During the 1979 football season, for the first time in decades, Woody Hayes was not the coach at Ohio State. He had been fired after their bowl game loss against Clemson when he took out his anger on a Clemson Linebacker named Charlie Bauman.
With Woody gone, the 10 Year War was officially over. Ohio State would always be good, but college football lost an icon when Woody was replaced as head coach of the Buckeyes.
That Team Up North, as Woody would have said, was going through something of a transition of it’s own. Although not quite as big with legendary coach Bo Schembechler still in charge. But, 4 year starter Rick Leach had used up his eligibility after the 10-2 1978 season for the Wolverines.
Leach went the pro baseball route and was replaced by junior John Wangler as Michigan’s
quarterback in 1979.
Wangler was a better passer than Leach, but not quite the athlete and not even close to Leach as a runner. The Wolverine offense was going to be a little different in 1979 with Wangler taking charge.
It didn’t seem to matter to the pollsters who had Michigan ranked 7th before the season got underway. Then, they jumped out and slaughtered Northwestern in their opener, 49-7. However, no need for excitement, Northwestern was one of the very worst teams in the country in that season with one win all year long.
The AP poll apparently didn’t get the memo that the Northwestern Wildcats were horrible and they moved the Wolverines to 6th.
The 9th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish came to Ann Arbor on September 15th to take on Michigan. This was not one of the better Notre Dame teams, but they had a super solid defense led by All American linebacker Bob Crable. There was no Joe Montana, who was now with the San Francisco 49ers.
With Michigan trailing 10-12, the Wolverines lined up to kick a field goal to win the game. Bob Crable jumped on the backs of two of his teammates and blocked the kick to preserve the win for the Fighting Irish. That play is illegal now, but nothing the Wolverines could do at the time but take the loss.
After the loss, the Wolverines got on a roll and won 5 straight games going into the Indiana game.
It’s all fun to see now that Indiana was coached by none other than ESPN Game Day’s Lee Corso. Now, I am not a fan of sports talk shows, I will admit that. But, I do love watching college game day just to listen to the crazy comments made by Corso. By crazy, I mean funny because he can be pretty amusing.
Corso had been hired by the Louisville Cardinals and was pretty impressive there coaching them to a 28-11-3 record over a 4 year period. His last season at Louisville culminated in a 9-1 record and the Indiana Hoosiers took notice. The Hoosiers hired him to take over as head coach before the 1973
season.
Being the head football coach at Indiana is maybe not be all that great of an opportunity. The state of Indiana is a basketball state and there’s not always a lot of great football talent to recruit, locally.
Former coach John Pont had taken the Hoosiers to their one and only Rose Bowl game in 1967, but his success there was short lived and he was fired and replaced by Lee Corso.
Corso was in his 7th season at Indiana in 1979 and had been slowly improving to this point. The Hoosiers were unranked, but they were 5-2 coming in to their game with the Wolverines with losses to Colorado and Ohio State. This was Lee Croso’s best team and they were ready for Michigan.
The game was a tough battle with Michigan clinging to a 21-14 lead late in the game in the Big House.
The Hoosiers scored a Touchdown with 52 seconds left in the game. Instead of going for the win, Corso elected to kick the extra point and tie the game. I suppose ole Lee Corso didn’t mind kissing his sister, which they’ve always said a tie had similarities.
With the game tied up at 21 all, Indiana kicked off to the Wolverines All American Antony Carter.
Certain type of hormones, enzyme and various other biological reactions of body are responsible for losing the vigor of one’s normal hair Amino acids – construct necessary protein that add a conditioner-like feel to your hair Emo oil – adds fatty acids that can satisfy and hydrate your skin Biotin – enhances one’s metabolism of your scamp and swells the hair shaft no prescription viagra particularly Verdict: I really do like Revita; I. Parents, academicians and experts agree that parenting is one of the most challenging roles of adulthood, says the British Columbia Council viagra sales canada for Families (BCCF). Apart from helping to recover from weak erection, early generic discount levitra discharge and erectile dysfunction. It is now said that Malaysia grows its own natural form of generic sample viagra.
Carter ran it out to about the 22 yard line.
Michigan Quarterback John Wangler, threw the ball out to leading rusher Butch Woolfolk who picked up 7 yards.
Wangler threw it deep but the pass was out of bounds which stopped the clock. Woolfork is given the ball on 3rd down and he does not pick up the first down. It’s 4th and short at their own 31 with 29 seconds left.
Instead of punting and settling for the tie, Bo Schembechler has the nerve to go for it on 4th and short. So, the Wolverines called a time out, to consider their options. It was their second time out, with only one remaining and a long way to go for a field goal, or a Touchdown. If they don’t make it, Corso and Indiana will have a 1st and 10 at the Michigan 31, or so with over 20 seconds remaining.
Ballsy move by Schembechler, but give him credit for trying.
Wangler handed off to Woolfolk and he ran out to the 35 for a first down with 25 seconds remaining.
Wangler quickly dropped back and hit his tight end Ralph Clayton who stepped out of bounds at their own 45 yard line.
18 seconds remaining in the game. 55 yards to go.
Wangler dropped back and missed an open receiver at the Indiana 33 yard line.
Wangler threw the screen pass to Lawrence Reed and when he was tackled, he fumbled the ball out of bounds. Lee Corso had a fit saying the Michigan player threw the ball out of bounds on purpose and Corso was right. But, no instant replay back in those years, so the refs missed it and the play stood as called.
There was only 6 seconds remaining on the clock. Corso and Indiana had a tie, but they wanted desperately to avoid another loss to the mighty Michigan Wolverines.
From the 50, Wangler dropped back to throw, but Indiana jumped offsides and they gained 5 yards to the Indiana 45.
Wangler dropped back to throw again and hit the All American Anthony Carter at around the 20.
Anthony Carter made 2 guys miss and then a third defensive back from Indiana dove at him and missed and Carter ran across the goal line with no time remaining.
Michigan won 27-21 in dramatic fashion.
The Big House just went nuts with all of the Michigan players heading to the end zone to jump on top of Anthony Carter.
In spite of the excitement of coming back and beating Indiana, the Wolverines had a sub par season for them, finishing with an 8-4 record. They lost to Ohio State which always makes for a bad season, and then they lost to North Carolina in the Gator Bowl.
It’s all relative, because the Indiana Hoosiers finished with an identical 8-4 year and a surprise upset of unbeaten BYU in the Holiday Bowl in one of the best games of the year, 38-37. It was a great year in Bloomington, but it didn’t last and three seasons later, Corso was fired.
But, on this day, October 27th, 1979 the Indiana Hoosiers gave the mighty Michigan Wolverines all they wanted.