What was he Thinking?
To know where you are going, it’s often best to reflect where you started.
SMU is days away from joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. July 1 is the pinnacle of a 35-year journey. When football returned in 1989, a university and its program felt relieved, hopeful, unsettled and scarred.
Relieved because the two-year death penalty ended.
Hopeful because the expected rough start would eventually transition to the glory days of the early 1980s.
Unsettled because a full compliment of 85 scholarship players were not yet on campus along with other infrastructure shortcomings.
Scarred because the two years without football in 1987 and 1988 left a void over a campus, its student body and alumni. The NCAA inflicted more collateral damage than just merely shutting down a football program.
SMU was at a low point. The emptiness palpable. Morale bordered on hopelessness.
”Maybe, in three years, all things being equal, we’ll be competitive,” the late Forrest Gregg, SMU’s head coach, told The New York Times in a story published in March of 1989 as SMU was going through its first spring. ”At least we’ll be on the road again. It will be a rough and rocky road, but we’ll be moving forward.”
From Sept. 2 to Dec. 2, we would learn SMU football looked like a bare bones program, was funded like a bare bones program and played like one.
As a student, this was my first time watching SMU play in person since 1984 when the Mustangs played UNLV at the Silver Bowl in Las Vegas and won, 38-21.
It felt like football. And it didn’t feel like football. Starting that season SMU had 41 players on scholarship and four who had worn a college uniform. In total, the roster carried 89, 73 freshmen.
Indeed, to quote the ESPN 30-for-30 series Pony Excess, “We weren’t big, but we were slow.’’
When the students climbed into the rickety east wooden stands that Saturday Sept. 2 afternoon at dilapidated Ownby Stadium, the kickoff erased everything for a moment. And visiting Rice cooperated fumbling it.
SMU recovered and kicked a 23-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead 2:14 into the game. Then reality happened when Rice scored on its next four possessions and eventually won, 35-6. The Owls broke the nation’s longest losing streak at 18.
Of course, the 23,227 who watched along with me likely came away knowing this was just the beginning of a difficult season.
I won’t go game-by-game through this season. However, it was amusing against Texas that SMU held the Longhorns scoreless in the first quarter and then scored first.
But we can all agree that the million-dollar question of when SMU would win its first game was stunningly answered in the second contest on Sept. 16.
The 17-point rally against UConn in the final five minutes foretold the “Miracle on Mockingbird”. Mike Romo’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Michael Bowen on the last play capped the comeback, 31-30. Fans stormed the field in celebration and in particular the north end zone where the play happened. It created energy that Saturday night and through the week.
Admittedly, coming from Nevada I had no appreciation for the prior tension between SMU and the rest of the Southwest Conference. Heard the stories. Read up as much as I could.
It didn’t come close to experiencing the daily fabric when SMU battled the Longhorns, Aggies and Horned Frogs annually.
And as these beatdowns took place, I could hear fans from some of those other teams use the word payback because of what SMU had done to them in previous meetings.
SMU’s faithful just had to take it.
I went to seven of the 11 games. Missed the win against North Texas for I can’t remember why. Didn’t go to the TCU game in Fort Worth. Didn’t go to No. 1 Notre Dame. Didn’t go to Arkansas.
The two road games I attended were Houston and A&M. Let’s go in reverse with the trip to College Station on Nov. 4. The first time I had been to Kyle Field and was immersed in everything that it meant to be an Aggie. I didn’t understand it then. I don’t understand it now.
With that wrecking crew defense coupled with it being R.C. Slocum’s debut season as the head coach, the Aggies “humanely” dismantled SMU, 63-14. Playing against the best of the SWC that year, I felt like those scores were ones you could accept. A&M did what it needed to do and then took its foot off the pedal.
No. 1 Notre Dame did the same thing on Nov. 11 in South Bend, IN. The image of running back Rusty Setzer running out of bounds when he should have scored highlighted Irish coach Lou Holtz’s intent to keep it 59-6.
Now, let’s talk about Houston. First time I had ever traveled there. The city made a profound impact when my fraternity brothers and I stopped for gas at a Shell station near the Astrodome and were greeted by a guy who flashed open his jacket to display his inventory highlighted by likely stolen watches.
The Astrodome is not in a great part of town. But then I learned that Houston had no zoning laws and that was that.
Back to the game. The Cougars were on probation. They couldn’t be on TV. They couldn’t go to a postseason bowl.
And apparently nobody in Houston knew the Cougars were playing that season either. Only 20,009 showed up for that 4:00 pm kickoff on Oct. 21.
But they were explosive. They put up points in bunches. They treated every game as their bowl. Andre Ware, Chuck Witherspoon and Manny Hazard dazzled.
Prior to playing SMU, Houston hung 69 on UNLV, 65 on Temple and 66 on Baylor. We all expected something similar. Had that happened, we all probably would have walked away shrugging our shoulders and moved on to the next game, North Texas.
