No. 5 Notre Dame – Orange Bowl – National Champions!*


Posts Tagged ‘Darian Hagan’

— January 1st – at Miami – Orange Bowl           No. 1 Colorado 10, No. 5 Notre Dame 9 — In a game largely devoid of offensive highlights, the Colorado Buffaloes overcame the loss of two key starters to defeat Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, 10-9. The hard-fought win enabled Colorado to stake a claim to the Buffs’ first-ever national football championship. An Eric Bieniemy one-yard touchdown run tied the score midway through the third quarter, with Jim Harper’s extra point providing the margin of victory. Neither the Buffs nor the …

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— November 17th – Boulder           No. 2 Colorado 64, Kansas State 3 — In routing Kansas State, 64-3, the Colorado Buffaloes clinched a second consecutive Big Eight Championship, the only team other than Nebraska and Oklahoma to do so since 1941. Finishing the season on a nine-game winning streak, the Buffs scored on seven of their first eight possessions in cruising to a 40-3 halftime lead. Darian Hagan ran for two first quarter scores, passing for another in amassing 278 yards of total offense in just over one half of …

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  — November 10th – Boulder           No. 4 Colorado 41, Oklahoma State 22 — Before November 10, 1990, the record for touchdown passes in a single game at the University of Colorado stood at three, and even that relatively low number had been reached only seven times in the 100-year history of the program. That mark was finally erased as Darian Hagan passed for four scores and a career high 237 yards in leading the Buffs to a convincing 41-22 win over Oklahoma State. A sell-out crowd of 51,873 was on hand …

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— High Stakes — The stakes for the 1990 clash between 9th-ranked Colorado and 3rd-ranked Nebraska could not have been higher. For the winner, the Big Eight championship, a spot in the Orange Bowl, and a shot at the national championship awaited. For the loser, a second place finish and a second tier bowl would be the consolation. Nebraska was 8-0 and playing at home; Colorado was 7-1-1 and had hopes of a shot at redemption in the Orange Bowl. Against that backdrop, a national television audience witnessed one of …

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  — October 27th – Boulder           No. 10 Colorado 32, No. 22 Oklahoma 23 — Like the Buffs, the Oklahoma entered the 1990 campaign with high hopes. Five weeks into the season, the Sooners seemed to be well on their way to realizing their dreams. Oklahoma took a 5-0 record and a No. 4 national ranking to play Texas in Dallas, only to be turned away by the unranked Longhorns, 14-13. The loss was hard to take, but not nearly as debilitating as the loss the next week to Iowa …

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— October 20th – at Kansas           No. 14 Colorado 41, Kansas 10 — Colorado put together a complete game for the first time all season, scoring on its first drive on the way to a 17-0 first quarter lead and a 41-10 win over 1-4-1 Kansas. Eric Bieniemy rushed for 174 yards on the afternoon, but his three touchdowns were the story of the day. Bieniemy’s second touchdown tied, and his third touchdown broke, Bobby Anderson’s record for career rushing touchdowns. Bieniemy new touchdown total was 35, setting the new standard …

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— October 13th – Boulder           No. 14 Colorado 28, Iowa State 12 — The controversy over the “Fifth Down” game continued to swirl around Boulder during the week after the Missouri game. Playing as if the distraction had affected the team’s preparation for its next opponent (and who is to say it didn’t?), Colorado fell behind Iowa State 9-0 early in the first quarter, needing to rally to come away with a 28-12 home win over the Cyclones. The Buffs utilized three quarterbacks on the afternoon, not pulling away from the Cyclones until …

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— The controversial ending no one could see coming – and few got to watch — On October 6, 1990, the 12th-ranked Colorado Buffaloes traveled to Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri, to face the Missouri Tigers. A top five team in the 1990 preseason poll, the Buffs had completed the non-conference portion of their schedule 3-1-1. Colorado tied No. 5 Tennessee to open the season, beat Stanford at home, and fell on the road to No. 21 Illinois before rebounding to defeat No. 22 Texas in Austin and No. 12 Washington in …

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— September 15th – at Illinois           No. 21 Illinois 23, No. 9 Colorado 22 — Howard Griffith scored from a yard out with 1:18 to play to give the Fighting Illini a 23-22 win over Colorado. 21st-ranked Illinois exacted a measure of revenge for the 38-7 pasting the Buffs had put on the Illini in 1989, pulling out the win on a 10-play, 63-yard drive to erase a 22-17 deficit. Quarterback Jason Verduzco did what his famed predecessor, Jeff George, could not – he out-performed the Colorado defense. Verduzco completed 23-of-29 …

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  — September 6th – Boulder           No. 6 Colorado 21, Stanford 17 — Stanford head coach Dennis Green was 3-8 in his first year in Palo Alto in 1989, which may have given CU fans a false sense of security heading into CU’s 1990 home opener. Instead of being an easy mark, Stanford came to Boulder ready to play. Stanford raced to a 14-0 first quarter lead before a stunned Folsom Field crowd of 50,669. It took the entire game for Colorado to right the ship, pulling out a 21-17 …

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— Pigskin Classic — The 1990 season saw the birth of the preseason game known as the “Pigskin Classic”. Played in Anaheim, California, home to the Freedom Bowl and Mickey Mouse, the organizers of the game (officially the “Disneyland Pigskin Classic”) did not want to disappoint their audience, and went out to secure a game bound to attract national attention. In securing two teams which had completed the previous season with 11-1 records, they did just that. The 1989 rise of the Colorado Buffaloes was well documented. Not receiving as much …

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— 1990 – A Preview — How things looked in August In 1989, Colorado broke the hold the “Big Two” had maintained over the rest of the Big Eight since 1976. In 1990, there would be plenty of competition for the Big Eight Champions from Boulder, both for conference and national honors. Back in the hunt for the national championship were many of the teams which had vied for the title in 1989. Defending national titleist Miami was the preseason pick by many to finish #1, while 1988 champ Notre …

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