugh, but Washington batted the ball away, forcing a second Tide punt. Umphrey's kick went into the end zone, so the Huskies got the ball at their own 20. Steele got six on the first play, and then Porras went deep down the middle to Spider Gaines, who beat two defensive backs at the Tide 30 and raced untouched the rest of the way for a textbook touchdown bomb that gave Washington a 7-0 lead.

Kicking into the end zone, Tony Nathan took it out and raced 47 yards to put Alabama at midfield to start the next drive. Bryant spelled Rutledge with Shealy, whose first snap was a handoff to Jackson that netted nine yards. An illegal motion penalty before the next snap sent Alabama back five yards, and Jackson got four, setting up third and one. Jackson got six, and the drive was still alive. The teams switched sides, so it was Nathan for six, Jackson for four, Shealy for three, and an offsides penalty. Shealy got 11, and the Tide was at the Washington 17. Ogilvie carried for four yards to the 13, and Major carried it the rest of the way on the next snap, a 13-yard TD out of the wishbone that tied the game at seven at 12:16 left in the half. After a clipping penalty on the ensuing kickoff, Washington began at their own 15. Two rushes netted a lost yard and on 3rd and Kirby, Porras hit his wideout for 11 yards and a new set of downs. Washington began a predictable pattern of running on first and second down, passing on third, and they wound up punting on fourth to Nathan at the Tide 28. Two carries to Ikner netted seven yards, and Shealy on a keeper got the first. Whitman then fumbled again at midfield, and Washington recovered. After a pair of first downs, Washington settled for a field goal that made it 10-7 Huskies, and shortly thereafter the teams went in for the half. It was the third time in four games Alabama was trailing at halftime.

Washington returned the 2nd half kickoff to their own 27, Major Ogilvie making the tackle. Bama held them to a three and out only to be flagged for unnecessary roughness, giving Washington a new set of downs. Washington converted a third and three to march into Tide territory. Washington gained only three more yards, and the punt went into the end zone. Rutledge returned behind center. Nathan got seven only to see five lost on an illegal motion penalty. A short gain and an incompletion, and the Huskies had the ball back at their own 31. Porras ran for his life on third down, taking the tackle for no loss. And then - as always - came the break that determined the game. Washington attempted to punt from their own 27. When the Husky punter realized that McNeal had a free shot at him and was going to block the punt, he tucked it and attempted to run, but he was tackled by E.J. Junior at the Husky 16, setting Alabama up to seize momentum. Nathan got four on first down, Jackson got five on second. On third and one, Ogilvie darted through the line for first and goal from the one. Nathan went over on the next play and after yet another botched PAT, the Tide led, 13-10. Washington gained one first down but then punted. Alabama took it at their own 19. Shealy rode Whitman and Joe Jones to midfield, and the teams switched sides for the fourth quarter. Rutledge came in for Shealy for the first play of the fourth quarter, but the Tide wound up having to punt. Umphrey punted 54 yards into the end zone, enabling a Washington touchback. Two plays netted nothing, so naturally the Huskies gained 16 on third and ten to keep the drive going. Alabama then stopped the Huskies to force a punt, but Nathan's fair catch attempt was impeded by both a Husky and a Crimson blocker colliding, forcing a fumble that Washington recovered to set themselves up in great field position at the Tide 30. The Tide forced a field goal that was pulled wide left, and Alabama escaped with the lead. Ogilvie ran 22 yards on first down to put the Tide at their own 48. Rutledge picked up eight yards to the Washington 44, followed by a Nathan rush to the 36. On first and ten, Rutledge went for the game winner, dropping back to throw deep down the middle to a wide open Rick Neal, who caught it at the two and waltzed in for the game winning touchdown, Alabama now ahead, 20-10 with 8:51 left. Barry Krauss tackled the returner at the Husky 14. Washington converted yet another third down at their own 21, but the Tide stopped them on third and two the next time. Well, they may have stopped them but because they were offsides, the Huskies got a new set of downs because of a stupid Tide penalty. On the next play, Porras unloaded another deep bomb that Spider Gaines hauled in for a 58-yard touchdown that narrowed the lead to 20-17, Alabama. With less than six minutes left, the two teams were in a battle. Nathan returned the kickoff to the Tide 26. Ogilvie dashed for 25 yards on the first play, the biggest Tide run of the game. Calling the same play, Major got another first down but only 15 yards. A Rutledge keeper got three, Jackson got two up the middle, and Jackson then got three, forcing a Bryant decision on fourth down. With no confidence in his erratic field goal kicking game, Bryant decided to go for it. Rutledge not only threw the ball well out of the end zone, but Bruce Bolton was called for offensive pass interference on the play, giving the Huskies the ball and a chance to win starting from their own 41. Porras hit Steele for 12, but on the next play, Curtis McGriff sacked Porras for a seven-yard loss. In an effort to stun the Tide, Washington then called a draw on 2nd and 17, only to see their back dropped for another one-yard loss. On third and 18, Porras desperately evaded the rush, but he had no choice but to run upfield, and he was tackled after a gain of only six. Porras's fourth and 12 was incomplete, but the Bama pass interference again kept the Huskies alive at the Alabama 36. Washington was almost close enough to ensure a tie, so they pitched to their stud running back, Joe Steele. McGriff knocked the ball loose, and Murray Legg's recovery gave Alabama the ball and less than two minutes to make vanish from the clock. Nathan gained nine but then lost three. On 3rd and 4, Rutledge got only two, and they punted yet again. Lou Ikner downed the punt at the Washington 7, and the Huskies had one final chance with 15 seconds left. Porras ran eight yards and went out of bounds. On the last play, Steele took it in the backfield and made a decent run, but Alabama tackled him, and the game was over, 20-17, Tide. While not very impressive, the Tide had gone to Seattle and come back home with a win.

Former Gators player (and Vols coach) Doug Dickey brought his 1-2 Gators to T-Town. Alabama was its generally schizophrenic self, fumbling six times (losing three) while holding to Florida to just 194 total yards while blasting the Gators defense for nearly 500. Florida scored first on a Berj Yepremian field goal (yes, he's Garo's brother). Rutledge scored on a 13-yard rush and then Billy Jackson was off to the races for an 87-yard dash that put the Tide ahead, 14-3. Yepremian then hit a 52-yarder that narrowed it to 14-6 at halftime. After a scoreless third quarter, McElroy's field goal made it 17-6, but when Florida scored on a 19-yard pass play from John Brantley to Tony Stephens, it was the failed two-point conversion that kept Alabama ahead, 17-12, rather than only by three. The Tide put together a game-winning drive that saw Nathan score from the nine to secure a 23-12 Alabama win.

And the Tide got yet another break the same day, when USC lost to Arizona State, 20-7, in Tempe. While Alabama would have trouble justifying a national title selection based on the head-to-head match, they needed everyone in front of them to lose to even have a chance. On the same day, Michigan lost a 24-15 upset to Michigan St, and Houston sandblasted #6 Texas A&M, 33-0, so the Tide vaulted from seventh to fourth in the rankings with Nebraska right behind. On top of all this, Oklahoma survived Kansas when the Jayhawks scored and with a chance to tie did the exact opposite of what Ara Parseghian would have done, going for two with 15 seconds left but failing. OU was still number one.

And now it was time for "The Third Saturday In October" gentleman's rivalry with Tennessee. The Tide decided to try something new for the game with the Big Orange: for the first time all year, Alabama never trailed.

Tennessee kicked off to Nathan, who downed it in the end zone to start at the 20 (like, you know, virtually every other game thus far in 1978). The first play was a toss to the quickly becoming everyone's favorite, Major Ogilvie, who went for eight yards. Whitman got the first down on a full back delay up the middle. Tennessee hunkered down, however, and Alabama was forced to punt soon thereafter. The Vols began at their own 17 and began a typical 1970s college football drive - short runs, short out passes, and averaging about 3 yards per play but picking up the necessary yardage to prevent the need for a fourth down attempt. The Vols were stuffed at midfield, and Alabama got the ball back around their own 30. Rutledge kept it on the ground long enough to get the Vols to commit to the run and then hit Keith Pugh well into Vols territory. Two plays later, Nathan fumbled the ball back to Tennessee at their own 37. Alabama came back with Ogilvie on the next series, gashing the Vols for big yards. Although Alabama had to punt that possession, it paid huge dividends when Tennessee fumbled the punt at their own six-yard line, and Lou Ikner scooped it up and scored. Well, not exactly. In 1978, fumbles could not be advanced beyond the point of recovery, so Ikner was instead credited with a fumble recovery, and Alabama began at the six. With 53 seconds left in the first quarter, tight end Tim Travis got the final four yards of the six-yard drive to put the Tide ahead, 7-0.

