Ranking The National Champions of the 1990s

tusks_n_raider

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If Florida St wasn't the best team in 1993.... who was?

I guess most would say Notre Dame....or if they hadn't been jobbed by the refs.... Nebraska.
 

81usaf92

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If Florida St wasn't the best team in 1993.... who was?

I guess most would say Notre Dame....or if they hadn't been jobbed by the refs.... Nebraska.
Honestly and begrudgingly I have to say Nebraska and Notre Dame. Like I said earlier it seemed that the 93, 94, and 97 titles were mostly compensation for great coaches being denied championships in the 80's by Miami and Oklahoma. Both of FSU's titles in the 90's they weren't the best team in those years, but the 99 had far less issues with how they won since Alabama and Michigan both had dum dum coaches sabotaging their seasons.

and fwiw I can say Nebraska was jobbed epically in the 93 title game, but the 94 title game was more of a make up title game for it.
 
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selmaborntidefan

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Not a question of fault. I don't blame them, but I don't credit them with the win either.
They won the only place it matters.


They lost the game until they were granted an extra play.
The extra play was when they went to the timeout and the officials misled them.

They call a different series of plays if they think it's third down (on their last TO) rather than second. That changes everything.

They lost the game.
Everything I look at says they won it....

We can play woulda, coulda, shoulda all day long.
But you're kind of doing the same thing here....because even you know the play calling sequence is different based on downs (unless your name is Doug Nussmeier).

They lost the game on 4th down and the officials gave them another chance on 5th down. They did not win their championship. It was handed to them.

Well, you've convinced me now....

Respectfully, I once held the same POV you do now, so I don't judge you for it. But in the context of everything? They weren't handed an extra fourth down (in which case I would concur). They were handed an extra third down coming out of the timeout. And it happened mostly because that was the first year of the new spike rule.
 

selmaborntidefan

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If Florida St wasn't the best team in 1993.... who was?

I guess most would say Notre Dame....or if they hadn't been jobbed by the refs.... Nebraska.


Note: please remember I'm arguing as an ADVOCATE of each position, so I will be stating the positions more dogmatically as we go down the list.

My honest opinion? I DO think FSU was the best team in 1993.

And tbh there was a little chuckle in seeing Notre Dame feel what getting jobbed really feels like.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I'm going to rewrite 1990 more dogmatically in both ways now.

1990 Colorado

THE CASE FOR:

Colorado faced a murderous slate of foes who won 60% of their games, beat two conference champions, tied another without their best player, and beat four of five bowl teams, including Notre Dame. Oklahoma would have made a bowl except they were on probation. Darian Hagan was the second-best wishbone quarterback who ever lived (behind Jamelle Holieway).

THE CASE AGAINST:
Colorado was the most fluke national champion in CFB history. BYU's 1984 joke was more deserving than the Buffs. Let's be real clear: you lose to Illinois, you tie Tennessee.....and you lose to Missouri. And let's face it, five downs is the epitome of refs costing a team the game. It gets better.......the refs gave them the Orange Bowl, too, on the phantom clip call that brought back Ismail's TD dash. In fact, any team that is dumb enough to kick the ball to the best punt returner in college football with a championship on the line doesn't even deserve consideration as a champion. Tom Rouen would have been better to have punted 15 yards down the field out of bounds than to give Ismail the ball. Yeah, they beat Notre Dame.....so did Penn State. So did Stanford.



1990 Georgia Tech

THE CASE FOR:

Only one team finished the 1990 season without a loss: Georgia Tech. The Ramblin' Wreck went 3-0 against teams in the final ranking and knocked off #1 Virginia after trailing by 14 TWICE....on the road! Fifth Down making CU and Tech had one common opponent: Nebraska. The Buffs struggled, trailing 12-0 with 12 minutes left, when Nebraska collapsed. That's nothing new: Nebraska had been collapsing under Tom Osborne for more than a decade. Tech, on the other hand, blew out the Huskers by 24. Game, set, match for the Yellow Jackets.

Tech also beat Clemson, who beat Illinois, who beat Colorado. And Clemson demolished Illinois, so there's your other argument.

THE CASE AGAINST
How many of you - without looking or having a friend or relative on the team - can name a Tech player OTHER than Ken Swilling or Shawn Jones? Or maybe Scott Sisson?

