Darryl Rogers dies at 83.
Was an ok coach at MSU, peaking with a co-Big Ten title in 1978, finishing #12 in the polls. After a 1-3 start, MSU won 7 in a row, including a road win at Michigan, who they shared the conference title with. MSU had a TV/bowl ban due to recruiting violations under previous coach Denny Stolz, so all in all it is one of the forgotten good MSU teams. They had the conference's best passing attack, with Kirk Gibson at WR. Instead MSU's Rose Bowl drought extended until 1987, and UM went in 1979 in their place. That game gave us the Charles White Phantom Touchdown, in USC's 17-10 win. The Trojans had also beaten MSU earlier in the year, in LA.
After the 1979 season, AD Joe Kearney took the Arizona State AD job, and took his head football coach with him. Rogers returned to Michigan a few years later to coach the Lions, after taking Arizona State to a Fiesta Bowl, and a #6 national ranking, before giving way to John Cooper, who two years later won Arizona State's lone Rose Bowl with Rogers' players as uperclassmen.