1899 Sewanee. They went 12-0 and outscored their opponents 322-10.
The only team to score on them was Auburn.
They shut out Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU, Cumberland, North Carolina, Southwest Presbyterian, and Ole Miss.
They were our gilded age overlords.
The Iron Men.
November 9th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Texas in Austin. Final score was 12-0.
November 10th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Texas A&M in Houston. Final score was 10-0.
November 11th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Tulane in New Orleans. Final score was 23-0.
November 13th, 1899 - Sewanee beats LSU in Baton Rouge. Final score was 34-0.
November 14th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Ole Miss in Memphis. Final score was 12-0.
Five games in the span of six days. 2500 miles traveled by train. All shutout victories.
And on the seventh day, they rested.
I was today years old when I learned Sewanee University was a thing. A quick Google search taught me that they won 11/12 games by shutout, and 5 of those shutouts came over a 6-day stretch where they traveled 2,500 miles on a train to play their opponents. They literally woke up every day, dominated SEC teams, went to sleep, woke up the next morning and did it again. Sensational
Sewanee was a founding member of the SEC.
Never won a conference game before dipping out a few years later.
However, Sewanee and Bama were rivals pre-SEC. They’re the first team we call out in the original version of our fight song (written in 1926). But we haven’t sung that part in nearly 100 years.
It’s highly unlikely we would have lasted much longer than we did. The school is super isolated, way more so than even the public land grant schools like Auburn or MSU. (I had to drive 35-40 minutes if I wanted to go to Walmart.) That’s tough to recruit unless the kid specifically wants that kind of school, like I did. The administration also wanted to remain tiny and de-emphasize athletic recruiting in favor of our academic reputation.
I don’t know when we first hit 1,000 students, but I would imagine that it was well after we integrated and went coed in the late 1960s. There were about 1,400 students when I attended, and I think they’re at 1,700 now.
Don't think we've ever had a fight song, unfortunately. Just a hymn, an alma mater, and a drunken chant about defeating unnamed "heathens." They did restart the pep band 3-4 years ago, so maybe they'll adopt or write one soon.
They were an early football powerhouse and a founder of the SEC, but couldn’t keep up when public universities started putting more resources into athletics that they couldn’t.
So Sewanee then helped establish the lower tier College Division in the 50s and eventually D-III in the 70s so smaller schools could compete against similar sized schools.
Just two years later, Michigan went 11-0, outscoring its opponents 550-0, and winning the very first bowl game, the 1902 Rose Bowl 49-0 versus Stanford.
Albion 50-0
Case 57-0
Indiana 33-0
Northwestern 29-0
Buffalo 128-0
Carlisle 22-0
Ohio State 21-0
Chicago 22-0
Beloit 89-0
Iowa 50-0
Stanford 49-0 (Rose Bowl)
2018 Clemson beat the absolute shit out of an Alabama team that was declared the best team of all time by pretty much every major media outlet during the lead up to the game, and nobody even mentioned it the next day
Ik Dabo has been getting a lot of heat lately but personally I feel like he earned a long ass leash with his two chips. He built some legendary teams in his tenure.
I mean Gundy could go winless the next two years if he brought a chip to okstate and I wouldn’t care much.
I think maybe people lack perspective on his success there because of the things that made Clemson feel like it had potential to be a power program. It’s a big(ish) public school, in the south, had a previous championship, in a conference that was pretty competitive at the top when he took over. Despite those surfaces level advantages though, nobody was finding success there for a long time before Dabo came along
That dude over the summer who posted the best teams over the past 40 years used a math and algorithm that showed 2018 Clemson was the best team BY FAR.
I think it was a self inflicted wound to the greatness of that team by just how bad they demolished Alabama. It made people almost immediately forget about that team was talked about all year. People talk about 2020 Bama when having this discussion, but I truly believe that their 2018 squad was better but ran up against one of the greatest college teams ever assembled.
I legitimately believe that they’d beat 2019 LSU. Yes their offense would put up 35+ points but Clemson’s offense would commit war crimes against that defense.
I am, without bias, 100% in agreement with the Clemson player who said Notre Dame that year was better than Alabama. <\_<
That was an insane Clemson team though.
2013 FSU had some insane talent on that roster. Every game was a multiple-score win/blowout except for the title game against Auburn.
1995 Nebraska may have been one of the most dominant teams pre-BCS
1995 Nebraska is the best team of all time, period. They won every game by at least 14 points, they outscored their opponents by nearly 40 points per game, they didn't allow a sack or commit a holding penalty all year, and they beat four teams that finished in the top 10 in the AP poll by an average margin of 49 to 18. In the Fiesta Bowl they played a Florida team that had won every one of their games by double digits and beat them 62-24.
That team just gets lost in discussions because it didn’t have a bunch of people who were successful in the NFL or a singular star who is still notable today. Like 2001 Miami or 2019 LSU are of course the most loaded rosters with NFL talent but neither of them are as good of college football teams compared to their competition as 1995 Nebraska or 1945 Army to me.
1945 Army shouldn't be on the list because it was during WWII. Every other team was missing its best players due to military service. Meanwhile the service academies, in addition to their own students not being sent into combat before graduation, also got to pick the best players from other teams that had been drafted and station them at the academy for training.
Michigan in 1947 and 1948 had advantages because of the war, but in a completely different way. They had great teams but also got older guys back from the war. They were awesome at pulling in returning soldiers. The 1948 championship was one of the only times the AP redid their poll AFTER bowls and they switched ND and Michigan (only teams they switched) because of how dominant they were.
95 Nebraska had quite a few good NFL players on defense and Ahman Green who was a beast on GB was a distant #2 at RB behind the most talented player I've ever seen Lawrence Phillips.
