Week 4 of season-specific reminiscing -- 1990 | Syracusefan.com

Week 4 of season-specific reminiscing -- 1990

Eric15

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I feel like the 3-year stretch from 1988-1990 rarely gets talked about by SU fans, even though we had winning seasons and bowl victories each year. Here is the 1990 season, which I don't know much about.

Can anyone talk about what happened during that bizarre stretch of back-to-back home ties against ranked teams? Did anyone attend the Vandy game in Nashville, or the Aloha Bowl?

My only memory of this season is attending the Tulane game when I was 8 and having one of those "Drain Tulane" pins on my shirt.

165049
 
I feel like the 3-year stretch from 1988-1990 rarely gets talked about by SU fans, even though we had winning seasons and bowl victories each year. Here is the 1990 season, which I don't know much about.

Can anyone talk about what happened during that bizarre stretch of back-to-back home ties against ranked teams? Did anyone attend the Vandy game in Nashville, or the Aloha Bowl?

My only memory of this season is attending the Tulane game when I was 8 and having one of those "Drain Tulane" pins on my shirt.

View attachment 165049

No firsthand memory of any of this.

But watching those consecutive tie games on SUperSports replays on Time Warner about five years ago was ugly and discouraging even decades later. Really wrecked the season right off the bat, especially because I think we had a late lead in one if not both of those games.
 
Also very strange scheduling in that we played a grand total of two home games after September 22nd.
 
This was the first season I really started paying attention to SU football. I remember listening to a lot of games on the radio that year.

Our TV blew up a few weeks before Christmas. My dad decided to get a 46" rear projection back when those things were huge and not every tv sold was a big screen. When he decided on one the stipulation was that it had tombe delivered before Christmas day so we could watch the Aloha Bowl on it.
 
I was 13, definitely an odd year. I remember having to watch the kickoff classic at my grandmothers because it was on a weird channel we did not get, raycom I believe. I also remember watching the two ties there with my grandfather. One we were kind of happy about and one we should have won, it left a sour taste in our mouths. Forget which was which. What an strange record. 1-1-2.

I remember that we blew the Tulane game, I had to listen to that one on the radio. I believe we were up a few scores and lost at the end. Can't really recall the Penn State game.

I also recall my mother being mad at me because I was in the other room watching the Aloha Bowl on Christmas day. During the game one of our Christmas candle holders must have gotten to hot and literally shattered. My mom came in and was like "Craig, you get too upset during these games!" to which I said "Mom, look at the TV, we are up 28-0!" Keith Jackson called that game, I remember him saying that we would be a team to look out for in the next few years.

Man these posts bring me back. Thanks for the great topic idea again. Look forward to these each week.
 
If I remember correctly, Graves got hurt either before or during the Penn St. game. Is that right? I had forgotten that it was a close game.
 
I was 13, definitely an odd year. I remember having to watch the kickoff classic at my grandmothers because it was on a weird channel we did not get, raycom I believe. I also remember watching the two ties there with my grandfather. One we were kind of happy about and one we should have won, it left a sour taste in our mouths. Forget which was which. What an strange record. 1-1-2.

I remember that we blew the Tulane game, I had to listen to that one on the radio. I believe we were up a few scores and lost at the end. Can't really recall the Penn State game.

I also recall my mother being mad at me because I was in the other room watching the Aloha Bowl on Christmas day. During the game one of our Christmas candle holders must have gotten to hot and literally shattered. My mom came in and was like "Craig, you get too upset during these games!" to which I said "Mom, look at the TV, we are up 28-0!" Keith Jackson called that game, I remember him saying that we would be a team to look out for in the next few years.

Man these posts bring me back. Thanks for the great topic idea again. Look forward to these each week.
I thought the kickoff classic was on a major network. I remember watching it and we didn't have cable.
 
I thought the kickoff classic was on a major network. I remember watching it and we didn't have cable.

