1992 College Football Recap

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Alabama saw a return to the good old days in 1992. The Crimson Tide won a national title for the first time since the man in the houndstooth hat patrolled the sidelines in Tuscaloosa. It was one of the Bear's boys, Gene Stallings, who brought them back too. Stallings, who had been fired from his two previous jobs for losing too much, seemed an unlikely man to bring the Tide back to glory but he did just that.

Alabama played their classic “Bear ball” style of running the football up the gut and in return stuffing the run on defense. It wasn't luck either. In fact, the Tide seemed to court bad fortune all season. Their final record: 13-0. Their last national championship: 13 years previous. In the biggest game of the year, the Sugar Bowl, the Tide held #1 Miami to, you guessed it, 13 points. Second-ranked Alabama pulled the upset and captured the national title and the player of the game had to be 'Bama cornerback George Teague who returned a Gino Torretta interception 31 yards for a touchdown and later stripped Hurricane flanker Lamar Thomas of the ball 15 yards from the endzone. Teague wore number 13.

In many respects, it was the last gasp for the team of the 80's. Miami, winners of three national titles in that decade made one more run at it but fell short. The Tide abused Torretta, the Heisman Trophy winner, and rolled over #1 Miami, 34-13.

“It was a devastating loss,” said Miami head coach Dennis Erickson, “something we're not used to have happening to us. They dominated the game. It wasn't a fluke.”