Bad memory for older Horn fans: '78 Cotton Bowl

And I have erased the '84 Cotton Bowl from my memory

 

One of the 3, of Shearer, Acker or McMichael started calling Martignoni.... "Block Head" and it stuck!

 

My memory of that game is that UT may have had one of their most solid teams ever, but I also don't remember a UT team shooting itself in the foot as much as the Horns did against Notre Dame.

The Irish have almost always been able to get up for the big games, and I recall that they came into that game perhaps not as respected as they felt that they should be. They played a solid game against the Horns, kept Earl under control about as well as a defense can, and pulled off the upset.

 

I look back on those days and it makes the Cotton Bowl look ridiculous for all those times they invited ND because of their poor sportsmanship and also ND consistently lost to USC those years.

 

re: Fred. This was his big downfall. For some reason, he was basically the opposite of Pete Carroll, "give him six weeks to prepare and look out".

Give Fred six weeks and he would find a way to get blown out. This was not the only occasion.

imo, if Fred had done some deep introspection and studied with some successful bowl game coaches after this game, he would have won at least one and maybe two National Championships:

HIs bowl record at Texas:

1977 Cotton Notre Dame 10-38 L
1978 Sun Maryland 42-0 W
1979 Sun Washington 7-14 L
1980 Bluebonnet North Carolina 7-16 L
1981 Cotton Alabama 14-12 W
1982 Sun North Carolina 10-26 L
1983 Cotton Georgia 9-10 L
1984 Freedom Iowa 17-55 L
1985 Bluebonnet Air Force 16-24 L


Notice the 42-0 blasting of Maryland the next year. I watched the game, we totally outmatched Maryland, it was like we were playing against a Rice type of team.

Then, the only other bowl win occurred because of Robert Brewer's big play.

There was some argument about who actually called the play. I think Fred wanted to take credit for the call.

If you changed the Georgia game to a win, there's one NC, and I guess you actually don't get another, unless you blow out Alabama instead of winning 14-12.

Anybody have a theory about why Fred wouldn't study with a successful bowl-game coach? My comments read as though I know he didn't, I really don't, but the evidence speaks for itself.

He simply didn't have a clue about how to prep. for a bowl game.

 

This is why I only watch the LHN. We win every game we play on there. I think I've seen the Horns win at least 20+ games in a row in the last month. We are about to win the the First B12 championship as I type this.

 

Orangecat - that is a very good theory and question about Akers bowl game prep and record. His bowl record is terrible: 2 - 7. I don't fully blame FA for the loss to GA, but maybe I should for having anyone field a punt that late in the game with a tight 9-3 lead.... but that is for another thread.

I would like to hear from H-D Rider, who played for Coach Akers, for his opinion, if he cares to give us one.

 

...and, Worster, if you go even deeper, the team seemed to always peak at OU week. November games were scary, even against supposedly subpar teams like TCU.

There were other hints that sometimes Fred would lose the team. The Arkansas debacle was one of those. I could tell about 1:00 or less into the game the team was TOTALLY UNPREPARED. This was the week after we dominated the 2nd half against OU and all the team heard about all week was how great they were; and voted number 1. Final score against OU was 34-14. Final score against Arkansas was something like 3-42 or 11-42.

We were never into the game mentally. This was one of the few games I did not watch to the bitter end. It was so tough to watch just the first half, I think I gave up after 3 quarters.

Anybody else remember how the '83 team(11-0) struggled against TCU in November?

If memory serves, we were behind at halftime, but the D scored two TDs to put us ahead and we won something like 21-14.

Typical example of the tapering off of the team. Super sharp against OU, then a gradual tail off. Much of this "tapering off" could be attributed to injuries.

'83 was a great example, re: Edwin Simmons. Wow! there is another big if. If Edwin had been able to stay healthy, the Cotton Bowl game would not have been close.

We literally had nobody who could hit the hole even close to as quick as Edwin could have.

 

looks like I got it backwards. TCU's D scored two TDs against OUR offense:

2nd quarter

07:30 TC Lyles 80 yd fumble return (Ozee kick) 7 - 3

00:41 TC Linwood 66 yd interception return (Ozee kick) 14 - 3

So our D allowed 0 points, our offense scored 20, and allowed 14.

What a D!!

 

Orangecat - yes, you bring up a great point that Freddie frequently had them peak vs ou and after that, with the exception of the '77 & '83 season, the team experienced ups and downs / tapering off as you pointed out.

I believe your are talking about '81 when we beat ou, moved up to #1 and traveled to FayetteNam and got absolutely mauled 42-11. I remember watching the game at my apt. in Dallas and yelling at the TV. You were right and you could tell from the get-go they were unprepared for that game - maybe still thinking about beating ou or strolling into arky to pick up a win. I don't know, but the hawgs kicked our *** that day - it was disgusting and painful to watch.

Re: '83 and the year after - perhaps it could have been SO different if Edwin Simmons had stayed healthy and or had good knees... that '83 ou game and what he did was a thing of beauty I will always remember.

 

..and the thing about Simmons, I remember reading in the Statesman about his legs. One of his legs was MUCH longer than the other, not even close. I want to say about an entire inch longer than the other. Makes you wonder, if the problem had been detected earlier, could anything have been done? I doubt it, even today, I mean I guess you can perform surgery, but wow. I wonder how well he can walk today? I did read somewhere in the last year that he has gone on to be a successful businessman and on his local school board.

Whenever I think of Simmons, I also think of that other famous medical case, David Condom? sp? Condon? Didn't play a down, because the incoming freshman physical revealed the problem, I can't remember, I think it was his neck.

UT honored his four year scholarship anyway. Must have been quite a shock to him, to find out he would never play a down.

I wonder what happened to him, and how successful he has been?

 

Believe it was Steve McMichael. My uncle and he were roommates at UT

 

One other thing, ND had this Quarterback named Joe Montana. Not really sure what happened to him after college.

 

I can attest 100% that there was a little bit too much loosening up in the bars the night before the game.
Steve McMichael was spun like a top all game long.
I called Uncle Mark “Marconi”.

 

The loss of our middle linebacker was huge. ND exploited that all day. I worked with the guy who took his place that day. I asked him what he saw all day...he said, "the sky...I was on my back the whole game."

 

My recollection of that Cotton Bowl was what I recall reading later.

Earl had apparently suffered a turf toe injury on his right big toe in the aggy game. He talked about it later, that he just couldn't plant that foot like he did all season. Recall some written description of that kind of injury, sounds like a little thing, but it's not for a power running back like Earl.

There is a classic photo of Earl on the sideline late in that game, sitting on his helmet, distraught.

But compared to 1976, 5-5-1, and a drooping, sagging Longhorn team, I took that shellacking by ND in stride, considering 1977 was an 11-0 (finished 11-1), No.1 ranking after the win over SMU, Texas' first Heisman trophy, Shearer's Outland Trophy, Akers' National Coach of the Year award, finally beating OU and smashing aggy in the same year.

Again we go into the criticisms of Akers, mostly valid, but even DKR had his detractors, he swooned after that first MNC, and if he had stayed on another year Earl would NOT have won the Heisman, and Texas would probably have had a losing season in 1977.

At the start of each season under Akers I remember feeling (and reflected in national preseason rankings) that Texas was seriously in the hunt not just for the SWC title, but for national championship talk.

The latter years of Akers' tenure in Austin was a time of the grossest extreme of recruiting cheating by SMU, aggy, OU, and other direct competitors of UT. I still have fondest memories of Texas Longhorn football during Fred's time here --- the 1980s and the past 6 or 7 years or so --- not so much.

Hook 'em