I Love the 80s: The Miracle Bowl

And this week we're gonna look back at what many people say could be the greatest college football game of the past fifty years, and the eight Holiday Ball also known as the Miracle Bowl, a game which pitted the b YU Cougars against the s m U Mustangs. This is the early days of the Pony Express and Greg James and Eric Dickerson and Lance mclaney at quarterback against

the b YU Cougars and Jim McMahon. This back when b y U was the Boise State of college football, where every year b y you would win a lot of games in the Whack and there would be the question of do they deserve to win a national championship or not? And we debated, debated, debated. This is a big five six year run for b y U and one future podcast we'll get into the year they actually

did win the national title. But this game, a forty five win by b y U over s m U, had absolutely everything in it, including the late comeback by Mike Harmon's favorite NFL quarterback of all time, Jim McMahon. Well he does rank up there. Any guy that will rock aheadman that questions authority and that the NFL commissioner is all good by me. Blank you rose element or

headband with your name on it. Think about it. That was the first time you had helicopters going over and trying to get pictures of what was going on, or at least that's as early as I remember it. But as you say, I mean this, this was the B y U squad that perennial double digit victories and always the hand ringing of all right, we keep them out right, And then you started doing all this other math and as they kept changing the systems, you kept opening the

door just a little bit. Yeah, they were the They were the original of the outside the Power five conferences. How legit are they? And you know they with the offense they had. Lavell Edwards was an incredible head coach. You talked about their schedule, all right, they're playing teams in the whack. They would get outside the whack once in a while, but is it enough to really show them and and and spotlight them as one of the

best teams in college football? And honestly, this game is the one that really put them on the map because at this point, the Holiday Bowl is only in its third season, right, the hollidayall the b y U tradition there there every year they play in the middle of December. That was a Holiday Bowl. But it's only in its third year. You know, the whack champion is committed to go there. And this is b y U winning its fifth straight conference title. But they hadn't won the Holiday

Bowl yet. You know, this is the year they started out. They lost opening week to New Mexico, which they finished four and seven. You look back and go, how the hell did that happen? One? They lost in New Mexico opening week? How the hell did they pull that off? Yeah, going back through that game, I mean, you had a bunch of sacks, so I mean that that was commonplace, so you know, offsetting your rushing total, but the rushing attack didn't exist. They had fifteen penalties for a hundred

and twenty two yards. Uh, so you hang a star on that one. But you know they won the turnover battle in a big way. Five the two the final there, but it didn't matter. Uh New Mexico just enough to eke out of victory Jim McMahon and with with a single well, I had two touchdowns on the day, but just a bunch of field goals. A guy named Pete Parks for the victory. Just uh. He's a legend and I'm sure they bronzed his foot and put it in

a trophy case at the end of the season. Go and see how good they were and how prolific they were. We got him and t J. Pete Parks and wrecked B y U Week one with okay um nicely done. It was a question of whether you were going to go there huh, or were you gonna go and uh turn it into Peter Parker Oregon Parks Department. I could

have done that too. That's good to no summer job for Parks departmentalizing the win over B y U. So if B y U somehow wins that game, we're having the National Championship conversation for b y U four years earlier for a maybe not four maybe not. Maybe they win that one and then somewhere they slip up down the road. But if you beat a four and seven team and you win the rest of your games, you're having the national champion conversation. Because they were that good.

They blew out everybody they played. They led college football in total offense over five hundred yards a game, scoring forty six points a game, passing yards four nine yards a game. I mean, people forget how good and prolific Jim McMahon was. We remember him as this great leader and and emotionally what he was for the Chicago Bears. But in college, I mean he was throwing for forty touchdowns in four thousand yards. I mean he had a

phenomenal collegiate career. Steve Young was a freshman backup on this team. Andy Reid was on the offensive line, Bart Oates, Visa Kahemma, Tom Homeoll, Kyle Winningham, who was now the head coach at Utah. But McMahon was the star of this team, and he winds up going number five overall of the Bears a couple of years later. But he remember, he came into the league like he's gonna be the

next big superstar. He's gonna be Dan Marino, the numbers he putting these electric numbers he's putting up in college, he's gonna do in the NFL. That was the hype around Jim mcmah one. Well, and that curiosity of how that was gonna work, because at that point you still got a couple of years of Walter Baton left right as you're flowing through, and it's always been a run heavy offense. Looking most we don't need to go into a deep dive of Bears quarterbacking through the years, and