It was an anonymous team coached by a guy who bolted for the NFL, and Tech's 1990 season stands out like a skyscraper compared to the years before and after it. Look at these records and tell me which doesn't belong in the group: 2-9, 3-8, 7-4, 11-0-1, 8-5, 5-6, 5-6, 1-10, 6-5, 5-6, 7-5. That's Tech's record year-by-year for an ENTIRE DECADE. Win a national title and in no other year have fewer than four losses.

And it's difficult to take the "we beat Nebraska" argument seriously for another reason that never gets mentioned: Nebraska had five players suspended for the game, including their leading rusher, Leodis Flowers. This combined with the fact Tech - unlike Colorado - had a full month to get ready for the game, and the argument doesn't hold near so much water.

Tech cruised through an easy schedule, benefited from other teams losing, and oh yeah - it was Tom Osborne dropping CU to fourth in his final poll that gave Tech just enough points to barely win the UPI national title.
 
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selmaborntidefan

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Honestly and begrudgingly I have to say Nebraska and Notre Dame. Like I said earlier it seemed that the 93, 94, and 97 titles were mostly compensation for great coaches being denied championships in the 80's by Miami and Oklahoma. Both of FSU's titles in the 90's they weren't the best team in those years, but the 99 had far less issues with how they won since Alabama and Michigan both had dum dum coaches sabotaging their seasons.

and fwiw I can say Nebraska was jobbed epically in the 93 title game, but the 94 title game was more of a make up title game for it.
Knowing your hatred of Nebraska exceeds mine, I had to read that three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
 

81usaf92

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Knowing your hatred of Nebraska exceeds mine, I had to read that three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
Its sometimes hard to be fair to them, but I try my best ever since I left the state. I feel the FSU-Nebraska game was bogus, but then again it probably evened out for the Huskers in 94 and 97 when they were getting Duke basketball level calls go their way as well. So its more than likely Nebraska was destined to atleast 2 NCs in the 90's at the very least the 1997 one has just never sat well with me even if it was at the expense of Tennessee and Fulmer.
 

tusks_n_raider

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selmaborntidefan;3404256[B said:
]Knowing your hatred of Nebraska exceeds mine[/B], I had to read that three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
I like both of you but I'll never fully understand the saltiness towards Nebraska.

I know the biggest gripe is the old scholarship advantage they had..... but as far as I know they have never really been outright dirty on or off the field.

I was 16 in 1994 when their 3 out of 4 dynasty started and grew up in the 80's learning to respect them as a Blue Blood Power Team running the Triple-Option to near perfection.

My Dad tried to use them as an approximate example of Wishbone Alabama teams from the 60's/70's that I never got to see....that is to say..... a team that beat other teams into submission running the ball with an Offense that couldn't be stopped even though you knew what was coming.

So I've always liked and respected Nebraska but that's just my experience.
 

81usaf92

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I like both of you but I'll never fully understand the saltiness towards Nebraska.

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I don't speak for Selma, but for me its basically their 18-60 year old fans. I have seen many on here trying to say how classy they were in the 60's and 70's, but I can tell you my experience living amongst them for 6 years does not reflect that. The 90's have given them a sense that they are superior to everybody that ever played the game. I had so many incidents in which I was told that Devanney and Osbourne were far superior in class and achievements than Saban and Bear. They also are bar none the dumbest fan base Ive come across. There are so many bull crap shenanigans that I could go into but Ill just provide you a link to some stories I had

https://www.tidefans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305456&page=2&highlight=nebraska
They are basically the mix of Michigan and Auburn fans imo. Omaha is an awesome place to go and see, but not between July and January.

FTR there are some really good fans that Ive encountered and still talk to still to weekly, but this is primarily what I encountered on a regular basis.
 
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B1GTide

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They won the only place it matters.




The extra play was when they went to the timeout and the officials misled them.

They call a different series of plays if they think it's third down (on their last TO) rather than second. That changes everything.



Everything I look at says they won it....



But you're kind of doing the same thing here....because even you know the play calling sequence is different based on downs (unless your name is Doug Nussmeier).




Well, you've convinced me now....

