The Wacker era had some big wins and a couple near misses at the beginning. We almost knocked off Colorado in '92, but the game winning last second kick missed. Not surprising because during Gutie's last season they stopped attempting extra points because they didn't have anyone who could even do that. The two wins over the badgers were his crowning achievement and the last win streak in the series for us.
We didn't start losing big on a consistent basis until the end of 1995. That one was supposed to be the breakout season. We had Heisman 'candidate' Chris Darkins, Cory Sauter, Tutu Atwell and Ryan Thelwell. We started out 4-1 with our only loss on the road at Syracuse. Everyone expected a big win on homecoming. The only problem was Gary Barnett had built the real deal in Evanston and Darnell Autry ran us over in the second half. Then we had to play Michigan and Ohio St back to back. That was it for Wacker's gophers. He got an 'extension' at the end of the season, but had secretly agreed to resign if he didn't make a bowl in 1996. We started 3-0 with a big win against Syracuse and it looked for a while like he would save his job, but then the second quarter of the Purdue game happened and that was pretty much it. Wacker went back to Texas and Glen Mason took the job after a search that included a visit by Florida defensive coordinator Bob Stoops. I wonder what happened to him?