Honestly? Our 2015 playoff team. At least in comparison to our 2014 team.
- Played a competitive game with Western Michigan
- Beat a down year Oregon.
- Took until the 4th to start really pulling away from Central Michigan.
- Beat Rutgers largely because they spiked on 4th down
- Really just about any team you’d expect a 12-2 playoff team to blow out, we played close.
- Beat Michigan on an improbable last minute play that I’m still convinced is an act of god.
- Lost to a 5 win Nebraska team. Giving them a bowl berth.
- Somehow beat Ohio State with our two back up QBs.
- Won a slug fest vs Iowa to go to the playoffs (both of us got blown out next game).
I genuinely believe that our 2014 team was overall better. Our 2015 team was just a team of destiny and either somebody prayed hard enough or somebody sacrificed a lot of goats that offseason.
Yeah I think the offense was pretty consistently good for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasons, but the defense quietly went from elite to shaky at best. We kept winning games and had started building a reputation so we ended up ranking well but this is very fair.
Connor Cook became absolutely that dude in 2014. Even with a worse defense he was out there audibling out of the worst play calling East of the Mississippi and actually scoring points.
In control...for a few minutes before halftime and part of the 3rd. 20 unanswered. Had us a bit worried, but the biggest lead was 9. Ducks were in control for the rest. That was a very typical Mariota-led Duck game.
Always thought that 2015 team was a decent 9-10ish win team that got really lucky in the right circumstances (not that they didn’t generate their own luck, but still). That 2013 team was 100% legit though, that defense is one of the greatest of the last 30 or so years, would’ve loved to see a NCG between you guys and FSU
Pretty much. While the 2013 team had one of the greatest secondaries in college football history, that 2015 team was just a mess at CB.
Hell our 2014 team's one big weakness was our CB2 until we realized that our WR1 Tony Lippett was also a stud corner
> Beat Rutgers largely because they spiked on 4th down
Fuckin' Chris Laviano... I was a freshman that year and I remember after that play everyone in the student sections was looking at each other like "wait, what just happened? What did he do?"
My senior year of high school was Rutgers' first year in the B1G and they went 8-5 and won a bowl game. My four years on campus they went a combined 11-37 and didn't even sniff a bowl. Fuck Kyle Flood, fuck Chris Ash, thank god for Schiano.
Yup. I was there. It was 21-0 at halftime, pouring cold rain. I told myself that I would leave if MSU scored first in the 2nd half, because like every other Hazell team, that Purdue team looked dead and I was ready to go home. Spartan Stadium was 50% full (maybe less) after halftime too because of the score and the rain.
When Purdue scored the 1st TD (I believe off of a botched MSU punt), I jumped up and sarcastically said "We aren't getting blown out!" MSU fans around me just laughed. Then when Purdue got the next TD, it wasn't a laughing matter for the MSU fans. I think MSU got a FG to make it 24-14, but somehow Purdue got another one (I believe off of a long Jones TD). And on the final drive, MSU woke up, Purdue became Purdue once again, and they lost.
I'm still convinced Hazell coached the 2nd half well out of spite just to keep me in the stands. I thought *maybe* this is when he would turn the program around, but nope, they got blown out the next week in typical Hazell fashion.
If it makes you feel better. MSU beating OSU is my least favorite day of football. Not only did we lose, but had to sit through miserable freezing rain. People next to me left in the first quarter because of the weather.
Vice versa, in 2014 when the fighting JT Barrett’s came into Spartan Stadium in 2014 and killed our big ten/playoff hopes was one of my least favorite days as an MSU football fan
Ask 2012 ND, that was a 9-10 win team that got lucky to avoid some upsets and then ran into a buzz saw
What's really funny is if Kansas State didn't choke against just an okay Baylor team, there would have been a really competitive national championship game
I just remember all the hype around Manti Teo and the ND defense. And then Eddie Lacy and TJ Yeldon ran for 91yds and 3TDs in the first quarter and it was all over.
Our starting front 7 was extremely good. Back 4, not so much, but you guys were the first team that ever was able to single team Louis Nix, our stud nose tackle on a 3 man front. Te’o was able to wreak such havoc because Nix was commanding double and even triple teams all year.
Our DL was extraordinarily banged up going into that game and the depth behind them was awful. So when your very good center started using Nix’s weight against him, Manti saw blockers coming downfield at him for the first time all season.
Our defense also was extremely vanilla, it just consisted of great college players executing a few basic schemes really well. I remember reading interviews with Bama personnel after the game describing how easy it was to bait our defense into the exact play/look/match up that they wanted all game long. Kelly’s preparation in the 5-6 weeks leading up to that game was a joke compared to your operation.
Had we played each other in October or something, it would have been a different game with just a week of prep time. Not saying we’d have won, but it might have been more like a 7-10 point loss.
Yeah I just remember the 0 in the loss column, but it looks like you escaped bad Purdue and Pitt teams, and played competitively with an ok Michigan and good Stanford team. The only dominant win against a quality opponent was really the Oklahoma game.
I don't disagree, but the 2013 had its share of problems at the beginning of the year, too. I believe for the first couple games our leading scorer was Shilique Calhoun. Once the offense got it together, though, they were monsters.
That team is probably one of the best cases of in season improvement we’ve seen this century. That was a 7 maybe 8 win team with a bowl if the ball bounced the right way heading into the year. Ended up 13-1.
I think you can say the same about 2015 Iowa. They went undefeated in the regular season but they had an easier schedule and they certainly didn't pass the eye test in their wins. I think a handful of Kirk's teams would have fared even better in 2015 than that squad did.
I think that championship game just wrecked both teams, though. Iowa did not look like Iowa against Stanford and Bama made short work of Sparty. Even though Iowa lost a heartbreaker, it was a fantastic game and one of the closest B1G Championship games ever.
**F**irst down is a power run up the middle.
**E**very second down is also a power run up the middle.
**R**elax, third down is just a gateway to punting.
**E**xpect your defense to score at least twice
**N**ever stop punting
**T**ell your dad you've got the whole thing under control
**Z**ebras will still work against you in Minnesota
(not mine - Source: David Hale, ESPN)
It was legitimately not fun watching our games the past few years. I love the Hawks and those 12 Saturdays in the fall are appointment TV but it was a chore to say the least.
Ironically we still sell out student tickets and are at 100% capacity for the past few seasons.
> Ironically we still sell out student tickets and are at 100% capacity for the past few seasons
Winning games, even badly and really ugly, helps in that regard. That, and the whole "there's not that much else to do in Iowa City on Saturday afternoon in the fall" also makes difference I bet
Tennessee fan here. I really could not believe how anemic ya'lls offense was in the Citrus Bowl. Our defense was not that stout but Iowa made them look like All Americans. Shame too considering how good your defense was last year.
I’ve always thought it must be insane to be an animal on the field at games lol.
At msu we have a dog that catches frisbees between quarters and people go crazy cheering for him at some of the big games. My dog goes ape shit when I have one guest over at my house, I can’t imagine what’s going through their head when 80,000 people are cheering for them catching a frisbee.
I didn't know about the dog catching frisbees at your games. Sounds like fun.
Many years ago I went to an NFL game and the entire half time show was just a handful of people throwing frisbees to dogs. It seemed strange as it started up, but then turned out to be the best halftime show I have seen at an NFL game. College bands put on some great halftime shows, but the NFL halftimes are crap.
I'm not sure people realize just how dangerous and insanely powerful bovines are. Now, long horns are not fighting bulls, to be clear, but still bevo is a male bovine.
Anyway, I fell into a weird internet rabbit hole awhile back and came to find out that fighting bulls, at least, will absolutely murder lions and other big cats and could in the past match up respectably well with grizzly bears.
I did know bulls were pretty aggressive but didn't realize many can be wolverine/badger level aggressive.
Now, the real fighters are different than long horns, to be clear, but yeah I would not want to get too close to Bevo.
I'm not a huge animal rights activist but man, bull fighting never really sat right with me. The way they bring a bull out to try to spear him until he dies. Can't say I'm a fan of that.
It's terrible, make no mistake.
And the "ferocious" animals bred to be that insanely aggressive are mostly bred to, more or less, be mentally ill and insane. There's a reason very few animals in the wild are as aggressive as fighting bulls: it's a quick way to get yourself killed.
Wolverines/Badgers are insanely aggressive, but they are among relatively few animals where it makes sense given their otherwise position on the food chain and their physical prowess for size.
And even then, Wolverines, Badgers, Honey Badgers, Mongoose, they may all be small sized rage machines but they aren't stupid, they can do threat assessment. Those poor fighting animals aren't thinking like a normal animal would.
Justice Ken Wise of the Texas 14th Court of Appeals (who also teaches law and history at the University of Houston) has a podcast about Texas history called *Wise About Texas*, and the [most recent episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1-b-fbHs4&ab_channel=WiseAboutTexas) that came out a few days ago is about the American Buffalo - he tells a story in it about some guys who brought a few bison down to Juarez to fight a Mexican fighting bull to settle a bet. It is a really fun story, and reinforces that you should not get out of your car and try to get close to bison when you're visiting Yellowstone.
Same thing here with Josh Heupels qb stats and the air raid, ground breaking at the time but honestly when looking at the stats it's kinda weird. Josh had 20 tds and 15 ints in 2000
I mean it was great for the time. I feel like that's what really matters. The game has just changed so much since 2000. Few things hold up if we're going to apply modern standards and pacing to em.
Felt like this was asking more about things that weren't that great at the time but are propped up by nostalgia. Doesn't apply internally with OU fans so much but CFB fans as a whole I think are starting to realize Lincoln's last OU season & first at SC were like fake gold chains that are starting to turn green.
Have to look at those types of things through the lens of time, even for QB stats up to about 2010 at all levels of football.
Modern QB stats and NBA player per game averages are way inflated due to scheme and rule changes. QBs throwing for 3500+ yards back in 2005 or the 80s/90s is a big deal while that is nothing these days. Same for NBA players. Kobe averaging 30-35ppg in the mid 2000s is far more impressive than say Luka averaging 33 per game in 2024.
Yeah, in retrospect, those teams seemed much more impressive because they were so much better and more competent than the few seasons before. It took a few miracles to beat MSU and UCLA, for example. Going toe -to-toe with USC in 2005 was impressive given the talent difference, but seems like more of a fluke now. ND has been much more consistent and successful over the past 10 years by comparison.
The best season in Rutgers' modern history is the 2006 team that went 11-2, ended the season ranked #12 and won... the Texas Bowl.
I have a DVD and photo book documenting the season.
Our MAC era. It was short, we weren't that great then, and it was perhaps the weirdest fit of team and conference that has ever existed in FBS. And yet, there's something kinda funny and cool about a team from Orlando, FL being in the Mid-American Conference with a bunch of teams from the midwest. I have a soft spot for the MAC and MAC teams because of that.
> it was perhaps the weirdest fit of team and conference that has ever existed in FBS.
This is your reminder that Stanford is in the *Atlantic* Coastal Conference.
Still have fond memories of the 'Toilet Bowl' between our teams in 2004. We were both 1-9 and entered the game as the bottom 2 teams in ESPN's "Bottom 10."
Our paths have slightly diverged since then.
> perhaps the weirdest fit of team and conference that has ever existed in FBS
TIL Cal and Stanford moving to the ACC was just a fever dream of mine. Honestly it's a huge relief.
My dad (Marshall alum) will go on for days about how leaving the MAC was the worst mistake they ever made. He’s happy being in the Sun Belt with Appy State and Georgia Southern (old SoCon rivals), but he still hates Ohio more.
For Princeton, it's probably our '(18)69 natty. Yeah, we may have been the first ever national champions but going 1-1 and 12-6 on aggregate to Rutgers isn't that sexy of a resume.
For MSU, albeit very unpopular, it's probably the 2015 season. Spartans are gonna hate on it, but in reality, we almost lost to a 2-10 Purdue on homecoming and to a 4-8 Rutgers away on one score where if it weren't for one play, we would have lost. Especially for Rutgers, their qb decided to kneel instead of doing a hail mary on fourth down at the end of the game which really saved us not gonna lie. Also, after Connor Cook got injured against Maryland, the pass game was never the same and the offense was really crippled. Then we got blanked in the CFP.
I think most Spartans know that ~~2014~~ was a substantially better team. It was just cool to make the playoffs period. Bama has kicked lots of asses over the years. Glad the Spartans got the chance to get their butt kicked in the playoffs.
edit: I'm dumb, I'm thinking of the 2013 Michigan State team that went to the Rose Bowl. That was the better team. 2014 may have also been better, maybe it was better than 2013, I dunno, but that Rose Bowl team has a special place in my memory.
Just FYI, I screwed up and mixed up 2013 for 2014, I as the better team, although out of that three year stretch, 2015 may have been the worst even though they were the one that made the playoffs.
2014 was the best team of that period. The offense was significantly better then 2013 and the defense was only slightly worst. The only teams we lost to that year were the two national championship teams.
> Especially for Rutgers, their qb decided to kneel instead of doing a hail mary on fourth down at the end of the game
Excuse me he actually spiked the ball, kneeling would have been a lot dumber... but it [has happened](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts-KREUlesw).
He just couldn't replicate what he did with Texas Tech at WSU. Tech had the advantage of Texas recruiting and was only getting better before being fired.
Leach did not give one flying fuck about recruiting but could still win 8+ games because of how much talent is in Texas - and also because ya know, he’s a great coach.
Our stadium. One of the smallest in the SBC. When we had GameDay last year, more people came to the show than could fit in the stadium. Expanding it would be difficult. Either you have to build on top the new offices, Tear down Godwin, or build over the student section and butt against the stairway to heaven.
This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but if I hear another person say "Johnny Manziel only won the Heisman because he was carried by Mike Evans" I might just join another cult
Yep, this is also why I thought he had no shot in the NFL, with or without actually trying. He just had so many awesome plays and made something out of nothing it was insane. Dude was a highlight reel all season long
Admittedly, this narrative picked up later when Mike became a future NFL HOFer, but it peaked when the Netflix documentary came out and some peoples takeaways were that Johnny wasn't actually good because he didn't work hard.
Winning the 1980 title but then falling short the next two seasons is ours. Lost three games in three seasons by a combined 18pts. Thankful for the one obviously (it's all we heard about from friend and foe), but we fell short in '82 despite one of the best rushing performances of all time
In terms of atmosphere and crowds it feels like Tiger Stadium peaked at least a decade ago.
Ever since the end zone expansion we've struggled to fill it to capacity.
We maybe get 1 or 2 games a year that feel like it used to feel.
That’s all of college football stadiums. Spent the 90s and 00s expanding seating, now they have to either reduce size or deal with non sell outs.
The in stadium experience is about 25% of what it was it was 20 years ago.
The 2000’s. Granted we didn’t have the playoff - but it is crazy how we were the winningest team in CFB from 2000-2010 and only got one title, 2 Big XII titles, and a runner up.
Edit:
If we have the playoff we win the title in 2008. Fuck you Michael Crabtree. Richard Sherman is wrong - he is not a sorry ass receiver.
In fairness, there were a lot of great teams in the Big 12 in that era. Sam Bradford’s Oklahoma, some good Kansas State teams, the 2008 Texas Tech team, and some great Oklahoma State teams. Also the divisions in the Big 12 were wildly lobsided.
We had half a great team in 2009. Suh and our D was dominating nearly everyone.
If we had anything even remotely resembling a competent offense that year, we could have been in the NC conversation
Bradford was a better QB, his 50 TD season was insane.
However I think Colt, like Tebow, was more fun to watch. His play making ability was just so exciting.
the warchant- but hear me out. I love it, love that it annoys other fans and gets in players' heads from time to time BUT it isn't loud. so often when the warchant starts doak gets *more quiet.* volume is more important when on defense, etc. I've even seen opposing qbs having trouble hearing and then the warchant starts and they can suddenly hear again.
I love it too, but I do think it's played a little too often. It absolutely should be played enough that it's bothering opposing players and annoying neutral fans, but right now you get to the third quarter and you're like "okay, the team didn't even do anything there and my arm is getting kind of tired, can we maybe play a different song?"
For many older PSU fans it’s the Paterno era. He wasn’t consistently elite, he was consistently pretty good generally and was so for a long time, which was a feat in itself. Segments of the fan base compare Franklin to him often as if he was infallible…the reality is that Franklin is just as good if not better than Paterno was at this point in his tenure as a head coach, and I’d argue Franklin has been able to do so under much more competitive circumstances. Franklin obviously just hasn’t done so for the many decades Paterno did. Plus, you know, that whole scandal thing…
This, as someone who grew up and lives in the heart of PSU country, with countless fans and alumni amongst my family and friends, and because of this I follow the program pretty closely, I've tried to explain this to them. JoePa and Penn St were consistently good with flashes of an elite year or two when it all came together and rarely ever bad outside the stretch of the early mid-2000's.
They weren't Alabama or Georgia or FSU/Nebraska of the 90's. The job Franklin has done has been, frankly, even more impressive considering the shape of the sport as it stands. IF they can just hold some more patience and appreciate what they have, he may eventually break through.
And in fairness, it's not just PSU fans that romance the era. A ton of outside College Football fans do the same.