Respectfully, I once held the same POV you do now, so I don't judge you for it. But in the context of everything? They weren't handed an extra fourth down (in which case I would concur). They were handed an extra third down coming out of the timeout. And it happened mostly because that was the first year of the new spike rule.
Really, I don't care, but no one will ever convince me that their championship was any more legit than Notre Dame in 1966.
 

selmaborntidefan

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1994 Nebraska


THE CASE FOR:


The 94 Cornhuskers - FINALLY - got the revered Tom Osborne his ring...on the same field where he began his reputation as Dr Heimlich eleven years to the date earlier. This was an all-time great Nebraska team. The Big Red beat six teams with winning records and rarely has a team ever faced as much adversity as this one. After a win over Pacific, Tommie Frazier missed the rest of the season with a blood clot in his leg. Brook Berringer came off the bench and led the Huskers all the way to the title game. The Huskers were so balanced - such a team not dependent on one player - that when Berringer went down before the Kansas St game, third-string Matt Turman came in and led the Huskers to victory. The Big Red went 3-0 against ranked teams, facing six teams (out of 13) with winning records, a really tough schedule!

THE CASE AGAINST

One of the lamest things was the NCAA turning the polls into a Lifetime Achievement Award. First, they gave it to Don James, the Paul Bryant of the Pacific Northwest. Gene Stallings was popular and took care of business. And since Saint Joe Paterno already had two, the cretins decided Tom Osborne needed validation....and screwed Paterno (and would have Stallings) out of a share of the title. The dark reality is that Nebraska might have been the fourth or fifth best team in the nation in 1994. They just got lucky enough to not have to face the other good teams.

Penn State's offense scored nearly two touchdowns a game MORE than Nebraska did. What's amazing is that in 1983 - when Nebraska had the Rozier-Fryar-Gill attack - it was all about offense. Now we were told it was all about defense. Penn State was scoring almost 12 ppg and getting almost 50 yards per game more in offense. Yes, Penn State gave up about 10 ppg more on defense than Nebraska did. But that's mostly because Paterno - unlike Osborne - didn't run scores up on teams. In a cruel twist of fate, Paterno's team dropped from number one after beating Indiana, 35-29. Sounds bad right? The part nobody ever talks about is that Paterno had his fourth string in and the Hoosiers got 15 of those points in the final two minutes against those scrubs - including a Hail Mary at the end. The game was never in doubt.

Yes, Nebraska's schedule using winning pct is slightly better (.523 vs .517). But Penn St beat four ranked foes to Nebraska's three. Hell, Alabama, who was quietly going undefeated, played four and beat three of them. Nebraska could play a third-string QB and still win against 9-win K State because, well, K-State wasn't as good as that record suggests. The Wildcats played TWO teams with more than seven wins - and lost both. They played two teams with 7 wins and went 1-1 (and UNLV is hardly a monster). K-State's other six wins were against teams with a combined record of 32-55-3. Let's not pretend Nebraska was beating the 72 Trojans here.

Nebraska won because the voters liked Osborne, Yeah they beat Miami in the graveyard known as the Orange Bowl by 7. Too bad that four-loss Washington had less trouble with the Canes than Osborne's overrated squad. Nebraska's entire season was two games: Colorado, conveniently played at home right after CU played K State, and Miami - a shell of their former selves.

Without meaning to disparage the dead, there's this touching story about how Nebraska QB Brook Berringer - Tim Tebow while Timmy was still playing with Nerf planes in the back yard - was killed in a plane crash right before the NFL draft.....as if he was going to be drafted. Keep in mind that the guy Berringer couldn't beat out for the job didn't get drafted by the NFL, and Berringer wouldn't have, either. (Go do a Google search and see how often they talk about how Berringer was "expected to be drafted." He wasn't expected to be drafted until he died, and it made a great story. (Look at his stats and tell me a team was going to waste a draft pick on him). Consider this: not a single QB was drafted in the first round. 1996 was the worst NFL draft in history for QBs - and folks want me to believe that because Berringer was a nice kid he was going to the NFL.

That's an apt metaphor for 94 Nebraska - an illusion with no basis in reality.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I like both of you but I'll never fully understand the saltiness towards Nebraska.

I know the biggest gripe is the old scholarship advantage they had..... but as far as I know they have never really been outright dirty on or off the field.

