Four Downs: Penn State (1992)

The 2007 Boston College football season was arguably the best year to follow the Eagles. The team won its first eight games and ascended the national rankings to the No. 2 spot before a loss to Florida State ended its championship aspirations. The last win of the streak, on a Thursday night against Virginia Tech, drew comparisons to the 1993 victory over No. 1 Notre Dame and etched itself forever in the annals of BC history.

There's an irony in that comparison because the 1993 Eagles never entered the Top 10. They went as high as No. 11 after beating the Fighting Irish and finished the regular season as the No. 15 team in the nation after losing to West Virginia. They never cracked the billing, the result of an 0-2 start to the regular season.

The more appropriate comparison would have been to the 1992 team that rewrote what it meant to play for Boston College. That year's team started the season unranked before going unbeaten in its first eight games and rose to No. 9 before a late-season blowout loss to Notre Dame ended the run in its tracks.

BC wasn't a national powerhouse for much of that season. It hadn't finished over .500 for the past five seasons, and it was entering the new Big East as a clear "next tier" program behind Miami and Syracuse. West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and, to a lesser degree, Rutgers comprised the middle tier, and BC, which hadn't been a regular bowl team since the Doug Flutie era, occupied the lower rung with Temple.

That all changed in 1992 when the Eagles blew out their first four opponents and tied West Virginia, but BC permeated the national scene when it defeated Penn State on the road in Happy Valley. It was the first time BC ever beat the venerable program on the road and was just the second all-time victory in the matchup.

"Our team came down here ready to play," head coach Tom Coughlin said after the game. "Last year we had unbelievable turnovers. We had opportunities, but it was just not the kind of game you're really proud of. (We had) no turnovers, big plays out of our quarterback and our receivers. There wasn't a heck of a lot from the sideline there."

The win converted non-believers by sending the Boston College bandwagon into overdrive. Glenn Foley was electric, and Pete Mitchell had a monster game. The tight end finished with seven catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns, while Ivan Boyd added two huge catches early, including one for a touchdown. Chuckie Dukes and Dwight Shirley rumbled behind a dominant offensive line, and the Eagle defense smothered both John Sacca and Kerry Collins.

It completely revamped the perception of Boston College football. The Eagles rocketed up the national rankings into a pantheon normally reserved for teams like Oklahoma or Tennessee, and they stole the swagger normally reserved for teams like the Orangemen or the Nittany Lions. They created a new brand of smash-mouth football, and it set the tone for the future of the program.

"I told our players that we had to take our thinking to another level," Coughlin said. "Not only how we prepared and our expectations of going on the field and winning; we have to take that to another level as a program where we have a little pride, we have a little swagger, and we expect to win big games like this."

The 2007 team's Top 10 ranking was the first time BC ranked that high since the Tom Coughlin/Glenn Foley era, but it never touched the 1993 season. It instead was more like 1992, an explosive season built specifically by the Eagles' going-away win over Penn State.

Here are some other takeaways from that day in 1992:

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First Down: Glenn Foley

The Penn State game indicated how Glenn Foley eventually turned the corner as a quarterback. He always possessed immense talent, but his off-the-charts competitiveness fueled an all-encompassing intensity. He was willing to force every play like it was his last, which turned him into an elite level passer even as he committed high interception numbers.

Foley's masterful performance against Penn State completely rewrote the perception. He threw four touchdowns in the first half en route to a 344-yard game, and he didn't throw a single interception on a day when he completed 21-of-37 attempts.

He missed a play or two in the first quarter after sustaining a brief injury, but his internal drive elevated his performance shortly thereafter. His chemistry with tight end Pete Mitchell blew the doors off the interior linebackers and safety Lee Rubin, and Ivan Boyd's shifty explosiveness opened the windows for Foley's pinpoint darts. It kept the defense off guard before halftime and rode BC even as the Nittany Lions charged back in the second half

It was a vast change for Foley, who infamously threw five interceptions against Penn State in 1991. He insulted Rutgers after winning the first game of the season and continued playing with a brashness through the team's shutout streak. It sparked the powder keg in the offense, though the passing game suffered a letdown in the next week's win over Tulane. It regained its explosiveness against Temple but struggled to consistently complete passes, resulting in a late-season swoon against Notre Dame and Syracuse.

The Penn State game still proved Foley knew how to win, and he transformed into a national sensation in 1993. He was already second to Doug Flutie by the time 1992 ended and ended his college career as the program's all-time leader in touchdowns. He's the only Eagle with 70 career touchdowns passes, and he graduated with two of the only three seasons with 20 or more passing touchdowns, the other of which belonged to Flutie. He's still the only player with 20 or more passing scores in more than one season.

Foley still stands with Flutie as the only signal callers with more than 10,000 career yards, and his 3,397 yards in 1993 was less than 60 yards away from breaking the record set by Flutie (though Matt Ryan eclipsed both in 2007). He's also still the program record holder for most passing attempts and completions by a freshman, and his 21 touchdowns in 1991 are still most among sophomores.