Bryant continued his season-long practice of pulling Rutledge for Shealy, and the proud junior again produced. Using nothing but running plays - if they can't stop it, why risk? - Shealy alternated option tosses and straight handoffs until he took it in from the 13-yard line that after (what else) a botched PAT gave the Tide a 13-0 lead. The Vols took over with 8:27 left and managed to run virtually the entire clock off before halftime. That was the good news. The bad news was they only managed an Alan Duncan field goal, so they went into the intermission trailing, 13-3.

Tennessee began the second half with the ball and a three and out. Nathan returned the punt from his 31 to midfield. The first drive netted a McElroy field goal that extended the lead to 16-3. The tragedy in this case was that Rutledge fumbled the third down carry and prevented the continuation of the drive. Tennessee immediately fumbled on the first snap at their own 13, Barry Krauss recovering the ball. Whitman's six-yard dash into the end zone made it 22-3, and the game was now for all intents and purposes over. Alabama originally converted the two-point conversion, but a penalty forced them to settle for one. An interception gave the Tide immediate possession again in their own territory, and the Tide drove close enough for Travis to score his second TD of the game from the nine. Alabama was ahead, 30-3, and the scrubs came in. Tennessee scored two meaningless touchdowns that made the score respectable, but Alabama had won their eighth in a row against Tennessee. When Arkansas lost to Texas, 28-21, the Tide moved up to number three, behind unbeaten Oklahoma and unbeaten Penn State. The next week saw the Virginia Tech Gobblers (as they were then called) come to Tuscaloosa under the guidance of first-year coach Bill Dooley, a former Mississippi State offensive lineman. The Gobblers were 3-4 and had already been beaten by Auburn, 18-7, in Blacksburg. In the real world, such a team would create no problems for Alabama. Fortunately, the Tide showed up in real world condition, scoring a solid 35-0 win that looked good on the scoreboard without looking as though the Tide had run up the score. Three Tide turnovers kept the final score respectable. The Tide entered November at number three in the polls as Bob Tyler's Mississippi State Bulldogs roared into Birmingham for a showdown between the two geographically closest teams in the SEC.

Bryant's only loss to MSU in all his years as a player or a coach came at Kentucky in 1952 during the end months of the Truman Presidency. He had faced them nearly every single year, and he had no more reason to think MSU could beat Alabama than that Vandy could. And yet taking opponents that lightly was always a risk for a national power like Alabama. And the Dawgs were coming off a thumping upset of Tennessee themselves.

On the day before the MSU game, sportswriters began mentioning the problems Alabama would face in winning the national championship. Foremost among them was the Georgia Bulldogs, undefeated in conference play and looking to share the SEC title with the Tide. Due to the rules in place in 1978, a shared SEC crown between Alabama and Georgia would trigger a subrule that basically declared that if two teams tie for the conference title, the team that has not played in the Sugar Bowl for the longest period of time gets the bowl berth. Since Alabama had just played in New Orleans the previous January, the Tide would need Georgia to trip up somewhere along the way. The other problem was that Alabama also needed Oklahoma to lose as well while hoping Penn State could win out. In those days of mandatory bowl obligations, Alabama's ability to get back into the title hunt was far more dependent on the results of other games than in later years (e.g. the four-team playoff). Bryant pointed out that first of all, Alabama had to take care of their own business before they worried about anything else.

Alabama came out smoking against MSU, roaring out to a quick 21-0 lead courtesy of two Ogilvie plunges from the one and a dazzling 82-yard dash from Tony Nathan. MSU drove the ball to the Bama red zone three times in the first half and came away with only seven points. MSU's quarterback Dave Marler spent the game in shotgun, and he sliced the Tide defense apart for over 450 yards passing, but he had trouble penetrating the end zone. Of course, passing was his only option because the Dawgs were held to -16 yards rushing for the day. Tony Nathan put on a show, rushing for 145 yards on only 12 carries before leaving the game with an eye injury in the third quarter. MSU closed the gap to 21-14 in the third, but Alabama took care of business with a second Nathan touchdown from six and little Lou Ikner's 25-yard dash for the breakway touchdown that gave Alabama an exciting 35-14 win that tied them with Georgia atop the SEC standings. It was now back to national television for the third (and final permitted) time in the regular season with #10 LSU coming to Birmingham with a 6-1 record and an outside shot at winning the SEC.

And then the Tide got one of the breaks they needed. With 3:27 remaining in the game, eventual Heisman Trophy winner Billy Sims fumbled at the Nebraska 3, and the Cornhuskers gave Tom Osborne his first win over Barry Switzer and the Sooners with a stunning 17-14 upset in Lincoln. Even more amazing it was Sims's second fumble of the quarter deep in Big Red territory. Oklahoma fumbled 11 times that day, losing nine and with it their chance at the national title. Alabama took the field knowing a win would likely put the Tide right behind Penn State in the number two spot when the rankings came out on Monday. Al Michaels and Ara Parseghian called the game that began with a 3:10 kickoff, and LSU went right to work. Hokie Gajan took the opening kickoff out to the 20. After Gajan ran for 11 to get a first down, LSU rushed Charles Alexander for a gain of three, a one-yard loss, and QB David Woodley for a pickup of three that forced an LSU punt from their own 36.

Alabama decided to go to the air on the first play, but Rutledge realizing he was going down, flung the ball for an intentional grounding penalty that put Alabama immediately in a 2nd and 27 at their own seven. Steve Whitman barreled for 14 yards followed by Nathan for three, and Umphrey's punt gave LSU the ball back at their own 43. Mixing runs and passes with an acceptably mobile dropback quarterback in Woodley, LSU drove down the field and on third and nine at the Bama 24, Woodley hit sensational WR Carlos Carson for a touchdown that put LSU in front, 7-0 early. Alabama then mimicked the LSU drive, mixing runs mostly by Whitman and short passes to drive to the LSU 31. On second down, Rutledge went for it all, heaving a bomb to Keith Pugh in the end zone that was just out of reach. After a delay of game penalty set up third and 14, Rutledge then made a nearly fatal mistake, tossing one across the middle. LSU's Chris Williams picked it off at the 21 and raced untouched 79 yards for an incredible touchdown that had Alabama on the ropes early.

Well, it would have except for the clipping call that functioned as the equivalent of an 85-yard penalty. Audible on the ABC television network were LSU fans chanting reference to a certain substance found in barnyards, but the call stood. Alabama held LSU to a three and out and then McNeal apparently got a small piece of the punt that wound up being a 34-yard net. LSU held the Tide to a three and out, but on fourth and two, punter Woody Umphrey shocked everyone with a heave to Lou Ikner that picked up 20 yards and gave the Tide a first down. On the next play, Shealy kept it for a touchdown, and the point after - repeated and made good a second time after a penalty -tied the game at 7 early in the second quarter.

Gajan returned the kickoff to the 19 only to have it placed at his own nine due to yet another stupid penalty. Alexander bolted for seven that came back on a false start. With 1st and 14 from his own end zone, Woodley let fly and hit Carson at his 43 to get a new set of downs and out of danger. LSU drove to the Tide 30 but stalled, so Mike Conway hit a field goal to give LSU a 10-7 lead.

Well, it would have except the Tigers had 12 men on the field. After the penalty made it a 52-yard attempt, LSU opted to punt and shanked it, an 8-yard punt that set up the Tide at their own 26. And the next drive was a thing of beauty. Running every single play at the LSU right side, Alabama ran 11 plays for 76 yards and removed nearly six minutes, taking the 14-7 lead when Major Ogilvie plunged over from the one. Each team stalled on their next drive, and LSU took over at the 50 with 1:42 left in the half. They drove to the Tide 12 and settled for a field goal, LSU going in at halftime trailing but 14-10.