I was 16 in 1994 when their 3 out of 4 dynasty started and grew up in the 80's learning to respect them as a Blue Blood Power Team running the Triple-Option to near perfection.

My Dad tried to use them as an approximate example of Wishbone Alabama teams from the 60's/70's that I never got to see....that is to say..... a team that beat other teams into submission running the ball with an Offense that couldn't be stopped even though you knew what was coming.

So I've always liked and respected Nebraska but that's just my experience.

81 lived there for awhile, which is enough to give a man drinking problem.

Folks would be shocked to learn I have 95 credit hours through the University of Nebraska's medical school program. Yes - I actually attended there albeit through the Air Force (I wasn't on campus in Lincoln).


My bitterness goes back to the teen years - and was supplemented by a Staff Sgt in the USAF when I worked at Sembach AFB, Germany.

In 1981, Nebraska entered the Orange Bowl with an outside shot at the national title. Their fans actually mused aloud, "Where is Clemson? What's Clemson?" And then they got smashed and humiliated. The following year, they DID get jobbed in the Penn State game. That part is true. But they whined so much about it that it was like the whole Auburn mantra about "we have to pay players because Alabama does." And then came 1983.

In 1983, Nebraska (like FSU in the 90s) was pretty much crowned as the champion in waiting entering the season. The media coverage was not much different than ours last year (but we were also defending champions). They ran out an shamelessly humiliated a bunch of teams and not one damned word was said about them running up scores. 84 points on Minnesota, 63 on Syracuse, 69 on Colorado, 72 on Iowa St. Media told us how awesome they were......but later in the 80s when Miami would score 45 points and win by 35, they'd actually ask Jimmy Johnson if he ran it up.

And then came a highway robbery, Nebraska basically stealing the 1983 game with OU. Details are a tad fuzzy - remember, I lived in Germany so you have to add the time difference. OU was driving for a potential score plus two-point conversion to upset them. Nebraska, whiny little snits over a bad call the year before with Penn St, hit a guy for a flagrant pass interference that helped keep them out of the end zone. Their fans were loud, obnoxious, they were like the idiots who call into Finebaum.


Nebraska really did not think Miami would even give them a game. Then they lost and damned if they didn't get to stay #2.

Year after year, we'd hear how great Nebraska was.
Year after year, they'd blow out the Iowa States and Kansas's of the world, play a good team in a bowl game, and get waxed.

Yet they kept their reputation as a blue blood.


When Bill McCartney took over at Colorado, he inquired of their fans about an arch-rival. He finally got their fans to admit that they hated Nebraska more than they did Oklahoma - because Nebraska fans would drive 600 miles and turn Folsom Field into a sea of red and cheer like crazy because they couldn't get home game seats in Lincoln. So he pointed toward them as a rival - partly out of respect.

Damned if Bob Devaney wasn't on TV the night before a CU-Nebraska game and got asked about McCartney and CU focusing on Nebraska. "Yeah, well I heard about it, but I think he'd do better to aim for beating Kansas State," who was the epitome of awful prior to Bill Snyder showing up. A crass, flip comment rather than, "Hey, it's good they want to be like us." (I came across Devaney trashing OU in 1966 as well - for newspaper consumption.....and then the imbecile loses to them).


McCartney then got blasted for his team's Kirby Smart/Mark Richt like arrest record (it was in SI).
Osborne had the same problem - and nobody noticed it until Lawrence Phillips dragged Kate McEwan down three flights of stairs.

McCartney had Rae Carruth; Osborne had Lawrence Phillips. Osborne also had the Peter brothers, one of whom Bob Kraft cut because hitting women wasn't Kraft's idea of good family values (as opposed to say a nice tug....).

Nebraska is not as villainous to me as Penn State by any means. But my god - I've gotten into it with their obnoxious fans now on You Tube. 1995 Nebraska was better than the 72 Dolphins something something. In fact - and I've been unable to find it - but in 2006 right before we hired Saban, their fans were on a message board dismissing us and saying, "We don't want to be a has-been program like Alabama is now."

Congrats Nebraska - it's the one thing you've done better than Alabama.
 

81usaf92

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81 lived there for awhile, which is enough to give a man drinking problem.

