Saturday, June 11, 2011

The best team I've ever seen


I started thinking about something last week when USC got its 2004 BCS title taken away -- meaning there's essentially no official record of that team's existence -- and I offhandedly referred to '04 USC as the "the most dominant team of the past 15 years." In a general sense, it probably was -- it's pretty close between the 2004 and '05 USC teams and 2002 Miami, but neither the second USC team nor Miami actually won a national championship, which kind of diminishes their overall accomplishments even if those were the two most talented teams in the history of ever. I guess you could make an argument for any of the three.

But if we're taking a slightly wider snapshot and talking about the best team in (relatively) recent history, there's no question:

The 1995 version of Nebraska's decade-long powerhouse was the best team I've ever seen and arguably the best (at least statistically) in modern history. I have no interest in rewriting the Wikipedia entry to explain Nebraska's awesomeness that year, so I'll just offer some numerical evidence:
  • Won all 12 games by at least 14 points.
  • Didn't score fewer than 35 points and hit the 50-point mark five times.
  • Didn't allow more than 25 points.
  • Won by an average score of 52-12 and played just one non-BCS opponent (Pacific).
  • Outgained opponents 556.3 yards to 294.1.
  • Averaged 399.8 rushing yards per game (lol).
  • Posted over 600 total yards in six games.
  • Didn't allow a sack all season.
  • Played four top-ten teams and beat them by an average score of 49-18 (!!!).
  • Absolutely obliterated a previously undefeated and second-ranked Florida team (maybe the best of the Steve Spurrier era) 62-24 in the de facto national title game.
And if numbers aren't really your thing, here's the video evidence:


Ridiculous. I won't argue this one.

1 comments:

Brett said...

Two words. Brook Berringer.

Some say he could have contended to be an NFL starter, that's how (A) good Tommie Frazier was (the incredible, unbeatble QB 15 on College Football USA 96 -- http://www.thestrong.org/online-collections/nmop/3/46/110.11564) and how great that team was as a whole... Scott Frost was the third string QB on that team and he even played six years as an NFL safety.

My favorite (comedically speaking) Husker from that team, however, was Christian Peter. Peter WAS a real-life incarnate of Steve Lattimer. He looked like him, and was just as much of a nut case, too.

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