What if?
What if something else had happened?
1979 Sugar Bowl—#1 Penn State vs. #2 Alabama—What if the Nittany Lions actually scored on their mid-4th Quarter goal line possession? Some people (including many PSU players) believe that Matt Suhey really did “break the plane” on his 3rd down dive from the 1… Most agree that Mike Guman did not make it on 4th down, but what about 2nd down, and the pass to Scott Fitzkee? If Fitzkee gets just one more yard, it’s a tie game, and there’s no 12-men on the field for a shanked punt that never happened… Would Penn State have gone for 2? Could Penn State have won its first National Championship under Joe Paterno? Hmmm…
Monday, January 1, 1979… It’s the 45th Sugar Bowl Classic at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans… ABC-TV is carrying the game at 2 o’clock in the East with Keith Jackson and Frank Broyles in the booth (game times did not get shifted to primetime in those days just because a National Title was on the line)… Penn State is 11-0 and ranked #1 in the nation and is seriously playing for a “Natty” for the first time in its history… 2nd ranked Alabama (10-1) and Paul “Bear” Bryant have been a recent thorn in the Nittany Lions’ side having won their December 1975 Sugar Bowl meeting, 13-6… Bama was actually a 1-point favorite in this one, too, and the Tide runs the always problematic Wishbone offense… The Lions are in their all-white road uniforms, and they really are “all-white head to toe”; wearing white cleats for the first time ever… It’s a look that was never repeated in the Paterno-era… You can guess why…
Other than the 1971 squad, the 1978 Penn State team might be the best one that no one really talks about as much as they should… Chuck Fusina was an outstanding quarterback with a strong running attack led by Matt Suhey and a classic, hard-hitting defense led by Bruce Clark and Matt Millen… Alabama players will tell you that they were never hit harder by anyone… Bama hit hard, too… Penn State fans are reminded of rushing 38 times for 19 yards against the Crimson Tide, and two unsuccessful runs from the 1—the latter captured in an iconic and painful Sports Illustrated cover photo… It was a 14-7 Penn State loss that begs the question, “What if?”
We pick up the game in the 4th quarter… Alabama leads 14-7 on the strength of a TD pass and a run… PSU had tied the game, 7-7 in the 3rd on a 17-yard pass from Fusina to Fitzkee… The clock is about to roll under 8 minutes to play, and Alabama is looking at third down… Jeff Rutledge QB rolls left on the triple option, he’s under pressure from Matt Millen DT and pitches badly behind his running back… Joe Lally DE who took the RB on the play pounces on the loose ball at the Bama 19-yard line… PSU is back in business at the 7:57 mark… Matt Suhey RB charges to the 8 for another Penn State 1st down…. Mike Guman RB gets 2 more to the 6… Penn State is 2nd and goal from the 6… With the clock now rolling under 7 minutes to go, Fusina flares q pass to Scott Fitzkee SE (who had caught Fusina’s 3rd period TD pass) at the 1-yard line near the sideline… Three Bama defenders converge and Fitzkee is knocked out of bounds just as he turns to angle into the right corner of the endzone… It’s now 3rd and goal from just inside the 1… Matt Suhey gets the call, and he goes over the top, but is ruled to have been stopped short of the goal line by the Bama defense (this is the play that most Penn Staters feel was a touchdown, but we’re more than two decades away from replay reviews)… Penn State tries again and Mike Guman is stopped cold by Barry Krauss LB at the top of his leap… It’s a stunning turnover on downs just short of the goal line… There’s still hope for Penn State and there’s still time… Bama, not surprisingly is trapped and forced to punt… And the punter shanks it… The Lions get another crack inside Crimson Tide territory, or do they? Flag on the play… Penalty on Penn State for 12 men on the field… That pretty much ends the title hopes for Penn State in its first legit “on field” shot at a National Championship… But…
