Seeing the 78 Sugar Bowl win in their reminds me of how it changed history.
As you know we held them four straight plays from the 1 and won the NC. A couple of years later we were playing Penn State in a regular season game up there. They had first and goal from our 5 and it looked like we held when a 4th down pass in the end zone fell incomplete. Pass interference however gave them a fresh four downs starting at the one. They smashed away but once again couldn't get in. That made twelve straight "goal to go" plays for Penn State where they couldn't get it in the end zone.
Flash forward to 1989 and Bama versus Penn State again. Bill Curry's tired defense was holding on for dear life to a one pint lead in the fourth quarter, but as the clock was winding down the Nittany Lions mounted an all
on the ground drive that reached first and goal inside our ten with under two minutes left. Three running plays brought them to our one, and they called time out with only a few seconds left. The story (I don't know if it is true or not) is that Paterno decided he wasn't going to tempt fate again by going for it on fourth down, so he sent the field goal team out there. 6'7" Thomas Rhayam got a hand on it, and Bama won once again.