now the Vince Evans years. Well, I mean, look, when when it's all done. As much people as people hate on Jay Cutler, you can make the argument pretty easily he was the best quarterback they've seen since Sid Luckman. But McMahon with the the braggadocious style. But I mean go back to his stats, as you mentioned, forty seven touchdowns, and this is the thing that's that's the curiosity for me. Forty seven touchdowns, eighteen picks in his junior year. But

he completed almost sixty of his throws plus yards. And then he comes back and in that eighty in the eight one season, complete sixty of his passes again, thirty touchdowns seven picks. So I mean you're talking about winging it around, uh and getting after it. Certainly for Chicago fans they're expecting big things of an aerial assault. But we also know that's where wide receivers go to die. Right.

How many guys have been quoted as saying that through the years and why it's difficult to get people to come play at a frozen Chicago lakefront for half of your season. So, but Jim McMahon always a character and plenty of stories in the Naked City with him. So b YU comes into this game eleven and one MAC champions and they take on SMU eight and three in the Southwest Conference. And this was the early days, as I said, of the Pony Express, the most famous team

in SMU history. Craig James went on to the NFL and you see him announcing everywhere. And Eric Dickerson, who went on to a Hall of Fame career in the National Football League. The Eric Dickerson friend of our show. Eric Dickerson, we have him on all the time, gave us big headlines a couple of years ago with some fun stuff he made. He exacted some change in Los Angeles, got his revenge on on on Jeff Fisher, that's for sure.

But this was the most prolific running offense in college football, and you have the most prolific passing offense in college football. I mean, the Pony Express was really both of them. You you think, well, was it really Dickerson was the main guy. No, it wasn't. All right this year when they were both sophomores, right, this is the first year of their breakout years. James ran for eight hundred ninety six yards five yards to carry, six touchdowns. Dickerson was

very similar yards five yards per carry, five touchdowns. Their true breakout, which we'll get into later on, was a year away, but they really shared the load throughout the time. So that's why this was the pony that both of them who could just stop, you know, both of them with with different skill sets and and Dickerson was so powerful and so smooth, and James was so tough and he was deceptively fast, and you couldn't stop s m U. And they got into bigger, let's say, controversies and bigger

play on the field in subsequent years. But this was like, Okay, they got something special going on here at s m U. As far as getting off the field and winning games, I was staying away from controversy. That's something completely different. But you could tell on the field, Okay, they're really good. They got something going on here. Yeah, we can get back into controversies, death penalties and others. Put that down for a future Special Team podcast. But I mean you

look at it here. You mentioned mclenny and Mike Ford, the other quarterback. I mean they combined to throw forty yards. Yeah, right now, leven touchdowns, nine interceptions between them. That's how much in a season lied up in this season in a season no exactly. Uh Ford completed of his past attempts mcillanny five not three, not not looking to chuck it down field doing that two step well, I mean kind of like you would do in if you want to do a little bit of line Danson and stuff.

So it is the Miracle Bowl is all said to go what it's known now as well, specifically for b y U teams. I don't think they say the same thing at s m U. The comeback for the ages, we get into it, how it happened and how maybe it shouldn't have happened. Coming up next on Special teams the game on Miss lou Sports Network announcers Ray Scott and Grady Alderman. The Holiday Ball featuring the b y

U Cougars against the SMU Mustangs. We thought we'd see a lot of offense in this game, and early on and for most of the game we did, and most of it came from s m U. It was a huge, high scoring game and SMU controlled this game deep into the fourth quarter. Craig James goes off two five yards rushing in this game. Eric Dickerson runs for a hundred and ten. You can see the highlights and see the story of this game many places on the internet. It

was an unstoppable night for their running game. They got up nineteen nothing seven. They were up forty five five after james Is forty two yard touchdown run with four minutes to go. So think about this, this is where are jumping off point is. Craig James runs for a forty two yard touchdown with four minutes left and they lead the game forty five four minutes left to go. SMU total runs for three yards. B y U runs from minus two. That's the that's the end of the game.