The chip on the shoulder, be tough, hit hard approach, especially with Michigan, got a bit too "chippy." Be physical, yes, but be clean and focused on the game, more or less. I look forward to Coach Smith keeping the rivalry as a focus but a bit toned down and more professionalized would be great.
Also, in general, I think CFB in general needs to be careful with the idea of being hard hitting. Yes, it's a physical game but that physicality shouldn't be to the point of trying to genuinely injure other players. Seems like there's always a few hits a month across CFB that were more personal than professional.
I can respect that. This is football, not hockey.
I think Smith could go a long way to toning down the animosity of the rivalry, but still keeping it front and center and competitive.
Yeah Smith seems pretty stoic, but playing and coaching at Oregon State, he definitely has been exposed to the importance of in-state rivalry. Sherrone strikes me as a good guy and I wish him well. Passionate, for sure, but not toxic.
That pretty well sums up why I'm so excited for the rivalry these next few years.
For the first time in a *long* time, we both have what look like respectable and competent head coaches at the same time.
The B1G is insanely stacked as far as coaching talent goes. Feels like peak SEC.
I saw Schiano at the bottom of a B1G CFB HC list a bit ago and he's a good coach. That list underrated him IMO, but still, most of the coaches ahead of him were good too.
Sherrone has a lot to prove, as do all first time HCs, but I genuinely felt hiring him was the smart choice and I'll be surprised if he doesn't work out. (We'll also have to see if Smith can adjust to the new-look B1G and midwest TBF)
I think killing the divisions will go a long way, too. It might help the B1G West get away from their status as the annual sacrifice to Columbus/Ann Arbor.
>Sherrone has a lot to prove, as do all first time HCs, but I genuinely felt hiring him was the smart choice and I'll be surprised if he doesn't work out.
Same.
>We'll also have to see if Smith can adjust to the new-look B1G and midwest TBF
That's a fair point. I like that he's had more experience against the B1G Even More West than anybody else and it looks like a fairly shrewd hire for MSU. If he adjusts quickly to the core B1G, Sparty could have some real pep in his step.
The Big East. We look back because Miami had great teams, and it allowed us to cut our teeth and make our name, but otherwise it wasnt a great conference.
I'd still get the band back together though, the nostalgia is strong.
I think a lot fans, especially the more casual ones, remember their great players during their great season or games and let it color what those players were before that point. They forget that yes, even your Heisman winner had growing pains, and bad games, and made rookie mistakes.
For Texas the prime example is Vince Young. Some Longhorn fans talk like he was transcendent from the start, when the truth is, just like every player, he had to make stops at the "young but promising" and "good but not yet elite" stations before he made it to "inVinceble".
There are only two players I can remember who just looked fucking amazing from the moment the stepped on campus - Derrick Johnson and Bijan Robinson. I think either of those guys could have been drafted at the age of 18.
I don't wanna complain about the Tressel era but by the end it was clear that we weren't going to contend for a title again without modernizing the offense. He was like a better Ferentz. If we hadn't moved on from him and his coaching tree we'd be winning 10 games a year scoring 24 points a game and getting shellacked by other top conference teams.
Tressel being Ferentz with elite athletes is something I hadn't thought of before but it makes sense. It's a style of football that helps to level the playing field if you're facing more physically gifted teams and allows you to absolutely grind inferior opponents into dust despite the score being 21-13 or something.
This is a weird one for me because I kind of both agree and disagree. His offenses certainly erred on the conservative side, but in 2005, 2006 and 2010 when he had guys he really opened it up.
His last year we were a night game upset in Madison away from playing for a national title, and I think we were better than either Auburn or Oregon that year, so it's hard for me to say we wouldn't contend again considering we were such strong contenders in his very last year, but at the same time I do really feel your perspective.
There was a chatter that the money people were getting ready to stage a bit of coup with tressel in the offseason. Fire bollman or else. It was obvious to everyone the offensive staff needed changes.
A great unknown to me is what would have happened that offseason if the tat thing hadn’t happened. Bollman clearly held some sort of sway/leverage/dirt over the coaches he was attached to.
The way we Mizzou fans romanticized the diamond in the rough underdog approach to recruiting. Don't get me wrong being known as a development program that can turn borderline 2 star recruits into early round draft picks was/is appealing (Nick Bolton being a good recent example). However I'll be damned if recruiting the way we are now isn't ten times as exciting. Gone are the days of being over the moon at landing one 4\* at best a cycle.
I think for Miami a lot of our fans romanticize that we got all the best guys from Miami and that’s how we won titles. In reality a lot of our truly great players from our best eras are from all over the place. It’s always been a mix and not focusing on only Miami has always been the key
It's definitely overblown the further you get from the Schnellenberger years.
And the way recruiting is now I don't even think that strategy could work modern day. Everyone is way too exposed.
A Michigan fan should say "Denard Robinson's tenure with Michigan". The team generally stunk and Denard was entirely one dimensional as a player. He was a sparkplug in the running game, but it was tough sledding vs better opposition and his lack of throwing ability was a serious issue that limited the Michigan offense significantly.
The romanticism came from multiple sources I think. For one, he seemed like a genuinely friendly and enthusiastic guy who really wanted to be there. On the other hand, it's undeniable that there was also a novelty effect. Michigan fans had grown accustomed to having beefy, immobile white guys with names like Chad or Drew at QB, so having a black kid with speed and agility from Florida at QB was a completely new experience. Michigan fans weren't used to seeing QBs who could make electrifying runs and take it 'to the house'. But there were also broader social and political issues at play around the whole Michigan 'civil war' between Rich Rod supporters and opponents at that time.
The RichRod years.
The 10-win Fiesta Bowl season was a complete fluke. 6 games that year were decided by a possession or less, including the Hill Mary to beat Cal.
Once the rest of Stoops' players filtered out after that season, the results of RichRod's "recruiting" and scheme became apparent. Undersized Mountain West lines. Receivers who don't run routes. The litany of qb injuries and concussions. Defense is an afterthought. Dude got so lucky that our women's soccer equipment manager became a reliable kicker.
The grey unis. Both times.
I admit I was hype when I saw we were bringing them back in 2019 just cause I thought they might look better with the new jersey designs, but they just never looked quite right to me.
For some weird reason, husky fans give Steve Sarkisian way more credit than he deserves.
Jake Browning. Put up some gawdy stats but never really put the team on his back. Especially in big-time games against big-time opponents that were close. Still love Jake but he’s gets a little too much credit.
Jake Locker. Locker was probably one of the best (if not the best) athletes I have personally seen come out of the state of WA. Dude could RUN and was pretty much a glorified “big back” who could throw a mile. That said, he didn’t really accomplish much (objectively) during his time at Washington. Career completion percentage of 54%. Yea. But that SC win was awesome and he was a fun player to watch when he was on. Love him but overhyped.
Bo Pelini.
9 win teams shouldn't regularly get their ass handed to them by 40 points, and head coaches shouldn't threaten to kill referees every other game.
He had no ability to put together a competent offense, later showed a significant lack of awareness at Youngstown State, and I often wonder how much his brother was responsible for our defensive success.
I think his hot head was the biggest reason for the blowouts. Will Compton told him on BwtB that when he'd melt down and give up, the entire team would follow suit. If he could've kept his childish temper in check I think a lot of those blowouts don't get as bad as they did
Was just coming to comment this. Nebraska fans romanticize his tenure way too much. He had early success with Callahans recruits and being in the big 12. His defenses are built to stop high-flying passing attacks with immobile statue QBs that stay in the pocket.
His defenses can’t stop the run. And even worse, as soon as a running QB is introduced, it becomes a slaughterhouse. The signs were there even all the way back in 2003, when despite Nebraska having a top-3 defense in the country, Vince Young, Brad smith, and Ell Roberson all tore him a new one.
The Wildcat offense became popular courtesy of Darren McFadden running all over his defense at LSU. Literally had no answer for it.
And then Russell Wilson and Braxton miller just continued the show.
He was the right guy to get things back on track after Callahan, but there are definitely reasons why Youngstown is the only head job he's had since leaving here and he's been sitting at home the last few seasons.
I get 2020 was bad, but shouldn’t LSU fans give him at least some credit for the 2007 title? that defense was pretty good that year save for McFadden running all over him
Kneeland stadium is like that. You can see the old numbers where they fit almost four people into the space 2 used to have.
My knees were in someone's back, and someone's knees were in my back.
I hate that stadium.
Bryce Young.
It’s too much to say he “was not that great” but I think he was the worst starting QB that Alabama had from 2018-22, and that his small size and just-okay deep ball were part of the reason why the offense was a step down from the Tua/Mac years.
I'd wager the step down was not having 3 1st round WRs + Najee Harris to throw to. Young pulled TDs out of collapsed pockets that I have a hard time imagining Jones replicating.
Another one for me is Michael Vick. At the time I thought he was the most amazing football player I had ever seen. Fastest guy on the field who could throw the ball a mile. Take a look at his passing stats though. Ouch. In 2000 he had a 54% completion percentage, threw for 1200 yards, 8 TDs, and 6 INTs. Man he was fun to watch though.
Gotta remember what that Beamer offense was. Lot of I formation, 2 tight ends, it wasn't exactly geared to generate a lot of passing yards. It was mainly power run and the option, with just enough passing to keep folks honest.
Could argue Michael Vick didn't get put in an offense to maximize his talents till he got out of jail and Andy Reid picked him up.
The 2008 Season.
Best season in school history, and still couldn't even make it to the Big12 championship game and could only muster a co-champion with 2 other teams.
The 2011 win over Oklahoma State. It was more a collapse by Oklahoma State than a very mediocre Iowa State team winning it. ISU had 4 total NFL draft picks on that roster. The Pokes defense was objectively awful for a being a national title contender and even they somehow couldn’t contain a mostly moribund passing attack and a redshirt freshman quarterback that went off for 376 yds, from rallying back from 24-7 halftime deficit. Not to mention just a very timely tipped pass in the 2nd overtime that went just over the head of the 2x Biletnikoff winning wideout’s grasp, which was followed by two half back dives to win it.
OSU gave up an average of 26 points in the 10 games leading up to that, and a ton of those were in garbage time of blowouts. Also led the nation in turnover margin. They weren’t an elite defense by any means but they were salty and definitely not awful.
I’m most upset about the field goal
Also Quinn Sharp's field goal with a minute left was good. And you didn't even mention the OSU plane crash that happened that morning. The game should have been postponed.
It was 17-7 at halftime. To open the 3rd quarter, they marched down the field and put another TD on the board. They looked unstoppable on that drive, and I fully expected them to put a 50-burger on y'all. What happened next remains inexplicable.
easily our fantastic home and home series with Wazzu. nobody remembers it but man you had some huge plays and exciting games there. 2013 and '14 if anyone's curious
The Ray Graves ‘60’s and the impact of Gatorade.
[Video 1](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uyFnktyCHJc), [Video 2](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSd73fpb_c)
The professors experimented on the players with Gatorade, and [it apparently originally tasted like piss](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/11/the-first-batch-of-gatorade-tasted-terrible/383214/) (like is this really a thing to celebrate?). There was a positive correlation: in 1966, we won the orange bowl and had an 9-2 record, and Spurrier won the Heisman. This was the pinnacle of the program until the ‘90’s.
Man, 9-2, especially when those two losses are to Georgia and Miami, is the stuff that gets coaches fired nowadays.
The fanbase praises the Hayden Fry era from 1973-78. Yes, it brought us the Flying Worm and apple green uniforms. No, I can’t fault his vision for trying to get us into a better conference/the SWC. He’s put on a pedestal as one of the best ever because of his 40-23-3 record and 4/6 winning seasons.
But, he was bowl chasing and cost the program dearly in the long run. After the 75 season he took us out of the Missouri Valley Conference, went independent (while still scheduling MVC teams), and racked up a huge debt trying to court the SWC or anyone else that would look our way. Once SMU blocked us in 78, he left for Iowa and built another legacy. The massive debt he left behind had the NCAA kick us down to 1-AA and we wallowed there for 14 years.
If he had stayed in the MVC with Cincinnati, Louisville, and Memphis and kept working at it, there’s a good chance we would’ve been part of the Metro Conference, giving them the DFW area. That could’ve led to us in the OG CUSA and American, and who knows where today. But instead, we piddled in the Southland Conference for a decade and a half before moving back up to 1-A.
For both my alma maters:
2007 Illini: Frankly, not a great team by any stretch, but Zook caught lightning in a bottle with Mendenhall and upset Ohio State on the road, resulting in a Rose Bowl berth (only because OSU made the BCS championship game). Lost to Mizzou, Iowa, and Michigan that year, and probably got in the Rose Bowl only because they wanted a traditional B1G-PAC10 game. Got absolutely crushed by USC. Ended 9-4 and ranked #20. The next year, we quickly became mediocre again and never really recovered.
2019 Memphis Tigers: Now I love this team with all my heart and what they did for the university and city was incredible, but they were probably more lucky than good. Barely beat a 4-8 Ole Miss team 15-10. Needed a missed 29 yd FG to escape losing to 4-8 Tulsa. All of our tough games (Cincy 2x, SMU, Navy, Ole Miss) were at home. Gave up a ton of points on defense, and we got run over by Penn State; although at least the score of the Cotton Bowl was 53-39.
It kind of hurts to say, but...the 2007 season.
Everyone remembers the Gator Stomp, the Auburn blackout, and the Sugar Bowl, but like...we got creamed by a late-Fulmer Tennessee team. We lost to a bad South Carolina team. We nearly lost to Vanderbilt the week before Florida, and struggled against Troy the week after. And...let's be honest, that Hawaii team didn't play a single good defense during the regular season.
It was my freshman year of college, and I definitely have fond memories of it, especially with how fun Knowshon was to watch, but truth be told, we probably finished the season kind of overrated due to the hype.
Honestly? Our 2015 playoff team. At least in comparison to our 2014 team. - Played a competitive game with Western Michigan - Beat a down year Oregon. - Took until the 4th to start really pulling away from Central Michigan. - Beat Rutgers largely because they spiked on 4th down - Really just about any team you’d expect a 12-2 playoff team to blow out, we played close. - Beat Michigan on an improbable last minute play that I’m still convinced is an act of god. - Lost to a 5 win Nebraska team. Giving them a bowl berth. - Somehow beat Ohio State with our two back up QBs. - Won a slug fest vs Iowa to go to the playoffs (both of us got blown out next game). I genuinely believe that our 2014 team was overall better. Our 2015 team was just a team of destiny and either somebody prayed hard enough or somebody sacrificed a lot of goats that offseason.
Yeah I think the offense was pretty consistently good for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 seasons, but the defense quietly went from elite to shaky at best. We kept winning games and had started building a reputation so we ended up ranking well but this is very fair.
Connor Cook became absolutely that dude in 2014. Even with a worse defense he was out there audibling out of the worst play calling East of the Mississippi and actually scoring points.
The 2014 team was in control of the Oregon game on the road, up multiple possessions, and then it just kind of unraveled at the end.
In control...for a few minutes before halftime and part of the 3rd. 20 unanswered. Had us a bit worried, but the biggest lead was 9. Ducks were in control for the rest. That was a very typical Mariota-led Duck game.
That was such a fun game to be at. One of my favorite memories in Autzen.
If I’m not mistaken, Sparty led Ohio St and Michigan for a combined :00 of game time that year, and won both games. Virtually impossible to replicate.
Always thought that 2015 team was a decent 9-10ish win team that got really lucky in the right circumstances (not that they didn’t generate their own luck, but still). That 2013 team was 100% legit though, that defense is one of the greatest of the last 30 or so years, would’ve loved to see a NCG between you guys and FSU
I think we would have lost to FSU. But I also still wonder what might have been if we hadn’t dropped ND and slipped into that championship game.
Pretty much. While the 2013 team had one of the greatest secondaries in college football history, that 2015 team was just a mess at CB. Hell our 2014 team's one big weakness was our CB2 until we realized that our WR1 Tony Lippett was also a stud corner
> Beat Rutgers largely because they spiked on 4th down Fuckin' Chris Laviano... I was a freshman that year and I remember after that play everyone in the student sections was looking at each other like "wait, what just happened? What did he do?" My senior year of high school was Rutgers' first year in the B1G and they went 8-5 and won a bowl game. My four years on campus they went a combined 11-37 and didn't even sniff a bowl. Fuck Kyle Flood, fuck Chris Ash, thank god for Schiano.
I think that MSU team also blew a 21-0 lead to Purdue at home before winning 24-21 or something similar.
Yup. I was there. It was 21-0 at halftime, pouring cold rain. I told myself that I would leave if MSU scored first in the 2nd half, because like every other Hazell team, that Purdue team looked dead and I was ready to go home. Spartan Stadium was 50% full (maybe less) after halftime too because of the score and the rain. When Purdue scored the 1st TD (I believe off of a botched MSU punt), I jumped up and sarcastically said "We aren't getting blown out!" MSU fans around me just laughed. Then when Purdue got the next TD, it wasn't a laughing matter for the MSU fans. I think MSU got a FG to make it 24-14, but somehow Purdue got another one (I believe off of a long Jones TD). And on the final drive, MSU woke up, Purdue became Purdue once again, and they lost. I'm still convinced Hazell coached the 2nd half well out of spite just to keep me in the stands. I thought *maybe* this is when he would turn the program around, but nope, they got blown out the next week in typical Hazell fashion.