Maybe it was, at that point we didn't have cable either and my grandmother did. But one of our network channels was fuzzy and black and white half the time.
 
I feel like the 3-year stretch from 1988-1990 rarely gets talked about by SU fans, even though we had winning seasons and bowl victories each year. Here is the 1990 season, which I don't know much about.

Can anyone talk about what happened during that bizarre stretch of back-to-back home ties against ranked teams? Did anyone attend the Vandy game in Nashville, or the Aloha Bowl?

My only memory of this season is attending the Tulane game when I was 8 and having one of those "Drain Tulane" pins on my shirt.

View attachment 165049
The KO Classic was one of two CFB games that weekend. We got beat pretty good, but competed well. If that makes any sense.

The Michigan State game was at night. We rallied in the 4th quarter. Took the lead, then had it won, but a penalty negated the win.

From LA Times:
The late kick let Michigan State weather a 13-point fourth-quarter rally that had given Syracuse a 23-20 lead.

Langeloh's kick came after it appeared the Orangemen had taken over on downs with 11 seconds remaining. But the Spartans (1-0) gained a reprieve when Syracuse (1-1-1) was penalized for being offside, and quarterback Dan Enos used the break to hit wide receiver Courtney Hawkins with a 17-yard pass to the Syracuse 26.

Kicker John Biskup had given Syracuse a 23-20 lead with 1:25 to play with a 27-yard field goal, his third of the game.


The Pitt game was a Nooner. SU scores a TD to go up, 20-10. We get the XP blocked and returned for 2 points (which was sort of a new rule). Gulp!. Then Pitt drives 70-80 yards, methodically, behind Alex Van Pelt, for a TD and they get the 2-point conversion.

From Syracuse Newspapers:
Pitt's Mark Gunn blocked an extra point, and the Panthers returned it 90 yards for two points.

Then late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Alex Van Pelt threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Olanda Truitt with 1:30 left and converted the two-point conversion to tie the score.


Someone said it correctly in this thread. MSU really outplayed SU for most of the game and even though the Orangemen rallied, kindsa felt fortunate to get the tie. The Pitt game was one we should have won by 10-14 points.

In both games, in the last few minutes, SU somehow snatched a draw from the jaws of victory.

The easy win at BC essentially ended Jack Bicknell's tenure at BC. The Tulane loss was a joke (sorry, have to say it) and we did not really compete at Miami.

This was when SU was still known for its physicality in bowl games. We shocked Arizona that Christmas Day.
 
The Pitt game was a Nooner. SU scores a TD to go up, 20-10. We get the XP blocked and returned for 2 points (which was sort of a new rule). Gulp!. Then Pitt drives 70-80 yards, methodically, behind Alex Van Pelt, for a TD and they get the 2-point conversion.

Good lord, someone could seriously write an entire novel (I nominate SWC) about gut-wrenching Syracuse football September Dome moments in the 1990s.
 
49,521 in the Dome for a .500 SU team vs. a sub-.500 Rutgers. Man those were the days.
 
The KO Classic was one of two CFB games that weekend. We got beat pretty good, but competed well. If that makes any sense.

The Michigan State game was at night. We rallied in the 4th quarter. Took the lead, then had it won, but a penalty negated the win.

From LA Times:
The late kick let Michigan State weather a 13-point fourth-quarter rally that had given Syracuse a 23-20 lead.

Langeloh's kick came after it appeared the Orangemen had taken over on downs with 11 seconds remaining. But the Spartans (1-0) gained a reprieve when Syracuse (1-1-1) was penalized for being offside, and quarterback Dan Enos used the break to hit wide receiver Courtney Hawkins with a 17-yard pass to the Syracuse 26.

Kicker John Biskup had given Syracuse a 23-20 lead with 1:25 to play with a 27-yard field goal, his third of the game.


The Pitt game was a Nooner. SU scores a TD to go up, 20-10. We get the XP blocked and returned for 2 points (which was sort of a new rule). Gulp!. Then Pitt drives 70-80 yards, methodically, behind Alex Van Pelt, for a TD and they get the 2-point conversion.

