1977 Sugar Bowl - Tony Dorsett scamper

[flwhrtrb90]

dont get me wrong dorsett was by far pitts best rb of all time but to say he was the best ever is quite a stretch. his merits stand on their own but if i had to draft a team with any college rb i could have i wouldnt pick dorsett over those i named.

[flwhrtrb90]

i can name many college rbs better than dorsett...barry sanders, earl campbell, bo jackson, herschell walker, jim brown, billy sims, marcus allen to name a few. someone mentioned archie griffin from ohio st. if you believe archie was better then you have to believe lil joe washington was better since he was drafted over archie griffin, and greg pruitt 1971 season in which he led the nation in rushing with 1760 yards and that 9.4 ypc average was better and pruitt didnt even win the heisman.

[stennet7]

@flwhrtrb90 haha, sorry no way they where all better.

[flwhrtrb90]

1975 is the game in which scott hill leaped over a player and gave dorsett a concussion. he had something like 12 total touches for 17 total yards i believe. ou won that day 46-10 and ou was awarded the 1975 title.

lil joe washington absolutely ran all over pitt and made a td move reggie bush could only dream about. forget adrian peterson without question lil joe was the best rb in oklahoma history.

[MrGatechfan99]

Dorsett had more yards rushing in that game than the ENTIRE yards offense that UGAg had. LMAO

[z32j10h]

My dad hawked him down at the end

[FRSFreeStatePlus]

There probably wasn't much doubt that Tony Dorsett was going to become a great RB in the NFL.

[ynp1978]

@ StealthAudacity  Couldn't agree with you more.That 1976 Pitt team was very good. I would rank them behind 95 Nebraska,01 Miami and 04 USC...maybe a couple of others,but they are in the top 6-7 college teams I ever watched!

[StealthAudacity]

That 1976 Pitt team is underrated when talking about past national champions. They

crushed Notre Dame at South Bend, and easily handled Penn State and Georgia. In fact the 24 point win of UGA in the Sugar Bowl remains the largest margin of victory over a SEC champion in that bowl.

[kirkindog]

I Guess If Dorsett Could Rou A 4.1. I Wonder What Darrel Green Could Run When He Ran Down Tony D On The Dead Run On Thst Monday Night Football Game Back In 1983?

[Mastophales]

Greatest Collegiate rusher I ever saw... And top ten all timer rb's in the nfl... the only shame was he played for the cowgirls...

[TheEaglesfanindc]

got dam he burnt they ass

[selloutasaurus]

I saw this game live with my dad. Years later my dad & my dear late mom would meet & get to chat with former Cowboys: Tony Dorsett, Tony Hill, & Robert Newhouse at a small getogether for Dorsett's birthday. All three were very friendly & nice, but Dorsett stood out as a genuinely friendly & funny guy at the party. Very gracious towards my parents, who were honored to meet him. Plus, they all signed birthday cake plates for us!

[mustwinder]

TD, in the top 5 favorite backs of my youth. I saw him run 99 yards at the Dome in Minnesota in 1983, the safety had a great angle on him but he blew right by him. I think he had a 2200+ yard season in college.

[tofd2]

muther fucker that guy could run

[TideatMileHigh]

My mom acutally accidently bumped into Tony Dorsett at an airport in Birmingham. At first she just said, "Oh I'm sorry" but then once she realized who she bumped into, she said in a more shocked deeper toned voice, "oh..... I'm.... sorry!" He actually signed a napkin and gave it to her. God damnet why can't something like that happen to me?

[Dallasfan1016]

Dorsett was the man. He was a better talent than Emmitt.

[paballer88]

Wins national championchip and about 12 months later a superbowl in this same building

[JohnnyStorm2007]

paballer88: I never thought about that. And I grew up watching TD.

[paballer88]

@JohnnyStorm2007 : Yeah Dorsett was the first player to win the college football championship one year, then win the Super Bowl january '76 thru january '78 he picked up alot of harware

1976 national championchip

1976 Heisman Trophy

1976 Maxwell Award

1976 Walter Camp

1977 nfl nfc offensive rookie of the year

1978 super bowl champion

[paballer88]

The play ran behind pitt head coach dave wanndstedt #76

[paballer88]

Aliquippa, pitt connection you don't stop

[BreuckelensFinest]

Dorsett, 4.1 speed hand time in the 70's. Speed kills. My homeboy Gerald Tinker ran a 4.1 also but blew his knees out when he got to the pro's. At least he won a Gold medal in 72 and got a chance to play in the league.

[newtcummer1]

tony dorsett might have been the best college runner of all time. He certainly was one of the best pro runners and deservedly is in the hall of fame

[entheoz7]

@newtcummer1 he's high the list for sure, but Griffin, Bush, Faulk, Sanders are ahead of him...

[BrianMyerstheBryno]

He also wasn't a large/strong runner so instead of exploding into tacklers he exploded to where the tackler would have the worst angle to hit him and then he would just bounce away from them. He's quoted as saying that he was hard to hit because he was scared to be hit! I'm sure that was an exaggeration, but I bet there was a level of truth in it.