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There was a survey within the base about why there was a long list of people volunteering to odd bases like Greenland, Osan, and to Afghanistan. Money of course was number 1, but #2 was to get away from Nebraska, and #3 was to get away from Husker fans.

They are that obnoxious, and to be fair Alabama and Auburn fans are too. But Ive known several people PCS from Maxwell to Offutt tell me that Alabama and Auburn fans are far less in your face, far more welcoming to outsiders, and far more knowledgeable than Nebraska fans. They will drive you nuts.

I remember being banned and had beer thrown at me for simply asking a Buffalo Wild Wings server to change 1 tv in the corner to the 2008 LSU- Alabama game while there were 50 other tvs on Nebraska-Kansas.

That's just a MILD story compared to a lot of others. So yes it is amazing I didn't develop a drinking problem


Congrats Nebraska - it's the one thing you've done better than Alabama.
I relish every losing season they have, and envy those bullied airmen that are from places outside the Mid west who have the privilege to patrol through the Wal Marts in Omaha the Sunday after a Big Red loss to see all the Whos go Boo HOO Hoo.
 
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skrayper77

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92 Alabama, .536

Didn't we play 8 bowl teams in a time when that was harder to do? Did we face 1 or 2 winless teams in there??
 

selmaborntidefan

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92 Alabama, .536

Didn't we play 8 bowl teams in a time when that was harder to do? Did we face 1 or 2 winless teams in there??
Nope. We played five bowl teams if you include Miami:

Tennessee (HOF Bowl)
Ole Miss (Liberty)
MSU (Peach)
Florida (Gator)
Miami (Sugar)

Six foes had a losing record and another - Auburn - was .500 (5-5-1).

So seven of our thirteen foes were .500 or worse.


You might be thinking of our 1999 team. There were 23 bowl games in 1999 (there were 18 in 1992).

We played:
Tennessee
Florida
Florida
Arkansas
Michigan (in the game)
Ole Miss
USM
MSU
Kentucky

So we played eight and then Michigan and BY FAR had the toughest schedule in the nation
 

selmaborntidefan

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(This post is gonna get me in a whole heap of trouble - so remember that you're reading an exchange between factual statement opposing viewpoints, not - at this point - an overall assessment).

1992 Alabama


THE CASE FOR

Alabama's 1992 defense is among the best - if not the best - in college football history. With eight NFL draft picks (Copeland, Curry, Langham, Teague, London, Oden, Nunley, Lemanski Hall) who played at least 3 seasons in the NFL, this defense has to rank with the greatest to ever play the game.

Oh yeah, they even beat Miami without linebacker Michael Rogers, who got hurt in a car wreck. The Tide never missed a beat.

Alabama's defensive numbers are impressive, the first college team to finish the regular season leading in all defensive categories since the 1986 Oklahoma Sooners of Brian Bosworth. The defense threw three shutouts, but we're just beginning. For the entire season, the Tide D gave up 122 points on 13 touchdowns and 7 field goals, but even those numbers don't show the incredible domination. Thirteen touchdowns - in 13 games - is literally one touchdown a game. But even those stats are uneven. One TD was a punt return by Miami while another was a pick six by Southern Mississippi. While those numbers may go against the defensive stats count, those were touchdowns that the DEFENSE didn't exactly surrender. That knocks us down to 11 TDs - and we can cut the numbers further. Arkansas got a touchdown and a two with just 62 seconds remaining - against the third-string. The Hawgs got 82 yards on that drive - they got 112 the rest of the game. South Carolina did pretty much the same thing, scoring a TD against the third-string while trailing, 41-0, in the fourth quarter. Two more points came because of a safety in the LSU game - again, a play where the defense wasn't even on the field. LSU's touchdown actually came when they got the ball at the Tide 3 after a blocked punt.

Even then, it took them three plays to go nine feet.

One of MSU's two touchdowns came thanks to a Tide turnover at their own 11.

What I'm saying is that if you make all things equal and what the FIRST-STRING defense did without the offense putting them in a whole - that defense only surrendered seven touchdowns all year long. But even that modification doesn't tell the story.