The Tide began the second half with another textbook 13-play drive that took over five minutes off the clock and ended with a 40-yard McElroy field goal to make it 17-10. LSU drove to midfield and then punted on fourth and inches, Alabama taking over at their own 31. After Rutledge was sacked for a loss of three and Ogilvie gained nothing on second down, Bryant went into his bag of tricks and called a halfback option pass from Tony Nathan, who flung the ball to Rickey Neal for a 15-yard gain and a first down. The Tide wound up with fourth and inches at the LSU 45 when the play that determined the outcome happened to Alabama's delight and LSU's chagrin.

Woody Umphrey came in and lined up as quarterback in wishbone formation. LSU set to play the run. Suddenly, Umphrey dashed back into punt position while the two backs remained set to block. Umphrey then punted a high hanging punt that the receiver fumbled at the 7 and the Tide recovered at the LSU 2. After two runs failed, Rutledge faked a handoff and tossed to Neal for a touchdown that ended the competitive phase of the game, 24-10. Alabama added another TD to demolish the #10 Tigers, 31-10. Bama fans were ecstatic, ready to wake up number two on Tuesday morning with two weeks off. Beat Auburn and.........well, to be honest with you, nobody really knew. The only thing anyone was sure about was that Penn State, a team with three unbeaten seasons in the last decade, had finally for the first time ever ascended to the top rank in college football. And that's when Paul Bryant put on his negotiator hat and few men have ever worn it better.

The night after the LSU game, Bryant called Paterno with an idea that was as daring as it was unusual, as well as self-serving. Bryant figured Georgia and Alabama were both likely to beat Auburn, leaving Alabama outside the Sugar Bowl looking in. The Big Eight berth in the Orange Bowl was still unsettled, but Nebraska had the inside track since they now owned a head to head win over the Sooners. The Rose Bowl was likely to be USC against Michigan, and it appeared for all the world that the Houston Cougars were going to the Cotton Bowl. Bryant proposed that Penn State and Alabama give up hundreds of thousands of dollars from the prestigious bowl and instead meet in a 1 vs 2 matchup in the Gator Bowl on a prime-time Friday night with a national television audience and no other bowl games running concurrently. The arrangement excited everyone. Paterno was wanting to play the highest ranked foe he could get, and the Oklahoma loss to Nebraska put him in a quandary. Paterno was also still angry over the Orange Bowl verbally inviting Penn State in 1977, only to see Barry Switzer's connections with the Orange Bowl hierarchy get the Arkansas Razorbacks invited and sending Penn State to the not very prestigious at the time Fiesta Bowl in Arizona. Playing Georgia in the Sugar Bowl or Houston in the Cotton Bowl (which is where Alabama was rumored to be headed) would do nothing to enhance the national title aspirations of either team. Playing each other, however, had the effect of shutting everyone else out of the national title picture entirely. How do you vote against a one-loss number two that has just beaten an unbeaten #1? The Gator Bowl committee was also excited, so much so that they figured the TV ratings would enable them to pay out far more than their low $335,000 guarantee to both teams. A national title game with Alabama playing was a bonanza, particularly in Florida, where the Tide's well-established traveling fanbase would easily turn the Gator Bowl into a home game.

One can thus hardly overstate the utter shock that greeted Alabama on Monday when Nebraska vaulted the Tide to #2 in the rankings and set off howls of protest that really had to cause Tide fans to question what kind of rigged system they were facing. USC would have been one thing, but how in the world could you take a team that had lost by 17 points and place them above a team that had just blown out a #10 foe by three touchdowns and held that head to head win? Paterno now realized he could pocket a cool million (Independent schools did not have to share their bowl revenue with other conference members) and play 1 vs 2 against Nebraska. Bryant was about to be left on the outside looking in yet again.

Of course, the message could have been interpreted another way: we don't count head to head results exclusively if we think the team that lost would win a rematch. This rationale would be severely tested by the end of the season. And then it happened, when Alabama sat home and proceeded to watch college football come apart and leave the Tide standing alone with Penn State. November 18, a day that would be very good for Alabama in 2011, was also very good for the Tide in 1978.

The most important development was Nebraska's stunning 35-31 loss to Missouri in Lincoln. Missouri coach Warren Powers had been a Nebraska halfback in the early 60s. After leading Washington St to a stunning upset over the Big Red in 1977, his first year at Missouri had been rather successful, and he caught Nebraska in the afterglow of a letdown game following the euphoric upset of Oklahoma. James Wilder scored four touchdowns, and the Tigers prevailed. The Alabama-Penn St Gator Bowl appeared to be back on.

But an even stranger development occurred in "The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry," an elimination contest of sorts. Despite three losses, Auburn was still in the running for an SEC championship if they could just beat Georgia (#8) and Alabama (#3). Georgia needed a win to clinch the SEC and a berth in New Orleans, and Alabama needed a win over Auburn and someone to stop Georgia. As it turned out, the Bulldogs stopped themselves. Auburn ran over, around, and through the Bulldogs, accumulating more than 400 yards rushing on 63 attempts, over 250 by Joe Cribbs. Auburn led, 22-15, when Georgia scored with 5:18 remaining, and Georgia Coach Vince Dooley had a decision to make: tie the game or go for two. Because Dooley had the SEC's best kicker in Rex Robinson, a long distance booter who had kicked a 51-yard field goal as a high school sophomore and would leave Georgia having successfully kicked six 50-yard field goals (two from 57), he gambled that his defense would get the ball back and give Robinson a shot to win it. Dooley opted for the one-point kick, and the game ended in a tie. The tie put Alabama in the driver's seat for the SEC and also eliminated Auburn from any chance of winning it.

Why Dooley would think his defense that had not stopped Auburn from rushing all afternoon would suddenly turn into the Monsters of the Midway is the bigger mystery.

In two 60-minute football games, Alabama – resting at home - was suddenly riding shotgun with Penn State towards a national title game. Now it was Joe Paterno's turn to gamble. Wooed by all of the big bowl games (save the Rose, of course), Paterno thought it over - none of the other bowls could make their selections until Penn State did - and took a calculated risk. He could face Oklahoma in either the Gator or Bluebonnet Bowls and take less money, or he could gamble that Alabama would beat Auburn, pocket over a million bucks for Penn State, and have a potential 1 vs 2 showdown in New Orleans. Michigan's win over Purdue eliminated the Boilermakers, who settled for a Peach Bowl berth. The winner of the Ohio State-Michigan game - big surprise - was going to play USC in the Rose Bowl. The loser was now relegated to the Gator Bowl, who had watched their dream matchup implode in a matter of days and picked Clemson, the ACC champion, as their other choice. Houston was in the Cotton Bowl unless they lost both of their last two games. Texas, out of the SWC title hunt, accepted a Sun Bowl date with Maryland. And once again, the Orange Bowl managed to tick off a potential customer.

Because of their head-to-head win over Oklahoma, the Cornhuskers were Orange Bowl bound despite their loss to Mizzou. The Orange Bowl had a Nebraska vs Notre Dame game in mind. The Cotton Bowl originally wanted Alabama, but Bryant made clear he had no interest in playing the Houston Cougars, a game that would have done nothing to help his national title aspirations. The Cotton Bowl had Oklahoma ready to come to Dallas and face Houston, but a number of SWC schools, typical of the politics of bowl selection at the time, complained that this would be tantamount to Oklahoma getting free recruiting exposure in the Dallas area for a second time that year. In essence, the Cotton Bowl – locked into their marriage with the SWC – bid Oklahoma farewell, so the Orange Bowl sent Notre Dame to the Cotton and scooped up the rematch of Nebraska and Oklahoma.

And then Penn State damn near blew the whole thing out of the water. The Lions prevailed late in the fourth quarter by going for it on fourth and short inside the five and scoring a TD, eventually beating Pitt, 17-10. Michigan thumped Ohio State and USC - who had turned Alabama fans into Notre Dame fans for one afternoon - blew a 24-6 fourth quarter lead thanks to a soon to be typical Joe Montana comeback. The Irish led, 25-24, and appeared to have won the game by recovering a USC fumble. The play was ruled an incomplete pass, and the Trojans drove close enough to win at the final gun with a 37-yard field goal that netted a 27-25 win. USC also began to pick up votes in the AP poll. While Alabama was ranked #2, the Tide only had 2 first place votes to USC's 7 and Oklahoma's 3. The Tide faced Auburn on the final weekend of the 1978 regular season - at Legion Field, of course.