S m You finished with fifty three yards passing. And just to to tell you how offense, how much offense you could have running the football. STU was everything on the ground, nothing through the air. B y U was the opposite, And until this point in the game it was all SMU. They ran all over b y U. And you have a twenty point lead with four minutes left to go. Fans are leaving the stadium at this

point because all right, it's over, We're done. Look, this game's in San Diego and it's an easy your commute for b y U fans and still less you can get there, but it's Dallas compared to Utah, and fans were leaving and Jim McMahon starts screaming at the fans the game isn't over now. A as big a B y U fan as I might have been, I looked and said, dude, come on, man, really, what's in that gator right on the sideline. We're down by twenty. We've

been terrible all night. All right, we've scored a seven, six, and six in each quarter. We're really gonna win this game, McMahon, What is wrong with you? And well, Jim McMahon turned out to be right. But still at the time I would have started winging it around. What are you doing right away than you mentioned some of the stats. I mean, when you go through and you get to the endpoint of this game, total net yards, there's a two yard differential, right, SMU,

two more yards? You would think the run game of Dickerson and James, the way they've dominated they ran the ball sixties six times, time of possession and a number of plays, there's not a whole lot of differential. Number of offensive plays was a difference of four. It was very Look, it's a game on the scoreboard, right, one team runs one too, it was. It was even all the way. It's about as even a classic and a comeback game as you could possibly Yet there's no one

number that stands out so far over the rest. Well mc mahn's passing yards, what about Craig james rushing yards? I mean you can you can go back and forth with all of that thing all day. It was that equal a game, well, just fantastic on its display, right, because now we celebrate what they get called as the lesser Bowl games, the afterthoughts or the for gamblers only, I think is the subtitle for a lot of it anymore or the obviously the Alma maters people get excited.

Don't don't come at me at Swollen Dome if you feel like you need to. But the idea being that the throw is But as long as there's some scoring, you're gonna tune in, especially games for Christmass. This is the beginning of the Bull season because the Holiday Bowl was always the week before Chris Miss. This game was on December, so it was the beginning of the Bull season when you have that excitement level of okay, we got college football with everybody's close to getting time off.

I'm gonna be off and be home with my family. And you know, then you get into the bowl games after the twenty five when you're off from work and you get to see this. But you know there's a special spot for the Holiday but hey, it's one of the first big early Bowl games, and you know, people who were watching on ms lou Sports, hey, you got an absolute thriller. I may or may not have enjoyed a Holiday Bowl win in my recent past from my all my mother. So here's where we're at SMU with

the lead, four minutes left to go. B y U gets the ball back and they drive down the field. Not surprising, McMahon throws a touchdown to Matt Braga, and if you see this play, you can see clearly the ball hits the ground. Should not have been a touchdown, but in eighty without the benefit of replay or the referees in the right spot, this counts McMahon cell cell cell. Baby.

McMahon is running against his body, so he's not running to the right, he's running to the left, so he's got a square his shoulders and throw and McMahon even says, Hey, the one thing I could do better than anybody at quarterback was roll out and throw the football because I learned for a very young age how to square my shoulders and throw while I'm running, So I knew I I I did that great. And I think he wanted to do that more with the Chicago Bears and on

in his career. But this play, you can see it's on display. He's running away from his power and he throws a laser that only goes in one spot where his player is gonna get it or it's gonna hit the ground, and it's low to the ground and you can see Brod gets his hand under it. But you see the ball bounce and helmet ground but still, hey, the arms go up, touchdown, b y U. This makes

it forty thirty two. And at this point it's like, Okay, you had a touchdown, but you know you're still down by thirteen, with you know, under three minutes left to go, this game really isn't gonna happen for you. Still thinking you're gonna be stay able to alter away, especially with that run game the way it's been in the number of yards that you we've seen churned away from James

and Dickerson over the course of the day. But if you've got a guy with no conscience, and that's the one thing with McMahon us as a quarterback, if he had it in his hands, willing to wing it at any time. Now he mentioned his career with Chicago Bears goes back to personnel and who do you trust uh in that whole thing, because Willie Galt was fast, but you know a lot of times he wouldn't close the hands. Dude, you had kend Marjoram. Come on, man, you had kid. Yeah,

no celebrating him. Uh, well, you know, get a way to get the obscure Bears tight end. You want to get Emery Moore head in while I was sure a former Giant, former bear, Emory moorehead nicely done? Was he married to ag this morehead? You know? For the purposes of this conversation, happy nuptials. So b y U scores