From Syracuse Newspapers:
Pitt's Mark Gunn blocked an extra point, and the Panthers returned it 90 yards for two points.

Then late in the fourth quarter, quarterback Alex Van Pelt threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Olanda Truitt with 1:30 left and converted the two-point conversion to tie the score.


Someone said it correctly in this thread. MSU really outplayed SU for most of the game and even though the Orangemen rallied, kindsa felt fortunate to get the tie. The Pitt game was one we should have won by 10-14 points.

In both games, in the last few minutes, SU somehow snatched a draw from the jaws of victory.

The easy win at BC essentially ended Jack Bicknell's tenure at BC. The Tulane loss was a joke (sorry, have to say it) and we did not really compete at Miami.

This was when SU was still known for its physicality in bowl games. We shocked Arizona that Christmas Day.
The MSU QB who took advantage of the SU penalty, Dan Enos, just became the OC at Miami. His presence on the staff was apparently a major reason why we lost the QB from Connecticut to the Canes.

Dan Enos is a bad man.
 
comments above about the Pitt and MSU ties are correct, we were lucky to tie MSU based on how we played and we plain blew the Pitt game. I was at the USC game at the Meadowlands, one of those games where we played well but were just outclassed and it never felt like we really were going to win the game
 
I was at the USC game at the Meadowlands

With the exception of the 1997 Wisconsin blowout, the Meadowlands (both the old and new place) has been an extremely difficult venue for us over the years.
 
Maybe it was, at that point we didn't have cable either and my grandmother did. But one of our network channels was fuzzy and black and white half the time.
Gotcha. We had a seasonal campsite at Brennan Beach on Lake Ontario that we went to every weekend until they closed for the winter in mid october. They hadn't installed cable at the campground yet. What's worse though was that we didn't have cable at home either. The town of Palermo had not let Time Warner come through despite it being in every surrounding town, village, city, etc. So even at home, any games not on network TV had to be caught on the radio.
 
With the exception of the 1997 Wisconsin blowout, the Meadowlands (both the old and new place) has been an extremely difficult venue for us over the years.
We did beat Rutgers there twice (1991, '93). Not that that counts for much.
 
Off topic but in a wierd way I miss games ending in ties rather than these 78-72 six overtime games we get now. It wasn't a loss, it wasn't a win. It was what it was and you got there playing a real football game.
 
I remember being so excited to watch the kickoff classic, thinking we'd beat USC. My dad told me USC has a phenom at QB against us. Todd Marinovich beat us, and I hated him.
 
Good lord, someone could seriously write an entire novel (I nominate SWC) about gut-wrenching Syracuse football September Dome moments in the 1990s.

I don’t want to read that book. That phenomenon, and the head scratching time outs that were often called in the first half, were marks of the Coach P years. Don’t read that as if I don’t like the man though, he delivered wins that made me a happy man.
 
49,521 in the Dome for a .500 SU team vs. a sub-.500 Rutgers. Man those were the days.
Pretty sure Rutgers was homecoming and Tulane was parents weekend.

Bunch of us drove down for USC in an Old School road trip fashion. Got all drunk the night the night before, decided to go and leave right then, realized we didn’t have enough beer for the trip and waited till the Students Choice opened up the next day. By the time we all got our act together the next day, our #s grew and we left around 2:30-3:00 and went right to Giants Stadium. After, all crashed hard unannounced at someones parents house, then after eating all their food for breakfast quite early, drove back up to party the rest of Labor Day weekend at Cuse. Had to be less than a 20 hour trip to see a big L. Think that game was on a Friday. Went to the BC game too, but in a much more respectable manor. Someone’s parents knew we were coming, got there late Friday, went to game and then back to their house for more food and beer as well as some pool and foosball games in the basement before leaving early Sunday morning to get back for the NFL.

