So what happened by the time we played Fresno? Were we out of gas or was Fresno that much better than us.
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I was there, too. Bob Babich and his two buddies were my next door neighbors in the hotel. Bob was a great guy! Very affable and unassuming. Not that demeanor on the field. Ran into Bob Hitchens at the hotel bar and had a couple drinks together. Had met original Bengals QB John Stoffa earlier. He had a son in the team. We went to the final bowl practice together. Ran into him a year or two later at the UC game in Oxford. His son had transferred to UC by then. Something had happened to his son’s career at Miami he didn’t want to discuss. Apparently the parting wasn’t amicable.
If I remember correctly, Miami was only down 7-0 at the half in the California Bowl. Spartans QB Mike Perez picked us apart in the second half and David Diaz-Infante lived in our backfield. It was ugly - about a 37-7 final I think.
Miami led 7-3 at the end of the 1st quarter, but was down 17-7 at halftime.
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Thanks. I remembered we were close early, still in it at the break and blown out quickly after halftime.
Yes but we had the ball at midfield late in the first half only down 10-7 and went for it on 4th and short with Swarn and we were stuffed (although I thought we got a bad spot). San Jose took over and went right down the field and turned the momentum around…we never recovered.
As for Stofa, that was a strange deal as he had a lot of promise…rumors at the time were that Rose ran him off but I don’t know if that was true or not.
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I kind of got that feeling.
When you watch that LSU game replay, you never get the idea that our players don’t belong on the field w LSU…yes, we got a lot of breaks but we made a few really big offensive plays and our defense was never manhandled by LSU…correct me if I heard wrong but I thought the LSU announcer said we had one of the biggest lines they were facing that year.
Also, the disparity in yardage can be partially explained that Rose was smart to just run the ball and clock in the second half with Miami up two scores. Morris made a couple of really nice throws early (one 20 yarder called back for holding), and if we had mixed up the game plan I think we could’ve had more yardage…but we didn’t need it!
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Sadly, Stofa (Sr) passed away earlier this year.
Sad to hear that. He was a very nice guy…
2 things IMO. #1 our defense was just decimated by injuries going in. Third team D linemen etc. #2 we tried to out west coast the west coast and went away from our core offense.
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Very helpful! Much thanks as I’ve always wondered.
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i found it interesting that harvey williams played in the '86 game…must have been a true frosh?
he played against us in the '90 rematch…what a gifted athlete…
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I think the wet field and gamelong rain played to our advantage. LSU was really fast and athletic, we were big and strong and solid, but nothing flashy. That field took away their speed advantage and gave us a chance, Stopping them 3 different times inside the 3 and having the two long TD passes and all the turnovers on LSU gave us what turned out to be a fairly easy win. When we lost to 45-38 the week before at Riverfront, conditions were perfect and UC had a ton of big, breakaway plays…LSU ended up winning the SEC and playing in the Sugar Bowl.
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The field was soggy, but that didn’t stop Andy Schillinger from outrunning the entire LSU secondary…another big play in the game was the Bob Getz punt block
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Schillinger was very, very, fast.
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So, in 1986 we beat the SEC champ and in 1995 we beat the B10 champ…”chew on that” reality for a delicious moment.
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And the first one was 36 years ago and the second was 27 years ago.
Perhaps we’ll all get lucky and the biggest play in school history will occur this fall.
Any guesses as to what will move the needle?
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