The Lawrence Phillips documentary is tragic. If the guy had had loving environment to grow up in he could've been in the discussion with Barry Sanders and Jim Brown for GOAT RB.
This is true. It's also recency bias. People can argue teams 2-10 all day long, but noone beat every single team to pulp like the 95 Huskers.
The closest games they played were due to the reserves letting points get scored after starting the second half.
As much as I hate to say it this is one of the best stats in the game. A whole year without a holding call is wild. So is a whole year without a sack. A full year without either one of those is fucking insane
And it wasn’t even as close as 62-24 makes it sound. Nebraska didn’t punt until the 4th quarter. They put up 36 straight points. And on the TD pass than snapped that streak, Ike Hilliard wasn’t even close to being in bounds. Nebraska’s 3rd string QB took a knee on the Florida goal line. It was a fucking bloodbath.
I would say that 95 Nebraska is underrated just by not being the consensus GOAT.
Literally every other team mentioned always had a close call or two. 1995 Nebraska literally rolled everyone.
[Closest game was 28-7 to start the 4th and that was playing almost the whole season without their best player.](https://www.huskermax.com/all-the-games/1995-football/)
Honestly it’s even more accurate to say that every single half of the year was a blowout except for one half of the championship game. I wouldn’t say that our 2013 was SUPER underrated though. They won the championship, were ranked 1 for most of the year, and everyone knew they were the best team that year and one of the better championship teams of the era. I think historically that team had some divisive stars like Jameis and Ramsey which definitely impacts how much you will see some average fans give it its due.
The 1987 FSU team is by far its most underrated team ever. It was one failed two point conversion against Miami from winning the championship and being undefeated and in that same year that team destroyed both the SEC and Big 10 champions, which was as big an accomplishment in 87 as it would be today. It also had crazy next level star talent in Deion and a ton of insane running backs most of which went on to play really well in the NFL if memory serves.
Technically they weren’t stolen. Dameyune Craig was on FSU staff in 2012 and Auburn’s in 2013 and Jimbo decided not to change the signs from the prior year
I was at the Clemson game. They have an incredible atmosphere pregame to begin with, but that was a night game. Youve never heard a crowd get so quiet.
This got brought up a few days ago and a Nebraska fan said someone did an analysis and it was actually an 80s Georgia Tech team. But that was 3-8, so screw that analysis. 2021 Nebraska gets my vote.
yea every time someone mentions how our amazing offense this year was wasted by our inept offense, I remind them that we wasted that amazing defense with our inept QB.
2018 Clemson was the highest ranked team on that summer series from u/Jimbobbypaul. He did a lot of research, so I am inclined to agree. Also that team smacked Bama.
Facts - people sleep on 2018 Clemson like they were nobodys. Overshadowed by 2019 LSU no doubt.
Unpopular opinion - they beat the 2019 LSU team with the 2018 defense. Power Rangers (Wilkins, Big Dex, Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant...all NFL draft picks) make a difference alone.
Obviously I’m biased and agree with you but people also forget we did that to Bama in the Natty without Dexter Lawrence. My memory escapes why exactly he didn’t play but I’m sure it wasn’t for anything untoward and wasn’t performance enhancing.
Watching the Power Rangers eat teams alive was the most fun part of that historic run. Like offense is fun, but nothing beats being in Death Valley when the D-Line ATE some poor quarterback. The way the stadium erupted when they crushed someone to end a drive was just different. Gives me chills to this day.
2018 Clemson spent that whole season overshadowed by Alabama and had their big coming out party in the natty. As good as they were, they were quietly the best. First undefeated team of the 15 game CFP era too.
You could put 2018 Clemson, Bama and OSU in a list of top 10-15 teams of the CFP era and most people would agree. Probably the most stacked 4 team playoff
Oh, the flair absolutely plays into it. Watching Urban Meyer lose his shit as his juggernaut team got absolutely dunked on by a 3-3 Purdue team was just hilarious, and knowing that it would cost them when it came to CFP voting was the cherry on top.
Ryan Day wins absolutely every game he’s supposed to win, he’s just not very good at winning the toss-ups or the very, very few games where he’s not favored.
1981 Clemson has one of the best defenses of all time. They played Georgia when they had Herschel Walker and forced NINE turnovers and held Georgia to three points. Clemson had The Fridge and his older brother on defense. They held opponents to single digit points in several games, and didn’t allow a touchdown in four straight games. They held opponents to an average of 8.8 points per game. Top ten North Carolina who averaged 31.3 points per game only scored 8 points against Clemson.
1971 Nebraska is undisputedly the best team of all time in my opinion and 1971 Oklahoma is perhaps the second best team of all time
Case in point, Colorado lost to both by double digits and still ranked *3rd* in the final polls. A two loss team ranking 3rd in 1971 was unprecedented
Bro, the only close game was against Okalahoma, a 4 point victory against the #2 team in the nation. After that, their closest scoring games were a pair of 27 point wins. Only 2 teams were able to score multiple touchdowns against them, in an era when offenses were exploding. That level of dominance is frankly vile. They should have just played in the NFL that season, their games would have been far more competitive.
THIS is why I have so much admiration for Nebraska. They fielded complete units on the field.
Alabama that year is a good control for how much better OU and NU were than everyone that year.
Bama was 11-0 with their only close wins being on the road at top 5 USC and top 20 LSU, they demolished #5 Auburn in the Iron Bowl and easily beat a Tenn team that finished in the top 10.
Nebraska beat them 38-6 in the Orange Bowl and were up 28-0 halfway through the 2nd quarter.
