Settled in South Florida
Recent games in which the national title was settled here:
2009: Tim Tebow-led Florida caps its second national title in three seasons under coach Urban Meyer with a 24-14 victory over Oklahoma and it’s Heisman-winning quarterback Sam Bradford.
2005: In another matchup of Heisman winners, USC’s Matt Leinart (Orange Bowl record five touchdown passes) is spectacular - while Oklahoma’s Jason White (three interceptions) is awful — in a 55-19 Trojan blowout.
2001: Unbeaten - but still an underdog - Oklahoma throttles Florida State in a 13-2 victory. Heisman winner Chris Weinke and FSU entered the game averaging a nation-best 42 points per game.
Jan. 2 1998: Capping a decade in which four other national champions were crowned in the Orange Bowl (Colorado, 1991; Miami, 1992; Florida State, 1994; Nebraska, 1995), Nebraska’s 42-17 victory over Peyton Manning-led Tennessee is significant because it marked the last game of legendary Huskers’ coach Tom Osborne, who went out out on top.
Jan. 2, 1984: In this classic, upstart Miami shocks mighty Nebraska 31-30 as Osborne goes for a 2-point conversion and the win in the closing seconds. The game started The U’s run of dominance. Three other times in the 80s championship were decided in the Orange Bowl (Clemson, 1982; Oklahoma, 1986; Miami; 1988).
For Bobby Bowden, the Orange Bowl was a personal house of horror where even his finest moment as Florida State’s coach created more anxiety and despair than joy.
On January 1, 1994, Bowden finally had won his first national championship after years of missed opportunities. Or so he thought.
Soaking wet after getting a tub of cold water poured over his head and with FSU players celebrating around him, Bowden walked to midfield at the Orange Bowl to shake hands with Nebraska coach Tom Osborne.
But in mid-shake, Bowden learned the game was not over. Officials placed one second back on the game clock after ruling that a Nebraska receiver had been tackled before time expired, setting up the Cornhuskers for a potential game-winning 45-yard field goal.
‘I said to myself, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re going to take the dadgum game from us,’” Bowden recalled last week during a telephone interview from his home in Tallahassee. “Our sideline was growling mad.”
Nebraska kicker Byron Bennett hooked the field goal attempt left, handing the Seminoles an 18-16 victory and adding to what has been a history of thrilling finishes in national championship games played in South Florida.
Monday night, top-ranked Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama will meet at Sun Life Stadium, marking the 20th time college football’s No. 1 team has been crowned in Orange Bowl or BCS title games.
Some of college football’s best-known coaches have experienced career peaks in national championship games played here. Others have suffered their most-grueling losses. A few have endured both.
Bowden, for instance, won the first of his two championships in the ‘94 Orange Bowl game but lost a chance at a third title in 2001 when the second-ranked Seminoles lost to No. 1 Oklahoma in the formerly-named Pro Player Stadium.
And while the defining moment in Howard Schnellenberger’s long coaching career came when his 17-point underdog Miami Hurricanes defeated top-ranked Nebraska in the 1984 Orange Bowl — ranked by ESPN as the second-best bowl game of all-time — he also endured the agony of losing a season’s biggest game in Miami.
Schnellenberger was Bear Bryant’s offensive coordinator at Alabama when the Crimson Tide lost to Texas in the 1965 Orange Bowl Classic, the first played at night. Alabama had a chance to win late in the game but the Longhorns stopped Joe Namath inches from the goal line on a fourth-down run.
At the time, college football’s national champion was selected before the bowl games were played. Despite the loss to Texas, Alabama was named No. 1 by both the Associated Press writers’ poll and the United Press International coaches’ rankings. But Schnellenberger said the defeat stung just the same.
“It was hard to accept,” Schnellenberger said. “In the five years I was there with Bryant, we only lost four games. A loss like that was like a death in the family. We lost that game by the slightest of inches. We went into a funk that we didn’t come out of for a long time.”
Lou Holtz can relate. Holtz’s Notre Dame team had a chance to knock off No. 1 Colorado for the second consecutive Orange Bowl game on UJanuary 1, 1991 but a 91-yard punt return by Raghib “Rocket” Ismail with 43 seconds remaining was nullified by a late clipping call.
Asked about the game on Saturday during an ESPN event on Miami Beach, Holtz shook his head and complained about the penalty, saying the flage was thrown by “a guy 40 yards away.”
“My toughest loss?,” said Holtz, repeating a question. “After a while in this business, winning is a relief and losing is a catastrophe. That loss was devastating.”
Monday night, somebody will know the feeling.
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