Double spin move on TD, what could've been! H2P!!!
Brian Davis debut vs BC 1985
- Thread starter pierre93
- Start date
Double spin move on TD, what could've been! H2P!!!
That game was so bad and so indicative of the Foge era. Up 1 with like a minute left and we get fooled on a play action pass on 4th and 1 with single coverage and no help. Just dumb - sold out to stop 4th and 1 and get burned for a long TD on a slant . lol - I’m not bitter
Kelvin Martin with the TD for BC at the end. Bicknell was a very good coach too but we had this game won. H2P!That game was so bad and so indicative of the Foge era. Up 1 with like a minute left and we get fooled on a play action pass on 4th and 1 with single coverage and no help. Just dumb - sold out to stop 4th and 1 and get burned for a long TD on a slant . lol - I’m not bitter
Wow. This is my sweet spot as I was in college then. Thanks for posting and some comments, some good, some may piss off Lair posters but it is reality.
1. Love those unis. Just love the look of football uniforms in the 70's and 80's. The big pads, the shoulder and pants stripes, just looked like football players and not some Arena football look of today.
2. If sites like Rivals existed, Pitt's backfield would have like 5 4 stars and a 5 star as RB/FB and Ironhead came the next year.
3. Half of Pitt's players were likely 4 stars.
4. Foge sucked. Perhaps one of the worst college coaches of all time. I don't care if he was a great Pitt man, he sucked, he was Kevin Stallings as a head coach. Such a clown program. The stink still permeates today.
5. Chuckie Gladman was a really good dude.
6. Tom Brown is a bud, good dude.
7. Kelvin Martin from BC was a stud at WR
8. Everyone knows Bill Romanowski from his Bronco days and obviously a great player but then Mike Ruth might have been the best DT in the nation for BC, he was a monster.
9. Watching this infuriates me more....just seeing how naturally gifted Brian Davis was, wow.....what a shame.
10. Pitt had Davis, Gladman, Brown, AB Brown, Zeke Gadson and Darnell Stone at RB. All were Top 100 recruits as was Matt Stennett who moved to WR. Pitt hasn't had like 1 top 100 RB recruits in 20 years.
11. If Pitt recruited half as good at QB as they did RB, perhaps the performance would be better.
12. Why did it take until game 3 for Davis to even touch the ball?? Clown show.
13. Look at that packed stadium. Didn't need bright yellow seats to highlight the indifference.
Anyone else have a comment??
1. Love those unis. Just love the look of football uniforms in the 70's and 80's. The big pads, the shoulder and pants stripes, just looked like football players and not some Arena football look of today.
2. If sites like Rivals existed, Pitt's backfield would have like 5 4 stars and a 5 star as RB/FB and Ironhead came the next year.
3. Half of Pitt's players were likely 4 stars.
4. Foge sucked. Perhaps one of the worst college coaches of all time. I don't care if he was a great Pitt man, he sucked, he was Kevin Stallings as a head coach. Such a clown program. The stink still permeates today.
5. Chuckie Gladman was a really good dude.
6. Tom Brown is a bud, good dude.
7. Kelvin Martin from BC was a stud at WR
8. Everyone knows Bill Romanowski from his Bronco days and obviously a great player but then Mike Ruth might have been the best DT in the nation for BC, he was a monster.
9. Watching this infuriates me more....just seeing how naturally gifted Brian Davis was, wow.....what a shame.
10. Pitt had Davis, Gladman, Brown, AB Brown, Zeke Gadson and Darnell Stone at RB. All were Top 100 recruits as was Matt Stennett who moved to WR. Pitt hasn't had like 1 top 100 RB recruits in 20 years.
11. If Pitt recruited half as good at QB as they did RB, perhaps the performance would be better.
12. Why did it take until game 3 for Davis to even touch the ball?? Clown show.
13. Look at that packed stadium. Didn't need bright yellow seats to highlight the indifference.
Anyone else have a comment??
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I went to this game as a 9 year old with my youth football team. Went to Wash High, so BD was of particular interest to us. We loved the touchdown. I still remember the spin move.
agree with all of it. Giving Foge the HC job was probably the biggest reason for pitt's downfall..