[BrianMyerstheBryno]

TD was my favorite player of all time. But Dorsett ran a 4.38 40yard dash, which was fast and a bit faster than average for his day (but still slow when put against Darrel Green whom I've seen catch both Dorsett and Eric Dickerson from behind at roughly a 4.1) . BUT what made TD hard to hit is that he was quick, had explosive acceleration, great eyes for the hole, and he never stopped running....

[ColumbusnewWorld]

TD ran a 4.38 later in his career. He was faster than that in college.

Darrel Green was a track guy, who just missed out on the Olympic team.

These guys are on a different level. You take a guy like Rocket Ismail, who played some tail back while at ND. He ran a 4...NOTHING, Now thats enough to scare the hell out of a defense.

[ColumbusnewWorld]

Yes! I agree with you!

Hersel Walker was fast, but he took longer to get to top speed. Your anaysis of Darrel Green is also right, I have also seen TD out run him on 40-50 yarders.

[ColumbusnewWorld]

Especially in full football gear.

He won the NFL's fastest man contest one year in the hundren, when he looker like he was running at 3 quarter speed.

I agree that there has only been a few guys who could be at top speed so quick. Unmatched acceleration.

We have differnt athletes today. A lot of track/football guys. The players are bigger an faster, track /football guys like Santana Moss, one of those 4.15 to 4-nothing guys.

[playmayker88]

I dont know.. I think natural speed is timeless.. no matter the era or the technology. In other words.. all the training and muscle mass of today may not make a guy faster necessarily. They may be clocked faster in certain events or 40 yd dashes.. but just like u said it looked like he was running 3/4 speed and he was named the fastest man that year.. What if he had given it all he had? Could have been a 4 flat. Quest is: in a game time situation, could todays guys catch or outrun yesterdays?

[ColumbusnewWorld]

Yeah! you're right about that, after I thought about it, I remember, we had Sam Grady, Ron Browm of the LA Rams, and Willie Gault. I remember seeing Darrell Green giving up after 50 yards chasing Willie Gault and Ron Brown. He never caught these guys from behind. It just seems like today we have more track/football guys playing now. Can you imagine him trying to run down the likes of Deon Sanders, Steve Smith, Rocket, Santana etc?

[playmayker88]

I think Green even had an angle on Dorsett.. Green was coming from the other side of the field and Dorsett was going up the sideline. Dont get me wrong though, Green was coming really fast, but he has some angle there.

[evusu]

rocket was fast as hell but on da field players like deion and darrell were faster..I know u have seen da infamous fly pattern da raiders tried to throw to rocket with Deion coverin an stride for stride deion runs past him for da pick n does da famous gesture of holding da ball up in da air to showboat..lol

[ColumbusnewWorld]

Man all those guys were fast as hell, and I guarantee you if you ask each of them who was faster, they would to a man say it would depend on who got a better start. I remember when Wershel Walker out ran Darrell Green in the 100 during one of those NFL Grestest Athlete shows with the Obstacle Course etc. Darrel might win 5 of 10. Guys like Deangelo Hall have good forty speed but are not 100 guys.

[amun1999]

hey ...which game was that / i didn't know that deon was faster than the rocket? because rocket ran a 4.1 at his fastest......send that clip to me

[evusu]

yeah well Deion also ran 4.1 too an was considered da fastest man in da nfl wit pads on..rocket was fast but I think an old teammate of his james jett was faster in uniform..but look at Deions cowboys highlights on here I think it has a clip from when dey threw a deep bomb on him

[playmayker88]

If he was running 4.38 at age 34, he has to be running a 4.2 or less in College. I mean seriously, look at the run we just saw... you just dont get any faster than that. And what made Tony unique was his acceleration .. he could choose when he wanted to be at top speed.. it could be on the 2nd step if he wanted. And in the pros he developed a shifty style where he bobbed up and down on his toes like a cork, with bursts off speed off of each bounce.shifting in direction..he was awesome. unmatched

[ColumbusnewWorld]

Fastest running back in college history.

This run would have done to the house if Gordon would have put is man on his back.

[evusu]

No he is not da fastest back in college history are u crazy..lol..do u kno Bo jackson or herschel walker??? dats jus to name a couple who were faster than dorsett but was dorsett a better back is a different answer but he was not da fastest

[ColumbusnewWorld]

I was in a hurry, I simply meant to say one of the fastest. He ran a 4.38 when he was with the Denver Bronco's and ran stride for stride with Sam Grady. I think during his college days he was as fast as he needed to be. I don't think any of them were as explosive as him though. There is football speed and then track speed and he had a gift. Theres not a lot of backs who can run 99 and half yards virtual untouched in the NFL

[toowon]

Greatest running back of all time - great run TD!

[psufan001]

who won this game?

[DawgSong]

Pitt, TD was 2-0 against UGA in his college days.