Stayed at school for the ped st game (88 was great) because, I think, that was also the OV Split challenge weekend v them at 44s. We also lost that. Although I believe we won the spring rematch, I don’t recall a rubber match in the fall of 91 or in spring of 92.

Other than that, I went to all the remaining home games and remember watching the bowl game on tv and being super pumped we won again...
 
OrangeTarheel, ,Mac was the coach in 1990, P didnt take over until the next year. 1990 was a weird year. The only game I attended was the Tulane game and it was a bitter disappointment. I remember the KO classic because it was when I first noticed Dan Conley. It seemed like he spent most of the night chasing Marinovich.

I am not able to fact check this but I think I read somewhere that 1990 was the year of the rule change that a blocked extra point could be returned for 2 points and that the Pitt-SU game was the first to have it happen. Again I am not sure how to fact check that.
 
I was a high school senior in Massachusetts in 1990-91 and didn’t follow SU football yet. So I got nothing. But since I love the Friday reminiscing series here’s my contribution...

 
Couple things I remember about that season
1. Billy Scharr out of Rochester abruptly quit before the season, leaving us unsettled at QB. He was a highly recruited passer, but was a square peg/round hole situation in our option offense. We had Mark McDonald, who had experience as a back up (and would eventually become captain, even as a backup QB). Marvin Graves obviously won out, but McDonald played well coming in for him in spots
2. The kick off classic, while it did not end well, was close at the half, and was a coming out of sorts for both freshmen Graves and Conley. Sports Illustrated referred to Graves as “Marvelous Marvin” in their write up on the game
3. The Penn State game was a big deal because it was the last of the long continuous series. Coach Mac was really pumped for the game and was lobbying for the series to continue. However, it was for naught as they would start their B1G schedule the next year (oops, 1993) and Syracuse wouldn’t budge on PSU’s 6-4 home game stipulation
4. John Flannery was looking like a real contender for the Outland trophy. However, an injury on the line caused him to be moved from guard to center (or vice versa) for the final game of season against Miami. This put him head up against Russel Maryland, who pretty much dominated him. In doing so, Maryland cemented his own case for the Outland trophy (and helped bolster his status to eventually be the first pick in the draft). Miami had too much for us to handle, and the 33-7 score didn’t reflect the talent difference

Oh, and losing Mac after the bowl game stunk. It was interesting hearing about O’Leary and others being at least interested
 
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3. The Penn State game was a big deal because it was the last of the long continuous series. Coach Mac was really pumped for the game and was lobbying for the series to continue. However, it was for naught as they would start their B1G schedule the next year and Syracuse wouldn’t budge on PSU’s 6-4 home game stipulation

I didn’t arrive at SU until the following season, but as a member of the marching band there were treeeeemendous stories about the 1990 game at PSU.

The SUMB traveled to Happy Valley for the game, and apparently there had been a lot of rain in the days leading up to it. JoePa, being the miserable p.rick that he was, refused to let the bands perform on the field for pre-game or halftime. But the SUMB was allowed to perform on field for a post game show. Since it was the last game of the series, thanks to JoePa’s assinine 6-for-4 demand, the SUMB proceeded to purposefully chew up the field. Kids “marched” by digging into the grass with their heels and ripped up huge chunks of sod. Several chunks were carried off the field, placed into large ziploc bags, and hung on the walls of various off campus houses in Syracuse.

:)
 
Off topic but in a wierd way I miss games ending in ties rather than these 78-72 six overtime games we get now. It wasn't a loss, it wasn't a win. It was what it was and you got there playing a real football game.

I personally much prefer any form of overtime over a tie. I just hate the feeling of attending a 3.5 hour sporting event and leaving without a sense of closure.

Like with the 1990 season for example, I would have much rather lost one of those ties and won one of those ties, and finished the season 8-5 than a weird 7-4-2.

The college OT format I agree is too drawn out. I personally think the new NFL format is perfect.
 

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