Vince Dooley was named SEC Coach of the Year at the end of November, and he finished off with Georgia's most exciting win of 1978, a 29-28 thriller that the Dawgs had trailed, 20-0, against Georgia Tech. The Dawgs could do nothing now except root for Auburn, Dooley's alma mater.

In his final SEC college game, Jeff Rutledge passed for 174 yards, and did enough to pass the legendary Joe Namath as Alabama's all-time leader in touchdown passes. He threw three against Auburn, two to Bruce Bolton and one to Rick Neal. His 33-yarder to Bolton started the scoring in the first quarter, but Auburn's Joe Cribbs, who rushed for 118 yards on 32 carries, scored from the 5 to tie it at seven early. A McElroy field goal and another Cribbs TD - with a missed PAT - saw Auburn ahead, 13-10, until Rutledge hit Bolton again for a 17-yard TD that sent the Tide in at halftime with a 17-13 lead. Rutledge's third TD pass made it 24-13 in the third, but the Tigers clawed back with a 37-yard field goal to make it 24-16, Alabama, entering the fourth. A Shealy run and a McElroy field goal closed out the scoring in the fourth, and Alabama's 34-16 win gave the Tide their seventh SEC title in eight years. To Coach Bryant’s chagrin, the players popped champagne in the dressing room afterwards, and he scolded them for what he felt was celebrating the wrong thing too soon. Rutledge, meanwhile, also sent a message to the AP voters, reminding them of what had happened the previous year when Notre Dame vaulted two higher ranked teams after a win over Texas. Rutledge was not afraid to point out "according to the way it happened last year." (Of course, Rutledge's argument had a major flaw since Alabama did have a head to head loss to USC, but this is college football emotion, too). The concern, however, was that the Alabama defense had surrendered more passing yards and more big plays than defense in the history of Bryant’s coaching. To be fair, part of this was due to new rules designed to turn football into more a passing game, but it was still an area of concern heading into the bowl games.

Billy Sims of Oklahoma won the Heisman Trophy despite getting 12 fewer first-place votes than the runner-up, Penn State quarterback Chuck Fusina. Sims, however, got 63 more second-place votes to win the trophy by 77 points. Third place was Michigan QB Rick Leach, an All-American, and fourth was USC tailback Charles White, who would go on to win the award in 1979.

Leading Up to the Sugar Bowl

THE 1978 BOWL SEASON

A major coaching domino with connections to Alabama fell on December 4, when Charley Pell of Clemson (a former Bryant player) announced he was taking the Florida job. Pell’s journey to Florida was the height of a public debacle, largely because Florida had not had to engage a coaching search very often, having only had three head football coaches in the previous 29 years. When the alumni raised enough money to buy out the last three years of Doug Dickey’s contract, he was a dead man walking. A 13-man search committee was appointed, and their first choice was Arkansas Coach Lou Holtz. As rumors grew that Holtz was heading to Florida, Holtz promised the newly elected governor of Arkansas – a guy named William Jefferson Clinton – that he would stay and honor his contract with the Razorbacks. Florida eventually went through 45 names before selecting Clemson’s head coach, Pell.
Pell was replaced by a younger Bryant disciple, Gadsden's Danny Ford. Ford got Clemson ready for what appeared to be a routine Gator Bowl that would instead witness one of the most horrific on-field incidents in the history of the game. Forgotten in the mists of time is the fact that the 1978 poll was incredibly similar to the 1977 poll. Alabama, USC, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Clemson all had but one loss. In theory, at least two would get eliminated by the results of the Orange and Rose Bowls, but it was still possible to have a final ranking with five one-loss teams and competing claims to the championship. John Robinson, the USC head coach, was more diplomatic, saying that Penn State would deserve the title if they won the Sugar Bowl, but also saying that the Rose Bowl winner could well end up national champion. He would then work in a reference to USC's tougher schedule, and note the fact USC had beaten Alabama head to head. This was not an argument Alabama was going to win. On December 15, sportswriter Herschel Nisseson made his predictions with a prescient warning following the 1977 title vote debacle: "if the national championship keeps being decided by the AP poll, a playoff may come about one of these centuries." He closed his prediction with a pick of Alabama to win by seven points, 21-14, and win the national championship. And then Bo Schembechler, because Bo rhymes with “O,” which was the number of Rose Bowl wins he had at that point, jumped into the fray. Bo first declared that USC should be ranked number one. He followed with the idea that if his team beat the Trojans then - regardless - Michigan should be number one. He then began quoting Bryant quotes from September and talking about how he had never seen a back run all over Alabama the way Charles White had. Given that Bo was facing Notre Dame at the same time Alabama was facing USC, it is doubtful he ever actually saw it. Carl Sawyer, a sportswriter for the Santa Ana Orange County Register, flippantly dismissed both Alabama and Penn State, going so boldly as to declare: "What it all boils down to is that Robinson and the Trojans and Schembechler and the Wolverines are going to be playing for the national championship no matter what happens in the Sugar Bowl." Most of you have never heard of Carl Sawyer until just now, mostly because of clueless comments like that. Notre Dame Coach Dan Devine then reiterated his support for a playoff, and he said it was a popular idea among the Division I-A coaches.

Alabama went to New Orleans on December 28. Rutledge again, team leader that he was, addressed the press. He didn't say anything inflammatory, but he did salute Penn State as the number one team with the observation they were a good team, and it was hard to win 11 games in a row. But he also made clear that he really didn't think Penn St had faced the caliber of competition that Alabama had, citing North Carolina State's manhandling of Pitt in their bowl matchup as evidence that Penn State's opponents weren't exactly of the level of USC or Nebraska. Both teams talked up the game as a national title affair as if USC and Michigan didn't even exist. And then on the night of December 29 in the Gator Bowl, all thoughts of the national title were removed thanks to an ugly incident that ended the coaching career of Ohio State Buckeyes legend Woody Hayes.

Hayes had been a controversial figure for much of his time in Columbus, one part R. Lee Ermey, one part Bobby Knight, and one part Wilford Brimley (Hayes suffered from diabeetus). He'd made a number of offensive comments - diminishing the horrors of the My Lai Massacre by saying he wasn't so sure the women or children over five were really all that "innocent" – and actions, including throwing a penalty flag into the crowd, destroying the yard markers, and throwing the first down marker into the ground in a fit of outrage over a call in the 1971 Michigan game. He had also hit a player in practice and on several occasions had punched reporters (some of whom likely deserved it). Trailing 17-15 but driving, Buckeyes QB Art Schlichster gambled with a pass on third and five that was intercepted by Clemson nose guard Charlie Baumann. He was run out of bounds and when Baumann got up to go back to his sideline, Hayes (not having Ermey’s wisdom to make the puke choke himself) punched him in the throat, triggering a brawl. He also grabbed the face mask of his own player who was trying to restrain him. He also tore into the officials, leading the Buckeyes to be assessed two 15-yard penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct. Hayes then added to the heat of the moment by refusing to shake hands with Clemson coach Danny Ford and then by hiding and sending out defensive coordinator George Hill to face the inquisitive press. Hill deftly finessed the situation by saying he didn’t see it and couldn’t be expected to comment on something he didn’t see. But even Ohio State’s players who were close to the incident conceded the coach had struck Bauman. Bauman, likely realizing the fate awaiting Hayes more than he did, first admitted to being struck and then downplayed it as Hayes really not doing much to him. Buckeyes AD Hugh Hindman, a former assistant under Hayes, knew he really had no choice.

Hayes was fired the next morning after refusing to resign. Ohio State President Harold Enarsen, while wondering why he couldn’t have a last name like Smith, stated, “There is not a university or athletic conference in this country which would permit a coach to physically assault a college athlete.” Enarsen was unavailable for comment as to whether this would apply to coaches’ wives. The 1978 Gator Bowl is one of the more memorable games - as Paterno and Bryant had imagined - but not in the way they had thought. At the time of his firing, Hayes was the second winningest active coach behind Bryant. And just to make the bowl season more volatile, the rumored front-runner to replace Hayes was Arkansas head coach Lou Holtz, who had just tied UCLA in the Fiesta Bowl a few days earlier.

