Plays I still can’t believe actually happened: Matt Davison in ‘97

It was pretty damn tough being a fan of Missouri football in the 90’s.  Coming out of the disastrous Woody Widenhofer era of the 80’s, Bob Stull assumed the head coaching reins in 1989 and really didn’t do a whole hell of a lot better himself.  Here’s how he fared in Columbia: 2-9, 4-7, 3-7-1, 3-8 and 3-7-1.

Stull is now the athletic director at UTEP, where he’s proven to be just as big a boob in administration after hiring both Mike Price and Tim Floyd.  I guess his odyssey proves that there is a career path for failed coaches, that being the opportunity to hire and fire your very own coaching failures.

Larry Smith took over from Stull in 1993 and in his first three years on the job he averaged just a hair under 4 wins. He gave the faithful something to smile about in ‘97 and ‘98, though, posting 7-5 and 8-4 efforts, the second of which ended with a win in the Insight.com Bowl over West Virginia.

However, the turnaround didn’t last and Smith followed those two winning seasons with two losing ones. He was fired in 2000, bringing to a close a coaching career that began as an assistant to Bo Schembechler, first at Miami of Ohio and later at Michigan. Smith passed away a few years ago at the age of 68 following a long battle with leukemia.

Looking back over that decade, Mizzou fans don’t necessarily lament all the losses or savor the glimmer of hope that Smith provided. Instead, they shake their heads over just how snakebit their team was at times. That’s because the Tigers were victimized not once but twice by eventual national champions on game ending plays that live on in college football lore.

The first was the infamous 5th Down game against Colorado in 1990.  That year, Missouri was 2-2 and coming off of a win over Arizona State.  Colorado came to town with a shaky 3-1-1 record and on the brink of having a promising season spiral out of control.

Missouri was up 31-27 when Colorado got the ball late in the game and drove the length of the field.   With time running out, Colorado inexplicably got five cracks at the Tiger doorstep instead of four.  Not only did the Buffs’ Charles Johnson score on 5th down, I’m not even sure he broke the plane of the goal line.  Check out the video of that entire final drive right here.

Colorado “won” the game 33-31 and went on to share the national title that season.  If Mizzou fans thought that the powers that be were out to get them after that one, then events that transpired seven years later made those same people believe that no less a power than God himself had it out for their beloved Tigers.

On November 8, 1997, Missouri was a team coming off three straight shootout wins (37-29 over Texas, 51-50 over Oklahoma State and 41-31 over Colorado).  To make it four in a row, they’d have to take out a Nebraska team that was undefeated and had won its last three games by a combined score of 133-7.

Missouri took it to the Huskers that day, with quarterback Corby Jones leading an offensive charge that put his team up 24-21 at halftime.  Just as they had done inside Faurot Stadium seven years earlier against Colorado, the Tigers grabbed a late fourth quarter lead and left it up to the defense to secure the victory.

Down 38-31 with 1:02 remaining and no time outs, Scott Frost and the Nebraska offense got the ball back at their own 33-yard line.  He calmly directed them down the field and with :07 on the clock the Huskers were sitting at the Missouri 12-yard line.

Nebraska coach Tom Osborne debated before the play whether or not to call an option out of the shotgun.  Quarterbacks coach Turner Gill convinced Osborne to call a passing play, though, and the one the offense ended up running was Shotgun 99 Double Slant.  Frost took the snap, looked left, then fired over the middle in the direction of Shevin Wiggins.  This is what ensued: