Editor’s note: As the World Cup continues in the United States for the first time since 1994, The Athletic is looking back at college sports in the 1990s and how much has changed since then.
The most interesting part about the YouTube rabbit hole of 1990s college football isn’t the Starter jackets or opportunities to remember some guys (Peerless Price, Napoleon Kaufman).
It’s the little moments that, three decades later, seem as outdated as bulky shoulder pads. Like this one from the famous 1990 “Fifth Down” game between Colorado and Missouri: Buffaloes’ ball, fourth-and-3 at the Missouri 20 late in the first half. Today, Colorado’s staff would have weighed analytics on a kick-or-go-for-it decision. Back then, coach Bill McCartney’s decision was straightforward.
“They fire coaches who go for it on fourth-and-2 or -3,” Colorado broadcaster Dave Logan said on the telecast.
But, announcing partner Les Shapiro replied, job scrutiny at this level isn’t like the NFL, and McCartney had just signed a 15-year contract.
“A college coach like McCartney doesn’t have to worry about that at all,” Shapiro said.
James Franklin and Brian Kelly might disagree.
The kicker to the story: Colorado drained the clock, then missed the field goal on the last play of the half.
The Fifth Down game was among the 10 I recently watched from the ’90s — one per season from a sampling that hit every major conference and region — to bring fresh eyes to the formative years of my college football experience:
- 1990: Colorado 33, Missouri 31
- 1991: Miami 17, Florida State 16
- 1992: Alabama 28, Florida 21
- 1993: Notre Dame 31, Florida State 24
- 1994: Oregon 31, Washington 20
- 1995: Nebraska 62, Florida 24
- 1996: Tennessee 48, Northwestern 28
- 1997: Michigan 20, Ohio State 14
- 1998: Texas A&M 36, Kansas State 33
- 1999: BYU 34, Colorado State 13
Tommie Frazier was a key college football figure of the 90s
Mitch Sherman
That sequence in the Fifth Down game was my favorite because it shows how much has changed (analytics, job security) and what remains the same (#collegekickers) over the past three wild decades. Here are 15 other observations from my rewatch binge, from the things I didn’t know I’ve been taking for granted to the debates we still haven’t settled.
The stakes are different
As powerbrokers consider more College Football Playoff expansion, the 1990s’ marquee games were a refreshing reminder of how much less today’s big games mean.
In the broadcast’s introduction to the top-two Miami-Florida State showdown in November 1991 (Wide Right I), one Seminole said the game “is the national championship” before a Miami player showed off a recent title ring. Keith Jackson called the buildup “so flavorful you almost hate to let it go.” The buzz was even bigger for the Notre Dame-FSU “Game of the Century” two years later.
As Tennessee played Northwestern in the January 1997 Citrus Bowl, one of the announcers bemoaned the way “people shake their heads and say it wasn’t a great year” because the Volunteers lost twice. The tone would have shifted with a Playoff if the Vols could have turned 10-2 into a run to the semifinals.
When traditionalists stress the need to protect the sanctity of the regular season, those are the moments they’re talking about … even if the do-or-die stakes of 1991 FSU-Miami disappeared long ago — and undefeated Miami went on to split that national title with Washington.
Conference championships have evolved, too
Given today’s discourse around the relevance (or irrelevance) of conference title games in the CFP era, it was interesting to see the evolution play out over six years.
The first conference title game, the SEC’s Alabama-Florida matchup in 1992, felt novel. The broadcast’s introduction refreshed viewers’ memories about the additions of South Carolina and Arkansas and how the league split into East and West divisions (remember those?). Like today, it was played at a so-called neutral site (Birmingham’s Legion Field).
The biggest change was how isolated the game felt. No. 2 Alabama was undefeated, so a win would have meant a trip to the Sugar Bowl and a likely showdown with undefeated No. 1 Miami — that event’s first 1 vs. 2 matchup “in a good long time,” as announcer Keith Jackson explained. Yet that titanic possibility felt like an afterthought for most of the broadcast.