No, the real story is the fact that that defense forced forty-one - let me say that again - FORTY-ONE turnovers. SIX opponents - including Miami - had at least four turnovers against this defense. And another turnover - George Teague's strip of Lamar Thomas in the most iconic play of that season - was invalidated by a penalty. The only team that beat the Tide on turnovers was Southern Miss, and Alabama turned in SEVEN non-offensive touchdowns for the season (a fake punt, a blocked punt, a punt return, and four pick sixes). Seven opponents were held below 200 yards of total offense and two more (Vandy and Ole Miss) had 210 and 211, respectively. In other words, NINE opponents were held under 212 yards of total offense. One team - USM - had only 54 total yards and 3 first downs, one of which came on a penalty.

To give you a recent point of comparison, the 2016 Alabama defense that had all those NOTs had THREE EXTRA GAMES and forced TWELVE FEWER turnovers. Those are numbers that are almost impossible to imagine, especially when you remember that turnovers should be easier to come by as the passing game has replaced the running game in CFB.

And it's not as though this defense was playing the bottom of the barrel. Miami's 9th-ranked offense was cranking out almost 33 ppg, and Alabama held them to nearly 3 TDs below that. Tennessee averaged 28.1 ppg and got all of ten and 194 yards on this defense.


Now - I'll concede that the offense was NOT an all-world beating juggernaut. But just look at the numbers when it counted. Miami held opponents to 11.5 ppg - and the Tide TRIPLED that number. Okay, so Teague had a pick six, and the offense gets 27 - that's still nearly 2 1/2 times, and I'm not even counting the four points the refs cost Lassic on the spun ball at the goal line. Tennessee averaged giving up 15.7 ppg, but the Alabama offense topped it. Ole Miss, 15.8, and Alabama's so-called "pedestrian" offense doubled it. MSU gave up 16 ppg, and Alabama damn near doubled that as well (30). Arkansas averaged giving up 19 ppg - so Alabama simply punched in 38 - and the backups were playing the fourth quarter. South Carolina gave up 22 ppg, and the Tide more than doubled that as well. Alabama also exceeded the average ppg allowed by LSU (23.7, scored 31), Tulane (31.7, scored 37).

And then you have to remember something else - Alabama's offensive numbers are effectively lowered because their best offensive player (David Palmer) missed almost 1/4 of the season due to suspensions. No, it's nobody else's fault he was suspended, but you also have to admit that not having him available will reduce the offensive output.

And finally, this was a team with an unusually high number of distractions. In September, John Stevenson's brother died right before the Southern Miss game. Rogers's accident has already been mentioned. And on top of this came two other bombshells that affected the Tide season: 1) Gene Jelks alleging (on the Thursday before the MSU game) that he had been paid while playing at Alabama; and 2) Pat Dye's resignation hitting the airwaves less than 48 hours before the Iron Bowl. The seniors on the team had all played with Jelks and knew him. You think that didn't affect their mindset combined with going on the road to Cowbell Hell against a good Bulldogs team just as the Tide had reached #2 in the nation? You think Auburn trying to win one last game for Pat Dye didn't improve their performance for that one last time, players recruited by a guy who was the closest thing Auburn had to a legend (not named Bo Jackson)?

College football is an emotional game, and things that would not be distractions for grown NFL players can sideline college aspirations.

Of course, there are two more objections that both border on silly that go like this:
1) Alabama didn't play Florida State, who pundits agree was the best team at the end of the year
2) Alabama didn't play Georgia, by far the best offense in the SEC

What never gets mentioned is that the reason Alabama didn't play these teams is because they lost to OTHER, LESSER teams!!!

Let's start with Florida State. The argument goes like this: Florida State, unlike Miami, had a running game that would have negated Alabama putting eleven men on the line, where Charlie Ward's speed would have enabled him to offset any blitzes. The Noles were unlucky against Miami, and they were playing the best ball of the year as 1992 ended.

Well, it's not Alabama's fault that Florida State not only couldn't beat Miami but couldn't even score AN OFFENSIVE TOUCHDOWN against Miami. Florida State's 38.1 ppg offense got one touchdown against the Canes - Tamarick Vanover returned opening kickoff for the only touchdown the Noles could get against the same Miami defense that gave up 34 (er, 27) points to Alabama's offense. The other 59:15 saw the Noles get nine points on three field goals.

