1981 Peach Bowl
June 02, 2005 09:58 AM | General
June 2, 2005
Mountaineer Magazine Special: 11/15/96 (512K Video)
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| Mickey Walczak scored both of West Virginia's touchdowns to earn Peach Bowl MVP honors. (WVU Sports Communications) |
There was absolutely no way in the world West Virginia was going to beat Florida in the 1981 Peach Bowl. The betting organizations called a Florida win “the lock of the year.”
The Mountaineers were coming off a disappointing season-ending performance at Syracuse where they blew an early lead. There were some tense moments in the Mountaineer locker room after the game from those wondering if the Peach Bowl was going to come through with a bid to play in the game after all.
Quarterback Oliver Luck believes West Virginia’s poor performance against Syracuse was actually what the team needed to get back on track in the bowl game.
“We kind of collapsed in the second half of the Syracuse game partly because of a couple of bad decisions I made,” Luck said. “But I think that was good for us going into the Peach Bowl because we lost that game and realized that while we were good, we were by no means dominant and we had to play every snap well in order to win. That gave us the extra bite we needed going into the Peach Bowl.”
Florida, meanwhile, was one of the nation’s top young, up-and-coming programs under Coach Charley Pell. The Gators collected early season wins over Georgia Tech, LSU and Maryland and finished the regular season strong with impressive triumphs over Kentucky and Florida State. Linebacker Wilbur Marshall and David Galloway led a very solid Gator defense while the offense was headlined by quarterback Wayne Peace, fullback James Jones and tight end Mike Mularkey.
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Peach Bowl History |
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Some heavy politicking by West Virginia coach Jim Carlen got the Mountaineers into the second annual Peach Bowl in 1969. West Virginia lost to only Penn State that year and had wins over Pitt, Kentucky and Syracuse to finish the regular season 9-1 and crack the national rankings for the first time since the late 1950s. “I called Bobby Dodd down at George Tech and told him to place a call on my behalf to the Peach Bowl committee,” Carlen said. “I told Bobby we could whip any team they line up down there.” That turned out to be the case against ACC regular season champion South Carolina. Carlen instructed offensive coordinator Bobby Bowden tolearn the wishbone and Bowden installed it right after the regular season, much to the surprise of the Gamecocks. “The reason we put in the wishbone was because we had several great running backs,” Carlen said. “Plus, (wide receiver) Oscar Patrick was hurt and we had very little depth there.” The Mountaineers attempted just two passes the entire game and finished with 356 yards rushing. Fullback Eddie Williams had a bowl record 208 yards on 35 carries and Bob Gresham nearly cracked 100 with 98 on 16 tries. Jim Braxton added 60 yards on 20 carries; both Braxton and Gresham scored touchdowns in the 14-3 victory. “South Carolina had no idea how to stop the wishbone,” said Carlen. “And they had a little quarterback (Tommy Suggs) who couldn’t get the ball over our linemen.” A day after the game Carlen announced he was taking the Texas Tech head coaching job, leaving the Mountaineer program in the capable hands of Bowden. Three years later Bowden steered West Virginia back to Atlanta in 1972. Bowden’s first two teams in 1970 and 1971 won 15 of 22 games and his third team in ‘72 went 8-3 during the regular season to be invited back to the Peach Bowl for the second time to face Lou Holtz’ North Carolina State team. After a pair of field goals by West Virginia kicker Frank Nester and a four-yard Bernie Galiffa touchdown pass to Danny Buggs, West Virginia held a 13-7 first-quarter lead. N.C. State got a short touchdown run early in the second quarter and led 14-13 at halftime. In the second half the Wolfpack put it on West Virginia, scoring 35 unanswered points including 21 in a disastrous third quarter. The Mountaineers committed four turnovers in a 49-13 loss. Many WVU fans at the game in Atlanta complained afterward that Bowden was running a loose ship and that several players broke curfew prior to the game. Bowden was forced to release a statement a couple of days after the loss. “This might sound crazy,” he began, “but I’m glad West Virginians are mad at the way we performed in the Peach Bowl. For 14,000 people to drive 300 miles or more and be humiliated would infuriate anyone. “I do wish our fans could accept the cold flat fact that we got our tails whipped by an excellent