Words cant describe how frustrating it is to play the "what if" game with Brian Davis..
I just cant understand how we recruited sooo well back then only to completely ignore the QB room. a year or two later, we had Heyward behind an OL that NFL teams would covet and the qb was a juco guy from california. So we had to give it to Ironhead 45 times a game.. HOW DO YOU IGNORE THE QB ROOM??
good call on the pads. so weird watching football now. Even if you watch football in the late 90s, they actually had shoulder pads on compared to now. a few years ago, i was watching pitt football and watching Price at DE play in basically shorts was hilarious then you'd watch pitt hoops and those players were wearing pants under their shorts and long sleeves with knee braces.
The basketball team had more padding on than the football players..
True Story. There was a moppy head kid from Boardman OH that wanted to come to Pitt. But Pitt already had Chris Jelic and Rich Bowen as QB recruits in that class. So Foge told him "thanks but no thanks". The kid went to Miami. Bernie Kosar.
Bowen just passed away a few months ago.. even with these two, still should have recruited more. Jelic was better at baseball, i'll admit i dont know much about bowen..
Foge was too nice of a guy. Pitt Man through and through, but he was the personification of the Peter Principle. Great defensive coordinator. He proved that by going on to a significant professional career.
Just wasn't equipped to be the head guy.
They were still recruiting off the golden age. The end was near, sadly.
Just wasn't equipped to be the head guy.
They were still recruiting off the golden age. The end was near, sadly.
as a steeler fan, he will always hold a spot in my heart for being the reason why the steelers won that playoff game against Cleveland in 2002 i believe..
They were up huge and well Foge went into the prevent, bend, bend some more then break defensive strategy that allowed tommy maddox to go off..
I was there and remember that spin move. Oh what could have been. A little help here. Exactly where in that clip is the spin move?
2:02 the juke and double spin. Roger Houston saying Briiiiiian Daaaaaaaavis! And towards the end scoreboard caption reads "can Davis save us?". ❤️ it
well kudos to Pierre for posting this, i spent a lot of time looking for this and never found it. the closest i came was a pitt purdue game i think, same year, with a few brian davis runs..
I forgot how good Gladman was.
I forgot how good Gladman was.
i told this story before but i was at a bar talkign to a guy who went to Wash high and of course Brian Davis' name comes up. this guy played high school ball with him.
He said for as great as a rb he was, he was an even better linebacker. thought that was crazy to hear.
He said for as great as a rb he was, he was an even better linebacker. thought that was crazy to hear.
Thx, I'm glad you enjoyed this. Also Foge was the DC 2 years later in 1987 when ND came to play us which we won 30-22. H2P!!
No not crazy, BD was a beast and at 5' 10" could vertically dunk a basketball with 2 hands. Still holds records @ Wash High for rebounds and long jump records.
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in hindsight, we'd have been better off letting Foge Walk and prioritize keeping Joe Moore around longer.
Moore was the best college OL coach in the country. Moore went on to be ND's OL coach with Holtz. Terrible decision making at the time and we still self inflict ourselves to this day.
5'10 and starting center on a state championship basketball team as well as a beast in track. Since I went to Wash High, I've heard all the stories, as I was a kid when he was in high school. Hoop coaches used to call our coach to scrimmage and warn they're bringing some big boys down there (and Wash High was very small in height) and Coach Faust used to chuckle and go "yea, OK, bring em down". He knew Davis would kill them.
Ugh...............obviously allowing Jackie walk was bad, but Jimmy Johnson wanted this job and would have taken it. Hand the 1982 team over to Jimmy Johnson we win the Natty that year instead of PSU. And who knows what the rest of the 80's would have been like?
1. Pitt had no QB. Its biggest issue post Marino. A good QB would've made Foge a 9-2 coach from 1983-86 then Major Harris does the same.