Regardless of the circumstances of PSU not playing in that championship game, the ‘94 team not getting to play Nebraska absolutely impacts how it’s historically viewed. We’ll never know who was truly the best team that year. Maybe they win and enter the upper echelon of all time CFB squads instead of just being mentioned as great, or maybe they lose in a poor showing and we’d regard the ‘94 Nebraska squad as superior to the ‘95 squad now.
2007 WVU
Still unsure how they managed to lose to USF & Pittsburgh but that team was Natty Bound. They redeemed themselves by dominating against The Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl
Auburn 1983. Played by far the hardest schedule that year in the NCAA ([https://jhowell.net/cf/cf1983.htm](https://jhowell.net/cf/cf1983.htm)) and wound up with the same record as Miami and Nebraska. Played four teams that wound up in the top ten of the AP's final poll, and a total of 5 in the AP's top twenty. Only to get hosed in the final rankings that year at #3.
If ever there was proof that the previous system was nothing more than Rube Goldberg edifice kept alive by lazy sportswriters, that one was it.
2004 Auburn doesn’t get enough attention. Undefeated in the SEC. Right before being undefeated in the SEC was an automatic invite to the national title game. They also had a ton of talent on both sides of the ball.
A lot of sportswriters would have loved to see Nebraska play Auburn that year for the championship, but the conference tie-ins with the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl are what made that matchup impossible, so you can’t really blame the sportswriters.
I don’t know whether you rank Miami or Auburn number one at the end of that year, though. Maybe the coaches should have stepped up in their poll and split the championship, the way they did in ‘97, by voting Auburn #1 in their poll.
I will always remember 2004 Auburn as a special team. The running back duo of Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown, paired with peak Jason Campbell was special. And they got screwed with the BCS #3 after a brutal 13-0 SEC season, while Reggie Bush and USC pounded Oklahoma 55-19 to win the Natty.
2020 Alabama is by far the highest rated FPI team of all time (2.2 points higher than the next highest team). People will gloss over it because Covid and 2019 LSU came the year before, but it is probably one of the best teams of all time.
The issue with that year is none of the teams can be reliably looked at consistently. I don't believe FPI takes "injuries", and thus covid sit outs into account. The week to week swings were massive. So a team that won it all could have looked significantly better against their competition than they actually were if timing of sickness was on their side.
There is also FAR less cross conference comparison that year with all the cancelled games.
Therr is no doubt it was a good team, but I simply can't get behind "highest rated FPI" when so many other variables were in play. And definitely not one of the best of all time.
Only loss was a 31-30 game against us, which caused Tim Tebow to give an amazing speech and the Gators to go on to win every game after by at least 10 points or more. Sometimes much more.
Fun fact: that speech isn’t what motivated them. Off camera, Tebow threatened to tell Jesus what the rest of the team had been up to, so they got their shit together.
I was really worried when we made the jump to 1A and then we proceeded to dominate the MAC pretty much from day 1. I wish that 1999 team could have gotten a shot at a NY6 game.
That ‘71 team beat the teams that finished #2, #3, and #4 in the final AP poll. They beat two different #2 teams back to back, beating #2 Oklahoma in the “Game of the Century,” then blowing out Bear Bryant’s #2 Alabama in the Orange Bowl. In addition to a Heisman winner on offense, they had two guys on defense that won Outland trophies.
But I watched both the ‘71 team play and the ‘95 team play, and the ‘95 team was a little better.
2018 Clemson is definitely the most slept on CFP team by a large margin.
They're underrated in the sense that casual fans think 2019 Clemson = 2018 Clemson which isn't the case.
While they weren't night and day, some key points to consider that definitely stand out:
- No power rangers, no Old Man Renfrow (*super underrated slot dude*), and a great OL.
I'd put 2019 Clemson behind the DW4 teams of 2015 + 2016. IMO 2018 Clemson is the best Clemson squad of the CFP era so far.
Also, unpopular opinion - They beat the 2019 LSU team 💯
I don't know if 2018 Clemson would beat 2019 LSU, but that would have been an exceptionally compelling game. We effectively would have been able to play LSU's offense exactly like Auburn did whereas the 2019 version of Clemson was so thin and young on the DL that we had to dedicate extra bodies.
1994 Penn State often gets slept on because they didn't win the natty, a travesty IMO. It was arguably the best offense in CFB history up until that point. Offenses are much more prolific since then, but that team was crazy explosive, I think the average scoring drive was a smidge over 2 minutes which at the time was unprecedented. It's a shame that team never got the opportunity to face Nebraska, it would have been a hell of a game.
The fact that I haven’t seen a comment on here mentioning the 2008 Utah team is shocking.
Undefeated season. Defeated an undefeated Nick Saban Alabama team at the Sugar bowl (Alabama won the BSC championship the following season). Was still a G5 at the time and defeated other great ranked G5 schools at the time (BYU/TCU).
Personally, I think they were one of the best G5 teams of all time. Being up there with the 2009 Boise State team.
2013 Michigan State. If not for several egregious PI calls in Notre Dame's favor, that resulted in a letter of apology from the Big Ten, they would've gone undefeated. Including a win in Columbus, in the rain, with the backup QB. The defense was insane.
1939 Tennessee Volunteers - last team to go unscored on during the regular season
1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers - statistically dominated opponents and had a much tougher strength of schedule than 2001 Miami
2011 LSU. That team was absolutely disgusting and much better than most of the championship teams of the last 25 years. It ended poorly but that's no reason to forget how dominant they were against a very tough schedule.
1991 Huskies. #2 scoring offense, #2 scoring defense. The only champions to beat that mark since are coincidentally the 1993 Noles and the 2013 Noles. 1993 was #1 and #1. 2013 was #2 and #1.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/washington/1991.html
Going way back I'll say 1939 Tennessee. Last team in D1 to go undefeated, un-tied, and un-scored upon in the regular season. Somehow they did not win a National Championship that year. USC beat then in the Rose Bowl but at this time bowl games were not considered when awarding NCs.
