Looking back is a good way to move forward

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

I have a photograph that I cherish, a picture of my friends in college. Looking back at those fresh, optimistic faces my perception is clouded by knowledge of what's happened to them in the intervening years.

Most have been blessed with good fortune and prosperity. Some have traveled through a rough patch or two. A few have endured dispirited and unhappy lives.

The 1979 issue of GAMEPLAN pre-season college football magazine is a lot like that photograph. I saved a few copies because it was the first such magazine to put Seminoles on the national cover. There is a youngish Bobby Bowden posing with his "one-two quarterback punch" of Wally Woodham and Jimmy Jordan.

GAMEPLAN predicted the Seminoles had a chance to go undefeated in 1979, and placed us No. 7 in their pre-season top 20 poll. Fair enough. We did in fact go 11-0 in the regular season, and ended up No. 6 in the AP and No. 8 in the Coaches' poll.

Seventh place was, I imagine, the highest FSU had ever been ranked pre-season up 'til that time. It seems almost quaint now that our Seminoles have appeared in the pre-season Top 5 for the last eleven consecutive seasons.

As I thumbed through the 20-year-old magazine, I was struck by how many stories would begin to unfold in 1979, and continue through the following years.

Here are a few other "photographs" from that 1979 GAMEPLAN.

Southern Cal, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Penn State were GAMEPLAN's top five. Ohio State wasn't even on the Top 20 radar screen. GAMEPLAN predicted they'd finish 4th or 5th in the Big 10. Earl Bruce had just taken the place of Woody Hayes, who had brought his storied career to an ignoble end by punching a Clemson player in the 1978 Gator Bowl game. Bruce had been brought in from Iowa State; he was a Buckeye alum, and beloved by the OSU faithful.

GAMEPLAN's assessment was grim: "(they have) seen the defection of too many key performers...Their offense needs help fast and, despite (quarterback Art) Schlicter's brilliance, the attack force won't be able to do much...Defensively, Cousineau's departure weakens the linebacking considerably, and the trench doesn't look as strong as last year...We don't see more than seven wins for the Buckeyes..."

But, Ohio State went 11-0 and played in the National Championship game in the Rose Bowl, barely losing to Southern Cal 17-16. The Buckeyes finished No. 4 in both polls. In 1980, Ohio State was the pre-season No. 1 team in the AP poll - and never No. 1 again until 1998.

The 1979 season was Earl Bruce's finest hour. Subsequent seasons never quite measured up, and eventually Bruce was fired. He drifted out to Colorado State for awhile, but that ended unhappily. Today, Earl Bruce is a football analyst for an AM radio station in Columbus, Ohio.

Georgia, under Vince Dooley, was a tough team in a brutal league. The Dogs would go 6-5 in 1979, but finish No. 2 in the SEC with a 5-1 conference record.

GAMEPLAN liked Georgia's three tailbacks, but hinted that there was a new kid on the horizon who would put all the others to shame. "All three could wind up playing second fiddle to incoming freshman Carnie Norris, an All-American prep star who totaled over 6,000 yards and scored 70 touchdowns in high school," glowed GAMEPLAN.

In 1979, Carnie Norris finished 3rd among Georgia backs as a true freshman.

In the fall of 1980, a fellow named Herschel Walker showed up on campus. In the first game, Georgia started Danny McMickens at tailback. He played all of the first quarter, and would finish the season with a total of three yards rushing. Carnie Norris played the first two series of the second quarter, but Georgia still trailed Tennessee in Knoxville.

Dooley started true freshman, Walker, in the second half, and the Dogs beat Tennessee 16-15. After that and for the next three years it was all Herschel Walker, all the way to a National Championship, and to New York for a Heisman Trophy.

Carnie Norris, the can't-miss All-American, stayed on the team and remained loyal to Georgia. He was the team's second leading rusher in 1980. In 1981, he was the third leading rusher, and in his senior year, 1982, he finished fourth.

Southern Methodist's offense was deemed "unstoppable...perhaps the most explosive offense in all of college football!" GAMEPLAN's pre-season first-team All-American quarterback and first-team All-American wide receiver were SMU's Mike Ford and Emanuel Tolbert.

"We believe in 'Mustang Mania,'" said GAMEPLAN. "If this team's running attack improves just slightly from 1978, the offense will devastate opponents...Defensively, SMU is going to field a first class unit."

But the Ponies ended up 5-6, sixth in the nine-team Southwest Conference. "1979 was supposed to be the year SMU leaped from obscurity into the spotlight," lamented Coach Ron Meyer.

Quarterback Mike Ford went down with a knee in the second game and was lost for the year. The second string QB was also knocked out for the year in the same game. In all, 27 players who started, or who were scheduled to start the week of the game, missed at least one game with injuries.

Mike Ford came back in 1980 to become the nation's No. 2 leading passer. He played one season of pro ball with Tampa Bay. All-American receiver Emanuel Tolbert still holds SMU's career receiving record with 2,784 yards. He played 11 seasons in the CFL.

The SMU Mustangs did rise from obscurity to the spotlight, just as Meyer predicted. After brilliant seasons in the 1980s, they became the first - and to this date, the only - college football team to suffer the NCAA's "Death Penalty."

Howard Schnellenberger took over a very young University of Miami team in 1979. GAMEPLAN noted the long-time Miami Dolphins' assistant brought other pros with him to Coral Gables, including QB coach Earl Morrall, and receivers' coach Larry Sieple.

The 'Canes finished 5-6, including a humiliating loss to Florida A&M in Tallahassee on a wide-right kick at the end of the game. The Rattlers had a fine team and deserved to win, but losing to a Division 1-AA team showed how far the Hurricane program had to go.

Schnellenberger built his Miami program into a powerhouse, winning Miami's first national title in 1983.

Schnellenberger resigned after the championship game and jumped to the fledgling USFL. Later, he returned to his hometown in Kentucky to coach the Louisville Cardinals for eight years.

After one very unhappy season as head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners, he left coaching for awhile and hit the speaker's circuit. He surfaced last year in Boca Raton as director of football operations for Florida Atlantic.

FAU has no football team, but wants to begin play in 2001. Schnellenberger is in charge of raising money and organizing, and says, "We'll be competitive with the best teams in America in seven years."

A south Florida newspaper reports that Howard Schnellenberger has not ruled out naming himself head coach.