opponent and not try to go around and find behind-the-scenes reasons why we lost,” he continued. “I can assure you my preparations and the squad restrictions were the same as the other bowl participants. “Long hair, mustaches, dress apparel or training rules in Atlanta didn’t lose the game for us,” he added. More hard times followed Bowden in 1973 and 1974. Bowden’s ’74 club slipped to 4-7 and there was a push by some unhappy supporters to have him fired. But Bowden rebounded with an impressive 8-3 regular season record in 1975 that included a last-second victory over nationally ranked Pitt in Morgantown. A controversial loss at the end of the regular season at Syracuse nearly cost West Virginia a bowl game. The Mountaineers were the third choice of the Peach Bowl behind both Notre Dame and Oklahoma, which declined invitations. Once again the Peach Bowl pitted Lou Holtz’ N.C. State team against Bowden’s West Virginia team in the ’75 Peach Bowl. The Wolfpack took an early 10-0 lead before West Virginia came back right before the end of the half when quarterback Dan Kendra hit running back Artie Owens out of the backfield for a 39-yard touchdown on an obvious blown coverage. Even though Bill McKenzie missed the PAT, the damage was done. “That was a big play for us,” said Bowden. “In fact, I believe it was the turning point in the game.” West Virginia had one crack to take the lead midway through the third quarter but fullback Ron Lee fumbled on the N.C. State two yard line. With eight minutes left in the game, Kendra flipped a ball between two defenders that tight end Scott MacDonald was able to grab onto and lumber 50 yards untouched into the end zone for the go-ahead score. Defensive back Tom Pridemore eventually iced the game for West Virginia by intercepting a Dave Buckley pass at the West Virginia 22. The Mountaineer defense completely shut down North Carolina State’s offense in the second half, permitting just 131 total yards and no points in the 13-10 win. Kendra passed for 202 yards and two scores and running back Artie Owens finished the game with 96 yards on 19 carries. Linebacker Ray Marshall was named the game’s defensive MVP. “West Virginia played awfully good defense,” said Holtz. “We never got good field position in the second half.” After the game, Bowden called the win “one of my greatest ever.” The victory helped West Virginia reclaim a spot in the national rankings for the first time since 1969. -- John Antonik |
Through
the years West Virginia University and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta have been
pretty good partners.“Nobody gave us a chance but us,” said linebacker Dennis Fowlkes. “We just knew deep down inside we had them. When we went into our game plan … every meeting we were just confident that if we do this and if we do this then things will come out right for us.”
“We knew if we played the way we were capable of playing we could beat Florida even though everybody in the country was saying we shouldn’t even be on the same field with them,” said defensive back Steve Newberry.
“We went into the game very relaxed -- almost loosy goosy if you will,” added Luck. “Florida is a very recognized program in the SEC. It was the lock of the year that the Gators were going to clobber the Mountaineers so we felt like we had nothing to lose.”
Coach Don Nehlen, the man in charge of getting the team ready to face the Gators, took a what-do-we-have-to-lose attitude.
“We decided, hey, since we have no chance why not just script it and stay on it,” Nehlen recalled. “If we come up third down and this and it’s a long bomb, do it. Well, we came up and it was third down and six inches and the script said quarterback draw. I remember saying to Gary Tranquill, ‘If we run it they’ll think we’re crazy.’ We ran it and it gained about 14 yards.”
“I think Coach Nehlen did a great job preparing us,” added tight end Mark Raugh. “He had our heads right where they needed to be: not too far excited and not too far, ‘Hey, we can’t do this.’ He kept us balanced and that is a knack for somebody in coaching and Coach Nehlen had that knack.”
West Virginia benefited from a colder-than-usual afternoon at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium and the field was covered for most of the morning to protect it from morning rain showers.
“They wouldn’t even let us warm up because it’s raining so hard,” said Nehlen. “Then all of the sudden it quit raining. It was not windy. It turned out to be a super day for us to play football. Now where the coaches stood and right on the edge of the field it was pretty muddy but it was a great day.”
Linebacker Darryl Talley, growing up in the snow and cold of East Cleveland, Ohio, particularly liked the conditions.
