’90s brought in title contenders
Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series of stories looking back at the Fiesta Bowl, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this college football season. The game is scheduled for Jan. 2 at State Farm Stadium provided Power 5 conferences are able to complete a season now underway during the coronavirus pandemic. We are commemorating the game’s golden anniversary and its singular impact on Arizona’s sports history.
The Bowl Coalition begat the Bowl Alliance, which begat the Bowl Championship Series, which began
the College Football Playoff, which is where things stand today in trying to determine a major college champion.
The Fiesta Bowl has been a part of all that begatting going back to its third decade of existence and inclusion among Bowl Alliance tier 1 games with the more established Cotton, Orange and Sugar bowls, ahead of older bowls (Sun, Gator) relegated to tier 2.
Because of what the Fiesta Bowl accomplished in the 1980s — moving to New Year’s Day, securing a title sponsor (Sunkist) to boost its team payout, taking big pairing swings that paid off with two national championship games, continuing to build on its hospitality reputation — its position in the first incarnation of a national championship format (albeit without the Big Ten, Pac-10 and Rose Bowl) was almost a given.
But the evolving landscape did not begin without some local trepidation.
“The Fiesta, as the swinging bachelor of bowls, refused to be tied down by conference or convention,” Arizona Republic columnist Bob Hurt wrote in January 1992. “It manipulated and finagled with unparalleled success.
“The Fiesta thrived on ingenuity in team selection. Now, it becomes part of a giant pre-planned selection formula involving four bowls, five conferences plus Notre Dame.
“I’m not knocking the coalition or the Fiesta for joining it. There was no option. It was a practical decision. Join or suffer with inferior teams. Still, the irony overwhelms me. Here is the Fiesta, which threatened lawsuits questioning the monopolistic aspect of conference tie-ups, joining the biggest tie-up of all.”
Arizona shuts out Miami
Even given its organizational flaws, the Bowl Coalition succeeded in matching the No. 1-2 teams twice followed by No. 1-3, with all of the winners — Alabama (1992 season), Florida State (1993), Nebraska (1994) — finishing as national champion in the final polls.
None of those title games were played at the Fiesta Bowl, which instead drew Big Eight runner-up Colorado twice and one of the best teams in Arizona history.
The Wildcats’ 29-0 win over Miami on Jan. 1, 1994, capped the first 10-win season in school history, and also was the first shutout in Fiesta Bowl history. The second would not come for another 23 years.
UA’s Desert Swarm defense limited Miami to 182 total yards including 35 rushing (on 20 attempts), intercepted three passes, recovered a fumble and had four sacks.
“Where it stands in UA history? I’m not sure,” coach Dick Tomey said. “I just know I’m damn old and this win feels as good as any I’ve ever had.”
Colorado lost 26-22 to Syracuse in the first Fiesta tied to the Bowl Coalition but two years later dominated Notre Dame 41-24 behind quarterback Kordell Stewart (348 yards total offense) and Heiman Trophy-winning running back Rashaan Salaam in Bill McCartney’s final game as Buffs’ coach.
The Irish getting into a Bowl Coalition tier 1 game with a 6-4-1 record was part of the reason for a streamlined Bowl Alliance starting with the 1995 season.
Game of the decade
At the height of the Tom Osborne coaching era, Nebraska was the king of college football, going 60-3 from 199397 including consecutive national championships.
The second Cornhuskers’ title game was played Jan. 2, 1996, in the 25th Fiesta Bowl in quarterback Tommie Frazier’s final college game, fittingly against his home state Florida. His tackle-breaking 75-yard touchdown run in the third quarter was the exclamation point on a 62-24 blowout, still the most points by a Fiesta winner and second highest combined score.
Nebraska rushed for a bowl record 524 yards — 199 for Frazier, 165 for Lawrence Phillips — and its 629 yards total offense is second most in Fiesta history. Florida’s minus-28 yards rushing is the lowest in bowl history as Gators’ coach Steve Spurrier futilely tried to keep up through the air with his Fun ‘n’ Gun offense and quarterback Danny Wuerffel.