And then it started. And then it got worse. And then it became something else. Houston wanted to make a mockery of SMU. I don’t know if SMU winning five of the previous six meetings meant something more to them or not.
The Mustangs came as close at 17-6 in the first quarter when they recovered a loose ball in the end zone.
Ware then unleashed his wrath throwing for 517 yards and six touchdowns. Dinks and dunks were eschewed for deep verticals. Houston led 59-14 at the half. Records fell.
Game was over. At that time, my friends and I were convinced the Cougars proved their point and may score a couple more times with the backups in the second half.
Well, Houston didn’t feel like this was over. While Ware was out of the game and other backups were in, the deep shots continued.
With Houston head coach Jack Pardee’s blessing or looking the other way, smarmy offensive coordinator John Jenkins had 100 on his mind.
Consider that three of backup QB David Klingler’s four TD passes were from 46, 53 and 74 yards. Houston put it in the air 61 times. Ran it just 25.
The ribbon video board kept track of total yards. When Houston crossed 1,000 in the fourth quarter (finished with 1,021), there was an eruption from the sparse crowd.
We were sitting among them and just shook our heads. We got into it with some of them essentially asking, “What do you think you proved?’’ We were invited to do something else.
Houston’s quest for the century mark fell short in this 95-21 nonsense.
“I don’t see any point in going for the home run again and again like they did in the second half,” Gregg said after the game, according to The New York Times. “I don’t think it’s necessary and I don’t appreciate it. They had their second and third defense in there in the second and third quarters, but I didn’t see any reason why they had to keep sending in fresh receivers to blow by our kids, who were obviously tired.”
But SMU won the PR war in the days that followed. There was also poetic justice the following week. SMU whipped North Texas, 35-9. Houston lost at Arkansas, 45-39. That record-breaking Cougar team didn’t even win the SWC. The Razorbacks did.
That maiden voyage ended in a better-than-expected 48-24 loss to Arkansas.
Alas, 2-9 SMU averaged 17 points and allowed 45 per game. Romo threw for 2,927 yards with 14 TDs and 18 interceptions. Kevin Love was the leading rusher with 423 yards. Jason Wolf the leading receiver with 676. Holdover Mitch Glieber second with 549.
Little did we know the 1989 win total would exceed 1990. Little did we know SMU would not enjoy its first winning season until 1997. Little did we know SMU would not reach a bowl until 2009. A 20-year nightmare.
At least some normalcy settled with football returning. The healing could begin. However, that took longer than anybody anticipated. And we’ve had 35 years to cover all that ground.
That 1989 team represented the new SMU football world. It had the toughest time living in it.
Soon, we celebrate a pivotal moment in the university’s history. Now, we can all look back, laugh a little and appreciate what that outmanned group endured.
But they survived. As it turned out, so did we.
*****
In one of my final stories as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News in 2004, the sports department created a “Where are they now” series. It focused on the star athletes of the past. Several writers including I shared the rotation. It was our job to find the subject.
Andre Ware started breaking into announcing as a high school football analyst for ESPN. The network started showcasing top games on Thursday nights. Ware had been assigned Southlake Carroll vs. Denton Ryan on Oct. 11, 2004.
The perfect opportunity to catch up with the 1989 Heisman Trophy winner. The perfect opportunity to ask about 95-21. The latter would have to wait. There was a job to do.
I arrived at Dragon Stadium early enough to find Ware. Following a brief introduction and explaining the series, he agreed to set aside time after production meetings.
Ware and I met in a vacant area of the stadium. Interview took about 15 minutes. He was gracious and gave good answers.
Then the SMU fan in me surfaced. Mind you, I still had to maintain professionalism as I represented a nationally respected sports department.
Put the pen and notebook down. My chance to corner the author of one of the most infamous games in sports history.
“Andre, I’m an SMU alum and I was at the Astrodome for 95-21…’’
And before I could continue with my question, Ware flashed a sheepish smile with a laugh as if to say, “I know where you’re going to go with this.’’
But I finished asking something in the frame of, “What the heck was that?’’
Polished because he likely had been asked hundreds of times, Ware simply said, “I get it that people were upset. But I told your defensive backs to start playing zone defense and not man. It was too easy.’’
I followed and asked, “Why did they feel they wanted to do this even in the second half?” Ware said, “We just wanted to make a point and show how explosive we were.’’
I finished in a respectful tone, “We knew we were going to get hammered. But that wasn’t cool.’’
I wasn’t looking for an apology. Good idea because I wasn’t getting one. Just an explanation. At that time, I don’t think Ware or anyone else on that Houston team felt any remorse for what happened. They probably still don’t.
The exchange ended on good terms.
Closure? Maybe. At least I could vent to the guy who did it.
Let’s make it a great week. Pony Up!
The post What was he Thinking? appeared first on On3.
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