1989 Colorado Buffaloes football team

1989 Colorado Buffaloes football
Big Eight champion
Orange Bowl, L 6–21 vs. Notre Dame
Conference	Big Eight Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 4
AP	No. 4
1989 record	11–1 (7–0 Big 8)
Head coach	Bill McCartney (8th season)
Offensive coordinator	Gerry DiNardo (6th season)
Offensive scheme	I-Bone option
Defensive coordinator	Mike Hankwitz (2nd season)
Base defense	5-2
MVP	Darian Hagan (QB)
Captains	Sal Aunese (honorary) Bill Coleman (OT) Mike Jones (LB) Erich Kissick (FB) Bruce Young (S)
Home stadium	Folsom Field (Capacity: 51,463)
Seasons ← 1988 1990 →

1989 Big Eight Conference football standings
v t	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 4 Colorado $	7	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
No. 11 Nebraska	6	–	1	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
Oklahoma	5	–	2	–	0			7	–	4	–	0
Iowa State	4	–	3	–	0			6	–	5	–	0
Oklahoma State	3	–	4	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Kansas	2	–	5	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Missouri	1	–	6	–	0			2	–	9	–	0
Kansas State	0	–	7	–	0			1	–	10	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

The 1989 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Big Eight Conference during the 1989 NCAA Division I-A football season. Colorado finished with the most wins in school history, surpassing the 1971 team, and their first conference championship in thirteen years. The Buffaloes went undefeated in the regular season at 11–0 (7–0 in Big 8) and played for the national title, but lost to fourth-ranked Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl.^[1]

The team dedicated the season to senior and former starting quarterback Sal Aunese, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer in late March,^[2] and died at age 21 on September 23 due to complications from the disease.^[3][4][5]

For the first time in 28 years, Colorado defeated Oklahoma and Nebraska in the same season.^[6][7] In the 27 seasons in between, they had five wins over Oklahoma (1965, 1966, 1968, 1972, 1976) and two over Nebraska (1967, 1986).

In another feel-good story, the team was host to a Make A Wish recipient Chad Henry for the big game against Nebraska in Boulder. Henry was an up-and-coming high school football player from Indiana, Pennsylvania, and the son of college/NFL coach Jack Henry, who began following the Buffaloes after reading about Sal Aunese's battle with cancer while himself battling a very rare and dangerous form of abdominal cancer. After cheering on the Buffs to the biggest win in school history in early November, Henry and his family were also invited to attend the national championship game in Miami as guests of the university. He went on to defeat the disease and did play football for his high school again in 1990. Although his once promising football career was ended following that season due to complications with side effects from the intense chemotherapy he endured, Henry went on to coach football at his high school and became a scout for the NFL's Detroit Lions and is currently with the Indianapolis Colts.

Schedule[]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4	5:30 pm	Texas*	No. 14	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado	ESPN	W 27–6	47,269
September 9	1:30 pm	Colorado State*	No. 9	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado (Rocky Mountain Showdown)		W 45–20	44,921
September 16	1:30 pm	No. 10 Illinois*	No. 8	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado	CBS	W 38–7	46,747
September 30	2:00 pm	at No. 21 Washington*	No. 5	Husky Stadium Seattle	KCNC	W 45–28	69,152
October 7	1:30 pm	Missouri	No. 3	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado		W 49–3	51,855
October 14	1:00 pm	at Iowa State	No. 3	Cyclone Stadium Ames, Iowa	KCNC	W 52–17	41,515
October 21	1:30 pm	Kansas	No. 3	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado		W 49–17	50,057
October 28	12:30 pm	at Oklahoma	No. 3	Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Norman, Oklahoma		W 20–3	75,004
November 4	12:30 pm	No. 3 Nebraska	No. 2	Folsom Field Boulder, Colorado (rivalry)	CBS	W 27–21	52,877
November 11	12:30 pm	at Oklahoma State	No. 1	Lewis Field Stillwater, Oklahoma	KCNC	W 41–17	41,000
November 18	11:10 am	at Kansas State	No. 2	KSU Stadium Manhattan, Kansas	KCNC	W 59–11	20,117
January 1, 1990	6:00 pm	vs. No. 4 Notre Dame*	No. 1	Orange Bowl Miami, Florida (Orange Bowl)	NBC	L 6–21	81,191
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