Why anyone thinks FSU would have scored more than 16 points on Alabama's better defense is hard to understand.

Georgia? Well, UGA DID have the best offense in the SEC. Alabama - so goes the story - had a pedestrian offense.
Alabama and Georgia had SEVEN common opponents in 1992.
The pedestrian offense scored more points against the same foe than the great one did three times.
Georgia scored more points against Florida and Tennessee than Alabama did - but Alabama won both games and Georgia lost both.

Alabama's 1992 team may not have been the best all-around or most balanced team of the 1990s, but they were without question the best defense of the decade and perhaps the greatest of all-time.


THE CASE AGAINST

I'm going to get this out of the way so there's no misunderstanding: Alabama's 1992 defense was a VERY good defense, but it wasn't even the best defense of the early 90s much less the best of all-time. Washington's 1991 defense gave up fewer ppg while playing MUCH better offenses (The Huskies played THREE of the top five offenses in CFB; Alabama played TWO of the top 50).

College football fans are susceptible to the defining moment visual, the so-called "Heisman moment" concept. Without that singular encapsulation of a year, teams are less remembered than those that produce iconic moments. 1995 Nebraska is considered an all-time great team and when you ask anyone to name a play from that year, anyone who is not a Big Red fan is going to name the same moment: Tommie Frazier breaking 147 tackles while dodging Bosnian sniper fire in the moment that killed the Florida Gators. Without that moment, it is debatable whether or not Nebraska would be remembered as easily as they are. And Alabama has this covered with George Teague's strip of Lamar Thomas, a play that - if you want to get technical about it - never actually happened.

Let's face it: Alabama was an underdog to a Miami team living off reputation of past glories. Miami was not as good as advertised so Alabama got a double bang for the victory - to say nothing of the fact that 99% of the nation was no doubt rooting for the Tide not out of devotion but out of derision towards Miami's bad reputation. So what happens? Media overrates Miami, Alabama trashes Miami, Alabama defense enters the pantheon of all-time legendary defenses.

You'd think an all-time great defense would have a ton of "best defensive performance" against most of the teams they played, but Alabama doesn't. Not in 1992.

They held Vandy to eight points - Auburn held them to 7 and Wake Forest to 6. Nobody considers those defenses all-time greats.
Southern Miss got 10 against the Tide - but only 8 against Auburn. (Anyone noticing a trend here?)
Arkansas got 11....FIVE OTHER TEAMS held the Hawgs to single digits
South Carolina got 7 - Georgia held them to 6.
Ole Miss got 10 on Alabama's all-time great D......but only 9 against Vandy
LSU got 11 against Alabama.......but two other teams shut them out and another (Arkansas) gave up only 6
Mississippi St got 21 against Alabama.....SIX other teams held the Bulldogs to fewer points than this "great" Alabama D did. SIX!!
Florida got 21 on the Tide.....three other opponents held Florida below what Alabama surrendered
Arizona held Miami to fewer points than Alabama did and two other teams (Syracuse and Penn St) held them to 17 or fewer

Only four foes were held to their season low - the three shutout victims and Tennessee. And since we're hearing about all the distractions for Alabama, I'll remind you that Tennessee's coach, Johnny Majors, had just returned and was dealing with a bunch of shenanigans of his own or maybe the Tide doesn't hold the Vols to ten.

By contrast, the 2011 Tide not only had the same number of shutouts (3), they held Arkansas and LSU (twice) to their lowest point totals of the year, and if you grant the defense actually had a shutout on Auburn, you have SEVEN opponents at their lowest total for the year. THAT'S an all-time defense, the 1992 one is not.

The 1992 defense, as great as it was, was hardly elite. Teams with either a dual threat QB (Robinson and Plump at MSU and Shane Mathews/Errict Rhett at Florida) gave the Tide defense problems. How many Tide fans know that Miami had more yards of total offense in the 1993 Sugar Bowl than Alabama did? If Teague merely tackles Thomas rather than strip the ball, Miami would have topped 400 yards in that game. Have you bothered to look at the scoring offense stats for the Tide's 1992 opponents? Remember there were only 107 I-A schools back then:


86 - La Tech
93 - Arkansas
98 - South Carolina
99 - Tulane

Again, the contrast with 1991 Washington is obvious.