The interception discussion never really escaped him until his senior year when he only threw 10 picks, and he graduated as the only player with 60 picks over a four-year career. That's six more than Flutie, and both remain the only players with 50 or more picks. That record stemmed from how difficult it was to harness their raw abilities; both threw 20 picks during their early seasons, with Flutie's coming in 1982 and Foley's in 1990.

Foley's raw ability made him an intriguing pro prospect, and the New York Jets selected him in the seventh round in the spring of 1994. His raw ability never really panned out, though the Jets did cycle through three head coaches during his tenure. He entered the 1998 season as the team's starter but lost the job to Vinny Testaverde after suffering a rib injury, and he became expendable after Testaverde won 10 of 11 games to finish the year with a 12-4 record. One year later, his career ended in Seattle.

Last week, I mentioned how legendary performances needed to start somewhere. Matt Ryan's 2007 season didn't happen without his 2005 comeback against Wake Forest. The same is applied here to Glenn Foley, who is remembered for his greatness and is unquestionably an all-time diamond in the rough.

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Second Down: Plow the road!

Miami's success running the football gave BC a blueprint on how to attack the line of scrimmage against Penn State. The Hurricanes didn't pound the football, but the surge against the point of attack allowed them to continually hit the Nittany Lions in an uncoverable opening. Knowing it could bruise the defensive line all but guaranteed Boston College a big day for its ground attack.

Chuckie Dukes and Dwight Shirley combined for more than 200 yards rushing behind an unstoppable interior offensive line. Center Tom Nalen and guards Pete Kendall and Greg Landry destroyed Penn State's 3-4 defense by double-teaming the nose guard position, while the constant threat of play action and motion froze the linebackers away from sending a fourth player in earnest.

It also didn't hurt that Dukes was at the height of his powers. He only played two seasons for BC but remains one of the most dominant backs in school history. He finished his career one yard short of 2,000 yards, but his 6.1 yards-per-carry average still ranks best among all Eagles. The Penn State game was part of seven consecutive games over 100 yards, still a record though it was tied by Mike Cloud in 1998. Not even AJ Dillon, BC's all-time leading rusher, touched those numbers. His 1,387 yards in 1992 broke a record set in 1973 by Mike Esposito and stood as one of the two best seasons for nearly a decade before the offensive explosion of the 2000s.

Dukes owed part of his success to the guys he ran behind. Tom Nalen became a five-time Pro Bowl center after Denver chose him in the seventh round in 1994, he now occupies a place in the Broncos' Ring of Fame after winning two Super Bowls with John Elway.

Kendall, meanwhile, was just a pup in 1992 and later turned into Boston College's fourth offensive lineman ever chosen in the first round when Seattle drafted him 21st overall in 1996. He played four years in the Pacific Northwest, with his first year coinciding with defensive tackle Joe Nash's final season. He moved to Arizona in 2001 and finished his career back east with the New York Jets and Washington, starting 188 of his 189 games as a professional lineman.

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Third Down: Tom Who?

The end of the 1980s felt like a dark period in Boston College history. The Doug Flutie era increasingly disappeared into the Eagles' rearview mirror along with the post-Heisman success of the 1986 team. BC won nine games combined in 1988, 1989 and 1990, necessitating the end of the Jack Bicknell era.

It created a void, and Tom Coughlin stepped into it after winning Super Bowl XXV as Bill Parcells' wide receivers coach with the New York Giants. The convergence of coach and program drew a line of demarcation for the Eagles after the Flutie era and squarely sliced a separation as BC attempted to plow forward into the Big East.

Coughlin's massive breakout as a head coach occurred when he completely out-coached Joe Paterno in this particular game. Miami gashed Penn State's 3-4 defense with the run by opening up holes along the defensive front. That meant the Nittany Lions likely planned to send a "hero" linebacker into the line of scrimmage to stop Chuckie Dukes. On the first drive, BC lined up in the I-formation but ran play action. Everyone froze on Dukes, but Foley, who brilliantly sold it with the running backs, instead kept the ball for a pass to tight end Pete Mitchell.

That froze the defense long enough to call the running plays mentioned above, but BC's ability to continually throw motion and formation changes into the mix kept the defense unsure of where to go. The off-set veer was a personal favorite because it overloaded Penn State's attention to the left, leaving Ivan Boyd enough space to weave inside for a dart throw from Foley.

It was all part of a master plan from a coach who spent nearly three years building to that moment. It put Boston College back on the map nationally and moved the Eagles to a No. 9 ranking after the team beat both Tulane and Temple before the disaster loss at Notre Dame. The next year, BC repeated as a national powerhouse after losing its first two games, and it culminated with the victorious trip to South Bend.

The Boston College job opened up at the perfect moment for Coughlin, and he seized the opportunity for his first lead position. He was just too good of a coach for college, especially because he was part of the Parcells coaching tree, and was always meant for greater things. He won 49 games with the Jacksonville Jaguars' expansion team and went to two AFC Championship Game appearances. The Giants hired him in 2004 to revive the team after its 4-12 finish in 2003, and he eventually won two Super Bowls (pardon me while I go sob in the corner).