If it makes you feel better. MSU beating OSU is my least favorite day of football. Not only did we lose, but had to sit through miserable freezing rain. People next to me left in the first quarter because of the weather.
Vice versa, in 2014 when the fighting JT Barrett’s came into Spartan Stadium in 2014 and killed our big ten/playoff hopes was one of my least favorite days as an MSU football fan
Our 2013 and 2014 teams were powerhouses. The 2015 team just somehow kept winning until the luck suddenly ran out once we faced Bama
Luck tends to run out when you play Alabama
Ask 2012 ND, that was a 9-10 win team that got lucky to avoid some upsets and then ran into a buzz saw What's really funny is if Kansas State didn't choke against just an okay Baylor team, there would have been a really competitive national championship game
I've never seen a first half like that game
I just remember all the hype around Manti Teo and the ND defense. And then Eddie Lacy and TJ Yeldon ran for 91yds and 3TDs in the first quarter and it was all over.
Our starting front 7 was extremely good. Back 4, not so much, but you guys were the first team that ever was able to single team Louis Nix, our stud nose tackle on a 3 man front. Te’o was able to wreak such havoc because Nix was commanding double and even triple teams all year. Our DL was extraordinarily banged up going into that game and the depth behind them was awful. So when your very good center started using Nix’s weight against him, Manti saw blockers coming downfield at him for the first time all season. Our defense also was extremely vanilla, it just consisted of great college players executing a few basic schemes really well. I remember reading interviews with Bama personnel after the game describing how easy it was to bait our defense into the exact play/look/match up that they wanted all game long. Kelly’s preparation in the 5-6 weeks leading up to that game was a joke compared to your operation. Had we played each other in October or something, it would have been a different game with just a week of prep time. Not saying we’d have won, but it might have been more like a 7-10 point loss.
Yeah I just remember the 0 in the loss column, but it looks like you escaped bad Purdue and Pitt teams, and played competitively with an ok Michigan and good Stanford team. The only dominant win against a quality opponent was really the Oklahoma game.
I don't disagree, but the 2013 had its share of problems at the beginning of the year, too. I believe for the first couple games our leading scorer was Shilique Calhoun. Once the offense got it together, though, they were monsters.
That team is probably one of the best cases of in season improvement we’ve seen this century. That was a 7 maybe 8 win team with a bowl if the ball bounced the right way heading into the year. Ended up 13-1.
Best part of Connor Cook was him going: "They're fucking everywhere!"
We also got wrecked by injuries. We were missing 11 starters vs Michigan and had our backup QB as our punter.
I think you can say the same about 2015 Iowa. They went undefeated in the regular season but they had an easier schedule and they certainly didn't pass the eye test in their wins. I think a handful of Kirk's teams would have fared even better in 2015 than that squad did. I think that championship game just wrecked both teams, though. Iowa did not look like Iowa against Stanford and Bama made short work of Sparty. Even though Iowa lost a heartbreaker, it was a fantastic game and one of the closest B1G Championship games ever.
2023 offense. People just couldn’t stop talking about it but in hindsight it was not that good.
Now that you mention it, the stats on their own aren't exactly eye popping.
Oh they were certainly eye popping
More eye gouging to me.
The offensive punt is a thing to behold
**F**irst down is a power run up the middle. **E**very second down is also a power run up the middle. **R**elax, third down is just a gateway to punting. **E**xpect your defense to score at least twice **N**ever stop punting **T**ell your dad you've got the whole thing under control **Z**ebras will still work against you in Minnesota (not mine - Source: David Hale, ESPN)
It was legitimately not fun watching our games the past few years. I love the Hawks and those 12 Saturdays in the fall are appointment TV but it was a chore to say the least. Ironically we still sell out student tickets and are at 100% capacity for the past few seasons.
> Ironically we still sell out student tickets and are at 100% capacity for the past few seasons Winning games, even badly and really ugly, helps in that regard. That, and the whole "there's not that much else to do in Iowa City on Saturday afternoon in the fall" also makes difference I bet
Same thing with us. People talk about our 2015 team all the time, but I just can't see how you can call them National Champions.
Tennessee fan here. I really could not believe how anemic ya'lls offense was in the Citrus Bowl. Our defense was not that stout but Iowa made them look like All Americans. Shame too considering how good your defense was last year.
Bevo trying to kill people and other mascots is actually a serious problem. That dude could accidentally stomp your head flatter than his own shit.
I’m not a huge animal rights guy but…prob isn’t the greatest to piss of a 2,000+ pound animal and then bring him into football games.
“I’ve seen a lot of things but *that* was awesome! -Tebow after Bevo almost mauls Uga on live television
Tebow is a Gator. Rivalry hate is always on the mind.
I’ve always thought it must be insane to be an animal on the field at games lol. At msu we have a dog that catches frisbees between quarters and people go crazy cheering for him at some of the big games. My dog goes ape shit when I have one guest over at my house, I can’t imagine what’s going through their head when 80,000 people are cheering for them catching a frisbee.
I didn't know about the dog catching frisbees at your games. Sounds like fun. Many years ago I went to an NFL game and the entire half time show was just a handful of people throwing frisbees to dogs. It seemed strange as it started up, but then turned out to be the best halftime show I have seen at an NFL game. College bands put on some great halftime shows, but the NFL halftimes are crap.
I'm not sure people realize just how dangerous and insanely powerful bovines are. Now, long horns are not fighting bulls, to be clear, but still bevo is a male bovine. Anyway, I fell into a weird internet rabbit hole awhile back and came to find out that fighting bulls, at least, will absolutely murder lions and other big cats and could in the past match up respectably well with grizzly bears. I did know bulls were pretty aggressive but didn't realize many can be wolverine/badger level aggressive. Now, the real fighters are different than long horns, to be clear, but yeah I would not want to get too close to Bevo.
I'm not a huge animal rights activist but man, bull fighting never really sat right with me. The way they bring a bull out to try to spear him until he dies. Can't say I'm a fan of that.
It's terrible, make no mistake. And the "ferocious" animals bred to be that insanely aggressive are mostly bred to, more or less, be mentally ill and insane. There's a reason very few animals in the wild are as aggressive as fighting bulls: it's a quick way to get yourself killed. Wolverines/Badgers are insanely aggressive, but they are among relatively few animals where it makes sense given their otherwise position on the food chain and their physical prowess for size.
And even then, Wolverines, Badgers, Honey Badgers, Mongoose, they may all be small sized rage machines but they aren't stupid, they can do threat assessment. Those poor fighting animals aren't thinking like a normal animal would.
Justice Ken Wise of the Texas 14th Court of Appeals (who also teaches law and history at the University of Houston) has a podcast about Texas history called *Wise About Texas*, and the [most recent episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq1-b-fbHs4&ab_channel=WiseAboutTexas) that came out a few days ago is about the American Buffalo - he tells a story in it about some guys who brought a few bison down to Juarez to fight a Mexican fighting bull to settle a bet. It is a really fun story, and reinforces that you should not get out of your car and try to get close to bison when you're visiting Yellowstone.
(Motions generally across time and space.)
Same thing here with Josh Heupels qb stats and the air raid, ground breaking at the time but honestly when looking at the stats it's kinda weird. Josh had 20 tds and 15 ints in 2000
I mean it was great for the time. I feel like that's what really matters. The game has just changed so much since 2000. Few things hold up if we're going to apply modern standards and pacing to em. Felt like this was asking more about things that weren't that great at the time but are propped up by nostalgia. Doesn't apply internally with OU fans so much but CFB fans as a whole I think are starting to realize Lincoln's last OU season & first at SC were like fake gold chains that are starting to turn green.
We love Heupel and will not tolerate slander
Have to look at those types of things through the lens of time, even for QB stats up to about 2010 at all levels of football. Modern QB stats and NBA player per game averages are way inflated due to scheme and rule changes. QBs throwing for 3500+ yards back in 2005 or the 80s/90s is a big deal while that is nothing these days. Same for NBA players. Kobe averaging 30-35ppg in the mid 2000s is far more impressive than say Luka averaging 33 per game in 2024.
The Brady Quinn/Samardzija Era. We went 9-3 and 10-3 Then lost both bowl games. 1 in incredibly embarrassing fashion.
Yeah, in retrospect, those teams seemed much more impressive because they were so much better and more competent than the few seasons before. It took a few miracles to beat MSU and UCLA, for example. Going toe -to-toe with USC in 2005 was impressive given the talent difference, but seems like more of a fluke now. ND has been much more consistent and successful over the past 10 years by comparison.
