1970 orange bowl now that was some defensive team
- Thread starter brupsu
- Start date
If younger members here can watch the whole game, they will see why oldies like me think Dennis Onkotz deserves to be talked about as the best LB of all time ... returned punts, intercepted passes, stuffed runs all from his ILB position.
That Missouri team (coached by Dan Devine) had stomped Michigan in Ann Arbor 40-17 earlier in the year.....the same Michigan team that upset #1 tOSU 24-12 to end the regular season.
Missouri also laid 69 pts on KU to end their regular season.....which I unfortunately witnessed in person.
Against PSU, Missouri had 1 FG in 19 possessions.
Missouri’s receivers caught 6 balls.....PSU defenders caught 7 balls. (PSU also recovered 2 fumbles.)
Amazingly, 4 (FOUR) of the RBs & WRs that played for Missouri were eventually chosen in the next three NFL drafts.
Both Penn State and Missouri were WAY WAY WAY better than both Texas AND Arkansas. BY FAR!
Missouri also laid 69 pts on KU to end their regular season.....which I unfortunately witnessed in person.
Against PSU, Missouri had 1 FG in 19 possessions.
Missouri’s receivers caught 6 balls.....PSU defenders caught 7 balls. (PSU also recovered 2 fumbles.)
Amazingly, 4 (FOUR) of the RBs & WRs that played for Missouri were eventually chosen in the next three NFL drafts.
Both Penn State and Missouri were WAY WAY WAY better than both Texas AND Arkansas. BY FAR!
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To this day the best defense I've ever seen.
As an aside, isn't it wonderful to watch a football broadcast without score bugs, down markers, tickers at the bottom of the screen, and all that other distracting stuff?
Announcers are listed as Jim Simpson and Al DeRogatis. Today's announcers could learn a thing or three from them - and others from that era.
Less is more.
Announcers are listed as Jim Simpson and Al DeRogatis. Today's announcers could learn a thing or three from them - and others from that era.
Less is more.
I was at that game, my first bowl game. Led by Neal Smith, we had 5 interceptions, I think. Best defense I've ever seen.
[edit, thanks to Illinois Lion] SEVEN interceptions!
[edit, thanks to Illinois Lion] SEVEN interceptions!
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Just remembered this quote from Onkotz when asked "how long do you think you could have held off Missouri?" Dennis answered "Forever!"
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DTs were Mike Reid (PSU's GOAT) and Steve Smear- who in addition to having the best football name on record was himself a hell of a player
Yes, Reid is/was PSU's GOAT, but I have give credit to some other old time DTs - Clark, Millen, Smear, Crowder, Hartenstine, etc.
I was there also. I remember Dan Devine saying after the game in reference to Penn State, "They were a thousand miles ahead of anybody we played this year. It's to our credit that the score wasn't 40-3." Both the 1969 and the 1968 teams deserved to be national champions. It was bias against Eastern football that cost Penn State. Add the obvious 1994 joke of a poll and there are three titles taken from Penn State. A case could also be made for the 1973 team.
We would have beat the crap out of the last all-white “national champion”, Texas.
With bowl prep time Psu would have broken the wishbone attack of Texas and 94 was a disgrace..No way Nebraska controls that offense.Just a joke that those two teams did not meet that year.
My first ever PSU game in person. I was 11. Have been hooked ever since.
He was a three-time All-American. His junior and senior years a consensus All-American and 2nd-team AA his sophomore year in 1967. He is one of, if not the most, under-publicized and forgotten great linebacker in college football history.
Joe did just that in the '72 Cotton Bowl holding Texas without a touchdown for the first time in 80 games going back to 1964 and the '71's team defense wasn't nearly as good as the '69's team defense.
I think we did a year or two after the orange bowl. I can't remember who said it but they asked Onkotz or Smear how long they think that they could have kept Missouri's offense from scoring and they said forever!
Texas vs. Penn State 1969 comparison:
http://www.tiptop25.com/champ1969.html
How many national titles would Joe had won if he had the college football playoff?
https://johnbaranowski.wordpress.co...e-won-if-he-had-the-college-football-playoff/
I went to all of Penn State’s home games that year - the first games I ever went to. What an impression that team made on me! Been a huge fan ever since.
Or obnoxious music blaring over the loudspeakers between every play.
They needed that win over Texas after playing like crap against Tennessee in a regular season game that year. I was living in SEC country at the time and heard about that game for MONTHS afterward. And with Burkhart at QB in '69, they needed the great defense.
IIRC, Missouri had the nation's top offense that year, and I remember seeing a quote from Dan Devine, something like, "Texas may have been No. 1, but they never would have scored on Penn State."
The Godfather of Penn State linebackers.
