Q: When was the only time that a quarterback won the Super Bowl in the same year that his alma mater won college’s national title?
Matthew Stafford has a chance to follow up Georgia’s first natty in four decades by winning a Super Bowl ring.
So do running back Sony Michel and linebacker Leonard Floyd, but this question is just about the quarterbacks.
A: Joe Montana
Unlike Stafford, who was obviously at Georgia during that championship drought, Montana won a national title with Notre Dame in 1977.
Of course, these days, it’s Notre Dame that’s enduring a lengthy spell between national titles, with the Fighting Irish’s last one having come from their undefeated 1988 season, capped by a victory over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
Twenty days later, Montana led the 49ers to victory in Super Bowl XXIII, taking San Francisco 92 yards on 11 plays in 2:46 to get the winning touchdown on a 10-yard pass to John Taylor.
Super Bowl XXIII, of course, was the 49ers over the Bengals, who as fate would have it are, of course, Stafford’s opponents for Super Bowl LVI.
It’s probably not a bellwether, given that Montana is the only quarterback to celebrate his school’s national title by winning a Super Bowl. Part of the issue there is where Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks are coming from. The past 10 have been Michigan (four times), Texas Tech, Arizona, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Delaware, and Ole Miss.
This will be the first Super Bowl won by a team with a starting quarterback from either LSU or Georgia, putting those schools, finally, alongside the likes of Morehead State, Southern Miss, and Fresno State as capable of producing NFL champion quarterbacks.
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