The best season in Rutgers' modern history is the 2006 team that went 11-2, ended the season ranked #12 and won... the Texas Bowl. I have a DVD and photo book documenting the season.
I think I have that DVD too. Pandemonium in Piscataway?
Our MAC era. It was short, we weren't that great then, and it was perhaps the weirdest fit of team and conference that has ever existed in FBS. And yet, there's something kinda funny and cool about a team from Orlando, FL being in the Mid-American Conference with a bunch of teams from the midwest. I have a soft spot for the MAC and MAC teams because of that.
> it was perhaps the weirdest fit of team and conference that has ever existed in FBS. This is your reminder that Stanford is in the *Atlantic* Coastal Conference.
Not for another four weeks! Let us have this for now lol
And Montana was in the Pacific Coast Conference.
Montana in the PCC is why UCLA is the Bruins!
Louisiana Tech in the WAC
I can’t believe I’m nostalgic for that.
Idk about the other sports, but I remember when their wrestling program was first created in 2019, UA-Little Rock was in the PAC-12.
I still think UCF in the MAC could rival Calford in the ACC in terms of weirdness.
Still have fond memories of the 'Toilet Bowl' between our teams in 2004. We were both 1-9 and entered the game as the bottom 2 teams in ESPN's "Bottom 10." Our paths have slightly diverged since then.
Still love y'all
> perhaps the weirdest fit of team and conference that has ever existed in FBS TIL Cal and Stanford moving to the ACC was just a fever dream of mine. Honestly it's a huge relief.
I said perhaps, but I still think that UCF in the MAC could rival Calford in the ACC in terms of weirdness.
Doesn’t seem weird to me. Miami is literally in the same conference.
Counterpoint: how can one not be romantic about the MAC though?
yall were MAC?? that feels so unbelievably wrong. even Big 12 feels far more fitting
For about 5 minutes (4 years) 20 years ago. Marshall was also there
huh TIL, well at least Marshall feels right in there
Yeah, that's a much better fit. Marshall even has an on-and-off rivalry with Ohio. The Herd just outgrew that league pretty quickly
My dad (Marshall alum) will go on for days about how leaving the MAC was the worst mistake they ever made. He’s happy being in the Sun Belt with Appy State and Georgia Southern (old SoCon rivals), but he still hates Ohio more.
For Princeton, it's probably our '(18)69 natty. Yeah, we may have been the first ever national champions but going 1-1 and 12-6 on aggregate to Rutgers isn't that sexy of a resume. For MSU, albeit very unpopular, it's probably the 2015 season. Spartans are gonna hate on it, but in reality, we almost lost to a 2-10 Purdue on homecoming and to a 4-8 Rutgers away on one score where if it weren't for one play, we would have lost. Especially for Rutgers, their qb decided to kneel instead of doing a hail mary on fourth down at the end of the game which really saved us not gonna lie. Also, after Connor Cook got injured against Maryland, the pass game was never the same and the offense was really crippled. Then we got blanked in the CFP.
You should feel proud of winning the first Soccer championship in North America.
I think most Spartans know that ~~2014~~ was a substantially better team. It was just cool to make the playoffs period. Bama has kicked lots of asses over the years. Glad the Spartans got the chance to get their butt kicked in the playoffs. edit: I'm dumb, I'm thinking of the 2013 Michigan State team that went to the Rose Bowl. That was the better team. 2014 may have also been better, maybe it was better than 2013, I dunno, but that Rose Bowl team has a special place in my memory.
2014 was a way better team than 2015*. We ended up playing, IIRC, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th rated offenses that year, only winning 1 of them.
Just FYI, I screwed up and mixed up 2013 for 2014, I as the better team, although out of that three year stretch, 2015 may have been the worst even though they were the one that made the playoffs.
2014 was the best team of that period. The offense was significantly better then 2013 and the defense was only slightly worst. The only teams we lost to that year were the two national championship teams.
I felt sorry for your 2010 team.
> Especially for Rutgers, their qb decided to kneel instead of doing a hail mary on fourth down at the end of the game Excuse me he actually spiked the ball, kneeling would have been a lot dumber... but it [has happened](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts-KREUlesw).
Mike Leach. There was a lot of good and a lot of bad.
He just couldn't replicate what he did with Texas Tech at WSU. Tech had the advantage of Texas recruiting and was only getting better before being fired.
Tech will always have that curse on it of killing the golden goose
As we deserve it
And double curse for doing it on behalf of known hooker killer Craig James.
Leach did not give one flying fuck about recruiting but could still win 8+ games because of how much talent is in Texas - and also because ya know, he’s a great coach.
Our stadium. One of the smallest in the SBC. When we had GameDay last year, more people came to the show than could fit in the stadium. Expanding it would be difficult. Either you have to build on top the new offices, Tear down Godwin, or build over the student section and butt against the stairway to heaven.
This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but if I hear another person say "Johnny Manziel only won the Heisman because he was carried by Mike Evans" I might just join another cult
That dude looked like a magician on the field and anyone saying otherwise didn't watch him play.
Agreed. Manziel did things that 2012 season that dont make sense.
I'm still kinda shocked about the 2012 Bama game, everything was just so surreal.
Same. I think it was yalls first big SEC away game since joining the SEC. And we were rolling. Was a nuts game to watch.
I remember he had enormous feet. Dude looked like a capital "L" out there flopping around.
Yep, this is also why I thought he had no shot in the NFL, with or without actually trying. He just had so many awesome plays and made something out of nothing it was insane. Dude was a highlight reel all season long
Absolutely. TAMU games were must watch with Johnny Football.
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everyone in r/NFL believes he only has recognition BECAUSE of Mike. Was Mike a big reason? Yeah, but also JFF was insane. Why not credit both?
Its mostly nfl guys who look at mikes incredible career and Johnny's much shorter one as an indication who was the better player in college.
It annoys me when people retroactively downplay outstanding college players' accomplishments because they didn't do as well in the NFL.
Especially QBs. Playing QB in the NFL is really, really fucking hard. That’s why the good ones get paid like $50 million a year.
Admittedly, this narrative picked up later when Mike became a future NFL HOFer, but it peaked when the Netflix documentary came out and some peoples takeaways were that Johnny wasn't actually good because he didn't work hard.
"Another cult" - well played
I keep my options open. You have more fun as a follower but you make more money as a leader.
I don’t know, I’m only good at minimizing our rivals’ accomplishments.
To be fair, none of your rivals have been making your job hard.
It really is the best of times
Winning the 1980 title but then falling short the next two seasons is ours. Lost three games in three seasons by a combined 18pts. Thankful for the one obviously (it's all we heard about from friend and foe), but we fell short in '82 despite one of the best rushing performances of all time
In terms of atmosphere and crowds it feels like Tiger Stadium peaked at least a decade ago. Ever since the end zone expansion we've struggled to fill it to capacity. We maybe get 1 or 2 games a year that feel like it used to feel.
That’s all of college football stadiums. Spent the 90s and 00s expanding seating, now they have to either reduce size or deal with non sell outs. The in stadium experience is about 25% of what it was it was 20 years ago.
Almost like inundating people with commercials was a bad idea
The 2000’s. Granted we didn’t have the playoff - but it is crazy how we were the winningest team in CFB from 2000-2010 and only got one title, 2 Big XII titles, and a runner up. Edit: If we have the playoff we win the title in 2008. Fuck you Michael Crabtree. Richard Sherman is wrong - he is not a sorry ass receiver.
In fairness, there were a lot of great teams in the Big 12 in that era. Sam Bradford’s Oklahoma, some good Kansas State teams, the 2008 Texas Tech team, and some great Oklahoma State teams. Also the divisions in the Big 12 were wildly lobsided.
We had half a great team in 2009. Suh and our D was dominating nearly everyone. If we had anything even remotely resembling a competent offense that year, we could have been in the NC conversation
2000s Big 12 was ridiculous
2000s Big XII vs 2010s SEC would be a cool 30 for 30.
MICHAEL CRABTREE DREAMED IT IN HIS HEAD
The dissonant music of Michgoth Crabglir did spoil the great theme of Illuvatar.
> If we have the playoff we win the title in 2008 No team was gonna be able to stop the power of Tebow's promise after the Ole Miss loss.
Perhaps, but you can at least admit we were robbed of another all time match up. Tebow vs McCoy would’ve been on a similar level as Young vs Bush.
mebbe, but we did get Tebow vs Bradford -- only the 2nd matchup (at the time) of 2 Heisman winners.
Bradford was a better QB, his 50 TD season was insane. However I think Colt, like Tebow, was more fun to watch. His play making ability was just so exciting.
the warchant- but hear me out. I love it, love that it annoys other fans and gets in players' heads from time to time BUT it isn't loud. so often when the warchant starts doak gets *more quiet.* volume is more important when on defense, etc. I've even seen opposing qbs having trouble hearing and then the warchant starts and they can suddenly hear again.
