I think a big part of the reason was that was in the pre-media saturation days. You actually watched TV at night for highlights and then read the Sunday paper for stories about the games. The ND sucks because they lost to Ole Miss narrative started to change the very next week when Montana came in to spark a fourth quarter win over Purdue. Then the team started to roll. My memories are faded, but I don't think there was much talk about a possible NC until we beat USC, but even then I don't think there was much talk of what our chances were, etc...
Contrast that to this year; I was sitting on a sailboat in Narragansett Bay, RI, following the NIU game on my phone.