Paterno, unlike Bryant, did not believe winning a national championship was as important as the challenge of playing for a national championship. The Penn State defense gave up an average of 54.5 yards rushing while quarterback Chuck Fusina, second in the Heisman Trophy balloting, directed an offense that averaged almost 31 points a game.
Why would Paterno look for the toughest foe? The answer was he had a team that could look anyone in the eye and not blink. 2 teams, only the fifth time this had happened in postseason football. After the Lions beat Pittsburgh and the Tide defeated Auburn, Alabama moved up a notch in the polls. Sure enough, Missouri beat Nebraska, and Auburn and Georgia tied. Penn State seemed ready to play in Miami, but Paterno allowed that should Missouri upset Nebraska and should Auburn beat Georgia, which would put Alabama in the Sugar, he wanted to play the Crimson Tide. Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno had never won a national championship, nor had Penn State in 92 years of playing the game. There was some talk of matching Penn State and Alabama in the Gator Bowl, but nothing came of it. Alabama’s better overall record would not come into play as the Sugar Bowl had less say in the representative than either the Orange or Cotton Bowls.Īll Georgia had to do was beat Auburn to tie ‘Bama for the conference championship and the Bulldogs would host the Sugar Bowl, probably against Oklahoma.
#THE GLASSFISH BOWL FREE#
That is, the team last appearing in the Sugar Bowl was free to go to another bowl. As the perennial champion, and because he wanted the freedom to go elsewhere on occasion, it was agreed in the event there was a tie for the conference title, the “most recent appearance” rule would prevail. When the original contract between the SEC and Sugar Bowl was drawn up, Bryant influenced the formula for selecting the conference representative. With the Big Eight tie-up in the Orange Bowl and the SWC tie-up with the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar was the only major bowl in which a pairing could occur. 1 Penn State in order to have a shot at a national championship. In some way, Bryant had to be able to play No. His Crimson Tide improved and continued to improve after the USC loss, rising to No. Bryant, it seemed had written himself out of the Sugar Bowl. But they held the inside track for the Sugar Bowl. The Bulldogs were not a bad team but had little chance at No.
Georgia, which lost one early season non-conference game, was knocking on the Sugar’s door most of the season. 1 team and, thus, the attraction for the highest-ranked opponent on January 1. After beating Nebraska and Missouri, the Crimson Tide lost 24-14 to Southern California in a game Bryant would say was “worse than the score.” The loss was damaging to the Sugar Bowl because ‘Bama was the SEC’s best chance for a No. The Sugar Bowl was now the Sugar Bowl.Īn odd thing occurred in 1978 as the season opened and the time came to choose the participants for the Sugar Bowl: The weaknesses in the SEC-Sugar Bowl contract caught up with Alabama’s Bear Bryant. No one bothered to call it anything but the Sugar Bowl, so after 44 years the membership gave up the ghost. There was a change in the masthead of the Mid-Winter Sports Association. The Irish beat him, 24-23, in the 1973 Sugar Bowl, and then upset him, 13-11, in the 1975 Orange Bowl. 1 despite the Tide’s slaughter of Ohio State. Now the Irish had leapfrogged over Alabama to No. 1 despite a 10-10 tie with Michigan State and despite Alabama’s 11-0 record. But Notre Dame was directly responsible for Bear not having an incredible seven AP No.
Bryant had won three Associated Press national championships, four in United Press International. It must have frustrated the man many considered the best collegiate coach of all time. 1 Texas 38-10, it would not have leapfrogged the Irish to the top. 5 before the bowls – and if the Tide beat No. It was fair to speculate that had the positions been reversed – Notre Dame No. 2, forcing a lot of fans to wonder if the pollsters voted for the name rather than the game. 1 Texas catapulted Notre Dame into the top spot in both polls while Alabama inched to No. The victory Bear Bryant forecast for the fifth-ranked Irish over No. “Man, I was driving home sure we’d be national champions. We just looked at him, feeling it couldn’t all happen like he said. He said Oklahoma would lose, Michigan would lose, and Notre Dame would beat Texas. “He said we had to beat Ohio State convincingly. “Everything coach told us turned out to be right – except the vote,” said Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss of the 1978 bowl sequence.
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