This Date
in Cardinal Football: Arizona State 10-24-81
The year 1981, the season perhaps best remembered as
the one in which USC's Marcus Allen steamrolled through opposing defenses,
is the setting of the latest entry in our historical flashback
series.. Allen's remarkable statistics share space in the Pac-10
record book alongside one crazy game played in front of 52,885 on this very
date in 1981.
Arizona State’s latest visit to Stanford Stadium
comes on the 28th anniversary of their very first. All this time later, the
details of the Sun Devils’ spectacular 62-36 victory are still hard to
comprehend.
No Pac-10 game has ever produced as much total offense
or witnessed as many passing yards.
The two teams combined 1,092
yards through the air obliterated the old NCAA record by nearly 200
yards.
A year after John Elway set the conference mark with
six touchdown passes in one game, Mike Pagel of ASU did him one better. His
seven scoring tosses that day are still a conference record for a game
that ended in regulation. Pat Barnes' eight scores, three in overtime against
Arizona for Cal in 1996, need not apply.
Elway directed Stanford
into a lead at the end of one quarter, only to go down with a concussion and a
sprained index finger in the second. Yardage-wise, Steve Cottrell, who like
Elway had been early in his career, was a dual-sport athlete and member of
the Stanford baseball team, picked up where John left off. The pair
combined for a stunning 581 passing yards – still the most gained by a single
team during a Pac-10 contest.
Just 1-5 entering the game,
Stanford was hoping for a repeat performance of their most recent game against a
squad ranked No. 17 in the country. The Cardinals, as they were still known, had
upset UCLA at home two weeks earlier. Stanford had Elway and Darrin Nelson (who
outplayed his younger brother Kevin that afternoon) – but little in the way
of defense.[Ed. - Sound familiar?]
The hosts were clearly itching for a shootout with the
visiting Solar Satans. Stanford held the lead three different times in the
first half. The score stood 24-17 with less than three minutes elapsed in
the second quarter. The Cards was still leading 24-20 in the second when the
blitzing Sun Devils were able to force out Elway, who left the
game having thrown for 270 yards, two touchdown passes to Darrin
Nelson. and another to Vincent White. After Pagel through his third TD pass,
ASU ended up leading 27-24 at the break.
Not sure what happened in the locker room at halftime, but
whatever was said...appears not to have worked.
Probation kept
Arizona State at home from the holidays, but not from an impressive 9-2
record in 1981. The tailback tandem of Gerald Riggs and Robert Weathers had the
Sun Devils leading the nation in total offense. Here’s a breakdown of the
numbers that make this game one still worth talking
about.
1,436: “Most Yards Gained, Both Teams,
Conference Game,” the record book entry states. The Sun Devils’ 232
rushing yards were actually a few ticks fewer than their average output
of over 300 yards per-game coming in.
The flurry of yards began
early. Stanford’s 14-10 lead after one quarter came after the Cards totaled 235
yards (to 195 for the visitors). Arizona State blew the game open with an
unanswered 28-0 run in the second half, eventually winding up with an
astounding 743 yards of total offense. Stanford's 693 yards remain the most ever
gained by the loser of a Pac-10 game.
1,092: Some
historical background: A year before the highest single-game passing total in
Pac-10 history came a major rule change.
In 1980, the NCAA allowed
offensive linemen to extend their arms while blocking. The penatly for holding
was reduced from 15 to 10 yards. Stanford's reliance on the pass made it an
anomoly, as this was the era of the running back. USC's Allen, who gained 200
yards an amazing eight times in 1981, was one of 11 consecutive
Heisman-winners who were true tailbacks. Alabama's "Bear" Bryant derided the
rule change as the "offensive line holding rule."
Now look at
college football. The top prep quarterbacks come from Texas, the birthplace of
the "Wishbone". From Norman to Austin, Athens to South Bend, college football is
a "pass-first" outfit.
7: Pagel’s touchdown passes
were hardly cheap, as his 511 passing yards suggest. He employed all methods,
dropping straight back, scrambling right, throwing across his body while going
left. He totaled four in the second half, most impressively with a 70-yard bomb
to Jerome Weatherspoon.
“Eric Price is about seven yards behind
him,” color commentator and former Stanford Indian 1972 Rose Bowl QB Don
Bunce says on the Stanford highlights telecast (which we retreived this week
from The BootCave Archives!)
The record-breaking score came
with 7:44 left to play, a nine-yard connection in which tight end Ron
Wetzel caught the ball just ahead of an oncoming Kevin Baird. The first quarter
saw an illegal block penalty nullify a Pagel 20-yard touchdown to Bernard Henry.
On the next play, Pagel found Henry in almost the exact same spot for a
touchdown that stood.
237: For 18 years, Darrin
Nelson’s output for his nine catches stood as the Stanford single-game
record for receiving yards. The game’s third play of scrimmage showed just how
versatile Stanford’s all-time leading rusher (a record he set in his sophomore
season) was as a fifth-year senior.
Elway,
out the shotgun from his
own 30 and with his back to the open end
of the stadium, dropped back. Nelson took off in motion as he often did, then sprinted down the sideline in single-coverage as the
play unfolded. The resulting 70-yard bomb had the home side holding the
early edge. It was one of Nelson's many great catches on that entertaining, but frustrating afternoon, that
for better or for worse, remains a prominent entry in the record-book.
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