a touchdown for thirty two. They on side kick, and they do an on side kick where it's the kicker who kicks it about ten yards in front of them, and the players run up to form that protective cone. So as soon as the ball gets past the ten yard line, either the kicker or the player next to him can jump on the football. This works to perfection because SMU doesn't have anybody near the football, so be

why you recovers it works. They drive down the field a touchdown run by Scott Phillips makes it nine, and oh my goodness, this is now a game. They try the on side kick again and if it works once, why not try it again? Right, instead of a different once kick, We're gonna do it again. So they do the exact same kick, except this time SMU and you know, listen, Ron Meyer was a pretty good head coach. Uh, he says, listen,

if they do that again, I'm sure he said. If they do that again, run forward and get the ball before it goes ten yards, And that's exactly what happens. They run the same on side kick to SMU. Players jump forward before the ball goes ten yards, they jump on it. They haven't, And you think this game is over. This has been fun by b YU. They're back within a touchdown, but really this is gonna be it now because SMU has the running backs. They've been doing it

all night long, and this game is over. Well, you think you'll be able to salt it away. You just need the possession. How do you not cover up on side kicks? Repeatedly? Is uh? But you'd be fired on the spot now with the coverage. I mean you'd have a fall guy, special teams guy would go, and probably another assistant coach just for giggles. But you know, watching the the replays of this and and the highlights as you roll through, it's it's always the curiosity, like the

kickers not being sneaky. Oh no, no, no, this is this is what we're doing. Yeah, that's not one of those misdirection where we're gonna start running one way and start running the other way. No, I'm just gonna do it this way, and it works great the first time. He let's do it again, Well, except this time they're ready. Ever expect us to do that again? That would be too stupid, So let's do it. Uh. So SMU has the ball and okay, it's easy for them to run

out the clock. Except it's not. They can't get a first down. Eric Dickerson is tackled as he tries to take a sweep outside on third down. So now they have to punt. But it shouldn't really matter, right because SMU was punting with thirteen seconds left in the game, and they shouldn't have to worry about it. Right, there's less than twenty seconds to go. We just punt the ball down, it's all you know. No team in night could go down the field in ten seconds without time outs.

All you gotta do is punt the ball away. But if you ask Jim Harball, hey, how easy is it to just pump the ball and win a football game over Michigan State? Uh? Too soon? Too soon for that one, doesn't No? No, Well, well I'll just hell her to skip over this party. Listen to the first segment, then skip a little bit in the beginning of the second then listen at the end. So all they gotta do is punt the ball down field, except they can't. Be Yu gets through. A couple of guys get through, and

they blocked the punt. With thirteen seconds left, they have the ball at s m us forty one yard I mean, if you're Smu which grabbed the ball, take one step in punt even if it goes twenty yards. What do you you? You have the ball where the middle of the field. The ball is gonna be at the twenty yard line. All you gotta do is punet So just don't worry about getting it getting just grab it one to kick it even if it goes just pass the line of scrimmage. More time is gonna take off the clock.

There's gonna be ten seconds left. They're gonna have the ball at their own thirty yard line. The game is over. But they get through, they block it, and now b y U has it thirteen seconds left and they're at the forty one yard line. They have time for a couple of plays and the gut untouched. Yeah, it's it's amazing how how you blow that that blocking coverage right there when you should have everybody's in. Nobody gets in, We don't don't don't have to worry about anybody releasing.

We want to make sure we protect the punter because we just got a punnet. That's all we have to do is but they you know, your returners set up on the ten yard line. Man, everything is set up perfectly, and then you completely biff a blocking assignment. Unbelievable. So now thirteen seconds left and McMahon, you're thinking, Okay, this could really be a miracle for thirty nine. But what are they gonna do. First play, McMahon throws a crossing

pattern incomplete across the field. All right, Well, that that didn't work. Second play was a hail Mary. McMahon throws it down and it's not even close, and you could tell already the celebration looks to be going on with s m U. There's time for one more play. And now before the result of this play, we get to results of this play, they have one last chance and it's another hail Mary, because you have to at this

point because there's no other time left. McMahon throws this ball down field and this is where when I see him play. If you want to say what did McMahon look like in in college, if I wanted to get an opinion, he looked a lot like Jimmy Garoppolo. And we talked about Garoppolo a lot on the show, and that Garoppolo sometimes doesn't really step into his throws, as I said, a lot of times, I think he is shying away. He can't step in and take the big hit.