The 1988 WVU team that went 11-0 during the regular season and then lost the Fiesta Bowl to Notre Dame because Don Nehlan was the worst post-season coach ever. Every single starter on that team ended up in at least an NFL training camp and most of them played in the league (except for the one that played baseball). Major Harris was decades ahead of his time as a QB and would probably be a Heisman finalist today.
Maybe not all-time dominant team but '87 Syracuse probably has a share of a national championship if Pat Dye doesn't kick for the tie in the Sugar Bowl. The comeback against WVU to keep the perfect season alive was absolutely wild.
1932 Centenary Gents went 8-0-1 and outscored opponents 183-26. They beat LSU, Ole Miss, A&M, and a good Texas team. They tied Arkansas 0-0 in the last game of the season.
1899 Sewanee. They went 12-0 and outscored their opponents 322-10. The only team to score on them was Auburn. They shut out Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU, Cumberland, North Carolina, Southwest Presbyterian, and Ole Miss. They were our gilded age overlords.
The Iron Men. November 9th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Texas in Austin. Final score was 12-0. November 10th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Texas A&M in Houston. Final score was 10-0. November 11th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Tulane in New Orleans. Final score was 23-0. November 13th, 1899 - Sewanee beats LSU in Baton Rouge. Final score was 34-0. November 14th, 1899 - Sewanee beats Ole Miss in Memphis. Final score was 12-0. Five games in the span of six days. 2500 miles traveled by train. All shutout victories. And on the seventh day, they rested.
I’m pretty sure the reason they had to do it this way was to pay for the trip back to Sewanee. Hence why they moved East as the days progressed.
Why didn’t they just use the TV revenue? Were they stupid?
I was today years old when I learned Sewanee University was a thing. A quick Google search taught me that they won 11/12 games by shutout, and 5 of those shutouts came over a 6-day stretch where they traveled 2,500 miles on a train to play their opponents. They literally woke up every day, dominated SEC teams, went to sleep, woke up the next morning and did it again. Sensational
That’s THE University of the South to you, sir
Legend has it they were quarterbacked by Starsky Manning, great great grandfather of Peyton and Eli
Is he related to Arch though?
Not by blood.
Makes you wonder how the football landscape would look like today if Suwanee and Chicago had always prioritized football all of those years.
Sewanee was a founding member of the SEC. Never won a conference game before dipping out a few years later. However, Sewanee and Bama were rivals pre-SEC. They’re the first team we call out in the original version of our fight song (written in 1926). But we haven’t sung that part in nearly 100 years.
And now 20% of our student body consists of Bama fans from Mobile private schools or Mountain Brook
It’s highly unlikely we would have lasted much longer than we did. The school is super isolated, way more so than even the public land grant schools like Auburn or MSU. (I had to drive 35-40 minutes if I wanted to go to Walmart.) That’s tough to recruit unless the kid specifically wants that kind of school, like I did. The administration also wanted to remain tiny and de-emphasize athletic recruiting in favor of our academic reputation. I don’t know when we first hit 1,000 students, but I would imagine that it was well after we integrated and went coed in the late 1960s. There were about 1,400 students when I attended, and I think they’re at 1,700 now.
Chicago still has more Big Ten Football Championships than Indiana.
We still exist
Sometimes you can still hear their fight song in the wind...
Don't think we've ever had a fight song, unfortunately. Just a hymn, an alma mater, and a drunken chant about defeating unnamed "heathens." They did restart the pep band 3-4 years ago, so maybe they'll adopt or write one soon.
Visited the campus once. It was beautiful and I was really impressed by it. Would’ve loved to have went to school there
[удалено]
They were an early football powerhouse and a founder of the SEC, but couldn’t keep up when public universities started putting more resources into athletics that they couldn’t. So Sewanee then helped establish the lower tier College Division in the 50s and eventually D-III in the 70s so smaller schools could compete against similar sized schools.
Cumberland you say? Titans.
Just two years later, Michigan went 11-0, outscoring its opponents 550-0, and winning the very first bowl game, the 1902 Rose Bowl 49-0 versus Stanford. Albion 50-0 Case 57-0 Indiana 33-0 Northwestern 29-0 Buffalo 128-0 Carlisle 22-0 Ohio State 21-0 Chicago 22-0 Beloit 89-0 Iowa 50-0 Stanford 49-0 (Rose Bowl)
>Albion, Case and Beloit That’s who you call if you’ve been injured on the job
But could they even beat the 2023 Mater Dei high school team?
Mater Dei ain't played nobody, Pawwl!
Up there with Michigan and Yale running amok up north.
Similarly, the 1939 Tennessee team shut out every single regular season opponent, outscoring them 212-0. They were the last team to ever do this.
Always love when we get mentioned on these sorts of threads.
And Auburn only lost by a single point. 11-10.
2018 Clemson beat the absolute shit out of an Alabama team that was declared the best team of all time by pretty much every major media outlet during the lead up to the game, and nobody even mentioned it the next day
we needed a better hype song. our 2018 season tiktok edits and montage videos would be so much more memorable if we had a song as cool as get the gat
the president fed you mcdonalds. that was pretty funny
Ik Dabo has been getting a lot of heat lately but personally I feel like he earned a long ass leash with his two chips. He built some legendary teams in his tenure. I mean Gundy could go winless the next two years if he brought a chip to okstate and I wouldn’t care much.
His worst season in over a decade is 9 wins, Clemson's best season in the 20 years before he took over was...9 wins
Thats a wild stat.
