Pitt’s 1980 team had overwhelming talent
With Dan Marino at quarterback, coach Jackie Sherrill and a host of future NFL players, the 1980 Pitt team might have been the most talented never to win a national championship.
Though a defensive player, Hugh Green was the Heisman Trophy runnerup in 1980. (Photo courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh)
Pitt’s Randy McMillan tries to get around South Carolina linebacker Walt Kater in the 1980 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. Pitt won the game 37-9 to finish the season with an 11-1 record.
What the 1980 Pitt football team is remembered for is the unprecedented individual talent it possessed – offensive and defensive lines that were as good as any constructed in college football – one bad night in Tallahasse, Fla., and a resolve and will that is rare in any level of sports.
These Panthers were good.
“We were then, the Alabama of today,” said defensive end Hugh Green, the Heisman Trophy runnerup in 1980 and one of the greatest defensive players in the history of college football.
“Back then, most of your best players played defense. It was a different era. We had a unique team in a unique era. Our particular (recruiting) class of 1977 produced a host of great players. Pitt recruited big, huge offensive lineman and a whole lot of speed.
“We had a group of guys who grew together and became great leaders of a great team.”
Pitt’s 1980 football team finished 11-1, losing only to Florida State. The Panthers rallied from that midseason loss to win the last seven games, including victories over West Virginia (42-14), Penn State (14-9) and South Carolina (37-9) in the Gator Bowl.
Pitt’s entire defensive line of Green, Rickey Jackson, Greg Meisner, Bill Neill and Jerry Boyarsky started in the NFL. Three of its defensive backs – Carlton Williamson, Lynn Thomas and Tom Flynn – also started in the NFL. Flynn was the lone freshman starter on the Panthers’ 1980 squad.
The five offensive linemen – Jimbo Covert, Mark May, Russ Grimm, Rob Fada and Ron Sams – started in the NFL, as did receivers Julius Dawkins, of Monessen, and Dwight Collins. Quarterback Dan Marino, fullback Randy McMillan and kicker Dave Trout also were NFL starters.
From the 1980 team, five reserves (all underclassmen) went on to start in the NFL, including defensive linemen Bill Maas and Dave Puzzuoli, offensive linemen Emil Boures and Jim Sweeney and cornerback Tim Lewis.
In addition, nose guard J.C. Pelusi started in the Canadian Football League and wide receiver Willie Collier in the USFL. Several others from the team made NFL rosters. That group included, quarterback-defensive back Rick Trocano, linebackers Steve Fedell, Sal Sunseri and Rich Kraynak, defensive lineman Al Wenglikowski, wide receiver Keith Williams and running back Joe McCall.
“Rick (Trocano) moved from safety to quarterback when Danny got injured,” Flynn explained. I was given the opportunity to play with some of the greatest players ever and one of the greatest defenses in college history. My job was to keep the other 21 players in front of me.
“Every practice was a battle. We had a very high level of competition within our team. We had a wonderful coaching staff and they pushed us hard to get every ounce of good out of us.”
The team was so good that when Marino was injured midway through the season, it didn’t miss a beat. Trocano, who had started in 1979 when Marino was a freshman but switched to defense in 1980, moved from free safety to quarterback.
In the 1981 NFL draft, Green, McMillan and May were taken in the first round, Jackson in the second, Meisner, Williamson and Grimm in the third.
In 1983, Covert, Marino and Lewis were taken in the first round. In 1984, Maas was taken in the first round and Sweeney in the second.
That’s seven first-round picks from one team.
Eight players – Covert, Flynn, Grimm, Jackson, Marino, May, Thomas and Williamson – played in the Super Bowl. Williamson won three Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers.
Marino, Grimm, and Jackson are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Covert has been elected to it.
“It’s a shame we didn’t get the opportunity to play in a New Year’s Day bowl game,” said head coach Jackie Sherrill. “We could have folded after the Florida State game. We actually got stronger. We not only had great football players, we had great men and tremendous leadership from within.
“I’ve been around great teams and great players; none were better than our 1980 football team at Pitt.”
Seminole defeat
The story of the game was simple. Florida State made plays, took advantage of Pitt mistakes and the Seminoles’ punter, Rohn Stark, and kicker, Bill Capece, were pretty much perfect in establishing field position and providing key points.
Final: Florida State 36, Panthers 22.
The 36 points represents 27.7 percent of the total points scored against Pitt that season.
Pitt outscored its opposition, 380-130, in 1980. In a game at Syracuse, the defense held Joe Morris, who had broken the records of Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Larry Csonka, to 12 yards on 16 carries. In the Gator Bowl, Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers of South Carolina was rendered ineffective. The Panthers held nine of their 12 opponents to nine points or fewer.