What about "total offense," surely an objection to be raised?

73 - Vandy (325)
78 - Auburn (317)
84 - Ole Miss (300)
85 - LSU (300)
90 - SCAR (289)
93 - USM (284)
98 - Tulane (268)
105 (out of 107) - Arkansas (243 ypg)

Alabama's defense simply ran up impressive numbers against bad offenses, which had the net effect of making them look better than they actually were.

Much is made of the turnover totals, an admittedly impressive number. But the eight opponents listed above (out of 13 mind you) contributed 29 of those turnovers, an average of 3.5 per game. The other five opponents gave up 12, an average of 2.4 per game. And those turnovers also skewed the Alabama offensive stats into looking even better than they really are.

Alabama's 27.7 ppg is the second-worst scoring offense of the entire decade of the 1990s. Only Michigan's 27.4 is lower. Alabama is a full 3 ppg below Georgia Tech, hardly an offensive juggernaut, and these numbers as stated above are skewed because of the defense.

Forty-one turnovers - four of them returned for touchdowns - means Alabama (in theory anyway) got the ball 37 other times in better than expected field position.

Anyone know how many TD drives of more than 68 yards that Alabama had in 1992? Seven. This offense didn't drive the ball hardly at all, they merely picked up a short field after a forced turnover.

Alabama played in the run-oriented SEC of 1992, old school football. Most of their opponents had one-dimensional running attacks, the standard offense of the time. Multi-faceted attacks - as Florida State had but Alabama was fortunate enough to not face - gave the Tide problems rather than preparing for one specific type of offense.

Alabama's 1992 D is very good - they're just not as good as a lot of folks suggest.
 

81usaf92

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Bill Oliver once said leading up to the Miami game that we already played the best offense that we could probably face already. He was referring to Florida. I don't know if he was being factual in his assertions or just trying to get fans and players to believe that we could pull the upset. Either way he looked like a prophet.
 
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selmaborntidefan

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Bill Oliver once said leading up to the Miami game that we already played the best offense that we could probably face already. He was referring to Florida. I don't know if he was being factual in his assertions or just trying to get fans and players to believe that we could pull the upset. Either way he looked like a prophet.
I read that Oliver decided we could take a chance with the 11 men on the line.

Basically, he calculated that regardless of the score/situation, Miami passed the ball 14 times and then ran once. The gamble was that that ONE rush could be contained.

He was right.

But folks should look closer at Miami.

YES - they had what looked awesome but.....against teams with winning records, they averaged 16.8 ppg on offense.

What inflated their numbers was....

63 points on 5-5-1 SD State
48 on 1-10 Temple
38 on I-AA Florida A/M

They weren't really that good offensively against good teams.
 
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81usaf92

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I read that Oliver decided we could take a chance with the 11 men on the line.

Basically, he calculated that regardless of the score/situation, Miami passed the ball 14 times and then ran once. The gamble was that that ONE rush could be contained.

He was right.

But folks should look closer at Miami.

YES - they had what looked awesome but.....against teams with winning records, they averaged 16.8 ppg on offense.

What inflated their numbers was....

63 points on 5-5-1 SD State
48 on 1-10 Temple
38 on I-AA Florida A/M

They weren't really that good offensively against good teams.
I really think it was the Florida-Ohio St-Michigan debate we had in 2006. If I remember correctly, Florida St lost on one of those Wide Right games vs Miami and claimed controversy. The media was whining about FSU being left out because Alabama didn't beat Florida like FSU did, and we deserved a rematch of FSU and Miami or something.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I really think it was the Florida-Ohio St-Michigan debate we had in 2006. If I remember correctly, Florida St lost on one of those Wide Right games vs Miami and claimed controversy. The media was whining about FSU being left out because Alabama didn't beat Florida like FSU did, and we deserved a rematch of FSU and Miami or something.

You're basically correct.

FSU fans and their apologists insisted that "the two best teams" were the Noles and Canes.

When Alabama beat Florida by 7, there were actually people trying to argue, "But the Noles beat Florida by 21, so they should play Miami."

The other wildcard that ticked people off was when Lee Corso trashed ATM - and then his old school jumped the Aggies in the polls.
 
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