“Football is made to be played outside in the weather and in the elements where you can throw mud in the guy’s face and if he’s on the ground too long you can push his face in it,” he said.
That type of attitude helped West Virginia set the tone early in game by forcing Florida to punt on its opening possession and then driving the ball from its own 23 all the way down field. Luck kept the drive alive with an 11-yard keeper up the middle on third and nine and worked the sidelines by throwing to tailback Mickey Walczak out of the backfield.
“We completed a little swing pass to Mickey Walczak, ‘88’ and ‘89’, I think eight times to him in that game,” said Nehlen.
Walczak, from upstate New York, was by no means a burner but he had great hands and had a knack for making tacklers miss. “He was really a good athlete,” said Nehlen. “If he would have had the 4.4 speed I think he could have gone to the next level. He was great coming out of the backfield.”
After an eight-yard carry by fullback Dane Conwell moved the ball to the Florida seven, Luck sprinted out to his right and found Walczak along the far corner of the end zone.
“I remember dropping back to pass being flushed out to the right and I found Mickey Walczak in the corner of the end zone,” Luck said. “It was one of those balls that I knew if I threw either he was going to make a great catch -- a fingertip catch -- with his toes inside the end zone or it was going to be out of bounds.”
Florida’s next possession resulted in a turnover when West Virginia’s pressure forced Peace to throw a pass that was intercepted by Lind Murray at the Florida 27. He returned the ball to the 15 yard line.
Just like it had on offense, West Virginia came up with a creative scheme on defense where it played six defensive backs and had at least one blitzer coming on every single play.
“At that time we were playing with a true strong safety and we’d take (backup strong safety) Donnie Stemple either to the formation and into Wayne’s face or we would line him up away from the formation and chase him from behind,” said Nehlen. “The amazing thing was that they were not prepared to handle that.”
“We did a lot of blitzing from the nickel package: not just me but other backs as well. It was just an extra wrinkle,” said Stemple.
The result was a bruised and confused Florida quarterback who was completely off his game. Peace finished the game completing just six of 13 passes for 47 yards with two interceptions.
“We just wanted to beat anybody that we could get a chance to beat on Saturday, Sunday, Monday … it didn’t make a difference. It was like having a group of guys who would go out into an alley and fight all day,” said Talley.
“The ’81 Peach Bowl team I thought was probably as tough a team that I ever had,” said Nehlen.
And although West Virginia was controlling Florida’s offense, the Mountaineer offense was moving the ball well enough to get into freshman kicker Paul Woodside’s range. Woodside made field goals of 35, 42 and 49 yards to give the Mountaineers a 16-0 halftime lead.
“The referee came up to me and said, ‘Coach that kicker you have is the funniest kid in America.’ I said, ‘Why is that?’ ‘He said, ‘We’ve got to quit meeting like this at midfield.’ That was Paul Woodside -- that was the kind of guy he was,” laughed Nehlen.
Even though Nehlen was pleased as punch to be ahead 16-0 at halftime, he was also worried that Florida might wake up in the second half.
“We were ahead 16-0 at halftime but I was not comfortable because this team had run up 40-50 points against a lot of people,” he said.
Any concerns the coach had at the break were eased midway through the third quarter when Woodside was able to tack on his fourth field goal from 24 yards to give West Virginia a 19-0 advantage. Once again, Tranquill used a mixture of misdirection runs and short passing to neutralize Florida’s terrific speed on defense.
“I think he really looked at the talent and knew how he could maximize it,” said Raugh of Tranquill. “It was everyone complimenting each other. It wasn’t Mark Raugh going out and catching the passes it was the guys on the outside -- Darrell Miller and Rich Hollins -- doing it too.”
Three straight Peace misfires under heavy pressure forced Florida to punt the football back to West Virginia once again.
Taking over at their own 41, the Mountaineers inserted the dagger.
Walczak sweeps of 10 and 11 yards helped move the ball down to the Gator three. A couple of Conwell cracks up the middle moved the ball to the one. Digging deep into his playbook, Tranquill sent in a reverse option that Luck executed beautifully on third down, pitching to Walczak at the right moment and Walczak lumbering into the end zone for West Virginia’s second touchdown.
