We were the seventh best team in the country during the 60's

Our history was impressive until you get to about 1971. Then it becomes exceedingly mediocre.

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If you go off recognized titles, we got ours before Alabama won their first... what could've been

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Does the NCAA not recognize Bama's titles in 1930 and 1934, among others?

I was about to say, pretty sure Bama won the Rose Bowl with undefeated teams a few times in the 20s and 30s.

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What year did you guys integrate?

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1971 Gentle Ben Williams, which makes those rankings even more impressive.

Classic case of go woke go broke

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We were the seventh best team in the country during the 60's

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Probably better than 7th if you get rid of the sportswriters of the era

That was in the peak of the NCAA dictatorship of Walter Byers that served the B1G and PAC at the exclusion of the rest of the US.


New York's Mike Francesa referred to him as an "Oz-like" figure who ran the NCAA with ultimate control. Byers was also described as a "petty tyrant." The New York Times said that he was sometimes known as "That power-mad Walter Byers."

Just to add a little more information to this thread, here is our decade-by-decade record.

1890s - 17-10 (no team in 1897) (62.9%)
1900s - 23-32-3 (39.7%)
1910s - 40-37-3 (50.0%)
1920s - 40-47-4 (44.0%)
1930s - 54-42-8 (51.9%)
1940s - 46-37-2 (no team in 1943) (54.1%)
1950s - 80-21-5 (75.5%)
1960s - 77-25-6 (71.3%)
1970s - 56-54 (50.9%)
1980s - 49-60-4 (43.4%)
1990s - 66-49 (57.4%)
2000s - 63-58 (52.1%)
2010s - 60-64 (43.4%)
2020s - 23-13 (63.9%)

In light of this information, I take back what I said in the second post. We are average outside of Vaught. Periodt. We have had some good but not great teams from time-to-time, but have rarely (really, never) strung together consistent success.

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With Luke and Nutt having nearly half the 2010's, I'm surprised we were even that close to .500

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They had exactly half of the 2010s, and our record with them as head coach was:
2010 - 4-8 (1-7)
2011 - 2-10 (0-8)
2017 - 6-6 (3-5)
2018 - 5-7 (1-7)
2019 - 4-8 (2-6)
21-39 (7-33)

That's downright depressing.