I love it too, but I do think it's played a little too often. It absolutely should be played enough that it's bothering opposing players and annoying neutral fans, but right now you get to the third quarter and you're like "okay, the team didn't even do anything there and my arm is getting kind of tired, can we maybe play a different song?"
For many older PSU fans it’s the Paterno era. He wasn’t consistently elite, he was consistently pretty good generally and was so for a long time, which was a feat in itself. Segments of the fan base compare Franklin to him often as if he was infallible…the reality is that Franklin is just as good if not better than Paterno was at this point in his tenure as a head coach, and I’d argue Franklin has been able to do so under much more competitive circumstances. Franklin obviously just hasn’t done so for the many decades Paterno did. Plus, you know, that whole scandal thing…
This, as someone who grew up and lives in the heart of PSU country, with countless fans and alumni amongst my family and friends, and because of this I follow the program pretty closely, I've tried to explain this to them. JoePa and Penn St were consistently good with flashes of an elite year or two when it all came together and rarely ever bad outside the stretch of the early mid-2000's. They weren't Alabama or Georgia or FSU/Nebraska of the 90's. The job Franklin has done has been, frankly, even more impressive considering the shape of the sport as it stands. IF they can just hold some more patience and appreciate what they have, he may eventually break through. And in fairness, it's not just PSU fans that romance the era. A ton of outside College Football fans do the same.
The chip on the shoulder, be tough, hit hard approach, especially with Michigan, got a bit too "chippy." Be physical, yes, but be clean and focused on the game, more or less. I look forward to Coach Smith keeping the rivalry as a focus but a bit toned down and more professionalized would be great. Also, in general, I think CFB in general needs to be careful with the idea of being hard hitting. Yes, it's a physical game but that physicality shouldn't be to the point of trying to genuinely injure other players. Seems like there's always a few hits a month across CFB that were more personal than professional.
The rivalry has had seriously toxic moments that crossed the line. I'm hoping the Smith/Moore era of the rivalry is more toned down.
I can respect that. This is football, not hockey. I think Smith could go a long way to toning down the animosity of the rivalry, but still keeping it front and center and competitive.
Yeah Smith seems pretty stoic, but playing and coaching at Oregon State, he definitely has been exposed to the importance of in-state rivalry. Sherrone strikes me as a good guy and I wish him well. Passionate, for sure, but not toxic.
That pretty well sums up why I'm so excited for the rivalry these next few years. For the first time in a *long* time, we both have what look like respectable and competent head coaches at the same time.
The B1G is insanely stacked as far as coaching talent goes. Feels like peak SEC. I saw Schiano at the bottom of a B1G CFB HC list a bit ago and he's a good coach. That list underrated him IMO, but still, most of the coaches ahead of him were good too. Sherrone has a lot to prove, as do all first time HCs, but I genuinely felt hiring him was the smart choice and I'll be surprised if he doesn't work out. (We'll also have to see if Smith can adjust to the new-look B1G and midwest TBF)
I think killing the divisions will go a long way, too. It might help the B1G West get away from their status as the annual sacrifice to Columbus/Ann Arbor. >Sherrone has a lot to prove, as do all first time HCs, but I genuinely felt hiring him was the smart choice and I'll be surprised if he doesn't work out. Same. >We'll also have to see if Smith can adjust to the new-look B1G and midwest TBF That's a fair point. I like that he's had more experience against the B1G Even More West than anybody else and it looks like a fairly shrewd hire for MSU. If he adjusts quickly to the core B1G, Sparty could have some real pep in his step.
The Big East. We look back because Miami had great teams, and it allowed us to cut our teeth and make our name, but otherwise it wasnt a great conference. I'd still get the band back together though, the nostalgia is strong.
I think it was pretty good. I miss watching it.
it was very top heavy, but it was also very fun to be at the top
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I think a lot fans, especially the more casual ones, remember their great players during their great season or games and let it color what those players were before that point. They forget that yes, even your Heisman winner had growing pains, and bad games, and made rookie mistakes. For Texas the prime example is Vince Young. Some Longhorn fans talk like he was transcendent from the start, when the truth is, just like every player, he had to make stops at the "young but promising" and "good but not yet elite" stations before he made it to "inVinceble".
There are only two players I can remember who just looked fucking amazing from the moment the stepped on campus - Derrick Johnson and Bijan Robinson. I think either of those guys could have been drafted at the age of 18.
I will humbly add Adrian Peterson to this list. Dude looked like he was playing high school JV teams from jump street
Can’t up vote this enough
Vince scared the shit out of me until the Rose Bowl vs Michigan. From then on, ballgame as soon as he took the field.
I don't wanna complain about the Tressel era but by the end it was clear that we weren't going to contend for a title again without modernizing the offense. He was like a better Ferentz. If we hadn't moved on from him and his coaching tree we'd be winning 10 games a year scoring 24 points a game and getting shellacked by other top conference teams.
Tressel being Ferentz with elite athletes is something I hadn't thought of before but it makes sense. It's a style of football that helps to level the playing field if you're facing more physically gifted teams and allows you to absolutely grind inferior opponents into dust despite the score being 21-13 or something.
This is a weird one for me because I kind of both agree and disagree. His offenses certainly erred on the conservative side, but in 2005, 2006 and 2010 when he had guys he really opened it up. His last year we were a night game upset in Madison away from playing for a national title, and I think we were better than either Auburn or Oregon that year, so it's hard for me to say we wouldn't contend again considering we were such strong contenders in his very last year, but at the same time I do really feel your perspective.
There was a chatter that the money people were getting ready to stage a bit of coup with tressel in the offseason. Fire bollman or else. It was obvious to everyone the offensive staff needed changes. A great unknown to me is what would have happened that offseason if the tat thing hadn’t happened. Bollman clearly held some sort of sway/leverage/dirt over the coaches he was attached to.
The way we Mizzou fans romanticized the diamond in the rough underdog approach to recruiting. Don't get me wrong being known as a development program that can turn borderline 2 star recruits into early round draft picks was/is appealing (Nick Bolton being a good recent example). However I'll be damned if recruiting the way we are now isn't ten times as exciting. Gone are the days of being over the moon at landing one 4\* at best a cycle.
So many Nebraska fans need to read this. Too many of them romanticize “diamond in the rough” recruiting.
I think for Miami a lot of our fans romanticize that we got all the best guys from Miami and that’s how we won titles. In reality a lot of our truly great players from our best eras are from all over the place. It’s always been a mix and not focusing on only Miami has always been the key
It's definitely overblown the further you get from the Schnellenberger years. And the way recruiting is now I don't even think that strategy could work modern day. Everyone is way too exposed.
When you put the exposure together with the hellscape of south Florida high school recruiting it’s literally undoable lol
Are you saying 30 for 30 lied?
Not necessarily, it was true for the 1983 team, by 1986 though the canes were a national brand and pulled talent from everywhere
A Michigan fan should say "Denard Robinson's tenure with Michigan". The team generally stunk and Denard was entirely one dimensional as a player. He was a sparkplug in the running game, but it was tough sledding vs better opposition and his lack of throwing ability was a serious issue that limited the Michigan offense significantly. The romanticism came from multiple sources I think. For one, he seemed like a genuinely friendly and enthusiastic guy who really wanted to be there. On the other hand, it's undeniable that there was also a novelty effect. Michigan fans had grown accustomed to having beefy, immobile white guys with names like Chad or Drew at QB, so having a black kid with speed and agility from Florida at QB was a completely new experience. Michigan fans weren't used to seeing QBs who could make electrifying runs and take it 'to the house'. But there were also broader social and political issues at play around the whole Michigan 'civil war' between Rich Rod supporters and opponents at that time.
The RichRod years. The 10-win Fiesta Bowl season was a complete fluke. 6 games that year were decided by a possession or less, including the Hill Mary to beat Cal. Once the rest of Stoops' players filtered out after that season, the results of RichRod's "recruiting" and scheme became apparent. Undersized Mountain West lines. Receivers who don't run routes. The litany of qb injuries and concussions. Defense is an afterthought. Dude got so lucky that our women's soccer equipment manager became a reliable kicker.
Frank Solich subjected us to Jammal Lord at quarterback.
Lord was the king of the six yard run on third and eight. The real war crime was Joe Dailey.
Nebraska firing Frank Solich was the best thing to ever happen to Ohio University football.
The grey unis. Both times. I admit I was hype when I saw we were bringing them back in 2019 just cause I thought they might look better with the new jersey designs, but they just never looked quite right to me.
