BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Even through a rough start to the 1990 season and the highly debated “fifth-down” controversy, there the Colorado Buffaloes were in the closing seconds of the Orange Bowl, one stop away from a potential national title.
Defensive back Deon Figures intercepted a Notre Dame pass and ran around long enough for the clock to hit zero. His teammates piled on to celebrate, crushing his ribs with their weight. He could barely breathe and thought he might pass out.
A fond memory for sure, he said, because it paved the way to the Buffaloes' one and only national football title. Painful for a reason beyond his bruised ribs: They had to split that 1990 national title with Georgia Tech.
“We wanted it all,” Figures recalled. “We wanted to sit at the top of the mountain — by ourselves.”
On Friday night, the Yellow Jackets and Buffaloes will meet for the first time ever on the football field. It's a chance for bragging rights nearly 35 years after the programs became forever linked in the days when split titles were possible, long before major college football shifted to a tournament.
“It is exciting,” said Charles Johnson, a quarterback on that 1990 Colorado team. ”But it’s kind of like two great fighters in their prime and it was a great debate about who was the greatest and then years later, when they’re both kind of not in that spotlight, they finally match up. It’s like, ‘Oh, we finally get the great fight.’ The thrill of what that debate was 35 years ago, it’s hard to carry much of that over today.”
Back then, there was no College Football Playoff. Instead, it came down to votes, with the Buffaloes (11-1-1) crowned as champions in The Associated Press poll and Yellow Jackets (11-0-1) winding up on top in the coaches' poll.
They've would've preferred to settle things on the field.
“Hopefully the kids that are playing now will understand the ramifications behind (this game) a little bit more," former Buffaloes receiver Mike Pritchard said. “Just have it have a degree of importance.”
It's there, all right.
“We’re excited to go play Colorado. An opportunity to settle the 1990 national championship,” said Georgia Tech coach Brent Key, whose team is favored and was 12 at the time of that split title.
The title
Glance around Folsom Field and there it is between suite levels on the east side of the stadium, in bold lettering: “1990 National Champions.”
“Wow,” tackle Jordan Seaton said of learning the Buffaloes split it with the Yellow Jackets. “I’m very eager to play them.”
Before the CFP, co-champions happened, if rarely, with nearly a dozen since the early 1950s and the last coming in 2003 (LSU and USC). The split titles spurred arguments and eventually led to postseason changes in determining a true national champion. The College Football Playoff, which has expanded to a 12-team bracket, began with the 2014-15 season.
The Buffaloes sure wish that format would’ve existed 35 years ago.
“I guarantee you we would’ve whooped them,” said Figures, who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2024 class. “I would’ve bet the house on it.”
The Buffaloes received 39 of 60 first place votes in the AP poll (the Yellow Jackets had 20). Georgia Tech topped the UPI/Coaches poll with 30 of 59 first-place votes (Colorado had 27), which ultimately gave the Yellow Jackets a 847-846 point advantage.
Each squad beat coach Tom Osborne and the Nebraska Cornhuskers — the Buffaloes by a 27-12 score in Lincoln and the Yellow Jackets winning 45-21 in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“Both Colorado and Georgia Tech had fine teams that year and we lost to both of them,” Osborne wrote in an email. “Georgia Tech beat us more soundly than Colorado, but both teams were talented. Colorado won a controversial game in which they were given 5 downs at the goal line."
After a liver transplant in 2023, Figures will be watching Friday night's game on television. He will be thinking of his coach, too: Bill McCartney died in January at 84. McCartney assembled a star-studded group featuring names such as Darian Hagan, Johnson, Eric Bieniemy, Pritchard, Figures, Chad Brown, Alfred Williams and Kanavis McGhee.
“Coach Mac would have loved this game," Figures said. "I can hear him now with that rah-rah speech.”
The Georgia Tech path
The Yellow Jackets were coached by Bobby Ross and featured a group of players such as William Bell, Shawn Jones, Ken Swilling, Marco Coleman, Scott Sisson, Willie Clay, Greg Lester, Mike Mooney and Coleman Rudolph. Their only bump in the road was a tie at North Carolina. Two weeks later, they beat No. 1 Virginia on Sisson’s field goal with seconds remaining.
“They believed in themselves; they believed in what they were doing,” Ross said in the fall 2021 issue of Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. "They were just that type of team. They had confidence and a little bit of a swagger, and that was good.”
The Colorado path
It was a rocky start for the Buffaloes, who tied with Tennessee, beat Stanford and lost at Illinois. They dropped from preseason No. 5 to No. 20 in the AP poll. They would win out, including the controversial “fifth-down” victory at Missouri. There was an error when the chain crew didn’t flip the down marker. It set up an extra down and the Buffaloes capitalized as Johnson scored the winning TD on a keeper as time expired.
“There’s so much back-story behind the down thing," Pritchard said. “We obviously would have executed differently. We were going by what the officials were telling everybody."
The Buffaloes caught another fortunate break in the Orange Bowl when a clipping call negated a late punt return for a score by Notre Dame’s Raghib Ismail. The Buffaloes held on for a 10-9 win.
“It was amazing how that season unfolded,” recalled Johnson, whose team lost to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl the season before to finish 11-1. “I mean, just about every oddity or wrinkle that you could imagine would take place, took place.”
The Buffaloes of the past are anxious for this week's game..
“I’m definitely going to be out there on that field in spirit,” Figures said.
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AP Sports Writer Charles Odum contributed.
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