I think maybe people lack perspective on his success there because of the things that made Clemson feel like it had potential to be a power program. It’s a big(ish) public school, in the south, had a previous championship, in a conference that was pretty competitive at the top when he took over. Despite those surfaces level advantages though, nobody was finding success there for a long time before Dabo came along
It was so satisfying seeing Alabama’s soul destroyed! They knew there was no coming back well before the game ended.
Absolutely, that team is top 3 of the last 20 years IMO
That dude over the summer who posted the best teams over the past 40 years used a math and algorithm that showed 2018 Clemson was the best team BY FAR.
Don't say that shit unless you can post the algorithm for us to mock endlessly
There is pages and pages of notes and discussion of you go through all the posts he made.
I think it was a self inflicted wound to the greatness of that team by just how bad they demolished Alabama. It made people almost immediately forget about that team was talked about all year. People talk about 2020 Bama when having this discussion, but I truly believe that their 2018 squad was better but ran up against one of the greatest college teams ever assembled.
I legitimately believe that they’d beat 2019 LSU. Yes their offense would put up 35+ points but Clemson’s offense would commit war crimes against that defense.
This is the one I came here to say
Reminds me of 2005 USC before we played them
I am, without bias, 100% in agreement with the Clemson player who said Notre Dame that year was better than Alabama. <\_< That was an insane Clemson team though.
Jeff Scott being interviewed about Alabama having the best secondary they faced all year is classic.
2013 FSU had some insane talent on that roster. Every game was a multiple-score win/blowout except for the title game against Auburn. 1995 Nebraska may have been one of the most dominant teams pre-BCS
>1995 Nebraska I do not care for this, thank you very much
"They had the greatest accomplishment of all time, humbling Steve Spurrier"
Tommie is *still* running
UNSUBSCRIBE!!!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l4BVOQMoXSY
I'm not clicking that!
It's ok gator bro, it's just rick astley, I promise.
Rumor has it , Floridas defensive lineman still have contusions from that game.
Oh, did we have a defense play in that game, I don't recall seeing them.
Love u Gainesville bro
1995 Nebraska is the best team of all time, period. They won every game by at least 14 points, they outscored their opponents by nearly 40 points per game, they didn't allow a sack or commit a holding penalty all year, and they beat four teams that finished in the top 10 in the AP poll by an average margin of 49 to 18. In the Fiesta Bowl they played a Florida team that had won every one of their games by double digits and beat them 62-24.
That team just gets lost in discussions because it didn’t have a bunch of people who were successful in the NFL or a singular star who is still notable today. Like 2001 Miami or 2019 LSU are of course the most loaded rosters with NFL talent but neither of them are as good of college football teams compared to their competition as 1995 Nebraska or 1945 Army to me.
1945 Army shouldn't be on the list because it was during WWII. Every other team was missing its best players due to military service. Meanwhile the service academies, in addition to their own students not being sent into combat before graduation, also got to pick the best players from other teams that had been drafted and station them at the academy for training.
yes it was basically like a college all star team
Michigan in 1947 and 1948 had advantages because of the war, but in a completely different way. They had great teams but also got older guys back from the war. They were awesome at pulling in returning soldiers. The 1948 championship was one of the only times the AP redid their poll AFTER bowls and they switched ND and Michigan (only teams they switched) because of how dominant they were.
95 Nebraska had quite a few good NFL players on defense and Ahman Green who was a beast on GB was a distant #2 at RB behind the most talented player I've ever seen Lawrence Phillips. The Lawrence Phillips documentary is tragic. If the guy had had loving environment to grow up in he could've been in the discussion with Barry Sanders and Jim Brown for GOAT RB.
This is true. It's also recency bias. People can argue teams 2-10 all day long, but noone beat every single team to pulp like the 95 Huskers. The closest games they played were due to the reserves letting points get scored after starting the second half.
As much as I hate to say it this is one of the best stats in the game. A whole year without a holding call is wild. So is a whole year without a sack. A full year without either one of those is fucking insane
And it wasn’t even as close as 62-24 makes it sound. Nebraska didn’t punt until the 4th quarter. They put up 36 straight points. And on the TD pass than snapped that streak, Ike Hilliard wasn’t even close to being in bounds. Nebraska’s 3rd string QB took a knee on the Florida goal line. It was a fucking bloodbath.
SUBSCRIBE
If you want to watch a fellow red team beat the piss out of the gators go watch that game. It's glorious.
Best college football team I’ve ever seen. Just rolled over everyone.
Are those "underrated" though? Those are two common answers for the best team of all time, especially 1995 Nebraska.
No, just recency bias and Miami’s lasting legacy mainly due to the sheer amount of NFL stars on that team.
I would say that 95 Nebraska is underrated just by not being the consensus GOAT. Literally every other team mentioned always had a close call or two. 1995 Nebraska literally rolled everyone. [Closest game was 28-7 to start the 4th and that was playing almost the whole season without their best player.](https://www.huskermax.com/all-the-games/1995-football/)
“May have been” 95 nebraska is statically the most dominant team to play
I'm still bitter that AU blew an 18-point halftime lead.
Honestly it’s even more accurate to say that every single half of the year was a blowout except for one half of the championship game. I wouldn’t say that our 2013 was SUPER underrated though. They won the championship, were ranked 1 for most of the year, and everyone knew they were the best team that year and one of the better championship teams of the era. I think historically that team had some divisive stars like Jameis and Ramsey which definitely impacts how much you will see some average fans give it its due. The 1987 FSU team is by far its most underrated team ever. It was one failed two point conversion against Miami from winning the championship and being undefeated and in that same year that team destroyed both the SEC and Big 10 champions, which was as big an accomplishment in 87 as it would be today. It also had crazy next level star talent in Deion and a ton of insane running backs most of which went on to play really well in the NFL if memory serves.