He doesn't want it. He's not a guy that's gonna sacrifice his body for a big throw. But his arm is so strong, he's got such strong hips. He just kind of slings it and the ball gets out pretty fast. That's kind of how Jim McMahon throws this hail Mary downfield, and he throws it a little bit earlier because he can sense the rush coming from his left. He doesn't step into it, but he just kind of hips it and he throws it up. But it's a big, regular

hail Mary throw. But that's the remind of you of you see him throw It's, yeah, he's got that hip action move and he throws a little bit early, just like Garoppolo likes to do, and he gets the ball to the end zone. So if I'm thinking of who McMahon was like in college because clearly he was a different guy in the NFL, not as dynamic, and Garoppolo at least has some dynamic games. That's kind of what he reminds me of with his body type because he was still really thin at this point. He was able

to move a bit. He got out and threw outside the tackles a lot Garoppolos, who he kind of reminds me of here. Yeah, I mean that that's an app comparison. I think we see with Garoppolo there's a big arm, just a question of sometimes, as you said, either doesn't want to step into the throw and take the extra hit, yet he'll take the extra hit on the sideline. And McMahon was the same way, right. That's that's the funny thing, right, is he's a guy that would tuck the ball and

trying to get the extra yards. And we we saw many a defender to have their way with him both as a runner and in the pocket, oftentimes after the place should have been blown dead. But and I'm thinking about you Packer fans right there. But the the idea with Garoppolo, it's the same, right, runs a bit and has that he just flips it right. That risk action that we talk about in that arm strength, I mean, the stuff you can't teach, and that it's just a

matter of the fundamentals from there. With McMahon, that never materialized. He was a great leader and winner, but not a guy that could stay healthy. And we've already seen Garoppolo go down once for you know, not getting out of bounds. We'll see how he his career unfolds as as it rolls through, whether he starts wearing headbands and just speaking out against anybody his nightlife. I mean we've seen him

a little loose there. Yeah, but yeah, the the effortless throws, I mean just kind of flipping it to the end zone from midfield from McMahon. Here something Bears fans are scratching their heads, going where was where was this guy? Where was this guy? I wish we didn't see more of this. So time back in now to the final play of the game where McMahon drops back and it's a quicker hail Mary throw when you see it now,

generally a quarterback drops back. He buys enough time for his receivers to all get downfield so it can be a true jump ball in the end zone. You want a deflection. You want a tall player down there and be able to go up and grab it. So usually the plays take a little bit longer to develop and everybody gets down there and you jump. McMahon throws this ball early because he's got the rush coming and and he chucks it up and because he throws it early,

this place succeeds. Clay Brown is a tight end and he's running right down the middle of the field and he's run by two defenders who are chasing him. They haven't gotten to the end zone yet to be able to stop and turn around because mcman has thrown this ball pretty fast. And now you have the two defensive backs who are in the middle of the end zone looking up at the ball coming down. So picture this. You have the receiver them. It's like it's like the five how the dice are on a on the number

five on on a diet. You have the two dots on the top, the dot in the middle, and then the two dots on the bottom. This is what it looks like. So you have two players who haven't had a chance to get to the end zone to turn and look up, so they're out of the play, and now you have the two defensive backs who had lined up there and they see the ball coming towards them. Brown runs and he stops in front of them and turns around, and there's not a lot of time the

dbs don't move in jostle for better position. They allow Brown to get down, stop in front of them, and turn around, and he does a great job blocking them away from the ball. Look, he's a tight end, he's big. He goes up and it's not even a difficult play. The defensive backs kind of just go up with their arms up and they're behind the ball, so they can't do anything, and Brown comes down with it. Touchdown. Game

is tied. Everybody's running on the field, Lavellawards running around and saying, we have the extra point, we have the extra point. But here's a hail Mary touchdown, and the people in the stands left in the stands are going nuts because now you have had a deficit with four minutes left to go, completely erased and an extra point away from winning this game. It was amazing. But sometimes when you throw the ball up a little bit earlier, you can get things and catch the defense a little