When Kansas State and Texas A&M played for the Big 12 title six years later, the framing flipped. The Wildcats were 11-0 but behind fellow unbeatens Tennessee and UCLA in the inaugural Bowl Championship Series standings that would decide who met for the national title. The BCS race filled the backdrop of the beginning (Brent Musburger’s opening lines), middle (regular updates on UCLA’s stunning loss to Miami) and end (the rare on-field postgame interview with the losing coach, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder) of the broadcast. Winning a conference championship took a backseat.
My takeaway: How we’ve viewed conference championships vs. national championships started changing years before the CFP, let alone talks of further Playoff expansion. The conversations we’re having today are merely an extension of the evolution that took place between Alabama’s triumphant win and Kansas State’s upset loss.
Star power was treated differently
Because the 1997 Heisman Trophy race between Peyton Manning, Charles Woodson, Ryan Leaf and Randy Moss was so fascinating it became a “30 for 30” documentary, I expected Woodson’s case to feature prominently in his game against Ohio State. Nope.
Although the Michigan defensive back’s performance in all three phases was a focal point of the broadcast, his candidacy was not. After Woodson’s three biggest plays — a 37-yard catch, a punt for a touchdown and an interception in the end zone — the word “Heisman” was not uttered at all. It was a far cry from the coverage of Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter two years ago.
The hoopla around Manning, however, was about what I remembered and comparable to the buzz around his nephew, Arch. By my count, broadcasters mentioned Manning 40 times in the first 13 minutes of the January 1997 Citrus Bowl, from a promo that featured a plaid-clad Manning staring seriously into the camera to a David Letterman-style list of the top five reasons why he should stay at Tennessee for another year. They gushed about his family lineage and remarked about the way he watches “more videotape than Bob Saget” — if you’re under the age of 30, that’s a reference to the TV show “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” The only thing missing was a breakdown of Manning’s NFL Draft stock by Mel Kiper Jr. with deep analysis of which team would be the best fit.
Things we take for granted today
Technology: You don’t know how much you miss graphics or replays until they’re gone.
It’s not just obvious things, like the yellow first-down line that finally appeared at the end of the decade. Imagine the social media uproar if two snaps played out during a commercial break (which happened in Missouri-Colorado).
If you stumbled on a game in the early part of the decade, you wouldn’t know the score, game clock, down or distance. The moments are less dramatic if you can’t see how much time is left as Washington tries to score on a final drive at Oregon in 1994 or how many timeouts Texas A&M has left while Kansas State tries to drain the clock in the Big 12 championship. And forget about a ticker providing constant updates on other games.
We can gripe about how long some officiating reviews take and wonder why there never seems to be a camera with a clear shot of the goal line. It’s still preferable to the old system where key plays aren’t reshown (like an illegal substitution in the 1992 SEC title game) and tricky fumble calls can’t be reversed.
Meme-worthy fans: Broadcasts featured crowd shots, of course, but not as many as I expected. The ones that did happen were usually too wide to spotlight fans who would have gone viral if going viral had been invented yet. No LSU fan staring coldly into a camera or shirtless Florida State professor reading a book during a blowout. Not a single surrender cobra was shown after FSU missed the Wide Right field goal to lose to Miami or Florida threw a pick six that helped Alabama win the 1992 SEC title. In fact, the telecasts didn’t immediately show the reaction of any Seminoles or Gators fans at all.
The best fan moment? A wide shot of Kansas State fans gathering around a portable TV someone brought into the stadium to see the end of Miami’s win over UCLA that kept the Wildcats’ national title hopes alive.
Texas A&M’s Big 12 championship win denied Kansas State a shot at the first BCS national title. (Getty Images)
Things I didn’t miss
Halftime interviews with coaches: It took a few games for me to notice how rare they were. That tells me they’re less valuable than I realized, barring something like an injury update.
The injury tent: Cameras were so close to the action you could see Nebraska star Tommie Frazier getting his leg massaged during the January 1996 Fiesta Bowl and hear BYU linebacker Rob Morris telling trainers he “felt a weird twist.” We don’t need to be that close to the action, but the game feels more personal when you see FSU linebacker Derrick Brooks trying different cleats to see what worked best with his ailing ankle.