Two days before the game, John Robinson piped up again - respectfully - and pleaded with the voters to consider the winner of the Rose Bowl if Penn State lost. Most writers, however, were treating the Sugar Bowl as a winner-take-all match. Schembechler jumped back in to say that if Penn State lost then the Rose Bowl winner SHOULD be the champion. And then Paul Bryant stepped to the podium

Bryant and Paterno held a joint press conference, Bryant declaring Paterno the best coach in the nation and Paterno smiling and saying he wouldn't disagree. But then both coaches acknowledged the need for a playoff to determine the national championship. Both agreed, however, that such a proposal would have to include the bowls, Bryant going so far as to say there needed to be something similar to the Super Bowl for college football. Bryant's edge surfaced again when a reporter asked the only question that really mattered: "If you beat Penn State and USC beats Michigan, why should you be national champion?" Bryant retorted, "How should I know?" But he made a further point, even invoking 1966 as a lesson - "USC was better than us the day we played them, but they ain't better than us every day of the year." Bryant went further and said he had voted for Alabama over USC in every single coaches poll, even when USC had the better record right after beating the Tide.

Heading into the game, Bryant tried his usual psychological battle, saying he wasn’t sure his team was going to be ready to play. Bryant (or more likely Ken Donahue) settled on a game plan that had the potential to upend the Nittany Lions. Realizing he had a porous secondary (that would be made worse by the absence of Ricky Tucker), the game plan was to blitz Chuck Fusina on nearly every play. After all, if he couldn’t actually throw the ball downfield then it didn’t matter how questionable the secondary was. On the day before the game, Paterno added a little fuel to the game by saying that he thought people were underestimating how good his offense was. In words that would later haunt him, Paterno said that his team was stronger physically than Alabama, had a better kicking game, the Tide had a weak secondary, and the offensive line wasn’t really all that great. “It’s not like we’re playing a Notre Dame or an Oklahoma, where everywhere you look you see a good football player. They’re (Alabama) not an overpowering football team made up of great players,” said the future wins king. He figured that if his defense could just hold the Tide to 14 points, Penn State’s superior kicking game would help him prevail.

Oddsmakers made Penn State a one-point favorite. Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, then a TV personality more famous for his views on gambling than his views on slavery, picked Alabama to win easily. So, too, did Auburn head coach Doug Barfield, who said, “I personally don’t think Penn State will be a problem for Alabama.”

THE 1979 SUGAR BOWL

The last Sugar Bowl of the 1970s had a 1pm kickoff time in New Orleans and was billed for the better part of the month as “the national championship game” between number one and number two. There was some internal debate at ABC about kicking the game off at 6pm to go head to head with the Orange Bowl, but ABC opted to play their game as scheduled. As stunning as this must be to some readers, the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl would be the first bowl games of the day, both starting at one.

The buildup couldn’t have been different for the two teams. Joe Paterno, who felt he had been snubbed three times in national championship votes with unbeaten teams, played up the game as, “The biggest football game Penn State has ever played in,” while Bryant referred to it as, “Just another big football game.” Penn State brought the nation’s number one rushing defense into the game, surrendering an average of only 54.5 yards per game. Their offense was potent as well, racking up over 400 yards per game while extending their unbeaten streak entering the Sugar Bowl to 19 games. Penn State’s two defensive tackles, Bruce Clark and Matt Millen, were the heart of their strong defensive line. Their power running game of Mike Guman and Matt Suhey was balanced with the competent passing of Chuck Fusina to split end (and punter) Scott Fitzkee. Bama also had major injuries that would limit the playing time of E J Junior and John Mauro while Ricky Tucker would miss due to a freak injury during the preparation, replaced by freshman Jim Bob Harris in the secondary.

Major Ogilvie returned the opening kickoff to the 20, where he was tackled by Giuseppe Harris. Tony Nathan ran for four on first down and three on second, but he bruised his hip and left the game with the Tide in 3rd and 3. Whitman got the first down, but four plays later Woody Umphrey came on with a great punt that put Penn State at their own 12 for the first possession. On the first play, Guman got nine yards but a holding call put Penn St inside their own eight. Three plays later, including a Fusin fumble at the 20 that Guman recovered, Penn St punted to the Tide 44. After three plays gained a first down, the Tide was in third and 3 at the Penn St 33. Rutledge called a play action and hit Steve Whitman, wide open and ready to rumble to the end zone, but he dropped the ball when he began running before he had it. McElroy tried a 51-yard attempt that was short, and the drive was for naught.

Fusina hit Bassett for an 18yard gain on first down, but after Suhey was stopped at the line of scrimmage, Fusina dropped back deep to throw to Booker Moore, only to see Murray Legg intercept the ball at the Tide 33. Fusina’s throw was rushed by the oncoming pursuit of Barry Krauss, who would have the game of his life this day. Three plays and a first down, but then Ikner ran for 7 that came back on a clip. Bama switched to the I formation and tried a flea flicker, but Ogilvie was tackled before he could pitch the ball back to Rutledge. When Whitman carried for four on third down, Alabama had only taken three possessions to surpass Penn State’s 54.5 yard per game rushing defense average. The Tide punted so Penn St began at their own 20. A false start put them in 1st and 15, gaining only four yards before punting it back to Alabama. Nathan got 16 for a first down at the PSU 42 but three plays later, including a Rutledge fumble that he recovered, the Tide kicked it back. Woody Umphrey was also having a fine game, punting Penn St inside their own four to start their fourth possession. On third and 11 from the three, Fusina dropped back deep in the end zone and Warren Lyles was about to get him when Fusina tossed a safety valve to Torre, who got ten yards but was just short of the marker. Fitzkee’s punt was fair caught by Ogilvie at his own 48, and Steadman Shealy came in as he had all year long. After Ogilvie lost 2, Shealy was sacked for a loss of 7 by Millen and Clark, so Umphrey again punted deep, this time to the Penn State 12. Fusina’s first down pass was tipped and nearly picked off by Legg. After Suhey gained six on a delayed handoff, Krauss forced Fusina out of the pocket and Wayne Hamilton planted him at his own two for a 14-yard loss that put the Lions in 4th and 24. Another Fitzkee punt had the Tide at the PSU 41. The Penn State defense held for yet another three and out, so Umphrey came in and again punted a beauty. Unfortunately, Ricky Neal lost his footing that caused the ball to go into the end zone, so Penn St began at the 20. Guman got 5, Suey 9 for a first down, and then Fusina hit a 31-yard screen that worked because Legg raced in on a corner blitz. But an illegal procedure call moved them back to their own 30 with 1st and 15. After a rush gained five, Fusina’s play action fake and run resulted in a strip by Byron Braggs, recovered by Romano for a 21-yard loss. After a one-yard Guman gain, Penn State punted from their own 15 on fourth and 30.

Alabama was slugging Penn State all over the field, but they couldn’t get any sustained drives going. And then came the momentum shift.

Rutledge hit Bolton for 16 yards and followed with a misdirection screen to Whitman for 15 more. Whitman then carried for four to put them in second and six at the Penn St 18. Rutledge tried to pass deep to Pugh, but Whitman tipped it right into the hands of Rich Milot, who took off towards a possible pick six. Only the speed and tackling ability of Major Ogilvie (who could tackle pretty good for an offensive player) saved the touchdown, but Penn St finally had good field position for the first time in the game at the Alabama 38. After Suhey was stopped for no gain, Fusina went for broke, but Don McNeal’s excellent coverage denied a touchdown. Fusina dropped back deep again for a bomb but was sacked by Byron Braggs for a 15-yard loss that took the Lions out of field goal kicker Matt Bahr’s long distance field goal kicking range. Trying to surprise the Tide, Penn State hurriedly punted the ball, but it went into the end zone, and Alabama took over at their own 20 with only 61 second left in the half. And then Joe Paterno made a strategic mistake.

