1989 season

7

79tech

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Before Georgia Tech’s 1990 title, a ‘weird’ 1989 season set it up

Editor’s note: The year 2020 is big for anniversaries in Georgia college football. It’s the 30th anniversary of the 1990 Georgia Tech 11-0-1 season and share of a national title. It’s the 40th anniversary of 1980 Georgia’s 12-0 season and national title. The AJC will look back at both titles...
www.ajc.com www.ajc.com

I have always said this was the weirdest season in Tech history in my life time. Followed by the 2001 year. We came into the year having little hope and started 0-3 and then fell behind to a weak Maryland team 21-7. It was looking bad but then a light bulb went off in Shawn Jones. He was electric and I remember telling a UGA fan on Monday (this was a good UGA fan) to watch out - we have a QB who is very good. It was a weird game when you tear down the goalpost beating a team that would finish 3-7-1 - that's how desperate we were for a win. The next week we smushed a very good Clemson team 30-14. Then we beat UNC 17-14 where it looked like we had lost and Shawn Jones simply escaped the whole UNC defense for a big gain late that won a game that was lost. We finished the season by whooping UGA. The 33-22 score was not indicative. GT was a bowl team that didn't get a bowl game. By the end of the year, we were playing extremely well and had a QB with real upside.
 
It was a very strange year. Last year was pretty weird too. How many people predicted Tech to lose to The Citadel and then beat Miami? The fact is that the whole Coastal is like that to varying degrees. Even Virginia Tech, which used to be pretty consistent with an emphasis on defense and special teams has become as crazy as the rest of them. As far as 1989 goes, Coach Ross was quoted in a book about the 1990 season that the foundation for that great year was begun with Shawn Jones maturing as a quarterback and leader starting with the Maryland comeback.
 
We got totally screwed out of a bowl that year, too. A red-hot 7-4 team that just whupped UGA. There weren't 100 bowl games back then so they were quite choosy in their bids.
 
I remember that season well. Late in the Georgia game, they put up on their dot matirx board, "Tech fans, enjoy your bowl trip!" I hate that bunch.
 
That was my first year at Tech, transferred in. I remember the student section in Upper East spending the entire 4th quarter chanting "Peach Bowl" as Jerry Mays drug them up and down the field and they were helpless. All they could do was hang their heads.
 
79tech said:
www.ajc.com

Before Georgia Tech’s 1990 title, a ‘weird’ 1989 season set it up

Editor’s note: The year 2020 is big for anniversaries in Georgia college football. It’s the 30th anniversary of the 1990 Georgia Tech 11-0-1 season and share of a national title. It’s the 40th anniversary of 1980 Georgia’s 12-0 season and national title. The AJC will look back at both titles...
www.ajc.com www.ajc.com

I have always said this was the weirdest season in Tech history in my life time. Followed by the 2001 year. We came into the year having little hope and started 0-3 and then fell behind to a weak Maryland team 21-7. It was looking bad but then a light bulb went off in Shawn Jones. He was electric and I remember telling a UGA fan on Monday (this was a good UGA fan) to watch out - we have a QB who is very good. It was a weird game when you tear down the goalpost beating a team that would finish 3-7-1 - that's how desperate we were for a win. The next week we smushed a very good Clemson team 30-14. Then we beat UNC 17-14 where it looked like we had lost and Shawn Jones simply escaped the whole UNC defense for a big gain late that won a game that was lost. We finished the season by whooping UGA. The 33-22 score was not indicative. GT was a bowl team that didn't get a bowl game. By the end of the year, we were playing extremely well and had a QB with real upside.
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Maryland had been pretty good up til that year. I remember the week of the game their QB said something to the effect of "now we get to beat up on someone". We woke up that game and were red hot the rest of the year except the Duke game.
 
79tech said:
beat UNC 17-14 where it looked like we had lost and Shawn Jones simply escaped the whole UNC defense for a big gain late
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One of the best QB runs I’ve ever seen. I believe we just called it “The Run” or something.
 
Jerry Mays was a absolute stud. One of the toughest pound for pound players to ever put on the uniform for the yellow jackets. He ran for 207 yards against Bill Goldberg and UGA defense to finish the season. He made them say Uncle half way thru the 4th quarter. I will never forget it, what a great day.
 