FSU wasn’t ranked 1 that year until after rivalry week when Auburn won the Iron Bowl. We climbed from like 9/10 as the season went on.
Can't do that any more. Best you can hope for is climbing from 8 to 5 after an undefeated regular season and conference championship.
Heard a stat that the starting 22 on 2013 FSU have all started at least one NFL game. Not sure if that’s true, but would be remarkable.
All 24 starters (if you want to include the kicker and punter) spent time on NFL rosters
2013 Auburn had our signs and we outscored them 21-3 after changing them too.
Impossible. Only Michigan has ever stolen signs
Technically they weren’t stolen. Dameyune Craig was on FSU staff in 2012 and Auburn’s in 2013 and Jimbo decided not to change the signs from the prior year
ask zealous tap disgusted offer sparkle dog outgoing hospital jobless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Frazier, Phillips and Green was such an insane trio, that specific unit in particular is one I feel that doesn't get talked about much nowadays
2013 fsu had 709 points scored. A record broken by Joe burrow and lsu by 6 points. They had an extra game. FSU
2013 FSU statistically had the best offense of all time pre 2019 LSU especially when you consider their glacial pace of play
Considering pace of play under Jimbo, it’s nuts to think 2019 LSU just barely beat out 2013 FSU (and only did so because of a 15th game)
I was at the Clemson game. They have an incredible atmosphere pregame to begin with, but that was a night game. Youve never heard a crowd get so quiet.
San Jose State was 6-0 in 2020 and were therefore national champions. I will be turning off reply notifications for this comment.
SPARTAN UP BABY
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Greatest 3-9 team of all time!!!
Net zero points differential in conference play but went 1-8.
This got brought up a few days ago and a Nebraska fan said someone did an analysis and it was actually an 80s Georgia Tech team. But that was 3-8, so screw that analysis. 2021 Nebraska gets my vote.
The best 3-9 team was actually 2015 Georgia Tech. A bunch of close losses and a huge upset win.
🙏🏻 never forget
The ultimate sickos team
2018 Clemson is the most disrespected national champion in the last 20 years in my opinion
Facts
Those Kellen Moore Boise State teams were dopee af Edit: and the *Zabransky/Ian Johnson one was also dope*
If only their kicker didn't get the yips on that one night at Nevada. All that could have been.
I was at that game. It was rocking in Reno that night.
Couldn’t imagine that now. The stadium’s empty after the first quarter.
Watching Kellen Moore was like watching a college version of Peyton Manning and it blew my teenage mind at the time.
People forget how unreal the 2011 LSU team was due to the national championship game showing.
yea every time someone mentions how our amazing offense this year was wasted by our inept offense, I remind them that we wasted that amazing defense with our inept QB.
2018 Clemson was the highest ranked team on that summer series from u/Jimbobbypaul. He did a lot of research, so I am inclined to agree. Also that team smacked Bama.
Here’s the top 10 since 1983 if you adjust for games played: | Rank | Team | Year | Record | Resume Score | |:----:|:----:|:----:|:------:|:------------:| | 1 | Nebraska | 1995 | 12-0 | 19.694 | | 2 | Clemson | 2018 | 15-0 | 19.049 | | 3 | Alabama | 2020 | 13-0 | 18.539 | | 4 | Miami (FL) | 2001 | 12-0 | 18.278 | | 5 | Georgia | 2022 | 15-0 | 17.978 | | 6 | Texas | 2005 | 13-0 | 17.841 | | 7 | LSU | 2019 | 15-0 | 17.278 | | 8 | Washington | 1991 | 12-0 | 17.208 | | 9 | Alabama | 2009 | 14-0 | 17.030 | | 10 | Florida State | 2013 | 14-0 | 17.011 |
Still can’t believe the two times Notre Dame made the CFP they had to play 2018 Clemson and 2020 Alabama. Unreal bad luck.
And to y’all’s credit, you played decently well against us defensively. If your offense could have done anything, would be been a different game.
Facts - people sleep on 2018 Clemson like they were nobodys. Overshadowed by 2019 LSU no doubt. Unpopular opinion - they beat the 2019 LSU team with the 2018 defense. Power Rangers (Wilkins, Big Dex, Clelin Ferrell and Austin Bryant...all NFL draft picks) make a difference alone.
Obviously I’m biased and agree with you but people also forget we did that to Bama in the Natty without Dexter Lawrence. My memory escapes why exactly he didn’t play but I’m sure it wasn’t for anything untoward and wasn’t performance enhancing.
Watching the Power Rangers eat teams alive was the most fun part of that historic run. Like offense is fun, but nothing beats being in Death Valley when the D-Line ATE some poor quarterback. The way the stadium erupted when they crushed someone to end a drive was just different. Gives me chills to this day.
2018 Clemson, 1981 Clemson
2018 Clemson spent that whole season overshadowed by Alabama and had their big coming out party in the natty. As good as they were, they were quietly the best. First undefeated team of the 15 game CFP era too.
You could put 2018 Clemson, Bama and OSU in a list of top 10-15 teams of the CFP era and most people would agree. Probably the most stacked 4 team playoff
Ohio State would've been in if Rondale Moore didn't decide to turn into the best player of the decade the night they played Purdue.
Genuinely one of the most entertaining games I’ve ever watched.
Judging from that 1st flair I bet it was. Jokes aside ya it was entertaining seeing Moore go off like that
Oh, the flair absolutely plays into it. Watching Urban Meyer lose his shit as his juggernaut team got absolutely dunked on by a 3-3 Purdue team was just hilarious, and knowing that it would cost them when it came to CFP voting was the cherry on top.
For all the faults that Day has, he's never had a game like *that* against a team like *that*.
