WHAT WAS 1987 LIKE? THE M&M SHOW EPISODE VII (The best one yet)
- Thread starter manders3
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I was a junior at Carolina in 1987. A couple of quick thoughts ...
* Joe Morrison brought and established a lot of tradition for us, but it was Tommy Suggs who actually brought “2001 A Space Oddessy” to the Gamecocks. He went to an Elvis concert years before, saw Elvis come on stage to ‘2001’ and like the vibe so much that he convinced the athletic department to play it before the football players took the field.
* Ryan Bethea missed the team plane to the Nebraska game. He was flown to Lincoln on a private plane of some booster club member or supporter of Gamecock athletics. And, as you saw -- he PLAYED and scored, TWICE! One from the long pass and the other from a reverse close to the goal line. Funny thing on the reverse, he was bumped a couple of times by the Nebraska defenders after getting into the end zone. He bounced around like a Ping-Pong ball after the bumps.
(Can you imagine what the scandal would be today if that happened?)
* The game at Miami after the clemPson game is the most overlooked Gamecock football jewel of all time, IMO. An absolute slugfest, both figuratively and literally! The only Gamecock football game I had more fun watching was the 2011 Georgia game in Athens.
*Lastly, 1987 was the year of the NFL player strike. Strike-breaking “scrubs” played weeks #4 - #6. College Football was IT if you wanted to see good football. for three weeks, you blocked out your Saturday during those three weeks, and Gamecock football was Black Death, Run 'n Shoot lightning!
* Joe Morrison brought and established a lot of tradition for us, but it was Tommy Suggs who actually brought “2001 A Space Oddessy” to the Gamecocks. He went to an Elvis concert years before, saw Elvis come on stage to ‘2001’ and like the vibe so much that he convinced the athletic department to play it before the football players took the field.
* Ryan Bethea missed the team plane to the Nebraska game. He was flown to Lincoln on a private plane of some booster club member or supporter of Gamecock athletics. And, as you saw -- he PLAYED and scored, TWICE! One from the long pass and the other from a reverse close to the goal line. Funny thing on the reverse, he was bumped a couple of times by the Nebraska defenders after getting into the end zone. He bounced around like a Ping-Pong ball after the bumps.
(Can you imagine what the scandal would be today if that happened?)
* The game at Miami after the clemPson game is the most overlooked Gamecock football jewel of all time, IMO. An absolute slugfest, both figuratively and literally! The only Gamecock football game I had more fun watching was the 2011 Georgia game in Athens.
*Lastly, 1987 was the year of the NFL player strike. Strike-breaking “scrubs” played weeks #4 - #6. College Football was IT if you wanted to see good football. for three weeks, you blocked out your Saturday during those three weeks, and Gamecock football was Black Death, Run 'n Shoot lightning!
All great observations. A couple of my own...
*The game vs. NC State was billed as, "Payback is Hell" because the Gamecocks had suffered a brutal, 1-point loss the prior year on a Hail Mary and questionable officiating in '86. USC won the following year by a score of 48-0 and it was surprisingly satisfying as NC State was a pretty strong rival back then.
*The 1987 Clemson game is still my single most fond memory of Williams-Brice Stadium and Gamecock football in general. The chants of "Roooodddddnnnnneeeeeyyyyyy" ringing through the stadium, the black death flags, and just the general intensity of the fans was amazing. The crowd wanted that game badly. They could smell blood. And when Brad Edwards had that pick-6 in the 4th quarter to seal the win, the place went crazy. Absolutely the most insane environment I've ever witnessed at a USC game.
For a season that ended with just a 8-4 record and #15 national ranking, it nevertheless seemed like the Gamecocks had "arrived" because of the win over Clemson and the way they played both Miami and Nebraska in losing efforts.
I was only 8 but my thoughts:
1987 was the most talented team we ever fielded. Sterling Sharpe at WR would’ve been a Hall of Famer if not for the neck injury. Brad Edwards had a solid career with the Redskins and was a beast on the fire ant defense. Patrick Hinton (RIP) always seemed to find the ball...never forget his pick 6 against NC State. Ryan Bethea had tons of talent and was always a threat to break one. Harold Green was a bruising running back that complimented the Run and shoot and he had a nice little run in the NFL as well. Todd Ellis was so inconsistent. Could throw like a pro one play and then throw a horrible pick and look like he was point shaving the next.
Fire ant defense was fun to watch. Held opponents under 14 points in 9 games. With an up tempo offense it’s amazing our defense could hold scoring down. There were some men on that defensive line....probably on steroids but they were good ones.
8-3 regular season but all 3 losses were on the road to highly ranked teams (Georgia, Nebraska and Miami) and in all 3 until the very end. We very well could’ve been 11-0. Played Miami as well as anyone. Refs were horrible, tripped over our own man on a key kick return, but never backed down.