Ross was only about half as PO'ed as I was two days earlier leaving the South Carolina game. It was ugly, and given what had happened the previous two years, I almost swore off ever going to another game.

And then we went 18-1-1 in the next 20 games. Then in '94 we were back to worse than 1987. Has any other set of fans ever experienced anything like that? The recruiting class after a 2-9 season won a MNC as juniors. The recruiting class after a MNC went 1-10 when they were seniors.

That #8 USCe game in '88 because of the 34-0 score ranks up there with ND in '80 and Bama in '81 for the most mystifying ever.

If there was any justice in GT football, Mays would have gotten to play on the '90 team after playing on the '87 and '88 teams. He would have been our smallest AA ever on that '90 team.

Jones was a better QB than Hamilton. Not by much, but still better. Damn, we wasted him in '92.
 
Killick said:
Ross was only about half as PO'ed as I was two days earlier leaving the South Carolina game. It was ugly, and given what had happened the previous two years, I almost swore off ever going to another game.

And then we went 18-1-1 in the next 20 games. Then in '94 we were back to worse than 1987. Has any other set of fans ever experienced anything like that? The recruiting class after a 2-9 season won a MNC as juniors. The recruiting class after a MNC went 1-10 when they were seniors.

That #8 USCe game in '88 because of the 34-0 score ranks up there with ND in '80 and Bama in '81 for the most mystifying ever.

If there was any justice in GT football, Mays would have gotten to play on the '90 team after playing on the '87 and '88 teams. He would have been our smallest AA ever on that '90 team.

Jones was a better QB than Hamilton. Not by much, but still better. Damn, we wasted him in '92.
Click to expand...

We did not translate our on-the-field success into recruiting. That is for sure.

It was then, coupled with watching Mack Brown recruit at UNC those first two seasons, that I realized that the concept of using on-field performance to improve recruiting was a myth.
 
Killick said:
Ross was only about half as PO'ed as I was two days earlier leaving the South Carolina game. It was ugly, and given what had happened the previous two years, I almost swore off ever going to another game.

And then we went 18-1-1 in the next 20 games. Then in '94 we were back to worse than 1987. Has any other set of fans ever experienced anything like that? The recruiting class after a 2-9 season won a MNC as juniors. The recruiting class after a MNC went 1-10 when they were seniors.

That #8 USCe game in '88 because of the 34-0 score ranks up there with ND in '80 and Bama in '81 for the most mystifying ever.

If there was any justice in GT football, Mays would have gotten to play on the '90 team after playing on the '87 and '88 teams. He would have been our smallest AA ever on that '90 team.

Jones was a better QB than Hamilton. Not by much, but still better. Damn, we wasted him in '92.
Click to expand...
The QB in the South Carolina defeat was Todd Rampley. No offense intended, but Todd had limited talent. South Carolina's defense was based on blitz and blitz again the next play. I never saw a game that had so may dump off passes to the outside. Todd would go back and then turn quickly and dump the ball to a running back. The defense played incredibly well also but it was a very weird game that Coach Ross knew they we were going to blitz and used that knowledge.
 
We joined a lot of fans at the buses after the Clemson game at Death Valley to congratulate the team. When Bobby Ross boarded the bus after that game I have never seen a coach with a more contented look. I think it was then that he really starting believing he had turned the program around and great things were in store. But, I will never forget the smile on his face.
 
I would really like to hear O'Leary and Friedgen talk about 87, 88, and 89. I think 87 goes a lot better if Malcolm King doesn't fumble at the 1yd line against UNC in Ross's second game. We were about to put them away. IIRC two plays later they hit a 95+ yd TD pass. It took us a couple of years to recover from that.

No disrespect to King he was a great player, especially in Athens in '84.

Made a mistake in my earlier post. Mays didn't play in '87. He was injured that year.
 
77GTFan said:
We joined a lot of fans at the buses after the Clemson game at Death Valley to congratulate the team. When Bobby Ross boarded the bus after that game I have never seen a coach with a more contented look. I think it was then that he really starting believing he had turned the program around and great things were in store. But, I will never forget the smile on his face.
Click to expand...

I was at a funeral and missed that game. Anybody know where there is recording of that game?
 
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