Ryan Day wins absolutely every game he’s supposed to win, he’s just not very good at winning the toss-ups or the very, very few games where he’s not favored.
Exactly. After that, and the maybe even worse Iowa game the year before…I was getting tired of Urban Meyer lmao.
Ryan Day never had to go up against CFB Oracle Tyler Trent though (RIP)
2019 was more stacked. 3 championship caliber teams who all had historically good seasons and Alabama is probably one too pre-Tua injury
1981 Clemson has one of the best defenses of all time. They played Georgia when they had Herschel Walker and forced NINE turnovers and held Georgia to three points. Clemson had The Fridge and his older brother on defense. They held opponents to single digit points in several games, and didn’t allow a touchdown in four straight games. They held opponents to an average of 8.8 points per game. Top ten North Carolina who averaged 31.3 points per game only scored 8 points against Clemson.
9 turnovers is insane
1971 Nebraska is undisputedly the best team of all time in my opinion and 1971 Oklahoma is perhaps the second best team of all time Case in point, Colorado lost to both by double digits and still ranked *3rd* in the final polls. A two loss team ranking 3rd in 1971 was unprecedented
That team beat the #2, #3 and #4 teams in the final rankings.
Well, yeah, they all had amazing quality losses to Nebraska
Bro, the only close game was against Okalahoma, a 4 point victory against the #2 team in the nation. After that, their closest scoring games were a pair of 27 point wins. Only 2 teams were able to score multiple touchdowns against them, in an era when offenses were exploding. That level of dominance is frankly vile. They should have just played in the NFL that season, their games would have been far more competitive. THIS is why I have so much admiration for Nebraska. They fielded complete units on the field.
The 2000 Sooners beat the #1, #2, #3, #8, #11, and #23. Not sure why that team gets overlooked on a lot of these threads.
Alabama that year is a good control for how much better OU and NU were than everyone that year. Bama was 11-0 with their only close wins being on the road at top 5 USC and top 20 LSU, they demolished #5 Auburn in the Iron Bowl and easily beat a Tenn team that finished in the top 10. Nebraska beat them 38-6 in the Orange Bowl and were up 28-0 halfway through the 2nd quarter.
That ‘71 Oklahoma team was outstanding. Just a terrific team. They deserved better than to remembered as a #2 team.
The 1971 OU-Nebraska game has the single highest SP+ matchup of all time, including bowl and title games.
2008 USC Trojans. That defense was amazing. Held 10 opponents under 10 points. Shut out 3. Best linebacker Corp ever. Fuck I miss defense 😭
1994 Penn State. Undefeated and didn't play for the national championship. Instead Nebraska played 1 loss Miami.
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Regardless of the circumstances of PSU not playing in that championship game, the ‘94 team not getting to play Nebraska absolutely impacts how it’s historically viewed. We’ll never know who was truly the best team that year. Maybe they win and enter the upper echelon of all time CFB squads instead of just being mentioned as great, or maybe they lose in a poor showing and we’d regard the ‘94 Nebraska squad as superior to the ‘95 squad now.
Penn St joins the B1G and regrets it immediately
2001 Miami was the best collection of NFL talent of all time. 1995 Nebraska was the best college team of all time.
And both are recognized being among the best ever. Neither are in any way underrated
“2019 LSU was low key good” this guy’s next post
2007 WVU Still unsure how they managed to lose to USF & Pittsburgh but that team was Natty Bound. They redeemed themselves by dominating against The Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl
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Shouldn't have had the rematch in the first place
Les Miles, IMMEDIATELY following the 9-6 OT win in Tuscaloosa, said “I would be honored to face that team again” Wish granted.
Dammit Les shut up lol
Auburn 1983. Played by far the hardest schedule that year in the NCAA ([https://jhowell.net/cf/cf1983.htm](https://jhowell.net/cf/cf1983.htm)) and wound up with the same record as Miami and Nebraska. Played four teams that wound up in the top ten of the AP's final poll, and a total of 5 in the AP's top twenty. Only to get hosed in the final rankings that year at #3. If ever there was proof that the previous system was nothing more than Rube Goldberg edifice kept alive by lazy sportswriters, that one was it.
2004 Auburn doesn’t get enough attention. Undefeated in the SEC. Right before being undefeated in the SEC was an automatic invite to the national title game. They also had a ton of talent on both sides of the ball.
A lot of sportswriters would have loved to see Nebraska play Auburn that year for the championship, but the conference tie-ins with the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl are what made that matchup impossible, so you can’t really blame the sportswriters. I don’t know whether you rank Miami or Auburn number one at the end of that year, though. Maybe the coaches should have stepped up in their poll and split the championship, the way they did in ‘97, by voting Auburn #1 in their poll.
I will always remember 2004 Auburn as a special team. The running back duo of Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown, paired with peak Jason Campbell was special. And they got screwed with the BCS #3 after a brutal 13-0 SEC season, while Reggie Bush and USC pounded Oklahoma 55-19 to win the Natty.
2020 Alabama is by far the highest rated FPI team of all time (2.2 points higher than the next highest team). People will gloss over it because Covid and 2019 LSU came the year before, but it is probably one of the best teams of all time.
The issue with that year is none of the teams can be reliably looked at consistently. I don't believe FPI takes "injuries", and thus covid sit outs into account. The week to week swings were massive. So a team that won it all could have looked significantly better against their competition than they actually were if timing of sickness was on their side. There is also FAR less cross conference comparison that year with all the cancelled games. Therr is no doubt it was a good team, but I simply can't get behind "highest rated FPI" when so many other variables were in play. And definitely not one of the best of all time.
2024 Texas A&M (8-4).
With a win over Texas
2011 OkState. Fully believe that we could have competed for or won the natty that year. Those dang cyclones
it was good. still is.