On first down, the Tide got a three-yard pickup and was content to let the clock run. Paterno decided to call timeout because Penn St had the full allotment still. On second and 7, Nathan got four yards so Paterno called his second timeout. When Whitman got five on third down to put the Tide at the 33, Paterno’s decisions suddenly seemed questionable. And they got bad when Nathan then darted for thirty yards on one play, gained five on the next, and Rutledge unloaded a touchdown bomb to Bruce Bolton from 31 yards with only eight seconds left in the first half. The Superdome exploded in cheers as the Tide had finally put points on the board, and the two teams went in with the Tide ahead, 7-0.

The halftime stats showed Alabama winning a stampede. Penn State had minus eight yards rushing and a total offense of only 36 yards. Still, it was only a one score game, so Penn St came out with their original game plan of short runs and set up screens to gain yardage in small amounts. Guman got four on first down and none on second. Fusina hit Suhey for what seemed like an awesome screen only to see Murray Legg immediately come from nowhere and tackle the big back for no gain. Fitzkee punted the Tide to their own 44. And then offensive coordinator Mal Moore decided to open up his playbook to the chapter entitled “Les Miles Nonsense Plays.” He had the team set up in two sets of three wideouts – one right and one left – and Rutledge tossed to Clark on a screen, only to see it called back because the Tide only had six men on the line of scrimmage. Amazingly, they ran from the same formation on the next play, and Rutledge’s toss hit Penn State defender Karl McCoy right in the hands, meaning he dropped it. A handoff to Nathan for 11 and a pass through Bolton’s hands brought Umphrey out for yet another great punt that put PSU at their own 20. On his first play, Fusina went for it all. Jim Bob Harris, playing only because of Tucker’s injury, picked it off and ran it back 22 yards to the Penn St 14. The ball was backed up to the 34 after a clipping call negated much of the return.

On first down, Millen tackled Nathan for a short loss. They got him on second down as well, but they were offsides so on 2nd and 3, Nathan got two. In third and one, Whitman got four for a new set of downs. Bama went back to the wishbone. Whitman for two and on second down Milot planted Rutledge with a devastating hit that left the Tide in third and 11. When a toss to Ikner lost two, McElroy tried from 40 yards and was wide right. Penn State took over at their own 23. Fusina went deep to Fitzkee but missed. A pitch to Booker Moore got six only to go back five on a false start. A pass to Bassett at the 35 gave the Lions a first down, and they went back to the run. Nothing worked and the Lions punted from their own 40 with a 4th and 11. Alabama got it at their own 28. After two plays netted nothing, Rutledge went for the pass only to see Pete Harris, the younger brother of Franco, pick off the pass and set up Penn State at the Bama 48. After forcing a third and five, Bama watched Fusina hit Guman wide open on the right sideline for a 24-yard gain. After Guman dove for 3 yards on first down, Fusina went for it all, a 17-yard pass to Fitzkee in the back of the end zone, who hauled it in and got one foot down for an incredible touchdown that tied the game at 7. Alabama took over on the touchback following the kickoff at their own 20 and punted three plays later from their own 19. Penn State had seized momentum despite being solidly outgained to this point. At their own 31, Penn State got three yards in two plays, only to watch Murray Legg’s blind side blitz plant Fusina for a loss of ten, the fourth sack of Fusina. On fourth and forever at his own 20, Fitzkee punted to Lou Ikner, who followed his blocks, made a daring cut back across the grain and took it 62 yards to the Penn State 11.

Jim Bunch jumped for a false start that cost the Tide five. Rutledge then gained one on a keeper followed by a toss right to Nathan, who got seven. On third and seven at the Penn State 9, Rutledge was about to be tackled by Millen for a loss when he tossed it to Ogilvie who darted left and raced into the end zone for a touchdown that made it 14-7 Alabama as the third quarter closed. The game to now had been a very good one, but what followed would live forever in the hearts and minds of all who saw it. At the end of the third quarter, Alabama had outgained Penn State, 245-95, with 44 of that coming on the two pass plays that let to their lone score.

A touchback on the ensuing kickoff put PSU at the 20. Moore was tackled for a one-yard loss and then a reverse to flanker Donovan gained nothing. Fusina dropped back to throw but was dropped by the injured John Mauro for yet another ten-yard loss, leading to yet another Fitzkee punt to Ikner, who only got 3 this time. Alabama was flagged for a false start on first down and then gave a three and out that had them punt on fourth and 7. Umphrey had had a great game to this point, but he shanked it and it was only a nine-yard punt. Penn State began at the Alabama 31. Two runs to Suhey and Moore got a first down and three more got another one. On 1st and 10 at the Tide 29, Moore was hit for a four-yard loss. Getting desperate, Fusina unleashed another bomb to the end zone, this one intercepted by Don McNeal to snuff out the drive. At their own 20, Alabama found trouble. With third and 5 at the 25, Rutledge pitched to his back, who fumbled it – he never even reached for it – and Penn State now had first down at the Bama 19 and a national championship staring them right in the face.

The Goal Line Stand

They played like it, too. Suhey went up the middle for 11 yards that put Penn State with first and goal at the Tide 8. A pitch to Guman got two, and he was tackled by Marty Lyons and Ricky Gilliland, who left the game with an injury and was replaced by Rich Wingo. The next three plays would live on forever, in agony for Penn State and ecstasy for Alabama.

On second and goal from the six, Fusina hit Fitzkee at the one. With a perfectly timed hit, McNeal stopped Fitzkee about a foot short of the end zone. Third and goal about a sneeze short of paydirt. The crowd noise got so loud that the referees stopped the game momentarily. The Lions went with Suhey for the typical “over the top” play, but Barry Krauss and Curtis McGriff stopped him short of the end zone. Fourth and a foot so Penn State called timeout. The tension built over several minutes as ABC used the timeout to go to commercial. As they prepared for the play, Fusina asked how far he had to make it to the end zone. Marty Lyons had become friends with Fusina the previous summer and memorably quipped, “Ten inches. You better pass.” It was 11 on 11, man on man, as Penn State lined up for the play that might well determine the champion. They went with their best, too, a handoff to Guman, who was supposed to do the typical back over the top of the pile leap. But Guman never got airborne, and Barry Krauss came over the top and hit him helmet to helmet, a face to face shot so powerful that Krauss was knocked out, and Alabama had completed perhaps the most dramatic goal line stand in the history of college football. Krauss lay on the ground for several moments after the play. He later told Sports Illustrated’s John Underwood that the last thing he saw when the lights went out was Guman’s face. When Krauss awakened on the field, Fusina had left the field looking as though he’d seen a ghost. It took the heart right out of Penn State but despite the myth making that has happened through the years, the game was far from over. In fact, it was a mental error that undid Penn State in the second half just like the first.

Alabama had to be careful. Penn State had a tenacious defense, and the Tide was only about 10 inches outside the goal line. A safety here and the free kick possession might be enough to give Penn State the national title. Nathan rushed for four on first down, no gain on second down, and two on third down. It was fourth and four at their own 7 with about 5 minutes left. Umphrey had had a great game save for his last punt. He now needed his best punt of the day, but the snap hit the ground on the way to him. Umphrey fielded it but rushed the punt and shanked it again, going out of bounds at the Penn State 38. It appeared for all the world that Penn State was about to make amends for the blown chance at the goal line. But the shouting Penn State coaches alerted the officials who made a quick count of defenders - and then everyone saw the penalty flag. Penn State had 12 men on the field for the play, a 15-yard penalty if the player actually participated in the play. Alabama had a first down at their own 22. Nathan got six and Ogilvie five, Nathan five more before the penalties killed Alabama. The Tide wound up punting from their own 34 with three minutes left. Guman took it at the 20, started left, then pivoted and threw a lateral across the field to a flanker tackled by Randy Scott for no gain. A delay of game made it first and 15, but Fusina hit Fitzkee for 16 and a first down. Guman gained six on a screen, but Fusina’s next throw down the middle was nearly intercepted by Krauss, who had dropped back in coverage. A short screen to Guman got a first down. Penn State drove to the Alabama 41, where Fusina unloaded a deep bomb into double coverage that nobody caught. The fourth down pass was broken up by Legg. Nathan ran for 7 and Ogilvie for two, both times with Penn State calling their final two timeouts. They stopped Nathan short of the first, but the clock kept running. With 19 seconds left, Alabama took the delay penalty and this time Umphrey came through again, putting Penn State at their own 31 with 12 seconds left. The first pass by Fusina was picked off, and the game was over. For the second straight year, Alabama left the Sugar Bowl turf hoping to be named national champions. Krauss became the first defensive player since Walt Yowarsky of the 1950 Kentucky Wildcats to be named Sugar Bowl player of the game. Yowarsky, of course, earned the honor playing for then Wildcats Coach Paul Bryant.

