re: This year marks 30 years since the most dominant college football team of all-time...

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If they make the FG in 1993 versus Charlie Ward's Seminoles, they win 4 Natty's in a 5 year span...

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If Nebraska doesn’t get away with an illegal play against Missouri, they don’t split the national title with Michigan in 1997.

Who knows how the game turns out if they had to actually play PSU in 1994?

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1995 Nebraska completely obliterated the best of the SEC in their bowl game. They did it again in 1997.

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2018 Clemson beat the hell out of the SEC champion during the peak of the conference. They also finished 15-0. Maybe they should be the GOAT.

I know one thing: I wouldn’t want to run a one-dimensional I formation offense with a colossal headcase at TB and try to bulldoze a defensive line with three guys who went in the top half of the first round in the spring. Not two years down the road - NFL ready that year. And Simmons and Terrell went first round the next year.

That’s five first round draft picks on D, and four of them were huge thumpers in the front seven.

Good luck running at that, especially when they have an offense that can score.

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That 1995 Florida team was so good that if they had played any other team in the championship, they win by 11 or more points and are still talked about as a top 5-10 team of all-time.

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Essentially the entire team returned in 1996 (plus picking up Bob Stoops as DC) and they would not have won the championship that year either if not for a mulligan rematch against FSU.

The highest Gator selected in the 1996 draft was in the third round. Not exactly a bunch a elite, mature talent everywhere.

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Four of their opponents finished in the AP Top 10 that season.

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Rankings don’t tell the whole story.

The talent in college football is (or at least was before NIL and the portal) concentrated in fewer hands. Teams also play more games today.

In 1995, Nebraska saw one first round draft pick the entire season. One. In today’s world, it is impossible for a team to win a national title and only see one first round draft pick the entire season.

1995 Nebraska,, Florida, and all of their opponents combined accounted for just four players in the first round. OSU had/faced 13 first rounders last year.

1995 Nebraska did not face Keyshawn Johnson, Terry Glenn, Tim Biakabutuka, Eddie George, Eric Moulds, or Marvin Harrison. Florida didn’t either. These were the most dangerous skill guys in the first round of the draft.

If they had, maybe one of those guys gets hot like Priest Holmes did in 1996 and pulls an upset. If they play 3-4 more games, maybe a team plays over their head or catches Nebraska napping like ASU did in 1996 or Misssoui in 1997. Or heck, 3-8 Washington State that gave 1995 Nebraska their closest game of the year.

At the end of the day, I think Nebraska dominating their 1995 opponents has at least as much to do with the nature of the schedule as the quality of the team.

I mentioned that 2/3 “top ten” opponents that Nebraska played in 1995 were teams Osborne was literally 50-0 against. He was 71-0 against 3/3 if you take away Bill McCartney. Kansas, Kansas State, and Colorado didn’t just become immortal hell in 1995. The most memorable players on those teams were Rae Carruth for murdering his pregnant girlfriend and Koy Detmer for being Ty Detmer’s brother.

No Barry Switzer, who owned Osborne and frequently fielded national championship contenders.

No OOC opponent with more than six wins.

In the 1987-1994 1-7 bowl stretch Nebraska saw five future NFL Hall of Famers on D and averaged 15 ppg. The 1995 offense saw a third rounder in the bowl. That will help you score more points.

1995 Nebraska was a great football team. I am by no means saying they weren’t. But if you really know this era of football, Osborne’s style, and the teams and coaches that gave him trouble, it’s hard to imagine a more favorable setup for him to win a national title.

Essentially every high hurdle Osborne struggled with from 1973-1994 (Switzer, good OOC opponents, elite defense in the bowl game) was off the track that season.

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Yes, they do. Nebraska and Florida collectively defeated teams that finished third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth in 1995. That's half of the AP Top 10 and thus a large enough sample size. The average margin of victory in those games was just over 24 points.

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Top ten teams in the ‘90s rarely had as many blue chip players as top ten teams of the last fifteen years or so. As I said before, the top teams in more recent years hoard more talent.

These teams also cannot avoid each other in the postseason, like 1994 PSU/Nebraska and 1997 Michigan/Nebraska.

More games and more great teams makes it harder to beat the hell out of everyone.

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This means absolutely nothing. 2010 Alabama had over 10 future first rounders on its roster and they lost three games. Talent does not always equate to wins.

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It means “nothing”?