2. Pitt's kickers versus tOSU and WVU went 0-7 in back-to-back games. A 3-0 start in 1985 likely alters that entire season. Foge doesn't get fired, makes it to 1987 with Harris, so Foge makes it to 1990 because Harris hides his coach's warts, so the school may not raise academic standards since a lovable Pitt alum is the coach, we avoid the dreadful 1990s, etc.
OMG it was criminal how poor Pitt's kickers were (And Mark Brasco was considered the top kicker in the nation out of HS) and just how poor overall they are compared to the guys nowadays.
Jeannette had two highly rated guys in Dante Wiley and Brasco. We managed to land both of them and neither one amounted to anything.
Brian Davis had no appetite for college or classes, and finally lost his appetite for football.
Read about him a few years ago, he lived his life in relative obscurity in suburban DC I believe, maybe Maryland.
Think he was a mailman?
In the article the author was pressing him on what might have been, and he was pretty OK with how things worked out.
He was content.
But my what might have been???
Read about him a few years ago, he lived his life in relative obscurity in suburban DC I believe, maybe Maryland.
Think he was a mailman?
In the article the author was pressing him on what might have been, and he was pretty OK with how things worked out.
He was content.
But my what might have been???
Chris Jelic - there’s a name - pretty good punter and better baseball player ( hit a HR as a Met at 3 Rivers Stadium).
We were there. It was a tough loss.That game was so bad and so indicative of the Foge era. Up 1 with like a minute left and we get fooled on a play action pass on 4th and 1 with single coverage and no help. Just dumb - sold out to stop 4th and 1 and get burned for a long TD on a slant . lol - I’m not bitter
Mid 80s Pitt football might have had a completely different feel if we had remotely competent FG kicking.
Yeah - 1981 - 1989 was sort of my sweet spot as a Pitt fan - spanned middle school into college. Went to games with my dad and granddad— amazing memories.
Those teams were so damn talented and wildly under achieving. Some bizarre games - crazy rain storm against Temple, missed FGS left and right, QB injuries, and plays like this against BC that are just mind numbing.
Absolutely love those uniforms and loved being in Oakland on game day.
I remember Van Horne missing four field goals in the 14-14 tie vs NC State in 1986 and definitely missed multiple FGs versus Temple and BC in 1987. He’d miss simple PATs as if they were from 50 yards out.
Yeah - it was unbelievable.
I think it was 1986 ( or 1985 ) losing at Ohio State 10-6 and we missed like 4 FGs. It was just crazy.
Yep, 1985, second game. Keith Byers was suspended and Pitt held a 7-3 lead forever and Brasko missed three FGs and tOSU scored late to win it.
That’s it. Although, to this day I’m convinced one of those missed FGs was good - but the OSU refs just called it no good.
Back in those days rhe FG posts were much shorter- like HS posts- our kicker kicked it so high it was well clear of the top of the FG posts . I remember the announcers being at a loss how the FG was ruled a miss . lol
One thing that happened at some point in the mid to late 80's up until the early mid 2000's was Western Pa kids became Way Overrated. Especially QB's and OL based on past success. If you were a 6'3"+ QB who started in HS as a Jr you were likely recruited by P5 level colleges and ranked in mags like Street and Smiths and Athlons back then.
The only thing I think that became truly watered down as a whole was QB play. Something was in the water from Unitas to Marino. Sure - there were some really good QB's who came out of the region after that but between Unitas and Marino, we're talking some of the greatest ever which will never be seen again.
This thread is depressing lol. Pretty much sums up Pitt football since Jackie left. Stealing defeat from the jaws of victory. Brian Davis story is so Pitt……incredible opportunity pissed away It is crazy how good that Pitt backfield was
And oh by the way FG kicking lost Pitt huge games well before the 80s. Anyone remember Carson wide and the 7-6 loss to UPS Uhg.
And oh by the way FG kicking lost Pitt huge games well before the 80s. Anyone remember Carson wide and the 7-6 loss to UPS Uhg.
FG kicker was bad but what a step down from the days of Hugh Green and Ricky Jackson with that D-line
Halloran had a good game and Congemi sucked there but damn with Foge that line and defense was hard to watch
Halloran had a good game and Congemi sucked there but damn with Foge that line and defense was hard to watch