As difficult a night it was for the proud Panthers, it was a significant victory for Florida State.
That was the night the Seminoles – to take a line out of the movie Bull Durham – “announced their presence with authority” on the national scene.
Warchant.com recently published a story on the game. The story reported that “until his retiring day, Bobby Bowden said the 1980 Pitt team was the best he ever faced as a head coach.”
Pitt’s roster in 1980, including those four future Hall of Famers, also ended up having 30 draft picks, the Outland Trophy winner (May), the Maxwell Award winner (Green), the Lombardi Award winner (Green), the Heisman Trophy runner-up and a quarterback who retired from the NFL as the all-time leading passer in league history.
But at Doak Campbell Stadium 40 years ago this month, it was the Seminoles who stole the show and emerged a new national power. Their victory denied Pitt the chance to claim the national championship. It certainly contributed, among other factors, to the Panthers not being selected to play in a Jan. 1 bowl game.
Capece made a school-record five field goals, three in the first half, including a 50-yarder on the final play of the half to give the Seminoles a 23-7 lead.
Stark averaged 48.1 yards on seven punts. He had punts of 60, 67 and 54 yards. His left leg significantly flipped field position. His lone short punt – a 25-yarder in the fourth quarter – was important as it pinned Pitt at its own 12. Without that 25-yarder, averaged 52 yards per punt.
Florida State defeated No. 3-ranked Nebraska the previous week and then added the Panthers to their list of victims. The Seminoles finished with two one-point losses but had set the stage for its program to win more games than any other in the country over the next 40 years.
Tallahassee was raucous that night. The Panthers fell silent.
Sherrill took the blame.
“Because it was a night game, I allowed the players to be with their families and friends during the day,” he explained. “It was a mistake. I think I should have just kept them to themselves. The loss was my fault.”
The fact is, Pitt was outplayed and literally was given the boot.
“It still hurts very much,” Green said. “It stings so much that we weren’t able to show the world how special we were. It breaks my heart.”
The Panthers cut the FSU lead to 29-22 late in the third quarter, but the Seminoles went right back up by two scores with a 13-yard TD pass with 10:24 remaining.
Marino was 19 of 35 for exactly 300 yards, but he also threw three interceptions. And the Pitt running game, with that Hall of Fame offensive line, managed just 86 yards.
Florida State defensive back Bobby Butler told Warchant.com, “We didn’t know those guys like we know them today. And it was Pittsburgh. We didn’t play them much. It wasn’t a team we were really familiar with. (In hindsight), it’s probably the best team roster-wise of all time, but we didn’t know that at the time.”
Hail to Pitt
Flynn, a Penn Hills graduate, “was given the keys to a Cadillac,” according to Green when the freshman was installed in the starting lineup. Flynn became a vital cog.
“We weren’t going to let that game destroy our season,” Flynn said. “The guys doubled down. The coaches corrected our mistakes. We had the guts to admit we didn’t play the game we wanted to or expected to.”
Despite not winning the national title, some polls thought enough of Pitt to select it top team in the county, including The New York Times and Sagarin. The Panthers were named the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy champions.
In addition to Sherrill, defensive coordinator Foge Fazio helped mightily in recruiting.
Kirk Ferentz, the head coach at Iowa, was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1980. He was brought on board by Panthers offensive line coach Joe Moore. Ferentz played under Moore at Upper St. Clair High School.
“We had a great offensive line who was coached by Joe Moore, the greatest offensive line coach,” Ferentz said. “Man, what a team. I’m thinking then, ‘So, this is how it works.’
“I can’t imagine any college football team with more talent or being a better team. I was really young and really green then. But I found out that season what really great teams do. They come back from adversity and get better. That team came back and got better. Pitt not only had great football players. They had a lot of good guys.
“It was an unbelievable experience for me. I was so fortunate.”
Bill Hillgrove, the long-time radio play-by-play voice of the Panthers, said the 1980 Panthers are among the best he’s ever seen or broadcast.
“That team was just so special,” Hillgrove said. “Jackie lamented the night game at Florida State and allowing the families to be at the hotel during the day. Give credit to the staff and the players. They got it back together and played great.
“I couldn’t broadcast the bowl game because of some contractual matters, but I was on the sideline. On the first snap, I saw Fedell and Sunseri just blast Rogers. It set a tone.
“It would be hard to put a team like that together now. You have to give Pitt credit for how it recruited, not only getting great players but great people. That group had the fortitude to come back and just get better.”
Boures said it was all about character and characters.
“The expectation was for us to win it all,” he added. “The loss definitely hurt. But we had great leaders, guys with no quit. The leadership Jackie showed, the loss was not going to define us. Jackie recruited guys who were tough physically and mentally. We had so much pride. It was special. We still think we were the best team.”