“By the fourth quarter, Wuerffel (three interceptions, seven sacks) felt like the mouse who no longer wanted the cheese,” Republic columnist David Casstevens wrote. “He just wanted his tail out of the trap.
“Nebraska was a big red 18-wheeler with chrome bumpers, running wide open downhill, full throttle, Tommie Frazier at the wheel. You could hear the piercing blast of its air horn from here to Lincoln.”
A less-dominant Nebraska would return at the end of the decade, winning 31-21 over Tennessee in the most recent of the Cornhuskers’ six Fiesta appear
ances (2-4 overall)
Tennessee returns to the top
Nebraska wasn’t the only unbeaten Fiesta Bowl team in the 1990s.
Penn State also went 2-0, adding to its four combined wins from the bowl’s first two decades. The Nittany Lions dominated Tennessee 42-17 in the 1991 season then in a Bow Alliance game capping the 1996 season downed Texas 38-15.
In the final year (1997) of the Bowl Alliance, Kansas State made a successful Fiesta debut with a 35-18 win over Syracuse on the bowl’s first New Year’s Eve staging.
When the Bowl Championship Series debuted in 1998 — finally bringing the Pac-10, Big Ten and Rose Bowl into the postseason calculation — the Fiesta was in line to host the first BCS championship.
A Fiesta record 80,470 crammed into Sun Devil Stadium to watch Tennessee complete the best season (13-0) in school history with a 23-16 win over
Florida State for its first national title since 1951.
Vols wide receiver Peerless Price made the most of four catches. His 199 yards are tied for the second most in Fiesta history and included a 79-yarder from Tee Martin in the fourth quarter that largely sealed the victory.
Notable performances
Linebacker Reggie Givens’ two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, turned the second half in Penn State’s favor in its win over Tennessee. Givens was Defensive Player of the Game even though fellow linebacker Keith Goganious made 14 solo tackles.
— Kansas State’s Darnell McDonald set a Fiesta Bowl record with 206 receiving yards against Syracuse including a 77-yarder from Michael Bishop for one of his three touchdowns.
— Colorado cut its deficit to three points against Syracuse in the 1993 game when running back Kirby Dar Dar took a reverse handoff from Qadry Ismail on the ensuing kickoff and raced a
Fiesta-record 100 yards for a gameclinching touchdown.
Off the field
The 1990s began in crisis for the Fiesta Bowl after Arizona voters rejected creation of a paid holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King.
Schools that typically would have sought a holiday trip to the state to play in a major bowl backed away. “They don’t need it,” Bill Shover, one of the bowl founders, said after Proposition 302 failed to pass in November 1990. “If they can find a similar situation elsewhere, why come here and face the political situation?”
The NFL went so far as to take the 1993 Super Bowl away after awarding it to metro Phoenix in 1990 (the Cardinals moved to Arizona from St. Louis in 1988).
What others viewed as an obstacle, Louisville saw as opportunity to play in the most important bowl in school history and first of any sort since 1977.
“We commend the Fiesta on being the first bowl to look at the merit of our record,” Louisville coach Howard Schnellenberger said. “They could have gone to a school steeped with tradition, but they chose to come to Louisville to live and be a part of our dream.”
“Martin Luther King would tell us to go and live your dream,” Louisville athletic director Bill Olsen said.
The blue-blood part came on the other side of the pairing when Alabama, in its first year under former Phoenix Cardinals coach Gene Stallings, agreed to a Fiesta bid after a 16-7 win over Auburn for a 7-4 regular season. The Tide would not be back for a quarter century.
Though the pairing — No. 18 vs. No. 25 — was low by Fiesta standards at that time, higher-ranked Louisville held up its end in a 34-7 rout to finish 10-1-1. Quarterback Browning Nagle threw for 451 yards, still a Fiesta record, and Alabama’s only points came off an interception return.
