Quarterback Issue At Purdon't Still Bothers Me

Hawknick

Hawknick

Banned
The game 20 years ago at Purdon't still bothers me, and something about this year is bring back terrible memories about the game, the QB situation and the calls. I can't help but wonder if Iowa had won the game rather than tied it that they could have made a trip to a bowl game. 3rd string Mike Duprey was starting, all though he was not at full health and he had not been playing great. He tried his best but the results just were not there. His QB rating was 62.0 for the 1994 season. Matt Sherman replaced him with 4:19 left in the 3rd quarter and sparked a come back after the team was trailing 13-0. Matt Sherman helped lead Iowa to 3 touchdowns to take a 21-13 lead in the 4th quarter. The Iowa defense did all it could do to stop a big Purdon't full back named Mike Alstott, but at the end of the game Purdue scored a TD to make the game 21-19.

Then came one the most upsetting parts of the game. Plez Atkins clearly tackled the Purdon't QB on short of the goal line on the 2 point conversion attempt, but the refs got the call wrong and said that he was in. I wish the refs that were working the 1984 Iowa MSU game were here for this! That bad call took away any chance Iowa had to make a bowl game and it bothers me to this day! What also bothers me is why it took so long to change QBs. I believe that since Sherman was healthy enough to play he should have been put in the game earlier. That would have probably had meant that the 2 point conversion would have been irrelevant as he would have likely had lead Iowa to some more points. Each of next two games Iowa would score 49 with him as QB, including his best performance of all against Northwestern a game that I attended.

Has anyone else had nightmares about this game all week? I hope this one is more like the 1984 Iowa 40-3 route of Purdon't than the 1994 game by far.
 
No , no nightmares.

Nightmares were 1963 IIRC when the hawks were ranked preseason and #1 by Playboy and the hawks had a terrible season.

Or 1973 , the year of zero wins IIRC.

Those are nightmares. The player boycott of 1968 IIRC took a very good team to less than avg.

Bob Cummings almost had it turned around with a good defense and a great running attack but he couldnt keep it going.

1984 and 1994 was like heaven compared to those times.
 
I think Bob Cumming did a pretty good job outside of the 1978 season. He started to rebuild the program, pulled off some huge wins, and almost had a winning team in a few of the years. He also recruited several key members of the 81 Rose Bowl team.

The 94 team was also just so close to being winning team, it is all the more upsetting that the tie but should have been a win at Purdont kept them from it.
 
Matt Sherman actually came in and played great. Going into the game we may not have known how good he was going to play, but still he should have been put in the game earlier. He was also one of the top Iowa QBs of the 1990s.
 
I only have nightmares about two games....both involving OSU. The first was the 1991 Bobby "Freaking" Olive game. The 2nd was the 2009 "play for overtime on the road when you still have 1:30 left to drive for a FG game".

My nightmares typically revolve around seasons.....The first being 1988 when the Hawks were preseason #1 by Sporting News and we went out and lost the first game at Hawaii and had something like 3 ties that year. The 2nd is 1997. The 3rd is 2009 for how it ended and the 4th was 2010.
 
Nope, no worries here...... (you realize there is a chance that you are the only person here who remembers this game).
 
Hawks stunk in 1994. I was living in Columbus OH. One late Sat night in NOvember I listened to recorded post game of Fry talking about things. He said, " We're just not a very good football team. "
 
NCHawker said:
Hawks stunk in 1994. I was living in Columbus OH. One late Sat night in NOvember I listened to recorded post game of Fry talking about things. He said, " We're just not a very good football team. "
Click to expand...

^^^ Correct, I think that was due to the fact that team could not stop the run. It is a showcase of why you have to stop the run first. I cant remember the Indiana I-backs name but he got tremendous amounts of yards at kinnick as a good Indiana team handled the hawks.
 
uihawk82 said:
^^^ Correct, I think that was due to the fact that team could not stop the run. It is a showcase of why you have to stop the run first. I cant remember the Indiana I-backs name but he got tremendous amounts of yards at kinnick as a good Indiana team handled the hawks.
Click to expand...

Alex Smith, he was a freshman
 
Hawknick said:
Matt Sherman actually came in and played great. Going into the game we may not have known how good he was going to play, but still he should have been put in the game earlier. He was also one of the top Iowa QBs of the 1990s.
Click to expand...

ehhh, i wouldn't quite go that far. i respect the guy for the way he handled the abuse/criticism during the '97 season, but that is about as far as I can go.
 
The team was not all that bad. They only lost by 7 to Indiana. The team was very talented at receiver and running back, and once they got Sherman at QB they could outscore their opponents.
 
Camanche, that is right next to Clinton. I was listening on the radio too. Jim Zabel and Ed Podolak were beside himself about the two-point conversion call.
 
Hawknick said:
Camanche, that is right next to Clinton. I was listening on the radio too. Jim Zabel and Ed Podolak were beside himself about the two-point conversion call.
Click to expand...

I imagine Zabel was beside himself because that wasnt the first time a two point conversion at Purdue was probably erroneously given to purdue.

Not sure if it was 1968 or 69 but I think the Larry Lawrence team had purdue beat at purdue when a late td and a 2 pt conversion shocked them.

No TV coverage but zabel said it looked no good and the Des Moines Register had one of those series of photos of the goal line which showed the purdue runner seemingly short.

Those DSM Register series of photos is like today's animated gif.

That loss or tie kept Ray Nagel's team from a winning record or .500 record IIRC
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top