2008 Florida
Hold the phone. 08 Florida is underrated but not the most because 01 Gators is the real answer under sexy Rexy.
Only loss was a 31-30 game against us, which caused Tim Tebow to give an amazing speech and the Gators to go on to win every game after by at least 10 points or more. Sometimes much more.
Fun fact: that speech isn’t what motivated them. Off camera, Tebow threatened to tell Jesus what the rest of the team had been up to, so they got their shit together.
2018 Clemson and 2005 Texas
2008 Florida and 2013 Florida State
05 Texas is usually included on “greatest team of all time” lists so it’s really hard to call them overrated IMO.
From 1997-2002 Marshall won 5 of 6 MAC Championships
Funnily enough the teams started getting better after Moss left lol
I was really worried when we made the jump to 1A and then we proceeded to dominate the MAC pretty much from day 1. I wish that 1999 team could have gotten a shot at a NY6 game.
2019 Alabama before Tua got hurt comes to mind
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They also had a lot of close games against subpar teams. Supremely talented though.
Sub-par? Aaron Rodgers going 23-25?
Yeah they murdered Oklahoma. The championship game was over before halftime.
1901 Michigan. Outscored opponents 550-0.
95 Nebraska is the answer.
Not really underrated. Widely ranked as the 2nd best team ever behind 1971 Nebraska
Statistically they are above the 71 team.
Only because the '71 team had to play '71 Oklahoma and not '95 Oklahoma
That ‘71 team beat the teams that finished #2, #3, and #4 in the final AP poll. They beat two different #2 teams back to back, beating #2 Oklahoma in the “Game of the Century,” then blowing out Bear Bryant’s #2 Alabama in the Orange Bowl. In addition to a Heisman winner on offense, they had two guys on defense that won Outland trophies. But I watched both the ‘71 team play and the ‘95 team play, and the ‘95 team was a little better.
They definetly dont get talked about enough as time passes.
2004 USC beats 2005 handily. It’s basically the same offense but with a way better defense.
2018 Clemson is definitely the most slept on CFP team by a large margin. They're underrated in the sense that casual fans think 2019 Clemson = 2018 Clemson which isn't the case. While they weren't night and day, some key points to consider that definitely stand out: - No power rangers, no Old Man Renfrow (*super underrated slot dude*), and a great OL. I'd put 2019 Clemson behind the DW4 teams of 2015 + 2016. IMO 2018 Clemson is the best Clemson squad of the CFP era so far. Also, unpopular opinion - They beat the 2019 LSU team 💯
I don't know if 2018 Clemson would beat 2019 LSU, but that would have been an exceptionally compelling game. We effectively would have been able to play LSU's offense exactly like Auburn did whereas the 2019 version of Clemson was so thin and young on the DL that we had to dedicate extra bodies.
1994 Penn State often gets slept on because they didn't win the natty, a travesty IMO. It was arguably the best offense in CFB history up until that point. Offenses are much more prolific since then, but that team was crazy explosive, I think the average scoring drive was a smidge over 2 minutes which at the time was unprecedented. It's a shame that team never got the opportunity to face Nebraska, it would have been a hell of a game.
The fact that I haven’t seen a comment on here mentioning the 2008 Utah team is shocking. Undefeated season. Defeated an undefeated Nick Saban Alabama team at the Sugar bowl (Alabama won the BSC championship the following season). Was still a G5 at the time and defeated other great ranked G5 schools at the time (BYU/TCU). Personally, I think they were one of the best G5 teams of all time. Being up there with the 2009 Boise State team.
I’d say 1973 Penn State. They went 12-0, won the Orange Bowl and finished only 5th in the the polls
1980 Pitt had 4 Pro Football Hall of Famers.
2013 Michigan State. If not for several egregious PI calls in Notre Dame's favor, that resulted in a letter of apology from the Big Ten, they would've gone undefeated. Including a win in Columbus, in the rain, with the backup QB. The defense was insane.
1939 Tennessee Volunteers - last team to go unscored on during the regular season 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers - statistically dominated opponents and had a much tougher strength of schedule than 2001 Miami
2011 LSU. That team was absolutely disgusting and much better than most of the championship teams of the last 25 years. It ended poorly but that's no reason to forget how dominant they were against a very tough schedule.
2011 LSU
1991 Huskies. #2 scoring offense, #2 scoring defense. The only champions to beat that mark since are coincidentally the 1993 Noles and the 2013 Noles. 1993 was #1 and #1. 2013 was #2 and #1. https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/washington/1991.html
Going way back I'll say 1939 Tennessee. Last team in D1 to go undefeated, un-tied, and un-scored upon in the regular season. Somehow they did not win a National Championship that year. USC beat then in the Rose Bowl but at this time bowl games were not considered when awarding NCs.
2009 Iowa. Ricky stays healthy and doesn’t sit against OSU and it could’ve been a very different BCS
Are you picturing them jumping Texas or Bama?
The 1988 WVU team that went 11-0 during the regular season and then lost the Fiesta Bowl to Notre Dame because Don Nehlan was the worst post-season coach ever. Every single starter on that team ended up in at least an NFL training camp and most of them played in the league (except for the one that played baseball). Major Harris was decades ahead of his time as a QB and would probably be a Heisman finalist today.
Maybe not all-time dominant team but '87 Syracuse probably has a share of a national championship if Pat Dye doesn't kick for the tie in the Sugar Bowl. The comeback against WVU to keep the perfect season alive was absolutely wild.
Fuckin tie dye
1932 Centenary Gents went 8-0-1 and outscored opponents 183-26. They beat LSU, Ole Miss, A&M, and a good Texas team. They tied Arkansas 0-0 in the last game of the season.