Couldn’t sleep last night, so found this and watched the whole game. I was a junior at the time and was on the field for this game. I have not seen this game since I watched it live in person.
A&M had owned us in the 1980s. The “Wrecking Crew” defense was one of the few defenses that could stop the Run & Shoot. There was over 1000 yards of offense. A&M had 555 yards and lost.
This is one of my top 5 most satisfying wins in my Coog history.
Observations in no particular order:
Klingler had one of the most beautiful long balls I have ever seen. Man could he throw fast, far, and he made it look effortless.
Both teams were playing lights out, and this was one hard hitting game. Both teams were competing at a high level.
A&M raced out to a 17-0, and then 24-7 lead and it looked like we were going to be blown out, but the kids hunkered down and kept competing.
Klingler had virtually no time. A&M’s blitzing and pass rush was absolutely relentless. Klingler got clobbered many times during the game but was tough as nails and always bounced back. His ability to make plays even with the pass rush literally in his face and inches away still amazes me to this day.
For you youngbloods who may not know… A&M had utter disdain for us and thought we were far beneath them.
Chuck Weatherspoon was the difference maker in this game. Without him, we don’t come close to winning.
Speaking of “Spooooooon”… all these years, and having gone to school at the same time as him, it never registered with me that he was only about 5’6". He was such a monster he seemed larger than life in my mind.
I appreciate the Astrodome for its place in the Houston lexicon, and I loved going as a little kid to Astro’s games… but the 'Dome was a sterile, cavernous, impersonal and terrible place to watch a college football game. It wasn’t ours, and the seating allotments were terrible and spread out, made cohesiveness and feeling part of your own team nearly impossible. Some may have more fond memories, but I am so glad we left there. I remember being heckled by concession workers in our supposed home stadium, and the gift shops full of UT gear.
We were absolutely loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. Every part of the offense on that team was stellar. The receiving core was EIGHT deep of immense talent.
Oddly enough, the R&S was known as the hurry up offense of its day, but watching this game… teams played a lot slower than today in terms of lining up and getting the play off, and the stats in numbers of plays proves it. Even though we were no huddle we still took a ton of time to line up and get the play call in.
You can definitely see how the R&S has influenced today’s game. And you can also see how a good deal of it has gone by the wayside and is – dare I say – now antiquated.
I went to high school and graduated with Roman Anderson, who frankly virtually never missed anything in college. He still holds NCAA kicking records to this day.
A&M out-gained us but committed 7 turnovers.
Dig the retro unis (sans the blue) - would love to see the true skinny UH logo come back.
Left the dome proud as I could be and still to this day have the field pass hanging on my wall.
During the “Dome” days, we had season tickets just above a pair of twins who loved to smoke cigars during the games. We almost choked to death. I often thought about buying a can of air spray and flooding them with it. Discretion better part of valor . . . . .
Kick off, atm attempt kick return and…Chris Pezman with the first tackle.I was at the game too.I keep writing it but for me this 1990 season is the best Coaching that we ever had in a single season.
Thank you very much for posting.
I was there, great game. Notice how very few of the UH crowd are wearing red. Big difference from today. College fb has changed so much from then to now.
I was at that game and the year before in CS. I was surprised that I did not recognize the WR names as much as I thought I would. Guess I recall more the ones during Pardee Time in the Warehouse.
That receiving core was spectacular… Manny Hazard, Marcus Grant, Tracy Good, Patrick Cooper (blazing speedster), Verlond Brown, John Brown III, and Craig Alexander.
And this was the receiving core encore to the 1989 team which was equally spectacular with Manny Hazard (142 receptions, 1,689 yards, 22 TDs), Kimble Anders, Chuck Weatherspoon, Patrick Cooper, Brian Williams and Paul Smith all finishing with at least 26 catches.
You can’t compare physical play in different time periods. It is impossible to compare. What we can compare is the AAC & the SWC. This is day & night. We were playing in a premier league in these times. We were in a P5.
The amazing thing that some of you seem to forget is that we were on probation. To even compete illustrate to everyone what we would be capable of in a P5. In 1991 the reduced scholarships took their toll. We all know the rest.
If you watch this game you can see the talent on that team was really good, and sadly being G5 you just don’t get the athletes that we could being in a more respected league like the SWC.
Reggie Burnette and Eric Blount were fantastic college LB’s. We have only had a handful of LB’s that good in the 25yrs since this game.
Its weird by today’s comparison to see a pass happy college offense lining up under center, but that was the run and shoot with the short drop back and semi rolls toward either OT depending on the play call.
The run and shoot was so foreign to college teams back then because most of them were built to stop option offenses with big CB’s that could play the run that it took them a few years to adjust and recruit DB’s that could cover. I think JJ fugured that no college teams had enough good CB’s to cover all our WR’s and we would burn someone eventually most games.
A&M was about the only school that had the pass rush to where it didn’t matter who they had in the secondary we just didn’t have time to throw the ball. If you aren’t old enough to be around it was like facing the Steelers 3-4 and they had multiple NFL LB’s it seemed like every season.
The UH defense on this team wasn’t near as good as the year before, but this defense caused a lot of turnovers to make up for the yards they gave up. The team the year before was one of the best defenses in school history. I think they allowed the fewest yards per play in the nation and thats with being on the field the majority of most games because we scored so fast ala Case and Co with the Air Raid.
The single greatest game in UH football history was the very first game. Without that game there would never have been any others. The second greatest game in UH history was the Michigan State game. That was the game that put UH football on the national map. My favorite game that I was able to attend was the 1976 30 Nothing game in Austin.