bit off guard and that's what happened here. I've now probably watched this play forty times in preparation for this podcast, and for the life of me, I don't know what the dvs are doing. They're just standing there. I'm gonna I'm gonna stand here, but like they totally misjudge the arc of the ball and are still backpeddling. Now forget the linebackers and everything that that he dusts off the line, and we'll we'll get to the where are they now

of Mr Brown here in a little bit. But it's just incredible because it's one guy against five, right, There's no other receivers in this play, right, I said, It's just said, well, hey, hope for a tip ball, and here we are. It's literally one guy in between us sea of opponent jerseys and the referee comes over definitively like, yeah, he got you. And you can just see all the defenders looking at each other. How did you not get

a hand on the ball? Where were you? Guys? Nobody was looking for the ball coming up because they were all I'm sure they were all surprised it was coming out this early. Nobody ran, there was no help, there was no It was a very fast, hail Mary from drop back throat and here's a catch. It was. It was stunning how quick it was. And now here you go. You still have to calm down and kick the extra point, all right, and and look back in extra points were

still automatic. But this is still college. There's a lot of pressure their kids, except the they line up out there for the extra point. Kurt Gunther makes it on the final play by you wins. The total number of yards passing for Jim McMahon is at four forty six, and they win a game that many people will tell you, boy, this is the most exciting finished, the most exciting bowl

game ever. And I can't tell you you're wrong. This win really put b y U on the map as boy, not only are they a really good team, but look how exciting they are and and and b y you really took off from here. Twenty one points in the final four minutes, one on side kick, one defensive stop, three touchdowns and you turn a forty five loss where you could easily just said, you know what, we're done, we're going home. It's not our game. We're gonna be

eleven and two. Everything is gonna be fine. And instead you have McMahon, the legend of McMahon yelling to the stands the game's not over yet, and he goes and wins this game. At this point, walking around campus and and and and teams have to be looking at him, going, boy, this guy can do anything. Whatever he says, I'm gonna follow him. And and the the leader Jim McMahon is now born into public consciousness. Well, I mean that's a

big deal in nineteen eight. Do you imagine this guy on a televised game in two thousand twenty, Right, this is the anti Matt hassleback, we want the ball and we're gonna win. This is a guy that says we're down twenty we're coming back to get this game, so shut up, sit down and enjoy it and backs that up. I mean, you become a legend on so many other levels.

I mean, McMahon for the time because we didn't have the same level of coverage, right, so you didn't know all about him because you're thinking, this guy's at b y U, this guy's be with you, especially as you got to know Jim McMahon a little more as you got to the draft process and his arrival to Chicago, that just a different cat, you think a guy like this.

He showed up for the first uh, his first meeting with coaches in Chicago, drinking a beer because he was so happy to be out of the strict regime that he had at b YU. I'm gonna bring a beer to my first meeting with my coach, if I'm not mistaken. His big thing was he always had one of those little coolers, like the little like lunch ones that had space for six beers like that. That was his his accompaniment,

gonna take it with just a character man. He was remember training camp and watching kids like he was the pie piper looking up at him as a hero. Me, I'm a nerd. I'm I'm looking for the you know, the the lineman, the wide outs and everybody else. I'm not going where the rest of the crowd is because I can go talk to these other guys as a kid where rev Story almost ran me over and gave me the best life advice Smith, never stand in front of the polling guard. Oh that's that's good advice. Well

you got that too, so certainly in that process. But I got a great little uh Kurt Gunther story for you. Here me now It's like, how is he in the moment they're kicker? Dave Taylor was rudely ineligible. So Gunther sophomore walk on, literally pulled out of stats one one. This was he was studying accounting. Uh. So he goes to the season Oprah forgets his helmet. Somehow his helmet kids forgotten. I'm a kicker, right, I don't need a helmet, right,

I could just tuck with somebody. They get get a guy with a friend of the program on a private jet to get him his helmet. You know, when he first started kicking for them, which is great, not for this game, but just the general of here's my genesis. But because of this, he ends up getting two years on scholarship and the bonus to finish his accounting dud. So he ends up getting the third year to to help finish his course of studies. So like just a legend.