Peace’s last pass attempt before being pulled from the game with 9:35 left was picked off by Tim Agee at the West Virginia 39.
“The whole defense was just fired up that day and that was all the coaches expressed to us was that defense wins games,” said Fowlkes. “As a defensive player I firmly believe that defense wins games. We can win the game more ways than offense. We knew our offense could score at any time but we had to concentrate on stopping Florida’s offense.”
The Gators were able to put a late touchdown on the board when backup Bob Hewko hit backup tight end Chris Faulkner for a 22-yard touchdown.
Walczak caught eight passes for 75 yards, ran eight times for 35 yards and scored both touchdowns to be named the game’s offensive MVP. Stemple was unofficially credited with four tackles and a pair of sacks to be named defensive MVP.
“Guys came from out of the woodwork to have great games in bowl games and that’s what college football is all about,” said Talley.
“I think a lot of guys realized this was the last game of their careers and they sort of went above and beyond their call of duty,” said Luck. “I think you need to have those types of performances every now and then to really have a big upset.”
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect anything like that,” said Stemple of being named defensive MVP. “It gives me goose bumps thinking about it. I don’t know why they decided to put (the blitz package) in but I’m glad they did it.”
“It was a special day and Oliver Luck holds a special place in my heart because without him here this program would not have been jumpstarted like it was,” Nehlen said.
Nine months later West Virginia used the momentum gained from beating Florida in the Peach Bowl to go out and upset top-10-ranked Oklahoma in Norman.
“The first big push on the national scene was the Florida game in the Peach Bowl,” said Luck. “That gave everybody a lot of confidence and I think it established Don Nehlen as a guy that could lead the Mountaineers and establish a strong program. I buy into the argument that the Peach Bowl really established WVU as a legitimate nationally recognized program.”
“We believed in ourselves and we thought we could be a building block and maybe put this school back on the map as far as the football program and I really believe (winning the Peach Bowl) helped,” added Raugh. “We got some TV recognition and that helped recruiting.”
Dennis Fowlkes could sense things were changing at WVU when Nehlen took over the program in 1980.
“In 1980 when Don came in it was all about building character and making believers out of ourselves,” he said. “That whole aspect there … you’ve got to start from the beginning … you can’t start from the middle. That’s what got the ball rolling.”
Nehlen sizes up his 1981 team this way: “The thing that set them apart is we’ve had a lot of teams that were physically tough but this team wasn’t deep enough not to lay it on the line every single Saturday and they put it on the line for us every Saturday.
“A lot of them played through bumps and bruises because we didn’t have three or four linebackers: we had two linebackers. We didn’t have four or five tackles: we had two tackles,” he said. “The Florida offensive line was much bigger and much more powerful than our defensive line and yet we just ate them alive. The same offensively: They had the number one sack guy in the country and he never touched Oliver Luck. I would say that was as tough a bunch of guys that I ever had.”
“I don’t think we could have played a better game than we did that day,” added Stemple.
Scoring Summary
WV – Walczak 7 pass from Luck (Woodside kick)
WV – Woodside 35 FG
WV – Woodside 42 FG
WV – Woodside 49 FG
WV – Woodside 24 FG
WV – Walczak 1 run (Woodside kick)
Fla – Faulkner 22 pass from Hewke (pass failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: WV – Conwell 26-98, Beck 8-37, Walczak 8-35, Luck 9-25, Total 51-184; Fla – Jones 9-25, Brown 3-8, Miller 7-3, Jackson 1-0, Lang 1-minus 1, Jampton 1-minus 2, Peack 6-minus 44, Hewko 2-minus 13, Team 1-minus 6, Total 31-minus 20.
Passing: WV – Luck 14-23-1-107-1; Fla. – Peace 6-13-2-47-0, Hewko 5-7-0-88-1, Total 11-20-2-135-1.
Receiving: WV – Walczak 8-75, Hollins 2-18, Raugh 3-16, Evans 1-minus 2, Total 14-107; Fal. – Mularkey 2-36, Lang 2-28, Jackson 4-25, Faulkner 1-22, Dixon 1-13, Akers 1-1, Total 11-135.
Attendance: 37,582