— In early 1990, John Junker returned to the Fiesta Bowl to replace Bruce Skinner as executive director. He would become one of the most powerful figures in college football until being fired in 2011 for his part in an illegal campaign contribution scheme.
— IBM replaced Sunkist as the Fiesta Bowl’s title sponsor in 1992 then after a three-year run was replaced by Tostitos, on board for a 19-year partnership starting with the Nebraska-Florida national title game.
OKLAHOMA STATE 24, IOWA STATE 21
STILLWATER, Okla. – Spencer Sanders passed for 235 yards and ran for 71 and a touchdown in his return from injury, and No. 6 Oklahoma State defeated No. 17 Iowa State.
Sanders had been out since injuring his right ankle in the season-opener against Tulsa.
Chuba Hubbard ran for 139 yards and a touchdown for Oklahoma State (4-0, 3-0 Big 12). With the win, the Cowboys joined Kansas State as the only remaining undefeated teams in conference play.
KANSAS STATE 55, KANSAS 14
MANHATTAN, Kan. – Phillip Brooks returned a pair of punts for touchdowns, Kansas State took advantage of an embarrassing day of special teams by its biggest rival, and the No. 20 Wildcats rolled to a victory over Kansas.
Will Howard threw for 243 yards and two touchdowns while Justin Gardner returned an interception 25 yards for another score, helping the Wildcats (4-1) improve to 4-0 in the Big 12 for the first time since 2014.
Deuce Vaughn added 71 yards rushing and another touchdown as Kansas State beat the Jayhawks (0-5, 0-4) for a series-record 12th straight time. Kansas has not beaten its Interstate 70 rival since Nov. 1, 2008, in Lawrence.
Freshman Jalon Daniels was just 22 of 39 for 207 yards for the Jayhawks.
OKLAHOMA 33, TCU 14
FORT WORTH, Texas – Spencer Rattler threw for 332 yards and two touchdowns, and Oklahoma won consecutive games for the first time this season.
Marvin Mims had scoring catches of 50 and 61 yards and set up one of Gabe Brkic’s four field goals with a 38-yard punt return, while Rattler averaged almost 26 yards per completion with five connections of at least 33 yards.
Unranked since the first week of October, Oklahoma (3-2, 2-2 Big 12) hasn’t gone this long outside the Top 25 since 1999, when former coach Bob Stoops started building what became a perennial contender again before it was passed along to Lincoln Riley.
Max Duggan threw his only touchdown pass with the game out of reach late in the fourth quarter as TCU lost its second straight since beating the Longhorns in Austin when Texas was ranked in the top 10.
TEXAS 27, BAYLOR 16
AUSTIN, Texas – Sam Ehlinger passed for an early touchdown, then ran for two more in the second half to lead Texas to a win over Baylor that snapped the Longhorns’ two-game losing skid.
Ehlinger set up Texas’ first touchdown with a 42-yard completion on a leaping catch by Joshua Moore. Those two connected again on a 3-yard scoring pass that put Texas ahead 13-3 at halftime. Texas (3-2, 2-2 Big 12) went ahead 20-3 with a punishing 80-yard drive to open the third quarter, mixing in runs with freshman Bijan Robinson in his first career start, before a Baylor pass interference penalty set up Texas inside the Baylor 5. Ehlinger then powered in from 1-yard out.
Ehlinger scored again in the third when he rolled to his right before taking off for the end zone and splitting two defenders near the goal line.
TEXAS TECH 34, WEST VIRGINIA 27
LUBBOCK, Texas – Cornerback Zech McPhearson returned a fumble 56 yards for a touchdown with 8:44 left to lift Texas Tech to a win.
West Virginia’s Sam James caught a short pass from Jarret Doege but fumbled on a hit from Jacob Morganstern. McPhearson, a graduate transfer from Penn State, picked up the ball and went the length of the field untouched.
Texas Tech (2-3, 1-3 Big 12) snapped a three-game home losing streak to the Mountaineers (3-2, 2-2).