Blue White Illustrated

team the Lions had beaten 27-24 at Beaver Stadium the previous year after scoring the go-ahead touchdown on a controver- sial last-minute drive. The matchup turned out to be a classic disaster for Penn State, as Nebraska won with ease, 44-6. After three tailbacks ahead of him had played, Dozier was in for the last two minutes, carrying the ball twice for 10 yards against the Corn- huskers' scrubs. A couple of days later, while practicing in preparation for the Lions' home opener against Cincinnati, Dozier was wearing a green jersey. How- ever, the underdog Bearcats, who had lost 52-0 in their first-ever game against Penn State in 1981, turned the '83 contest into another disaster by pulling off a 14-3 upset. Dozier gained 41 yards on 11 car- ries. The loss to Iowa the following Sat- urday made it a trifecta of disasters. Penn State had not opened a season with three consecutive losses since 1964. "To start the season 0-3 was tough," Dozier said. "The next week, Paterno comes into the team meeting. He said, 'Listen, guys. We're 0-3. Our backs are against the wall. It's time to make a choice. We either lay down or we come out fighting.' " They came out fighting. Like the '64 squad that lost only one more game and finished 10th in the final Associated Press poll, the 1983 team lost just one more game, tied with Pitt, and then beat Washington in the Aloha Bowl for a 17th-place ranking in the UPI coaches poll. "Turning that season around was a tremendous growing opportunity for the players and the team," Dozier said. "Then in '84, we had the worst team [up to that point] in Paterno's history by going 6-5. But something happened with this group of guys. We had the opportunity to go back to the Aloha Bowl and we decided as a team we had no interest going to any bowl unless we were playing for the na- tional championship." That may have seemed like a ridiculous boast by an immature, short-sighted group of mostly teenagers. Yet, they backed up their bravado, losing the 1985 national championship game to Okla- homa and winning the 1986 title by beat- ing Miami. "The players on that 1986 team had a tremendous amount of defining mo- ments over the previous years, all mo- ments that built character and helped us as individuals to be part of that team, like that 0-3 start in my freshman year," Dozier said. "We had a lot of experience on the field with each other. I heard some of the coaches say it was the closest team they had ever seen." After that final game against Miami, in which Dozier ran for 99 yards on 22 car- ries, he was second only to Warner in ca- reer rushing, with 3,227 yards on 624 attempts, and he is still seventh in the Penn State record book. 'You do expect to succeed' When the Minnesota Vikings made Dozier their first-round draft choice in 1987, the 14th pick overall that year, he appeared destined for a productive NFL career. For a variety of reasons, that didn't work out. FAMILY SNAPSHOT Dozier poses for a photo with his wife, Mindy, and their children (L to R): William El- isha, Abriah, Gabriella and Nadja. Photo courtesy of the Dozier family.

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