Before my time
- Thread starter BVGPitt
- Start date
84 was just a debacle season. Congemi broke his ankle, the schedule was brutal, Foge was in over his head. Lots of NFL talented wasted in the trenches because the team couldn't complete a pass or focus.
Was the tie PSU? I seem the remember PSU scoring Kate and JoPa went for the tie instead of the win. Maybe that was 1983.
Here's an example, true story, from that season. We were trailing Maryland by I think 4 points with under 8 minutes to go. We get the ball at like our own 20. We (Pitt decides) to run EVERY play off of Bill Fralic. Every play was essentially a run to his side. And we march methodically down the field. Boom! Every play! Boom...4-5 yards, Fralic dominates, just he gets that much push on his own. We get the ball now down inside Maryland's 10. Less than 2 minutes left, and Foge for whatever the bleep decides to run off the other side, Maryland run blitzes (like they were) and hits I forget who the back was (McCall?) in the backfield and we fumble, Maryland recovers and runs the clock out.
That is how you go 3-7-1
That is how you go 3-7-1
The tie with the nits was in 1983. 24-24. The Panthers had already gone in the locker room thinking they had a 24-21 victory at Pitt Stadium. But the officials decided to put some time back on the clock (sigh) and the nits kicked a field goal to tie it as (the added) time expired. I remember telling some friends at the game that if I were Foge I would’ve refused to bring the team back on the field. Joe sure had a way of influencing the officials.
The tie in 1984 was vs Navy. 28-28.
We were ranked #3 for the BYU game, the opener at Pitt Stadium. After that debacle we fell to #17, quite a fall. I guess the pollsters didn’t understand just how awesome (sarc) that eventual national champion BYU team was at the time.
The next week #15 Oklahoma came in and beat the tar out of Pitt. Season over, and the next week we lost at Temple.
It was a horrific season.
Foge should have been fired immediately after that debacle but for some reason (well the reason was the idiotic admin) they gave him one more year.
All Reggie Smith had to do was hold on to an interception on the last drive, ball went right through his hands, can still see it in my mind. Watching the replays there wasn't anything shady about it....the refs got it right but at the time it did seem like typical Paterno shenanigans.
There was a great story in a book by John Clayton who covered Pitt in 1984 regarding the Navy game. He was on the Pitt sideline and witnessed Foge draw up the play Navy would probably use for the 2 pt conversion including coverage and assignment details for the Pitt players. Navy ran that exact play and Pitt blew the coverage. Clayton said that showed him in doesn't matter who or what the coaches say or do... it's on the players come execution time.
Yep. Lots of plays happen that could change the outcome of any close game. No official video replay system in place then, of course. All timing issues were handled by the crew on the field. But that was the first time I attended a game where a team had to be brought back onto the field from the locker room after they thought time had expired.
Yep. And if I recall it was a pitch to the left to McIntyre that he fumbled. A much riskier type of exchange than a straight hand off.
We were the only ranked team that BYU beat/played that year.
In the Holiday Bowl they beat a powerful Michigan team that finished 6-6. The record of their opponents that year was: 61-85-3.
That was a horrible game to lose.
That story is from the 8-3-1 season in 1983, not the 3-7-1 season in 84.
Pitt won the 84 game 31-11. I was a student at the time and went up for the weekend. Stayed with a friend from high school for the weekend. I remember he had a copy of the Penn State newspaper and they were making fun of Pitt, saying that usually the Pitt - Penn State game was for the championship of Pennsylvania but that we were so bad that if they wanted to play for the state championship the nitters should have been playing Penn that day.
And maybe they should have, because we beat them up and down the field that day. You don't usually hear 90,000 people that quiet. Except for that group of Pitt fans sitting in the corner.
Was just going to mention this 84 game. Our three wins that year were East Carolina, Tulane and PSU. And the two wins before PSU were largely unimpressive. Then they went up to Happy Valley and crushed them.
Beat Penn State by more points than they beat East Carolina and Tulane combined.
East Carolina finished that season 2-9. Tulane went 3-8.
1984: A nightmare worse than George Orwell ever dreamed. And the year Pitt lost its place among the elite programs, never to sniff a return.
BYU was a shocker. Oklahoma was a beating with a yardstick. Temple and WVU were head scratchers. The tie with Navy -- Pitt blew a 14-point lead with less than 3 minutes to play -- was a gut ripper. The team badly underperformed except at Penn State, when the Panthers pout together a complete, dominating performance that still makes me smile. It was a happy ride home from Happy Valley.... Foge probably saved his job with the win over PSU.
BYU was a shocker. Oklahoma was a beating with a yardstick. Temple and WVU were head scratchers. The tie with Navy -- Pitt blew a 14-point lead with less than 3 minutes to play -- was a gut ripper. The team badly underperformed except at Penn State, when the Panthers pout together a complete, dominating performance that still makes me smile. It was a happy ride home from Happy Valley.... Foge probably saved his job with the win over PSU.
I'm glad we got revenge in 87 at Provo. Our DL was in their backfield most of the evening.
And 270 lb Ironhead provided the coup de gras when he went airborne to hurdle a BYU defender on a long run down the sideline. An amazing display of athleticism and grace from the big guy!
Yeah, he saved his job for a year. Delayed the inevitable. As a HC, Foge sadly just didn’t have it.
The 84 start gave us the intro of the pancake block stat. Pitt came up with it to tout Fralic for Heisman. At 0-4 Pitt said it was fruitless to continue the campaign
I always called that game a "name" game. As in Oklahoma could have named the score. They won by 32. If they wanted it to be 42 it probably could have. If they wanted it to be 52 it may very well have been that too. They just ran us right off the field that day.
Foge was 25-18-3. With the talent he had, and the way those games played out, he should have been more like 35-11. I get ill just looking back at the scores.
all I remember is being really drunk in the Syria Mosque parking lot after a loss and an industrious kid selling eggs and maps to Foge's house....the rest is a blur...
