re: Top 5 offensive teams in sec football history (your opinion)

quote:

---

1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers offensive line.... they did not allow a single sack throughout the entire 1995 season, setting an NCAA Division I-A record. They also averaged ~400 rushing yards per game and scored 51 rushing touchdowns that season.

---

First of all, Nebraska is obviously not in the SEC.

Second, 1995 Nebraska (while a great team, mind you) gets a little too much love for four reasons:

1. The old Big 8 conference was a two-team league in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Nebraska and Oklahoma would beat Kansas, Kansas State, etc., 50-0 and then play each other for the league title and a trip to the Orange Bowl every year.

Oklahoma got the better of Nebraska the vast majority of the time because Switzer was good at recruiting hosses on D that could contain the Nebraska running game. Once Switzer resigned and OU hit rock bottom in the ‘90s, Nebraska didn’t have any elite competition anymore. Even Bill McCartney, the only other coach to give Nebraska any resistance, was gone by 1995.

I don’t care what Kansas and Kansas State were ranked in 1995. Nebraska no longer had to contend with its greatest rival in top form and this helped tremendously.

2. 1995 Nebraska did not play any non-conference teams with more than six wins. Pacific even disbanded the program at the end of the year. Pathetic.

3. 1995 Florida (while a great team) was not nearly as well suited to stop the Nebraska running game as the FSU and Miami defenses that troubled the Cornhuskers in bowl games for many years. Those defenses boasted much better fronts and more familiarity with the Nebraska system.

1995 Florida did not have anyone go higher than 3rd round on D over the next three drafts. Couple that with a pass-oriented offensive style and it’s not that surprising that Florida got embarrassed by a physical offense with an unfamiliar scheme.

4. 1995 Nebraska and all of its 12 opponents combined only produced 2 first round draft picks the following spring - and both were busts. That’s not much heavy firepower on the field. For comparison, 2019 LSU and its opponents had 18 players selected in the first round in 2020 and many of those guys are successful players, even All-Pro types.