Shiat on PITT

[ajd22692]

not to be cocky or anything but this is my great uncle,..my grandfathers brother

[bobbymarsh1]

the whole team was chasing him. love to watch TD and O. j. run the rock

[cllamont]

OJ and TD were the two most beautiful runners to watch. Graceful;,swift, strong, elusive, and smart.

[crosbymalkin07]

ahahhahah their whole team was chasing TD

[trainartat12]

haha i was wondering why the bottom line was up on a game so old then i realized it was on classic

[gcoste]

Lesean McCoy is next in line. Let's go PITT!

[TxTechRox123]

Dorsett is who I grew up on, I idolized that guy, one of the greatest in my book.

[paballer88]

1st anouncer:

"It is first down pittsburgh tony dorsett has 100yds on 22 carries, and he's gone again!!!"

2nd anoucer:

"look out!...uh o!...wow!"

Straight speed sun!... Funny as hell watching georgia chase him down.

[tauras88d]

...lol thats the problem with you pitt fans you have to reach by 60 years to find any glory at pitt. old ancient faded memories bud hummmmmm! just wondering is anybody still alive from that era?........lol

[88cutty]

WVU fan? yeah 13-9 and now 19-15 shut your face

[DallasCowboyfan139O]

Tony can't catch him Dorsett.

[MHR95]

look at that speed to cut up the middle

[andrewecw]

cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo­ooooooooooooooolllllllllllllll­llllllllllllllllllllllllllllll­

[ectigers83]

If this was 1976 then YEP! Pitt went all the way that year. It was also Dorsett's senior season & he won the Heisman as well. Went to the Super Bowl in his rookie season against the Steelers & lost 35-31 but won a title in '78 when the Cowboys beat the Broncos 27-10. What a career. HOF'er as well! =)

[kenny7470]

The Super Bowl his rookie year was against Denver in XII (Jan 1978). The Super Bowl the next year was against Pittsburgh in XIII (Jan 1979).

[shazzar756]

TD won a SB his rookie year against denver. HOF college/nfl rb

[dubasher]

Beautiful runner. You just don't see backs like TD anymore.

[tauras88d]

what dont see backs like TD anymore?.. sure you do, west virginias kj harris, steve slaton, amos zeroway, noel devine. are blazzing record setters, rewrote the big east record books, and spent the last 15 years beating up on pissburg, winning the big east title and winning major BCS bowls. 11 win seasons are commonplace at WVU, 5 win seasons are commonplace at pissburg. yeah! yeah!... we know you caught WVU last year on an off night and beat them..yeah yeah WVU kings of the east.

[88cutty]

yeah have to be kiddin me.. none of those guys mentioned can even touch curtis martin let a lone sniff TD.

[Cavalier2718]

didnt we just beat u in november?? thats 2 in a row. besides we got lesean mccoy and he is better then everyone of those backs u just mentiond

[bbstopit]

ckobo84, Dorsett cut to the inside to set up his blocker. He cuts left so the DB goes left, which puts his blocker between himself and the DB. Then breaks right but his teammate missed the block/the DB made a great play.

[kevin21470]

Yo anbody remember the show superstars back in the eighties? It always came on around pro bowl time, and it pitted all the nfl players of the time afc vs nfc against each other in different stuff. I remember watching the 100 and TD was in it and so was herschel walker TD smoked him by about 10-12 yards dam! wish i had video of that

[kevin21470]

THE HAWK BOI....WHAT!!!

[Spitzerman]

Isn't this the year that Dorsett got like 9 yards on 17 carries against OU the year OU beat Pitt 46-10?

[cllamont]

what does that have to do with this clip? Who even cares? Dorsett has done som amny great things in college and pro football.

[pittee3]

No, Pitt went undefeated this year and won the national championship.

[ckobo84]

He should of just stayed to the right and easy touchdown, guess he didn't realize his own speed and how he was running away from the guy on the right side, you couldn't watch yourself on the scorboard then! lol. I guess he wanted a challenge, set up his block well, don't know how it was missed?

[sicilianwop]

Tony was 190lb.....that's it.One of the fastest R/B ever....Best vision on a football field ever for a R/B.Tony has won everything you can think of in football. Go TD

[pittsburghdoc]

amazing speed!!!  He hit a different gear when he hit the secondary. Should have been a TD run.

[BigL33]

Tony Dorsett the greatest college running back with great blazing speed. Such few running backs have.

[keithanddeb]

Dorsett is so HIGHLY underrated. One of colleges greatest halfbacks EVER! In the NFL Coach Landry wouldn't let him have the rock like Payton, Juice and Dickerson. Dorsett could have easily been a 30 carry a game back in the NFL. But who went to the NFL Hall of Fame the first time they called his name, Dorsett!

[lknight33]

He had speed and more speed. Poor block by the wide receiver at the end, he would have scored. Tony Dorsett was the man. Keep posting TD video

[cllamont]

The greatest natural speed of any running back ever - Tony Dorsett