Los Angeles – Poor Scott Frost got thrown to the wolves, or Sun Devils, which might have been worse. Thomas Lott never had started a game, and neither had Don Jacobs. Kenny Stabler certainly deserved a better fate, and who in the world had ever heard of Carl Dodd?
Some names are obscure; some are famous. There are nine and they all have one thing in common: They were all players who were first-year starting quarterbacks, or took sole possession of the job, and failed to lead their school to a third straight national title.
It has never been done. Since The Associated Press started its poll in 1936, 10 teams have won back-to-back national titles. None has won a third. Eight had essentially a first-year starter, and only two returned a starting quarterback for his third year. One was Minnesota’s Bill Garnaas in 1942. The other?
Southern California’s Matt Leinart.
If history is made Wednesday and top-ranked USC (12-0) beats No. 2 Texas (12-0) at the Rose Bowl for an unprecedented third national title, a Reggie Bush mad dash might be the reason the Trojans win the game. Or it could be an interception by Darnell Bing, or great run blocking by the offensive line.
But Leinart will be the reason for history. He is the one common denominator, a thread that stretches across three seasons, longer than any back-to-back national title team.
“The thing that USC has going for them is they’ve had the same quarterback for three years,” former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne said last week. “They’re probably not going to have two guys of the quality of Leinart and Bush. That’s pretty unusual, no matter how good a recruiter you are.”
Osborne should know. He was an assistant on the 1972 Nebraska team that opened defense of its 1970-71 national titles by losing at UCLA 20-17. Starting at quarterback was a kid from Las Vegas named David Humm, a drop-back passer and opposite of the hero he replaced, Jerry Tagge.
In 1996, Osborne took his two-time defending national champs to Arizona State in Game 2 and got throttled 19-0 in a steaming hornet’s nest called Sun Devil Stadium. Starting was Frost, a transfer from Stanford trying to replace the dynamic Tommie Frazier.
“I wouldn’t say the reason we lost to Arizona State was Frost’s fault,” Osborne said. “A lot of offensive guys didn’t play well. We didn’t know at the time how good Arizona State was. They came (four points) from going undefeated.”
But Osborne’s point is sound. Unlike USC with Leinart, each team trying to three-peat had an unknown quantity at quarterback.
“Anytime you break in a new quarterback, even if everything else is in place, odds are pretty good you’ll lose one or two,” Osborne said.
Which is why USC can pull out a game such as the classic at Notre Dame, where the Trojans faced fourth-and-9 from their own 26 with 1:08 left and trailing 31-28. If Leinart had gone to the NFL early, as most predicted, would sophomore John David Booty have hit Dwayne Jarrett for 61 yards to set up the winning score?
“They don’t win the Notre Dame game if he’s not there,” said Jesse Kosch, Nebraska’s punter on the 1995 and 1997 national title teams.
Imagine how Barry Switzer felt going into the Texas game in 1976. The Sooners had won the two previous national titles, but three-year quarterback Steve Davis was gone. In came Lott. He eventually became a fine player, but on Oct. 9 he was as raw as Switzer’s hide after the game.
Oklahoma tied Texas 6-6 after a botched extra point, and the three-peat hopes were dashed. Switzer didn’t bother campaigning.
“It was a horrible, terrible, atrocious offensive football game,” Switzer said. “Just horrible.”
Which is how Switzer adopted his key to winning three in a row.
“Retaining the teams that won the national championships,” he said. “It’s eligibility. Our juniors won it in ’74, then they won it again the next year. We were sophomores in ’76.”
Even the greatest dynasty in history, until possibly Wednesday, couldn’t withstand a new quarterback. Oklahoma won the 1955-56 titles and 47 straight games, mostly under the direction of Jim Harris. Then Dodd, a local boy from Norman, Okla., couldn’t muster a single point in a 7-0 loss to Notre Dame.
This brings us to the current Trojans. Besides Leinart, the Trojans on Wednesday will start eight offensive players who started in last year’s national title win over Oklahoma. It’s not just talent that helped USC lead the nation in total offense (580.25 yards per game) and stand second in scoring (50.0 points per game).
It’s experience. And health. Leinart hasn’t missed a game in three years. Garnaas was hurt most of the 1942 season and Minnesota slumped to 5-4.
Then again, there are other factors besides the quarterback. You need the ball to bounce perfectly. Osborne would have three in a row if Byron Bennett hadn’t missed a 45-yard field goal that would have beaten Florida State in the Orange Bowl ending the 1993 season.
You also need constant focus, tunnel vision that blots out the big picture in favor of that three-hour block of time each Saturday. Osborne said after a national title, particularly after two, “There’s a tendency to relax, to not work quite as hard in the offseason.”
Osborne’s teams had the steel will of Marines, but there’s a debate about what happened in 1972. Bill Kosch, Jesse’s father and all-Big Eight safety on the 1970 and 1971 title teams, remained in Nebraska during that 1972 season.
“In ’71 we had a whole different demeanor than in ’72,” he said. “We were just business-like. We didn’t want to hear about being congratulated. We just wanted to win football games. I do believe this ’72 team was maybe thinking they were extra, extra special and maybe lost a little focus.
“It wasn’t (Humm’s) fault they lost the first game. The running backs were fumbling all over the place. I think we fumbled five times. That’s showing they weren’t mentally into the game.”
Also, it doesn’t help dynasties when college football champions are decided by pollsters who can be as fickle – and biased – as figure skating judges. In 1966, Alabama was coming off back-to-back titles, started the year No. 1, went 11-0, shut out its last four opponents in the regular season, then drilled Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl 34-7.
And finished third.
Notre Dame and Michigan State, which tied 10-10 in the season finale, finished ranked 1-2. Stabler, in his first year, has the infamous tag of quarterback on an unbeaten, untied team that ended Alabama’s string of national titles.
The popular theory remains that pollsters snubbed Alabama after two civil rights workers were slain in Alabama, focusing national attention on the state’s racial policy, not to mention the Crimson Tide’s all-white squad.
Former Tide players and assistants don’t buy into that. Alabama athletic director Mal Moore was a player on the 1966 team and an assistant in 1980 when the Jacobs-led Tide lost 6-3 to Mississippi State, ending Alabama’s reign.
“We had a lot of luck,” Moore said. “Some teams beat another team that had to fall our way. For us, the ’66 team, we were the defending national champions and we go undefeated. In essence, we won three national championships in a row.”
Too bad it doesn’t say that in the record book. It will say “USC” three times Wednesday if the Trojans beat Texas, a 7 1/2-point underdog. But everyone believes Texas will give USC a better game than Oklahoma did last year (55-19 in the Orange Bowl) or Michigan (28-14, Rose Bowl) the year before.
“They have a legitimate chance because if you look at the numbers, USC is the better offensive team, but Texas maybe has a little edge on defense,” Osborne said. “In a game like this, say Texas slows down SC pretty good, then they’ve got an excellent chance.”
And if they don’t?
Mr. Booty, it’s your job to make it four in a row.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