The rest of the day would consist of watching their chief competitors make their best cases. What Alabama needed was an Oklahoma loss and a tie in the Rose Bowl. After a year where luck had mostly shined on the Tide, they got the worst possible results from both games.

The 1979 Sugar Bowl coverage was dominated by the presence of Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, upheld as a bastion of virtue in a dirty game. Over thirty years later, of course, Paterno’s reputation, coaching career, and life would lay in a heap of charges of aiding pedophilia and wash away all of his accomplishments with scandal. The Rose Bowl coverage, by contrast, featured the newest NFL jock turned commentator, San Francisco 49ers running back O. J. Simpson, who spent the entire telecast referring to Michigan Coach Bo Shlem-becker, and using generally bad grammar. Murdering the English language was merely a prelude for Simpson.

As hard as it is to believe, Bo Schembechler entered the 1979 Rose Bowl with a better record since his 1969 hiring at Michigan (99-14-3) than Paul Bryant (96-21-1) or anyone else. Michigan, however, entered the Rose Bowl for the first time ever as underdogs to the talented USC squad. A mild 4.6 earthquake greeted the Rose Bowl crowd, but the excellent game that followed is forever marred by one particular play that may well have assisted Alabama’s fortunes in the AP poll vote. With 7:45 left in the 2nd quarter, Charles White attempted to score from the three-yard line. White crossed the goal line and was awarded a touchdown, but the ball never got there. White had dropped it still in the field of play, and Michigan recovered. In a bizarre coincidence, the same official that had kept USC’s game-winning drive against Notre Dame alive gave USC a touchdown they didn’t actually earn. Leading 17-3 at the half, the second half was a vanilla affair that saw only one touchdown by Michigan, and USC prevailed with a final score of 17-10. Oklahoma then went out in their revenge match against Nebraska and won 31-24 after darting out to a 31-10 lead. Barry Switzer, whose reputation even then was that of the opinionated drunk cousin you avoid at the family reunion save for the comedy, admitted that Oklahoma likely had no chance at the national title, but he did say he thought his team had the nation’s best offense while Alabama had the best defense. (The only shock is that Switzer didn’t use the verbiage, “We are the most offensive team in college ball”). Switzer’s opinion gave a sort of backhanded endorsement to Alabama. And players on both Alabama and USC exhibited dignity in their points of view. Tony Nathan of Alabama was straightforward in saying that given the circumstances, if USC beat Michigan then he would be compelled to vote for USC on the basis of the head to head win over Alabama IF – key caveat – USC looked as good against Michigan as Alabama did against Penn State. USC QB Paul McDonald was asked about his views on the national championship, and he seemed to regard it as more of icing on the cake if it happened. Rather than argue, “We won head to head,” McDonald said that beating Michigan in the Rose Bowl was a real honor and that if they were rewarded with a title that it was basically a bonus. There was nothing now for three football teams to do but sit and wait until 630am EST on Wednesday to hear the results announced on television.

THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP VOTE

Fans in Alabama, in particular, went to bed anxious on the night of Monday, January 1, 1979. Unlike today, where you leave the field knowing you’re the champions, the fans of the teams involved had to wait about 48 hours or so after the final gun to find out who was number one. And Alabama’s players made no bones about it: they wanted it, and they never ceased to point to the previous year’s vote as evidence they deserved it. Coach Bryant laid out the case for Alabama at the post-game Sugar Bowl press conference even before the Rose Bowl result was known. His basic talking points were that Alabama had peaked at the Rose Bowl, knocked off the top-ranked unbeaten team, played a difficult schedule with no “soft touches,” overcame a rash of injuries, and came from behind eight times to win. Alabama also got a strong endorsement from Joe Paterno, who said Alabama was clearly the nation’s best team and a backhanded one from Barry Switzer, who mused how his team’s loss to Nebraska had deprived the whole nation of an unbeaten OU versus unbeaten Penn State Orange Bowl. The Tide also got an endorsement from Chuck Fusina, who rhetorically asked, “Why shouldn’t Alabama be number one? They beat us, didn’t they?” Sixty-eight sportswriters in the AP poll would have a vote as well as 35 coaches for the UPI poll. The votes arrived and rendered a split decision.

In the final AP poll, Alabama got 38 first-place votes to 19 for USC and 11 for Oklahoma, winning the title by a narrow 32-point margin. Penn State fell to fourth after their performance against Alabama. Alabama hoped for a clean sweep since they were #2 in the UPI poll entering the Sugar Bowl. USC and Alabama both received 15 first-place votes from the coaches, but the Tide somehow managed to lose enough 2nd place votes to cost them the undisputed title. Several Alabama fans called the UPI desk in New York to complain about how the Tide had been robbed yet again by “politics” as it was the closest poll vote since 1966. Coach Bryant himself disputed the “chemistry” that allowed the coaches vote to go the way it did. It was Alabama’s fifth national title since 1961 and USC’s fifth since 1962. And all things considered, it was probably the only just outcome possible.

A Commentary on the Final Vote

A COMMENTARY REGARDING THE 1978 POLL VOTE

1978 was my first year as an Alabama fan, and I was far too young and ignorant to understand what all went into polls and championship voting. To my simple mind, I’d watched a game that ABC network had touted as number one versus number two, the implication being that the winner of the game would be the final number one. It happened that way – sort of – but four decades of watching college football has provided me with a different perspective of it all, one that is mostly thankful that the rise of the BCS and especially the four-team playoff (that I pray never expands) has given us a sport where the champion actually knows they’re the champion when they leave the field after the final game. Much of my commentary is going to be dismissed as the typical take of a Bama hack, so let me address the Sturgeon’s law crowd whose lives are so shallow they have nothing better to do than write about how many of Alabama’s national championships shouldn’t be counted or are injustices or some other nonsense that avoids reality.

And here is the reality: we can write all the articles or books that we want but the fact is that Alabama justly won the 1964, 1965, 1973, and 1978 national titles. Period. Discussion over. You can write all of the Internet articles you wish about how “but they lost the bowl game to Texas/Notre Dame,” and the fundamental reality is that a century from now those titles will still be in Alabama’s possession. Alabama won by the rules in place at the time in the first three instances. Cry all you wish about 1964 but not only did Alabama win the 1964 title by the rules as they existed at the time but so did several other teams prior to 1964 that none of these folks complaining about Alabama titles even knows about. Their analysis begins with “Alabama didn’t deserve title X” and then the apologetics begins. It’s religion not science. The AP changed the rules after 1967 and the UPI after 1973. Many teams lost the glorified exhibitions known as bowl games (many, in fact, ignored the bowls) besides Alabama. That leads us to 1978, which is a different matter entirely. In this particular case, two teams shared the national title, one of which beat the other one on the field of play. And I would do an injustice to truth if I did not say at the outset that there is no question that if Alabama had beaten USC but lost to, say, Missouri, the Tide fans nowadays who suggest Alabama would have won a rematch would think that “we won head to head” would solve the entire argument. In other words, I’m conceding that Tide fans who are as interested in defending the titles as others are disparaging them often engage in the same tactics oblivious to the hypocrisy. I will endeavor to not do so below. That being said, however, there are a number of flaws that are used in determining the difficult question surrounding 1978. My motive is more to explain why the result happened rather than whether the result is correct, mostly because whatever I determine about the validity of the outcome simply won’t change the reality of that outcome (in other words, no matter what we think, Alabama and USC will always be co-champions for 1978).

1) Head to head is an important criterion but it’s not the only one

Advocates of the vacancy “but X won head to head” often leave a number of points unstated if they weaken the argument. The unstated assumption with head to head is that “head to head only matters if the two teams have the same number of losses.” Nobody ever says this, but it’s the reality of the argument, and I can give an abundance of evidence to validate this. Almost every single season after week four – and sometimes even earlier – you can find a team ranked higher than a team that beat them head to head. It’s simply the reality of life, and it boggles the mind how this supposed injustice is not a problem until someone doesn’t like the final poll.