I found some great stories on him. Uh, just talking about how odd it was becoming the walk on because they suddenly needed a kicker and getting this opportunity, and he's now part of one of the big moments in college football history. B y U wins the Miracle Bowl. Coming up next, a little where are they now? More on Jim McMahon, more and what happened to s mu and maybe how the luckiest guy involved in this game

was the play by play guy. It's coming up next on Special Teams, the aftermath of b y U Win. Let's begin with the final call of the Jim McMahon Hail Mary. Ray Scott play by play guy gets to call this game. Here's the thing. He had just called a big Minnesota Vikings win over the Cleveland Browns a few days ago that ended with Tommy Kramer throwing a Hail Mary to a mad Rashad that put the Vikings in the playoffs. So he gets to call back and

very famous hail Mary. So you've seen it many times, and maybe we'll do a future Special Teams on that game because that was a fun game. We'll just talk about a mad rash Yeah, very good. I remember when on Mad Rashad hosted the Mole on ABC. Uh. So he gets to call that hail Mary. He calls this Hail Mary, and his call is we've done it again. So this is what the guy gets, like seven days, I'll do this game. Yeah, I'm gonna do B y U at smut and he gets to call one of

the greatest college football games of all time. So maybe the luckiest guy was a play by play guy. Uh So next for these teams, SMU explodes in one absolutely explodes, Dickerson explodes, James explodes. It's everybody's exploding. Dickerson runs from nine touchdowns yards and Craig James has twelve hundred yards and nine touchdowns. This was the hey, we are here moment for SMU. But because they're on probation, they couldn't play in a bowl game, they couldn't play for the

national championship. And this is how SMU of the early eighties is remembered. The Pony Express, how good Dickerson and Craig James were, and all the corruption that didn't involve in SMU becoming the next level program. The death penalty that came years after for their football program was a really big It was the biggest story in college football in the early nineteen eighties. This is what happens to s m U as a result. But b YU they

take it in the other direction. Suddenly b y U is on the national stage and it's all the big teams in college football and it's b YU here. They are winning this big game, putting up all these points, and like we said earlier, this culminates in then winning the national championship in four So clearly this came a big jumping off point. However, SMU gets derailed because of

the probation and b y U continues to grow their legend. Yeah, the legend of when you look at Lavella edwards career from nineteen seventy two to two thousand one place, twenty nine years to fifty seven, one oh one and three, and you look at all those double digit win campaigns that started nine seventy nine, they go eleven and one, they go twelve and one here, eleven in two, et cetera.

Like now, think of the payouts and the attempts to lure him away, right and and the gamesmanship that would be going on of come on, except they lived at the Holiday Bowl. I mean they had they had to reservations every year they had to play there was That's the way it was, and this is kind of why they were the first Boise State team of the early eighties. Well, what can we do? How much can we put them into the National Championship conversation, you know, and look at

their first ball win. If this was into two Bowl games before that, they lost both of them, and then they lost in the Tangerine Bowl. I missed the Tangerine ball, Tangerine Bow, the Blue Bonnet Ball. I missed those balls. Yeah, they got absolutely obliterated by Oklahoma State in the nine Tangerine Bowl down in Orlando. I missed the Blue Grand game. We've already done a special teams podcast. I lament the loss of the Blue Gray Game, so I'll continue to

do so. It was great for Christmas Day. If this was a more widely recognized game that that that came to everybody off the top of their heads, it wouldn't need to be propped up. But clearly the last forty years, of the three best Bowl games, you could possibly say, it's this game, it's Texas USC National Championship and oh five, and it's Oklahoma Boise State a couple of years later, and that's the order. Those are the games. Those are

the three best Bowl games of the past forties. This one sneaks in because it's eight, but Oka twenties, what we're doing, I mean, there's other ques beat beating up on Utah Bowl a couple of years ago was good. I'll say that's number four, then that'll be the fourth. Thanks, But clearly those are those are the three and and And that's how b y U was, you know, was able to just like I said, start their legend. But this game was just so good and they had another

great year the year after. McMahon has one more year and he goes to the NFL, you know, fifth overall pick of the Bears, and he never materialized into being that big, pure passer. Now, granted, he was never asked to be the savior because he joined a team that had a great rushing attack that was building a tremendous defense. So hey, don't screw it up and make clutch plays when you have to. McMahon's career was then became as

a leader. He would make clutch plays. But for a guy who threw forty seven touchdowns this year in college football, he never threw for more than fifteen touchdowns in a season in the NFL. I mean, I get it wasn't the age of the quarterback, but never more than fifteen touchdowns in a season in the National Footballie from a guy taking number five overall was it worth it for