Alternate uniforms: Of the 18 teams I watched (I doubled up on Florida and Florida State), 15 uniforms were instantly recognizable. Missouri and BYU were close enough. Only Oregon stood out by not standing out. I’m not against alternate uniforms, as long as they aren’t monstrosities like Florida wearing swamp green. But there’s a level of comfort when you turn on a game and know who’s playing instantly because Ohio State and Michigan still look like Ohio State and Michigan.
Things that felt familiar
Scheduling debates: As BYU thumped Colorado State in the Mountain West’s first conference game in 1999, ESPN’s announcers began discussing strength of schedule. If the Cougars went undefeated (they didn’t), should a nonconference schedule featuring Washington, Virginia and Cal be enough to trump a power team that loaded up on out-of-league cupcakes?
We had a version of that same debate last season with a different team that hoped a tough nonconference game would outweigh its three regular-season losses: Texas.
#Collegekickers (sort of): Although college kickers remain entertainingly unpredictable now, they’re better than they used to be. Nine of the 10 games I sampled included at least one missed field goal/extra point. Better kicking would have drastically changed two famous endings. If Colorado hadn’t missed that first-half field goal and another kick in 1990, the Buffs wouldn’t have needed a fifth down to beat Missouri. If FSU hadn’t blocked a Miami field goal a year later, the Seminoles would have needed a touchdown in the closing minutes and would never have attempted the Wide Right miss.
Florida State’s Sebastian Janikowski won back-to-back Lou Groza Awards as the nation’s top kicker by making 80.6 percent of his field goals from 1998-99. That percentage would have ranked 51st among teams last year.
Weeknight vibes: Random Group of 6 mid-week games work best when they don’t take themselves too seriously, like ESPN’s Harry Lyles Jr. mud-sliding at Appalachian State or the discourse around Tuesday night MACtion.
I was delighted to know that a Thursday night Mountain West game felt similar enough. Lee Corso cracked AARP jokes, and ESPN produced a segment showing BYU’s quarterback factory (most recent addition: Steve Sarkisian). The mascots were even on hand for the coin toss.
Things that felt foreign
Academics: It seems quaint in the transfer portal era when some schools don’t even bother listing players’ majors, but emphasizing academics on TV used to be a thing.
As Nebraska finished crushing Florida to win the 1995 national championship, the telecast touted the fact that the Huskers were No. 1 all-time in Academic All-Americans. One of the announcers at the Tennessee-Northwestern Citrus Bowl highlighted how the Wildcats weren’t “taking rocks for jocks” classes. Honda, one promo told viewers, was “proud to support amateur athletics.” It’s hard for anyone to make that claim today as the “college” part of “college football” matters less than ever.
Music: Or lack thereof.
The ’90s equivalents of “Mr. Brightside” and “Seven Nation Army” did not boom over any speakers. Oregon did not sing along to “Shout” before the fourth quarter. If any rock or rap songs blared during the games, they didn’t register to me on the broadcasts. Marching bands and crowd reactions formed the audio backdrops. I didn’t miss the in-game tunes, but I don’t want things like Virginia Tech’s “Enter Sandman” entrance to disappear, either.
I did not, however, miss broadcast hype music by the likes of Fall Out Boy or Jelly Roll.
Game management: The 1991 FSU-Miami game is remembered for the Seminoles’ Wide Right miss, but the context surrounding it was even worse.
In the closing minute, the Seminoles ran the ball on first down and spiked it on second because quarterback Casey Weldon lost his shoe. FSU then attempted a field goal … on third down … with 29 seconds remaining. Imagine the message-board meltdown that would have caused today in the era of analytics and “the book.”
Honorable mention goes to Miami punting inside the FSU 35 while trailing 13-7 in the second half and Notre Dame punting from the FSU 36 on its opening drive.
Most jarring line: From NBC’s Bob Costas before kickoff of the 1993 FSU-Notre Dame blockbuster:
“Let’s go to our own Heisman winner, O.J. Simpson.”
Seven months after serving as the sideline reporter for the “Game of the Century,” Simpson was riding in a white Ford Bronco during one of the decade’s even more historic moments.