Most of the 8 wins were blowouts. That 20-7 win over Clemson was dominating. Clemson was a national power in the 1980s and they looked helpless against our defense. After the first score they hardly sniffed midfield again.
Joe Morrison was awesome. When you’re coached by a guy with his number retired by the NY Giants, there’s some respect that comes with that. He’d smoke a Marlboro pack a game. 1984 and 1987 in my mind were the most exciting seasons ever. Spurrier had a couple of seasons that were close to that much excitement.
1987 was the most talented team we ever fielded. Sterling Sharpe at WR would’ve been a Hall of Famer if not for the neck injury. Brad Edwards had a solid career with the Redskins and was a beast on the fire ant defense. Patrick Hinton (RIP) always seemed to find the ball...never forget his pick 6 against NC State. Ryan Bethea had tons of talent and was always a threat to break one. Harold Green was a bruising running back that complimented the Run and shoot and he had a nice little run in the NFL as well. Todd Ellis was so inconsistent. Could throw like a pro one play and then throw a horrible pick and look like he was point shaving the next.
Fire ant defense was fun to watch. Held opponents under 14 points in 9 games. With an up tempo offense it’s amazing our defense could hold scoring down. There were some men on that defensive line....probably on steroids but they were good ones.
8-3 regular season but all 3 losses were on the road to highly ranked teams (Georgia, Nebraska and Miami) and in all 3 until the very end. We very well could’ve been 11-0. Played Miami as well as anyone. Refs were horrible, tripped over our own man on a key kick return, but never backed down.
Most of the 8 wins were blowouts. That 20-7 win over Clemson was dominating. Clemson was a national power in the 1980s and they looked helpless against our defense. After the first score they hardly sniffed midfield again.
Joe Morrison was awesome. When you’re coached by a guy with his number retired by the NY Giants, there’s some respect that comes with that. He’d smoke a Marlboro pack a game. 1984 and 1987 in my mind were the most exciting seasons ever. Spurrier had a couple of seasons that were close to that much excitement.
Best defense USC has ever had. Maybe not the talenr the 2011 team had, but Joe Lee Dunn had things going
The ‘87 team lost only @ ranked UGA, @ #2 Nebraska, @Miami. Miami won the National Championship that year. This was the year of Black Death. My memory is that the fireant defense was ‘84 and ‘87 was Black Death. This was imo the best Gamecock defense ever. The curb stomping of NCSU was beautiful, taking into account how we got hosed in ‘86. A huge fight broke out in the Miami game, but our guys hung tough with the U. A dominating performance downed Clemson. A fun trip to Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl didn’t end well against LSU. But as for the regular season, one of our better teams.
You didn’t beat Miami in the Orange Bowl back then. We were as close as anyone for several years. Remember the excitement of beating Clemson and carrying a #8 ranking into that game.
They were a good defense NO DOUBT! But dont forget now that Joe Lee Dunn was blitzing at a point to where it was every play!! As that season progressed and more games were "filmed", then it became easier for the opposing teams to "defend" against our blitzes!
I'll never forget the night before the Gator Bowl vs LSU, their coach made the following comment in an interview on national TV when asked about our defense: "You live by the blitz, you die by the blitz." LSU beat us 30 - 13, and it could have easily been worse.
I remember Todd Ellis got his left hand (thumb or finger) broken, so that pretty much eliminated any pitches, etc., to the left, so our offense was pretty much shut down as well. Anyhow, that's just a few of my blurry recollections from Jacksonville!
I most certainly enjoyed that season, which just so happened to be our last visit to Jacksonville - at least to this point anyway!!
Thats it. 'Das all I got at the moment! Later....
Agree Joe Lee blitzed a ton. Disagree that teams figured it out (other than LSU who had a month to prepare). Held Miami to their lowest point total of the year. Only allowed 7 points in the last 3 regular season games combined.
Good insight on the Ellis injury. That definitely impacted that game. The Gator Bowl was by far the worst game the team played that season. Maybe that’s why we haven’t been back!!!
If I remember correctly, we played Miami after clemson that year because of a hurricane, and they had already signed to play for the national title. We were driving late, going for the win, and a Miami defender threw Ellis to the ground late. There was a scuffle and we ended up with the penalty, and couldn’t convert on 4th down. Or at least that’s how I remember it. The refs were not going to let Miami lose that night
The ‘87 team was definitely loaded with talent, which is why it was so disappointing to lose to LSU so bad in the gator bowl
The ‘87 team was definitely loaded with talent, which is why it was so disappointing to lose to LSU so bad in the gator bowl
Wasn't this right in the middle of the steroids scandal? That report came out in 1988.
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