the Bears. Sure, eighty five Bears win their legendary McMahon's a legend, but boy out out of the number five overall pick, and that's a quarterback you kind of want more than fifteen touchdowns in a season from and some years it was eleven touchdowns twelve nine touchdowns. He just had the just never really material and that kind of

prolific passer. Sixty seven and thirty for his career. As a start, he was forty six and fifteen for the Bears, about fifty eight percent completion rate, just a little over a one to one touchdown to interception ratio. But I don't want is he couldn't stay healthy. You go through the game logs eight three fourteen games, eight four nine games, five thirteen games, eleven starts, eighty six six games, eighty

seven seven games. You get the point. Only three more times in his career when he hit double digit games played, and that was once he was in San Diego for a year, and then a year in Philadelphia and then a year in Minnesota when he started doing the Shaquille O'Neil kind of thing. We need that veteran quarterback to help bring a guy along who's a good break class and glass in case of emergency. Guy. So went from the Bears to the Chargers, to the Eagles, to the Vikings,

to Arizona to the Packers. Uh where again he he he gets to win again. But it's which is always curious. But yeah, back to quarterback for yeah, yeah, I mean so for all of it. He just he just couldn't

stay healthy. But a beloved icon in Chicago. Whenever he does a spot or shows up at a charity event, everybody wants a piece of them just because you know that year, I mean, unfortunately fans and for me, other than a Rex Grossman led appearance against Peyton Manning where the highlight was Prince singing in the rain, sure, uh there, there's not been a lot to cheer about there, you know.

And McMahon also goes down, is this is one of the first quarterbacks that teams would say, a prolific guy in college in a wide open offense is not going to translate to success in the NFL. And then quarterbacks like this had to fight against that stigma for a while. And McMahon was one of those first time forty seven touchdowns over thirty touchdowns the senior years. There for seventy

seven touchdowns his final two years. And he gets to the NFL and it's okay, he's not the guy we thought he was because he comes from a quirky offense that does things a little bit differently. He's not from one of the Power five big conferences, and and that's something that was a general belief by many NFL t this. So he started to see guys come out of these spread offenses and really light him up in the past

few years of the National Football League. All right, So coming off this game, he mentioned some big players, some Super Bowl winning head coaches. How about somewhere are they now? Mr Harman, we go to Vasikahema. He is your sports director and anchor NBC ten in Philly. I gotta take the chuck off them's been there a long time doing that. He ran a put back for a touchdown in this game. Earlier in we didn't get to talk about him a lot because it was in the first three quarters when

b Yu was getting drugged. But he did have a big punt return for a touchdown in this game early on. There you go, Scott Phillips, Uh, it would eventually become a fourth round pick for Seattle. He's a wealth management advisor for Northwestern Mutual. Matthew Braga, who we talked about with a big play and one that shouldn't uh. He now sells medical devices, so you know he he was able to sell that catch and now he doesn't work from Medtronic. Hey, listen, I can sell anything. I sold

that touchdown in the ADI Holiday Ball. All right, what do I need to buy? What do you need to buy? I can sell you anything. Well, and then you've got Homo who is the A D at b y U. He was a college football head coach for a while. Yeah, now he's six years with the forty Niners as a safety and then coached at b y U and Stanford with the forty niners again as a position coach, and then at cal UH and now he's the A D.

On the other side, you look at some SMU. You mentioned Lance mclaney good at the two Step s VP real Estate and Contracts for Lincoln Property Company. Michael Charles biz systems consultant for McDonald's, Lee Spivey insurance broker, and then Richard Neely Family Trust Private Equity real estate on the guys getting into real estate, you know, taken advantage of those big swaths of land in Texas. Can you tell me that story about the Yes, I will you

gonna buy this house? Yes? If you tell me that story? All right, where do you want me? What did you guys really do to get you know? The title? East? Come on so there. It is one of the best college football games of all time. At worst, it's the third best bowl game of the past forty years. That's how big it was. The Miracle Bowl won by b y U over SMU. I'm Jason Smith, He's Mike Carmen. Our show is heard on Fox Sports Radio Monday through Friday, ten pm to two am on the East Coast, seven

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