OrangeXtreme
The Mayor of Dewitt
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RIP Terry Donahue
- Thread starter OrangeXtreme
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OrangeXtreme
The Mayor of Dewitt
- Joined
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- Messages
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- 421,760
SWC75
Bored Historian
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He took over for Dick Vermeil after they beat 11-0 Ohio State in the '76 Rose Bowl. I think he was the youngest head coach in the country at the time. he beat frank Kush's Arizona State team, (who had been 12-0 the previous year), in his opener and was unbeaten after his first 10 games before losing to USC and then to Alabama in a bowl game. Quite a first year and I found myself rooting for him and the Bruins for years afterwards. They had a lot of good teams but never seemed to get past the 2 loss barrier and people wondered if someone else could do better. Nobody has since.
He stated the same year Jim Boeheim started here and they were about the same age. I'm a bit younger...
He stated the same year Jim Boeheim started here and they were about the same age. I'm a bit younger...
Donahue's all-time record is not overly noteworthy until you look at the schedules he played in the regular season. First of all, the Pac 8/10 was as good as any conference in the 70s, 80s and into the 90s. Secondly, he played real games for the vast majority of the Bruins' non-conference slate.
I looked it up last night ... 4-5 regular-season games against Ohio State in his 20 years, home-and-homes with Tennessee, Bama, Michigan, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Minnesota, BYU (when they were really good!), Miami (Fla.), Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Purdue, Houston. He dodged nobody! Remarkable.
He play an NFL caliber schedule every year and what I mean by that is that there were no off-weeks.
Donahue had a 151-74-8 coaching record at UCLA and a 98-51-5 mark in Pac 8/10 play. He looked perpetually like he was 37 years old, but he could coach. And other coaches knew it. Tough loss for CFB.