Coughlin's success followed a blueprint easily identified by looking back at his time in Chestnut Hill. He built both of his offenses around young quarterbacks, first in Jacksonville by trading for Mark Brunell and later in New York by executing the trade for Eli Manning. It was very similar to what he did at BC, when he inserted Foley into the starting lineup in 1990 as a true freshman.

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Fourth Down: What if…?

In 1979, eight schools from the northeast formed a conference after the NCAA changed its scheduling requirements for the national tournament. It was named the Big East, and it formed a gritty basketball corridor from New England to Washington, D.C. It quickly became a national powerhouse and introduced the world to a tough style of play unlike anything else anywhere in the country.

College football began shifting its own positions shortly after the Big East's formation. The College Football Alliance, which formed in 1977 to control television broadcast rights, began cracking as individual conferences began negotiating their own deals. New networks increased the amount of available broadcast time, and the marketplace demand began skyrocketing for leagues with a large number of powerful teams.

The majority of college football teams were independent at the time, and the tectonic shift threatened to lock some of them out of the growing, lucrative timeslots. Penn State, in particular, saw the writing on the wall, and head coach Joe Paterno openly pined for a superleague of eastern schools. The Big East seemed like a ripe spot, especially with schools like Miami and West Virginia beginning to look for conference homes, but the basketball-based league fell one vote short of inviting Penn State.

Miami and West Virginia eventually joined the Big East, which finally formed its football league in 1990 to begin play in 1993, but Penn State's rejection remains one of the greatest "what if stories" of the college football universe. Syracuse and West Virginia were national powerhouses in the 1990s, and both Miami and Penn State had national championship pedigrees. Boston College experienced a massive rise in the 1980s and revived itself when the Big East formed its football league in the '90s.

It would have been the eastern superleague Paterno openly pined for in the 1980s, and it might have made the league an inseparable powerhouse in football by the time college football realigned in the 2000s. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered in the end, but Penn State's connection to the eastern schools severed forever when it joined the Big Ten in 1993.

Penn State played Miami, Rutgers, West Virginia, Boston College, Cincinnati, Temple and Pittsburgh in 1991, additionally scheduling a game against Notre Dame. It played all of those teams again in 1992. In 1993, the Nittany Lions only played Rutgers, a trend that continued through the mid-90s against Temple.

I could talk about college football realignment every day because the way it changes is so fascinating, but for me, the end of the BC-Penn State matchup is probably one of the biggest earthquakes from the first time period when Florida State joined the ACC and Penn State joined the Big Ten.

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Point After: That Week in Football

The top portion of the Associated Press Top 25 all held serve that week with the top six teams all earning victories. The top three teams all easily won, and No. 1 Washington and No. 2 Miami continued to set the pace for No. 3 Michigan, which was 5-0-1 and in need of a loss by the two undefeated teams ahead of it. No. 5 Texas A&M also easily handled its opponent, beating Rice, 35-9, to continue running away with the Southwest Conference championship.

That didn't mean the week lacked action. No. 4 Alabama beat No. 13 Tennessee in a huge Southeastern Conference matchup to effectively clinch the West Division championship. It was the first year for divisional play in the league after Arkansas defected from the SWC after the 1991 season. Alabama, for what it's worth, beat Florida in the inaugural SEC Championship before upsetting Miami to clinch the national title.

No. 6 Florida State was another team changing leagues that year after it abandoned independent status for the ACC. The Seminoles beat No. 16 Georgia Tech, 29-24, to clinch at least a share of the conference championship. They would eventually outright win the league before beating No. 11 Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

In the Big 8, No. 7 Colorado tied Oklahoma with a field goal on the last play of the game. No. 8 Stanford, though, wasn't that fortunate. The Cardinal hosted unranked Arizona and lost, 21-6, after leading by a touchdown. The whole dynamic of that game changed when Tedy Bruschi executed a strip-sack and recovery at the Stanford goal line in the second quarter. The loss wound up costing the Cardinal a trip to the Rose Bowl after it finished the season tied for the Pac-8 championship with Washington.

Perhaps the craziest game occurred lower down the rankings when No. 25 Kansas beat Iowa State, 50-47, to improve to 5-1 on the season. It was part of a 7-1 start to the season for the Jayhawks before a three-game losing streak to end the season sent them to the Aloha Bowl. It coupled with the 1995 Aloha Bowl for Kansas' last bowl berths before the Mark Mangino era.

On the local radar, Northeastern scored one of its biggest upsets in program history when it beat Youngstown State, 28-23, and UMass upended UConn, 20-7, in its annual rivalry game in the Yankee Conference.

That week in the NFL, the undefeated Miami Dolphins were the largest favorite in the NFL and one of two teams favored to win by double digits or more. They hosted the winless, hapless New England Patriots, who raced out to a 10-0 lead behind new starting quarterback Tommy Hodson. Then the Dolphins scored 38 unanswered points, including 21 points in the third quarter, to keep the Patriots from earning their first victory. New England eventually lost nine in a row to start the season, finishing the year 2-14.

Players Mentioned

AJ Dillon

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