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The 1979 Sugar Bowl confirmed the hackneyed cliché
that football is a game of inches. And in this game the
number of inches was easily quantifiable: six. That is how
close the ball lay to pay dirt on Penn State's
fourth-and-goal play midway through the
fourth quarter. Trailing 14-7, the Nittany Lions elected to
give the ball to tailback Mike Guman, who was met
face-to-face by 'Bama linebacker Barry Krauss in a hit so
jarring that the hitter, Krauss, was knocked out. Krauss
came to within seconds, and
Penn State didn't threaten again the rest of the game. For the
first time, a No. 2 team had knocked off No. 1 to take home
the national crown. The victory gave Bear Bryant his fifth
championship and kept Joe Paterno title-less, evoking yet
another cliché:
close, but no
cigar.
'63 USC-Wisconsin | '64 Texas-Navy | '69 Ohio St.-USC
'72 Nebraska-Alabama | '79 Alabama-Penn St. | '83 Penn St.-Georgia
'87 Penn St.-Miami | '88 Miami-Oklahoma | '93 Alabama-Miami
'94 FSU-Nebraska | '96 Nebraska-Florida
Flashback | One vs. Two
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