Consider the AP poll of October 22, 1985 that ranked 3-1 Oklahoma at number ten ahead of 5-1 Miami, who was fifteenth. The bizarre part here is that Oklahoma not only had fewer wins than Miami, they lost at home to Miami, 27-14. To make things worse, Oklahoma continued to be ranked higher than Miami in the AP poll until Miami took matters into its own hands and blew out Notre Dame, 58-7, running up the score in order to rise in the polls. The early lower ranking cost Miami a head to head national title shot with Penn State, relegating the Canes to the Sugar Bowl while Oklahoma won the national title in a 1 vs 2 (UPI poll) Orange Bowl. But using the “head to head” argument, Oklahoma should have been ranked below Miami far earlier than they were. Of course, the immediate objection to this case – which can be multiplied by a dozen easily – is to state that this was years later after the split national title had justified this kind of ranking. Fair enough. But then I look at the AP poll of September 19, 1977 – earlier than the 1978 national title vote. For starters, Alabama had just lost, 31-24, to Nebraska but were ranked tenth. Nebraska, with the exact same record and a head to head win was ranked 14th. If head to head is such a strong argument, why was Nebraska ranked below Alabama? But the Huskers stayed below Alabama for three more polls until they lost to Iowa State. Even more amusing, Notre Dame’s loss to Ole Miss at home dropped the Irish to 1-1 and in the rankings from three to eleven. But Ole Miss, who had a 2-1 record with that head to head win, was not even ranked in the top 20. Shouldn’t Ole Miss have been ranked HIGHER than Notre Dame?

Even more amazing, we can use this very same example from the very same team and very same season in question. On October 14, 1978, USC lost, 20-7, to Arizona State on the road. The game made the Sun Devils 5-1 with a head to head win over 4-1 USC. Yet when the rankings came out two days later, USC was ranked seventh and ASU was 14th, despite the head to head win and extra game played. Many times in college football history a team has been ranked below the team they beat head to head. It’s not that the head to head factor isn’t important but rather that it is only one of several factors. This is a key point often missed. In today’s football, 1978 would give us a four-team playoff of Penn State, Alabama, USC, and Oklahoma. Of course, there would be cries of injustice from Michigan and Clemson, but what else is new? It is true that USC beat Alabama head to head, but it’s equally true that Arizona State beat USC head to head. Sure, Arizona State lost two games after they lost to USC, and that’s precisely my point: the college football voting is based on an entire season and not just one particularly attractive aspect of that season. USC fans who wish to argue that they were “really” better than Arizona State (and they were) cannot then deny Alabama fans the same point. After all, if you’re better than a team that beat you by 13 then you might worse than a team you beat by ten.

2) It is arrogant for modern persons who did not live through the season to think they know more about the season that others observed firsthand.

Let’s face it: most of these anti-Alabama national title pieces are written by folks who: a) just don’t like Alabama and this is a convenient way to insult the Tide; b) weren’t even alive at the time. The AP writers – and the coaches as well – actually lived through the 1978 football season. While it’s true that not every voter saw every game (or even had the ability to do so back then), it’s equally true that they saw more games than the people who now criticize their choice. The truth of the matter is that USC may have won their games, but they did not look very impressive coming down the stretch. In the final month, USC staggered to unimpressive wins over Stanford and UCLA and then blew a 24-6 lead and fell behind Notre Dame before getting a reprieve and winning at the end. Alabama, by contrast, smashed 6-5 Mississippi State by three touchdowns, #10 LSU by the same margin, and 6-4-1 Auburn by 22 points. Alabama was peaking long after September while USC regressed following their win over the Tide. Remember also that USC had been ahead 24-7 and only six Alabama turnovers had made the final margin so bad. The voters at the time genuinely thought that all things equal, Alabama was better than USC. The coaches, on the other hand, took into account how they would view it if they were in USC’s position and also voted accordingly.

3) The strength of schedule argument favors USC but not substantially.

During the Rose Bowl, Curt Gowdy continually referred to the fact that USC had “played five bowl teams.” In the context of 1978, when you only played 11 or 12 regular season games and there were only 15 bowl games, this was far more impressive than nowadays. And Gowdy’s claim was correct. USC DID play five bowl teams: Alabama, Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, and Notre Dame. They beat four of these teams, and the teams had a bowl record of 4-0-1. But Alabama played four. Yes, their opponents went 2-2, but part of that was because two opponents (Missouri and LSU) faced each other. Alabama’s opponents had a record of 82-54-2 (.601) USC’s had a record of 94-51-1 (.634). Of course, the entirety of the difference in schedule difficulty is due to USC CHOOSING to schedule a 12th regular season game. This argument might be valid if USC had lost one of those games, but they didn’t. They lost in conference to Arizona State after the Trojans had an off week. USC did play a more difficult schedule than Alabama, but only because of the extra game. This is not a case of BYU facing the 96th ranked schedule of 98 teams. The reality of the strength of schedule argument – just like the head to head argument – is its role in elimination of non-equals NOT in settling arguments of near equals. To view it another way: is there any team USC actually did play and beat that you think Alabama would not beat? Is there any team Alabama play and beat that USC would not beat? The question in both cases is “no,” which is the only validity in the strength of schedule argument.

4) The final performance of each team played the determining role.

There is no doubt that Alabama benefited from their last game against Penn State. The stories in newspapers the following day juxtaposed Alabama “dominating” Penn State with USC beating Michigan in a game marred by “controversy.” Those two words appeared all throughout the country on January 2nd. Alabama may have only won by seven, but their performance was marvelous, and their lasting image was the Goal Line Stand. USC’s lasting image was Charles White getting a touchdown that should have been a fumble. This is not an image that functions well in the public relations sense. Even if White scored on the play, the controversy has lingered to this day. Alabama, by contrast, was seen as a dominant team playing an excellent game against the nation’s unbeaten and presumed uncrowned champions.

5) Be thankful for what we now have

As many complaints as I had about the dubiousness of the BCS system, the setup was still far more positive than negative. It is amusing nowadays to watch the media types who want to say “head to head” about 1978 ignore it when it comes to the BCS or the four-team playoff. In 2000, for example, Washington beat Miami who beat Florida State, and the national outcry was that Miami had been dealt an injustice. Amazingly enough, these articles always ignored Washington while praising Miami. But the fact is that FSU played an overall tougher schedule and it was a three-point loss in October. We have seen this same event occur many times since. Colorado over Nebraska in 2001. Texas over Oklahoma in 2008. The sport has survived and been better for it. The real injustice of 1978 is not the split championship, but the fact that a playoff the sport knew it had needed since the mid-60s took over 30 more years to make a reality.

The years have come and gone, but the 1978 Crimson Tide will always reign as the AP national champions. Deservedly.

PaulD said:

My recollection is that Marler was in the shotgun because he had been injured and was nearly immobile.

The 1978 season is memorable for me for three things. First, I might my wife at halftime of the Nebraska game. Second, the Mississippi State games was our first "date game" experience. Third, the Sugar Bowl was my first Alabama bowl game (and a good one to start with!).

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That may be.

The reference to Marler was made during the LSU game when Woodley kept lining up in shotgun. I can't claim any personal recollection; if someone can link me a bi of validation, I'll gladly change it. Thx.

Congrats on the dating scene from 1978, ha ha.

selmaborntidefan said:

The 1979 Sugar Bowl coverage was dominated by the presence of Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, upheld as a bastion of virtue in a dirty game. Over thirty years later, of course, Paterno’s reputation, coaching career, and life would lay in a heap of charges of aiding pedophilia and wash away all of his accomplishments with scandal. The Rose Bowl coverage, by contrast, featured the newest NFL jock turned commentator, San Francisco 49ers running back O. J. Simpson, who spent the entire telecast referring to Michigan Coach Bo Shlem-becker, and using generally bad grammar. Murdering the English language was merely a prelude for Simpson.

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Ya know, like with Art Schlichster, I couldn't resist......

As our readership tends to increase this week, I will bump this most recent missive to the top.

I'm still working on the 1966 write-up (I just finished the Tennessee game). I have some things to check out and verify as I was not even
thought of at that time.

And I'm obtaining Celizic's book to get the opposing perspective as well.

I hope to post it by mid-September. Thank you for bearing with me.