Would you rather play 2010 Alabama in BDS (like Cam and Auburn had to do) or 1995 Kansas, Kansas State, or Colorado?

That’s not even a question.

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Guess who did face off against some of those guys: 1995 Tennessee - who beat Ohio State 20-14 in the Citrus Bowl. That's the same Tennessee team that got run off the field to the tune of 62-37 by Florida earlier in the year.

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You don’t seem to understand the point that the more good teams you play, the more likely you are to lose - even if you’re better than all of them.

1995 Nebraska’s closest game was against one of the worst teams they played. No one saw that coming.

1996 Nebraska got shutout by an ASU D that gave up 42 pts. to Washington two weeks prior. No one saw it coming.

1996 Nebraska gave up 37 pts. and 500 yards of offense to a 7-5 Texas team. No one saw it coming.

1997 Nebraska needed an illegal (and miraculous) play to force OT and beat a 7-5 Missouri team. No one saw it coming.

The more you roll the dice against good teams and players, the more likely it is that someone is going to push or beat you.

Osborne coached 25 years at Nebraska. I think a lot of the teams he coached would have had a great chance to run the table against the 1995 team’s schedule.

Take the 1982 team, for example. They had Turner Gill, Mike Rozier, Roger Craig, Irving Fryar, Dean Steinkuhler, and Dave Rimington. Those guys were as good (or better) than the guys in 1995. However, they lost the first game on the road to a PSU team that won the national title.

Now, if we could substitute PSU out and put in any of the OOC duds the 1995 team played, I would say they run the table in 1982.

Osborne had one undefeated team (regular season) prior to 1993. I think the 1975 (only lost to Switzer), 1979 (only lost to Switzer), 1980 (lost to Switzer and a really good FSU team), 1982, 1983, 1987 (lost to Switzer), 1988 (lost to Troy Aikman on the road), and 1989 (lost to peak Colorado with Hagan, Bienemy, McCartney) teams all would have had a great chance to run the table in 1995.

Who would have likely beaten them?

Osborne was literally 50-0 against Kansas and Kansas State. I think he had other groups that could have handled the 1995 versions and all the legends of the gridiron on those teams.

That’s why I keep referring to other years. So many of Osborne’s teams just had a tougher road than the 1995 team.

I agree with you.

I can appreciate Globetrotter’s knowledge of CFB history, but I don’t think his argument is solid.

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Globetrotter747

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How in the hell do you remember so many details from that long ago? You’re over here spitting out opponent, records, rosters, and point total from 30 years ago. You obviously didn’t do the drugs I did in your 20’s.

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can appreciate Globetrotter’s knowledge of CFB history, but I don’t think his argument is solid.

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Comes off as someone who dislikes Nebraska using AI to drum up an argument of why they weren’t as great as we all know they were. Young Millennials and Gen Z love arguing against teams and players they didn’t witness with people who did. That’s how you wind up with asinine LeBron > Michael and “2019 LSU is the greatest college football team of all time” nonsense.

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Comes off as someone who dislikes Nebraska using AI to drum up an argument of why they weren’t as great as we all know they were. Young Millennials and Gen Z love arguing against teams and players they didn’t witness with people who did. That’s how you wind up with asinine LeBron > Michael and “2019 LSU is the greatest college football team of all time” nonsense.

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Old people are notorious for thinking everything was better back in their day. If they didn’t have documented times they’d swear Carl Lewis was faster than Bolt.

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They also never gave up a sack or a holding penalty on offense for the year

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I mean, they were running the option and passed, what, 5-6x per game? It's not like they were Texas Tech under Leach.

95 Nebraska was the best I've ever seen and it's not close. They were 5-deep at RB, and what set them apart was that if their starting QB (Frazier) went down, the backup (Berringer) was just as good. Just imagine if Burrow went down - you really think Myles Brennan was going to be as effective?

Funny story: I remember back around 99 in the early days of the Internet I was "talking" to a girl who played volleyball at Florida. The had co-ed dorms and her roommate was a Florida QB, I think maybe Doug Johnson. From what I remember he had a broken leg or ankle and she said he was always sitting around pouting. Anyway one day he was there and I guess he asked where I was from and she told him I was from Louisiana and he told her to tell me that LSU sucks. I reponded, "Tell him this: 96 Fiesta Bowl." His response: Then she responded, "He said to frick off"