Friday, May 27, 2011

1996 College Football

1. Danny Wuerffel: Won the Heisman Trophy. He was the MVP of the Sugar Bowl (national championship).

He won player of the year awards (Maxwell and Camp), and QB of the year (Unitas and O’Brien).

He was 1st team All-America and led the NCAA in TDs (39) and set a SEC record with 3,625 yards.

Wuerffel set a SEC championship game record with 401 yards and 6 TDs in a 45-30 rout of #11 Alabama.

He helped UF past #9 Tennessee with 4 TD passes.

He had 277 yards and 3 TDs in the Gators 56-13 pounding of #12 LSU, and 346 yards and 3 scores the following week against #24 Auburn.

In the rematch with bitter rival and undefeated then #1 Florida St., Wuerffel torched the Seminoles for 306 yards and 3 TDs. He also ran 10 yards for another TD as Florida routed FSU 52-20.

Florida won their first ever national championship. They won their 4th straight SEC Championship and was 12-1. They outscored their opponents by 390 points (30 per game).

2. Jake Plummer: He was PAC-10 Offensive Player of the Year. He was 2nd team All-American.

He finished 3rd in the Heisman voting.

He threw for 2,575 yards and 23 TDs.

The “Snake” led Arizona St. to stunning upset over then #1 Nebraska 19-0. The win broke the Cornhuskers 26 game winning streak. He was 20-36 for 292 yards and a TD.

He threw for 3 TDs in an opening win over #16 Washington. He single handily carried the Sun Devils to a 42-35 win over UCLA. He threw 275 yards and three scores. He also ran for a TD and caught 16 yard TD on a halfback pass.

In the Rose Bowl against #2 Ohio St. Plummer tied the score at 7 in the second quarter with a 25 yard scoring strike. He gave ASU the lead with his iconic 11 yard TD run with 1:40 to go.

He finished with 201 yards passing on 19-35.

Arizona State was the Pac-10 champion and went 11-0 in regular season (#2 before the bowls). They lost 20-17 in the Rose Bowl to Ohio St and finished #4 in the final poll.


3. Peyton Manning: He was the MVP of the Citrus Bowl with a record breaking performance.

He threw for 407 yards and 4 TDs (still Tennessee bowl records) with then school record 27 completions. His first 3 TDs gave UT a 21-0 lead over #15 Northwestern. He added a 10 yard TD scamper in the Vols 48-28 romp.

Manning was named third team All-American (behind Wuerffel and Plummer) and second team All-SEC. He finished 8th in the Heisman voting.

He was twice named SEC Player of the Week. He threw for 371 and 2 scores vs. Georgia and 362 and two more TDs vs. South Carolina.

For the season, he passed for 3,278 yards and 20 TDs while completing 64% of his passes.

He set a school record with 492 yards and had 4 TDs vs. #1 Florida but the Volunteers fell behind 35-0, only to lose 35-29.

They were 10-2 overall and 7-1 in SEC play. Tennessee finished ranked #9 in the final polls. Manning directed an offense that put up over 36 points per game.

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