To Honor the Old Big 8, And that #1 ranked All-Time Greatest Team Ever.......Eight Dominating Facts (from an article about the ’95 team, I LOVE #4…) 1) Nebraska’s smallest margin of victory in 1995 was 14 points in a 35-21 win over Washington State. It was the only game in which Nebraska trailed all season before taking a 28-7 lead into the fourth quarter and letting its subs get meaningful snaps. Reserve freshman I-back Ahman Green, who would go on to become the Green Bay Packers’ all-time leading rusher, finished the Washington State game with 176 yards rushing and one touchdown on 13 carries. The Huskers out-rushed the Cougars, 428-72. And get this: In the fifth game of the season, Washington State came into Lincoln with the nation’s fourth-ranked rushing defense, giving up only 69.7 yards per game. 2) In 1995, Nebraska averaged 400 yards rushing per game while allowing only 78 yards rushing per game to its opponents. The Huskers scored 51 rushing touchdowns in ’95 and gave up only six rushing TDs. Nebraska averaged a Division I-A record 7.0 yards per rushing attempt for the entire season, including the bowl game shellacking of Florida. 3) Question: With an offensive line anchored by 1995 All-America center Graham, guess how many quarterback sacks Nebraska gave up in that remarkable 12-0 season? Answer: If you said zero, you would be right. 4) Want to talk special teams? Kris Brown, one of college football’s and one of the NFL’s best kickers ever, connected on 13 of 16 field goal attempts whenever Nebraska’s offensive juggernaut hit a skid mark. And get this, the Huskers tied an NCAA record in ’95 by allowing only five punt returns all season for a grand net total of 12 yards. Yikes! 5) Nebraska’s average margin of victory in 1995 was more than 38 points, the largest average of any Division I-A team since World War II. The margin exceeded a six-touchdown average despite Nebraska resting its starters in the second halves of most games. 6) Here’s something to chew on. Nebraska averaged 29.8 points per first half in 1995. That’s a higher scoring average in one half than at least three national championship teams averaged in a whole game – Alabama (1992), Ohio State (2002) and Florida (2006). 7) For the 1995 season, Nebraska averaged 53.2 points per game and allowed only 14.5 points per game. When you think about making a big deal out of Florida State’s 2013 team having the possibility to win every game by at least 14 points like Nebraska did, this particular stat screams rather loudly that the Huskers should stand alone in this spotlight. 8) I saved my best stat for the last stat. In the final rankings from the 1995 season, Nebraska beat four teams that finished in the final AP Top Ten rankings – national runner-up Florida (62-24), No. 5 Colorado (44-21), No. 7 Kansas State (49-25) and No. 9 Kansas (41-3).
That's your first clue that the Big 8 was down. Nebraska's 1995 season was analogous to if NIU had gone undefeated this year. A nice little accomplishment, but if Kansas was one of the toughest teams you played, then you ain't got shi*. The second clue is that Wazzu ended up 3-8 that year! A 3-8 Wazzu team was the best team Nebraska played that year? hehe :twisted:
Cougar please... All 3 also won their bowl games by at least 21 points that year... And the WSU game was well in hand when the scrubs came in the 4th... The experts have voted Kes....
Sounds like Kes has Dachshund penis envy. :lol: The final stat of AJ's post says that K-State and Kansas finished in the top 10. Three Big8-12-10 teams in the top ten isn't exactly dwarfy.
Only reason I wondered about KState and KU being in the final top 10 is that I wasn't sure when Synder arrived at KState, which until he got there was historically an awful program that Neb beat like a red headed step child for 40 years. Same for KU a traditionally awful football program, I don't remember when Mangino got there to get them turned for awhile, but it wasn't in 1995. Neb beat KU just like KState for 40+ years in a row. I think Iowa State was another Big 8 school that they beat some thing like 35 years in a row. The only teams in the old Big 8 with any regular success besides Neb were OU and Colorado. Missouri was annually mediocre as was Oklahoma State when they weren't cheating.
[whisper]Me, too, but don't tell the Marine. I like yanking those chains of his precious hot dogs.[/whisper]
Terry, why do you leave Texas out of your assessment of the Big 8-12-10? They've always had a competitive program. Right? Or are you assessing the conference before the dissolution of the SWC, in which case Texas would not be in the conversation?
I agree with Bill that the 1995 Nebraska team was indeed one of.... if not THE best team ever in college football. One thing that ass whipping of Florida did was get a stubborn Steve Spurrier who always believed a QB should be under center to innovate and implement a shotgun style for his offense which helped the 1996 NC team beat some serious pass rushes against Alabama and FSU. Who knows.... if '95 Nebraska hadn't happened to UF maybe '96 Florida doesn't happen.
Sid, AJ was doing a Big 8 retrospective. After Neb got into the same conference with Texas that was the end of their dominance. It started with the upset in the inital B12 Champ game and continued from there, they did beat us one time though in a B12 Champ game, but other than that we had their number. I think that was the main reason they wanted out of the B12, Texas.