alternatehistory.com

This thread is inspired by today's passing of legendary Football coach Lou Saban. He coached the Bills in the 60's to two AFL titles and coached the Broncos from 67-71. What some people don't know is that he also was the Head Coach at Miami in the Late-70's at a time when they were thinking about dropping football. He started the Miami rebuilding process by bringing in their first big recruiting class in the late-70s, which included players like QB Jim Kelly. Then, Schnellenberger took over the team and said that the program was on a "collision course" with the National Championship while people laughed. Four years later, they finally won it, ushering in an era of Miami dominance.

Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, FSU was thinking about dropping Football as well. Then, in 1976, they brought in a guy named Bobby Bowden, and he turned the program around, winning two National Championships, having a bevy of top-5 teams, and producing a lot of NFL stars.

These two programs were responsible for shifting the center of the College Football world to Florida, and making speed more of a priority than size. It is hard to believe that these schools almost dropped Football in the late-70's. But, what if they would have? How different would the college game be today?
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