12-7 win over East Carolina in 83 --- **** near ruined the whole Schnelly thing.
That was my first thought. Tense game throughout. The crowd was nervous and quiet, other than a handful of plays. While sitting in the Orange Bowl it reminded me a lot of the Dolphins/Browns opening playoff game from 1972, when everyone thought we should win comfortably but the gritty opponent wouldn't go away and could spoil everything.
East Carolina played all the Florida schools very tough in 1983.
We would have been shuffled into a comparatively minor bowl with a loss. Who knows how the program evolves from there?
I have plenty off games from the '80s on tape, and have posted many of them to YouTube. I really wish I had the '83 East Carolina game so younger fans could get a sense of how we escaped, how fragile that era was. We were doing nothing on offense until Kosar hit Eddie Brown down the left sideline of the west end zone to set up the go ahead score. There was little time remaining but East Carolina marched down the field. I'll never forget what happened next. With only seconds remaining they ran a deep flag pattern with the receiver wide open heading to the front pile on on the right side of the east end zone. We were finished. The defensive back trailed by two full yards. The pass was perfectly aimed. The dream season was gone. Then the East Carolina tight end, crossing in the opposite direction, bailed us out. He somehow thought the ball was intended for him and stuck his right arm up in the air and jumped just enough to barely deflect it. The intended receiver dropped to the ground in agony, punching the grass. The crowd literally gasped. Everybody was looking at each other in disbelief. Then relief. Finally glee, as the game ended.
Somebody nominated the 1983 FSU game which followed. That's another good one, somewhat similar to the East Carolina game other than the lack of extreme good fortune on a single play. We were hardly birthrighted to win that game. FSU missed several opportunities. Eddie Brown had a big punt return that set up the final drive. But our kicking was hardly automatic and I was nervous beyond description when we set up for that winning field goal, as short as it was, given everything at stake. Just think about some of the kicks we've botched, like 2005 at FSU. Heck, Jeff Davis missed about a 40 yard field goal that would have locked up the Nebraska game. I think one of his extra points in that game bounced off the upright and went in. We also missed a short field goal late in the third quarter against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl that would have changed the requirement on the final drive.
