JR Bishops first three years at the helm saw their offense rise to #1 in the country with JR's son, Keith Bishop, rewriting NCAA record books at the time with their "Air Bishop Express" offense. In 1985 Keith Bishop averaged 50 pass attempts a game. Defensively Wheaton was last in the conference those years and the losses to Augie were lopsided as a result. Mike Swider arrived for the 1985 season as Wheaton's defensive coordinator and Wheaton immediately went from last to 2nd in the conference (Augie had the top defense in the conference and the country during their 4 peat run). After scoring 37, 47, and 45 against Wheaton in JR's first 3 seasons, when Swider's defense took over they lost in 1985 14-26 in a game that was tight until the 4th quarter and then in 1986 Augie's 4 years streak should have ended in Rock Island as the Vikings escaped with an 18-17 victory, kicking a FG with 6 seconds left to win. Augie ran the ball 49 times that day and completed zero passes (the officials allowed 1 completed pass that bounced into a WR's hands on 4th and 7 with under 2 minutes to go that would have ended the game-not that I'm still bitter). Augie went on to win their 4th national championship that year, beating everyone in the playoffs by an average of 31-7.