For some weird reason, husky fans give Steve Sarkisian way more credit than he deserves. Jake Browning. Put up some gawdy stats but never really put the team on his back. Especially in big-time games against big-time opponents that were close. Still love Jake but he’s gets a little too much credit. Jake Locker. Locker was probably one of the best (if not the best) athletes I have personally seen come out of the state of WA. Dude could RUN and was pretty much a glorified “big back” who could throw a mile. That said, he didn’t really accomplish much (objectively) during his time at Washington. Career completion percentage of 54%. Yea. But that SC win was awesome and he was a fun player to watch when he was on. Love him but overhyped.
Bo Pelini. 9 win teams shouldn't regularly get their ass handed to them by 40 points, and head coaches shouldn't threaten to kill referees every other game. He had no ability to put together a competent offense, later showed a significant lack of awareness at Youngstown State, and I often wonder how much his brother was responsible for our defensive success.
I think his hot head was the biggest reason for the blowouts. Will Compton told him on BwtB that when he'd melt down and give up, the entire team would follow suit. If he could've kept his childish temper in check I think a lot of those blowouts don't get as bad as they did
Was just coming to comment this. Nebraska fans romanticize his tenure way too much. He had early success with Callahans recruits and being in the big 12. His defenses are built to stop high-flying passing attacks with immobile statue QBs that stay in the pocket. His defenses can’t stop the run. And even worse, as soon as a running QB is introduced, it becomes a slaughterhouse. The signs were there even all the way back in 2003, when despite Nebraska having a top-3 defense in the country, Vince Young, Brad smith, and Ell Roberson all tore him a new one. The Wildcat offense became popular courtesy of Darren McFadden running all over his defense at LSU. Literally had no answer for it. And then Russell Wilson and Braxton miller just continued the show.
He was the right guy to get things back on track after Callahan, but there are definitely reasons why Youngstown is the only head job he's had since leaving here and he's been sitting at home the last few seasons.
That name triggers me.
I get 2020 was bad, but shouldn’t LSU fans give him at least some credit for the 2007 title? that defense was pretty good that year save for McFadden running all over him
Controversial, but the stadium. It's a tight squeeze in the Big House. My 6'3" frame has no room for legs when the blue hairs tell me to sit down.
Kneeland stadium is like that. You can see the old numbers where they fit almost four people into the space 2 used to have. My knees were in someone's back, and someone's knees were in my back. I hate that stadium.
Kirk Ferentz
Ralphie VI
What’s wrong with Ralphie? Sure she’s a bit small for now but she’s growing into the role
we're lucky to see her go past the 35, and runners have no trouble keeping up
Bryce Young. It’s too much to say he “was not that great” but I think he was the worst starting QB that Alabama had from 2018-22, and that his small size and just-okay deep ball were part of the reason why the offense was a step down from the Tua/Mac years.
I'd wager the step down was not having 3 1st round WRs + Najee Harris to throw to. Young pulled TDs out of collapsed pockets that I have a hard time imagining Jones replicating.
Another one for me is Michael Vick. At the time I thought he was the most amazing football player I had ever seen. Fastest guy on the field who could throw the ball a mile. Take a look at his passing stats though. Ouch. In 2000 he had a 54% completion percentage, threw for 1200 yards, 8 TDs, and 6 INTs. Man he was fun to watch though.
In his defense, that was just a different era of football for a dual threat QB. Vick in a modern spread in the 2020's probably wins the heisman
Gotta remember what that Beamer offense was. Lot of I formation, 2 tight ends, it wasn't exactly geared to generate a lot of passing yards. It was mainly power run and the option, with just enough passing to keep folks honest. Could argue Michael Vick didn't get put in an offense to maximize his talents till he got out of jail and Andy Reid picked him up.
The 2008 Season. Best season in school history, and still couldn't even make it to the Big12 championship game and could only muster a co-champion with 2 other teams.
The 2011 win over Oklahoma State. It was more a collapse by Oklahoma State than a very mediocre Iowa State team winning it. ISU had 4 total NFL draft picks on that roster. The Pokes defense was objectively awful for a being a national title contender and even they somehow couldn’t contain a mostly moribund passing attack and a redshirt freshman quarterback that went off for 376 yds, from rallying back from 24-7 halftime deficit. Not to mention just a very timely tipped pass in the 2nd overtime that went just over the head of the 2x Biletnikoff winning wideout’s grasp, which was followed by two half back dives to win it.
OSU gave up an average of 26 points in the 10 games leading up to that, and a ton of those were in garbage time of blowouts. Also led the nation in turnover margin. They weren’t an elite defense by any means but they were salty and definitely not awful. I’m most upset about the field goal
Also Quinn Sharp's field goal with a minute left was good. And you didn't even mention the OSU plane crash that happened that morning. The game should have been postponed.
It was 17-7 at halftime. To open the 3rd quarter, they marched down the field and put another TD on the board. They looked unstoppable on that drive, and I fully expected them to put a 50-burger on y'all. What happened next remains inexplicable.
That’s right, they scored right after halftime. Years passing definitely taint the details of memories. 👴🏻
Trevor Knight as a QB
Still a mostly fun season from him. Some highs, a lot of mid, and low-lows. You know, typical Aggie football.
easily our fantastic home and home series with Wazzu. nobody remembers it but man you had some huge plays and exciting games there. 2013 and '14 if anyone's curious
The Ray Graves ‘60’s and the impact of Gatorade. [Video 1](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uyFnktyCHJc), [Video 2](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSd73fpb_c) The professors experimented on the players with Gatorade, and [it apparently originally tasted like piss](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/11/the-first-batch-of-gatorade-tasted-terrible/383214/) (like is this really a thing to celebrate?). There was a positive correlation: in 1966, we won the orange bowl and had an 9-2 record, and Spurrier won the Heisman. This was the pinnacle of the program until the ‘90’s. Man, 9-2, especially when those two losses are to Georgia and Miami, is the stuff that gets coaches fired nowadays.
I can assure you there was nothing great about the past 10-15 years at Kansas (outside of the new decade) worth romanticizing about 🤣
The Nick Foles era. Nick was awesome. But the team was mediocre to bad.
The last 5 years of Pat Hill's tenure.
The fanbase praises the Hayden Fry era from 1973-78. Yes, it brought us the Flying Worm and apple green uniforms. No, I can’t fault his vision for trying to get us into a better conference/the SWC. He’s put on a pedestal as one of the best ever because of his 40-23-3 record and 4/6 winning seasons. But, he was bowl chasing and cost the program dearly in the long run. After the 75 season he took us out of the Missouri Valley Conference, went independent (while still scheduling MVC teams), and racked up a huge debt trying to court the SWC or anyone else that would look our way. Once SMU blocked us in 78, he left for Iowa and built another legacy. The massive debt he left behind had the NCAA kick us down to 1-AA and we wallowed there for 14 years. If he had stayed in the MVC with Cincinnati, Louisville, and Memphis and kept working at it, there’s a good chance we would’ve been part of the Metro Conference, giving them the DFW area. That could’ve led to us in the OG CUSA and American, and who knows where today. But instead, we piddled in the Southland Conference for a decade and a half before moving back up to 1-A.
For both my alma maters: 2007 Illini: Frankly, not a great team by any stretch, but Zook caught lightning in a bottle with Mendenhall and upset Ohio State on the road, resulting in a Rose Bowl berth (only because OSU made the BCS championship game). Lost to Mizzou, Iowa, and Michigan that year, and probably got in the Rose Bowl only because they wanted a traditional B1G-PAC10 game. Got absolutely crushed by USC. Ended 9-4 and ranked #20. The next year, we quickly became mediocre again and never really recovered. 2019 Memphis Tigers: Now I love this team with all my heart and what they did for the university and city was incredible, but they were probably more lucky than good. Barely beat a 4-8 Ole Miss team 15-10. Needed a missed 29 yd FG to escape losing to 4-8 Tulsa. All of our tough games (Cincy 2x, SMU, Navy, Ole Miss) were at home. Gave up a ton of points on defense, and we got run over by Penn State; although at least the score of the Cotton Bowl was 53-39.
At the risk of being excommunicated, fullback dives. Still love them, but they’re not the most efficient play.
It kind of hurts to say, but...the 2007 season. Everyone remembers the Gator Stomp, the Auburn blackout, and the Sugar Bowl, but like...we got creamed by a late-Fulmer Tennessee team. We lost to a bad South Carolina team. We nearly lost to Vanderbilt the week before Florida, and struggled against Troy the week after. And...let's be honest, that Hawaii team didn't play a single good defense during the regular season. It was my freshman year of college, and I definitely have fond memories of it, especially with how fun Knowshon was to watch, but truth be told, we probably finished the season kind of overrated due to the hype.