Source:^[8]

Roster[]

1989 Colorado Buffaloes football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 1 Eric Bieniemy WR 84 Jeff Campbell Sr T 77 Bill Coleman (C) RB J.J. Flannigan G 62 Joe Garten Jr QB 3 Darian Hagan So FB George Hemingway FB Eric Kissick (C) C 52 Jay Leeuwenberg So G Darren Muilenberg TE John Parek WR 9 Mike Pritchard Jr OT 72 Mark VanderPoel Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class CB David Gibbs S Tim James ILB Terry Johnson ILB 59 Michael Jones (C) CB 12 Dave McCloughan Jr DE 96 Kanavis McGhee Jr DT Okland Salavea NG 93 Joel Steed So DT Arthur Walker DE 94 Alfred Williams S Bruce Young (C)	Special teams Pos. # Name Class PK Ken Culbertson P Tom Rouen	Head coach Bill McCartney (8th year) Coordinators/assistant coaches Gary Barnett Mike Barry Gerry DiNardo (OC) Don Frease Mike Hankwitz (DC) Oliver Lucas Bob Simmons Ron Vanderlinden Zaven Yaralian Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Rankings[]

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	14	9	8	6	5	3	3 (2)	3 (3)	3 (1)	2 (2)	2 (4)	2 (3)	2 (3)	1 (53)	1 (55)	1 (51)	4
Coaches	14	11	7	5	5	4	4 (1)	3 (1)	3 (1)	2 (2)	2 (5)	2 (4)	2 (4)	1 (39)	1 (42)	–	4

Game summaries[]

Texas[]

Colorado State[]

Illinois[]

Washington[]

Missouri[]

Iowa State[]

Kansas[]

Oklahoma[]

Nebraska[]

#3 Nebraska at #2 Colorado

1 2 3 4 Total Cornhuskers 7 7 7 0 21 • Buffaloes 14 3 7 3 27 Date: November 4 Location: Folsom Field, Boulder, Colorado Game attendance: 52,877 TV announcers (CBS): Jim Nantz and Pat Haden

Scoring summary 1 13:30 NEB Bryan Carpenter 51 yard pass from Gerry Gdowski (Gregg Barrios kick) NEB 7–0 1 8:22 COL J.J. Flannigan 70 yard run (Ken Culbertson kick) Tie 7–7 1 5:04 COL Darian Hagan 1 yard run (Ken Culbertson kick) COL 14–7 2 11:33 NEB Morgan Gregory 12 yard pass from Gerry Gdowski (Gregg Barrios kick) Tie 14–14 2 0:12 COL Ken Culbertson 49 yard field goal COL 17–14 3 8:00 COL J.J. Flannigan 2 yard run (Ken Culbertson kick) COL 24–14 3 1:04 NEB Chris Garrett 26 yard pass from Gerry Gdowski (Gregg Barrios kick) COL 24–21 4 8:47 COL Ken Culbertson 28 yard field goal COL 27–21

^{[9] [10]}

Oklahoma State[]

Kansas State[]

Notre Dame (Orange Bowl)[]

#4 Notre Dame vs. #1 Colorado

1 2 3 4 Total • Fighting Irish 0 0 14 7 21 Buffaloes 0 0 6 0 6 Date: January 1 Location: Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL Game attendance: 81,190 TV announcers (NBC): Dick Enberg and Bill Walsh

^[11]

References[]

External links[]

• Sports-Reference – 1989 Colorado Buffaloes