What if Penn State had scored on that possession? Most of the talk over the years has revolved around Suhey’s third down leap that many players (and others) think was actually a score… But the “What if” here surrounds the 2nd down play that almost went for an indisputable TD… Penn State is 2nd and goal from the 6… It’s a Power-I formation with Suhey and Guman right behind Chuck Fusina… With the clock rolling under 7 minutes to go, Fusina takes the snap, drops, and rolls right… Suhey also moves right and picks up the rush allowing Fusina to flare the pass to Scott Fitzkee at the 1, close to the sideline… Three Bama defenders move in, and Don McNeal CB who’s actually covering Bob Bassett (the second option WR on the play) in the endzone, bursts past everyone and blows Fitzkee out of bounds just as he turns to angle into the right corner of the endzone… Fitzkee’s about 2-feet shy of the endzone… It’s a critical TD-saving play by McNeal… In some ways, more critical than Barry Krauss’ still-to-come stuff of Mike Guman on 4th down… Bob Bassett pounds the turf… If Bassett could have somehow turned and blocked McNeal after the catch, or had avoided the flow to the right, or maybe cut right more slowly, he could have possibly delayed McNeal from getting close to Fitzkee… And Fitzkee likely walks into the endzone easily ahead of the other 2 Bama defenders… It was all so “bang-bang” and Penn State needed to get lucky (and they didn’t)… Of course, 7 points only tie the game… Does Joe go for 2 now? Or does he think the defense can hold and give Fusina and friends another good shot at any kind of score… And remember, if Fitzkee scores here, Alabama will probably have better field position and there won’t be a shanked punt giving the Lions the ball and a short field (or will there?)… We will never know…
What really happened is etched in the minds of every penn statter who lived it, two dives from the 1 on 3rd and 4th downs for no gain…. Bama punts and shanks it…. But, 12 men on the field probably end the title hopes for OPenn state in its first legit “on-Field” shot at #1 and the first national title .. Mike guman was called on to go over the top to try and tie the game…. But, barry Krauss met him at the top and stopped the lions cold… .in fact Krauss has said he was knocked cold for a few moments on the hit he made to stop Guman ….. bama held on to win 14-7 in a game that bama players called the hardest hitting game they’d ever been in…. One of the most disappointing losses in penn state history… one of bama’s greatestg goalline stands---- and psu’s first real crack at a national title in the Paterno era went up in smoke….that would finally happen 4 years later, ironically in the same location Sugar Bowl…
What really might have changed the outcome of the game was quite honestly “video replay review”… Suhey’s stop was not the only questionable moment from the game… With 8 seconds left in first half, Jeff Rutledge threw what was ruled a 30 yard diving TD catch by Bruce Bolton in the endzone for the 7-0 halftime lead… but, later photos and some videos showed that the ball hit the ground before Bolton caught it and should not have counted… but, video replay was not a 20th century luxury…It has also been suggested by some including the PSU FB Media Guide summary that game photos and videos showed that Bruce Bolton’s 30 yd diving TD catch from Jeff Rutledge in the endzone hit the ground before he caught it and should have been ruled no good… again days before replay…. So it stood, 7-0 bama in second period with 8 seconds to play before the half….
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Note: It’s been suggested over the years that Joe Paterno really wanted to play in the 1979 Orange Bowl which held the primetime TV slot… Joe was very aware of the power of national TV… He also reportedly wanted to give the Penn State defense a crack at Oklahoma and eventual Heisman-winner Billy Sims who would nudge out Chuck Fusina for that honor (Fusina, in fact, had more 1st place Heisman votes than Sims)… Some say that Bear Bryant talked Paterno into the Sugar Bowl… But Nebraska’s upset of then #1 Oklahoma (which handed them the Orange Bowl automatic berth) followed by the Huskers’ stunning, season-closing home loss to unranked Missouri muddied the waters in Miami, and forced Penn State to pick New Orleans (Nebraska had also previously lost to #1 Alabama to open the ‘78 season)…
