Bill McCartney, the former Colorado head coach, has long been my example when discussing how many years should a coach get to turn a program around.
At Colorado, his Buffaloes struggled to a 2-8-1 record during his first season. They improved to 4-7 during his second year but slipped back to his worst record in his third year of 1984 when the team only won a single game and finished 1-10.
In year four, McCartney’s Buffaloes had a breakthrough and a winning record with a 7-5 finish. Had they arrived? Not entirely, because they were back to 6-6 the following year.
Then, followed 7-4 and 8-4 seasons which were good, but not good enough for most people and long-suffering fans.
But, then, the recruiting in California and Texas and other states began to really pay off, but especially the coaching staff’s efforts in the Golden State.
Most programs want to fire their coach after 3 or 4 seasons if they haven’t won big, and at Colorado with Bill McCartney, that would have been a huge mistake.
The 1989 Colorado Buffaloes finished their season undefeated, but they lost a heartbreaker in the
Orange Bowl to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish coached by Lou Holtz. That loss opened the door to the Miami Hurricanes to win the national title because they had beaten Notre Dame in their last game of the season.
It was a huge disappointment for the Buffaloes, obviously, but they had a ton of talent returning.
The Buffaloes began the 1990 season ranked 5th and they had been chosen to play 8th ranked Tennessee in the annual Pigskin Classic that they used to play back in the day to get the season going earlier.
Colorado and Tennessee battled to a classic 31-31 tie. This was a pretty talented Volunteer squad with three first-round draft picks and six more taken in later rounds. The Vols also tied 3rd ranked Auburn and lost close games to Alabama and top-ranked Notre Dame.
Colorado beat an average Stanford team next, and then they were stunned by 21st ranked Illinois in game three by a single point, 22-23.
Now ranked 20th, it didn’t get any easier for the Buffaloes with a trip to Austin, Texas to face the 22nd ranked Longhorns. Colorado barely survived with a 29-22 victory.
Again, things weren’t getting easier, but at least 12th ranked Washington was scheduled to play in Boulder. But, this Washington team was a year away from a national title in 1991.
Colorado survived another close game pulling out a 20-14 win.
In their first 5 games, the Buffaloes played 4 ranked teams and through it, they posted a 3-1-1 record.
Now ranked 12th, the Buffaloes had little hope of winning a national title when they visited Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri to play the Tigers of Missouri.
The Missouri Tigers were going through hard times in 1990. After years of futility under head coach Woody Widenhofer, they fired him and hired Bob Stull.
In the 1990 season, they were 2-2 with a 1 point loss against a decent TCU team in game one and crushing defeat against a decent Indiana team in Bloomington, Indiana.
But, at home, they were coming off a huge upset victory over 21st ranked Arizona State at home. The Tigers may have been a bad team, but they often were tough to beat at home and they beat the Sun Devils, 30-9, which was impressive.
The one thing that Missouri lacked that Colorado possessed by the truckload was talent.
Colorado was led by quarterback Darian Hagan who was a master at running the option. Running back Eric Bieniemy was short and compact and a very talented runner with over 1,600 yards rushing in 1990. Back-up George Hemingway, while not related to the famous writer, was also a talented
running back sitting in reserve and relieving Bieniemy at times.
The offensive line was deep and talented as was the defensive line. Gary Howe, Leonard Renfro, and Joel Steed were difficult to run against and they were backed by linebackers Alfred Williams, Chad Brown and Kanavis McGhee. The secondary was led by Deon Figures and others.
This was a deep and talented Colorado team.
But, Missouri had come to play on this day of October 6th, 1990.
Buffalo starting quarterback Darian Hagan was injured and back-up Charles Johnson was forced into action.
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With almost 3 minutes left in the game, Colorado began a drive in their own territory. Quarterback Charles Johnson pitched the ball to Eric Bieniemy who took the ball up over their own 20-yard line. Johnson missed on a pass next, but it stopped the clock with 2:05 remaining in the game.
Johnson missed another throw, but on 3rd and 10, he completed a pass to wide receiver Rico Smith up to about their own 45 for a crucial 1st down.
1:52 remaining on the clock, Colorado doesn’t panic and does what it does best, the option to Bieniemy. He had plenty of running room as he crossed midfield, but as with most of the day, he slipped on the terrible field surface at Missouri’s stadium.
Like starter Hagan, Johnson can run. He was almost sacked on a nice pass rush by the Tigers, but he escaped and ran the ball all the way down to the Missouri 30 yard line and ran out of bounds which stopped the clock.
Johnson dropped back to pass and hit his target only to have the ball dropped. Then, the Buffs ran a draw play to Bieniemy who ran it down to about the Missouri 16 and again out of bounds to stop the clock.
Bieniemy had 27 carries for 217 rushing yards at that point of the game.
Under a rush again, Johnson dumped the ball off to Bieniemy who ran the ball down to about the 10-yard line.
Johnson then hit little-used tight end Jon Boman who would have scored with a better playing surface. He slipped at about the 3-yard line, but it gave the Buffaloes a first and goal.
The game was already interesting, but now it really took a life of its own.
It was first and goal from about the 3 with one time out left and 31 seconds left on the clock. It was now or never for both teams.
On first down, Johnson spikes the ball to stop the clock. Bieniemy ran the ball down to the one-yard line on the next play.
Colorado called time out with the ball at the one and everyone is confused about what down it is already.
Now, it was 3rd and goal from the one-yard line and not a lot of time left and Colorado used its last time out. This game was wild.
Bieniemy was stuffed on his next carry right at the goal line and the clock was running with no time outs left. It should have been 4th down.
Johnson spiked the ball with 2 seconds left.
That should have ended the game.
But, it didn’t.
Johnson lined up with three backs behind him and he optioned right and took the ball in himself for a score.
Missouri fans came out to tear the goalposts down and they had lost the game.
The refs had a long, long conversation on the field and it was determined that Colorado had to attempt the extra point. The score was 33-31 in favor of the Buffaloes and a blocked extra point could be returned for a 2 point play which would have tied the game.
Colorado avoided that by just kneeling the ball and ending the game.
Could nobody during the lengthy discussion realize that there had been 3 running plays and 2 balls spiked during that last series? If Johnson doesn’t spike it after Bieniemy was stuffed, then they lose the game because the clock would have run out.
I never saw it, but supposedly replays also showed that Johnson did not even cross the goal when he was given the touchdown.
My oh my, what a crock.
Colorado won the rest of its games including a win over Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl in which a punt return by the Irish was called back in a somewhat controversial call.
But, there will never be another game as controversial as the 5th down game in Columbia, Missouri.